You are so young, Hope may spring up again in your warm heart, and I can endure on, till the old archer aims at me; may this be soon!" Ellen pressed his burning hand, in sign that she acquiesced.

"She shall be mine, yet," murmured De Villeneuve to himself, as the party rose to return to the ball-room. "A heart full of pity and disappointed love cannot hold out long in the sweet solitude of the country. Rejected! yes, but that is the first step to acceptance in a case like this."

Sir Peter Riskwell had contrived at supper to be seated on Rebecca's other hand. Here her entire attention to Julian caused him the greatest tortures of jealousy. He tried to drown care in wine, and, reduced by medicine and abstinence, his head was soon somewhat giddy. When he saw the party about to quit the supper-table, he rose, and hastened on before, and, armed with his pipe and a new supply of courage, he took his place in a window-seat on the stairs behind a curtain, and as Rebecca passed with Julian, the last

pair of the gay train, he squeaked out with startling distinctness the air of "Shepherds, I have lost my love."

"What horrid discord, Julian!" said Re

becca.

"Where can that poor wretch have

hidden himself?"

Re

She learnt but too soon; for a heavy fall made her turn, and she beheld Sir Peter, who, with his pipe, had fallen from the windowseat on the stairs. Already weak from abstinence, and giddy from wine, Rebecca's cruel remark was too much for Sir Peter. becca shrieked, Jobb tore his arm from the Morning Star. He accompanied Sir Peter home, stayed with him till he was fast asleep, and thus earned more than enough to cover all the expenses of the evening.

Wild with gaiety, and flushed with wine, all soon joined in the dance again. Julian now danced with none but Rebecca; and flirtations, some of old standing, some the growth of that evening, went merrily on. The old lord kept close to Corinna, watching her while she danced (for he was too weak on his legs.

to venture himself), carrying her fan, her reticule, and her scarf. Milton had captivated the over-blown La Vallière, who seemed, with her rouge, her vermilioned lips, and profuse tresses, a Hebe to his inexperienced eyes. Grunter was become a little too devoted to Mrs. Fitzcribb, and Fitzcribb had received some taps from the fan of "the Morning Star." Sappho, Johnson, and Wamba were fixtures in a refreshment-room, where they had filled their pockets with all sorts of bonbons, cakes, and preserves for Benoni at home. Tibby had stolen off to bed, for she hated daylight after a ball. Lady Jane Belville (Mary Queen of Scots) had caught a very rich young aspirant to fashion, for whom she had long been spreading her net in vain. The affair was completed thus

Miss

"What a confoundedly handsome fellow young Lindsay is !"

"Do you know him?”

"Yes; at least, I'm very intimate with some of his most intimate friends."

"He piques himself on his exclusiveness

I can't endure him."

"I believe he assumes a good deal." "Oh! he don't attempt that with me: he persecutes me with his attentions- I can't tell how to get rid of him,"

"He's generally very much admired by women. Don't you think him handsome ?"

"I don't like dark men, and I have quite an antipathy to aquiline features; besides, he's too tall for me too thin," and the lady glanced at the large head, light hair, and flat face of the short Dutch-built figure beside her, who had assumed the character of Athelstan of Coningsburg, and who was a very rich roturier of the name of Jackson.

"He seems very much in love with his

cousin."

"Poor thing! I dare say she thinks his attentions are meant to please her."

And are they not?"

“No. If I dared confide in you .... I could make you smile: they're adopted in the vain hope of piquing me."

"You astonish me!"

"What is there so astonishing in it?" asked the lady, suddenly raising and as suddenly dropping her fine eyes (even she was a little more unreserved after supper than before). "Come, for once I will be candid, and trust a man....It may be entirely affection for me on his part — perhaps a first - passion; if so, I pity him—I speak in the strictest confidence if it is, I cannot help it. I am romantic enough to resolve to marry for love. My first match was made by my parents; I was married from the nursery. In my short wedded life I suffered enough from incompatibility of temper to make me resolve in a second choice to be guided by my own heart. How strange you must think it that I....I of all people....so timid-I should tell you this; but some persons inspire so much confidence, a delicate chivalry of manner goes so far, and I....I have no....brother. Well, Julian Lindsay is much to be pitied, but I cannot love him. Then, too, though the Lindsays are rich, and, in a certain set, my