even now I do not quite understand you. You are certainly different from any other woman I ever before lived with in habits of intimacy, except that you have the same love of power; that seems to me to be an integral quality of all womankind."

Not of womankind only; it is a regular strife from the cradle to the tomb between the sexes, which shall rule. As to myself, I certainly have a desire of power, but it is confined to a very small number of persons-a very limited sphere of action."

"I am sure you cannot be disappointed of your aim; whatever it is, Miss Clermont, you will obtain it."

"Do not prove a false prophet," she replied, "and I shall be satisfied."

The day appointed for a coursing match arrived. There was as great a stir in the house and neighbourhood of Moreton Park as though a battle were to be lost or won. The ladies proceeded in open carriages to a high spot of ground, from whence they could have a fair chance of viewing the sport. Even Lady Herbert and her daughter confessed it was a pretty sight to see the leashed greyhounds led along with their flaunting ribands, and the fine horses in their different actions of grace or strength prancing along; while some equipages, and an innumerable throng of peasantry, crowded the roads and fields in long lines of various-coloured garments. A dark wood to the left-a bright open country to the right-a quiet tinting of the pale blue sky-an autumnal breath in the light wind that occasionally wafted the odour of decaying vegetation, and the scene and the season is described. Some little barking curs were sent into the wood, to rouse the game; several hares showed their timid forms; the men and dogs were on the alert" Not yet, not yet, cried the knowing ones. At length one harmless frightened creature, made bold by terror, dashed fairly out of the cover, and crossed the open country. Now for it-let slip the dogs; and with one halloo they rushed, fleeter than the wind, after their prey. Poor innocent victim of the wanton sports of man! it doubled to mislead its pursuers in vain-it was quickly caught -its torture was brief, a few piercing cries like those of an infant's wail, sharp and harrowing, and the chase was ended. Lady Herbert hid her face, and shuddered.

"Why did I come here?" she said to her daughter. I never could endure sights such as this to me this sport is only agony."

"I give you joy, Lord Herbert," said Miss Clermont, as he approached her, "Fleetfoot has won; she bore down upon her prey in capital style; the run was too short, but it was quite beautiful!”

"Only we saw the death, and heard the dying shrieks too plainly," added Lady Herbert.

Lord Herbert laughed, and only replied,

'Now don't be sentimental, Mabel. Hares have died from time to time, and men-ay, and women too-have eaten them; but that is no reason why you should go into fits of despair. I wonder why you came here, for my part,” he added pettishly; " for you are only a kill-joy."

"I came because I felt interested in your dog's success, Herbert, although the sport itself, I acknowledge, is what I never could enjoy; but I feared you would have thought me unkind, had I stayed away. Otherwise"

'Well, well, say no more about it; only do not trouble yourself another time on any similar occasion- -or me either. Sarah, I hope you have at least been amused?"

Why, papa, to say the truth, the screams of the hare are too like that of a child-they have made me feel sick and faint."

"I think," observed Miss Clermont, "that persons whohave weak nerves should not attend this sort of amusement, as they only disturb the enjoyment of others."

"Very true," rejoined Lord Herbert. "Do, Mabel, go home, and I will drive Miss Clermont in my cabriolet to see another course; for she is not troubled with so many. nervous qualms."

on any

Lady Herbert and her daughter followed this advice, and they left Miss Clermont to the undisturbed enjoyment of the sport. It was not, in Lady Herbert, the least degree of affectation which influenced her expressions on this or similar occasion; it was an unfortunate quickness of physical as well as moral feeling, which made her appropriate every expression of pain to herself; so that, whetherin regard to a person or an animal, she was alike quick infeeling their anguish, and when she witnessed bodily suffering, it was as though she herself endured the pain.

"How I lament," she said to her daughter as they returned home-"how I lament this unnecessary degree of aptitude of perception to suffering. Where it can do good to others, I would retain it, whatever it might cost myself;

but to have my sensations lacerated, as they constantly are, by the various accidents of life, is a great wear and tear of existence, and I sometimes wonder why such feelings are inflicted upon a few persons, while the generality are exempt from their endurance; and it is those double-cased people who do not wear themselves or others out, and who please much better than I, or such as I am, who pause to reflect, to feel, and to endure—or rather, who feel without reflecting, and whose impulses of anguish vibrate responsively at every touch of sorrow or of suffering."

“Oh! dear mamma, you have made me like yourself; and being so, I must own that I would not change my feelings with any body's. As to Miss Clermont, she is, I think, as hard as a flint; a flint may strike fire, you know, though it cannot be softened."

Lady Herbert thought upon these things; and, though she dreaded her child's disposition might not conduce to her happiness, yet she could not wish it were exchanged for one of ruder mould.

CHAPTER II.

Not the pure open prosperous love,
That pledged on earth and sealed above,
Grows in the world's approving eyes,
In friendship's smile and home's caress,
Collecting all the heart's sweet ties
Into one knot of happiness.
No, Hinda, no-thy fatal flame,
Was nursed in sorrow, silence, shame-
A passion without hope or pleasure,
In thy soul's darkness buried deep,
It lies like some ill-gotten treasure,
Some idol, without shrine or name,
O'er which its pale-eyed votaries keep
Unholy watch, while others sleep.

MOORE.

WHO can look around them and not see the two principles of good and evil in constant operation: ofttimes the

latter seems to prevail, and the feeble in faith might well nigh quail altogether in their belief, when it seems to ride triumphant in the world; but the strong in faith remember "the end is not yet," and they are sustained. An incipient smouldering unholy flame had long been gathering in Miss Clermont's breast-it had met with no opposition from religious principle, and it had gathered strength in proportion to the other obstacles against which it contended. From the peculiar circumstances of her position, nay, even from the very indifference with which her passion was received by the object of its unhallowed violence, there was every excitement to stimulate such a mind as hers to pursue her evil course. Hitherto she was aware she had made no progress in her criminal plan; she had, indeed, through the medium of the Indian boy, procured Lord Herbert a perfect insight into the confidence he ought to place in his friend Sir Charles, and the woman who was the creature of Sir Charles's will. Miss Clermont's letter had produced the effect of sending Lord Herbert to be an eye witness of the fact, and she had thereby rid herself of two dangerous rivals; but, in doing so, she had restored Lord Herbert to the bosom of his family, and he had lost the shame and provocation of knowing himself to be despised and tricked by his worthless associates, in the caresses of his faithful and fond wife, and his beautiful and innocent child; with whom for a short time he found real happiness. These were, perhaps, more effectual barriers to her unholy passion, than even the others had proved to be; so that now, with diabolical ingenuity, she set about uprooting these fruits of sacred growth. If there is an active agent of evil in the world, more subtle than all else, more prone to delight in mischief, more powerful to effect it, it is that which attends upon money. After Lady Herbert had left Miss Clermont, on the day of the coursing-match, alone with Lord Herbert, Miss. Clermont thought, "Now is the time to obtain his confidence-he does not love me yet, but he loves money "-She knew that there was a part of the cover they were skirting along, which he had for some time wished to add to his estate; and she asked him in a careless way, if it was not speedily to come into the market.

"Yes," he said, "and I am sorry for it."

"How so? I thought I had heard you say you intended to purchase it."

"I wish to do so, but have not the money."

"Oh! we can always get money when we really want it," she replied laughing, by some means or other; "I wish every thing else were as easy to be obtained-for instance, love!", "Miss Clermont," he exclaimed, with unfeigned surprise, "I never should have guessed that you were a person to care about love-and if you did, you could never know its disappointment," he added, with something more of warmth in his glance, than she had ever before remarked in his expression.

"That is as it may be," she answered, and then quickly rallying her thoughts to their post, went on to say, "Surely your rich friend Sir Charles Lennard could advance you any money you wished, or Lord de Montmorenci?"

To the first, Miss Clermont, I am already deeply indebted; to the latter, I would not be more so than I am on any account: there is nothing to be said against De Montmorenci, unless it be that the very name of guardian always makes one man hateful to another for life."

Nay now, Lord Herbert, you are very unreasonable. I hope you are not jealous?" fixing her eyes upon his.

"Jealous! of whom, of what?" and he coloured violently.

Miss Clermont resumed, "Ay, very true, of whom, of what, indeed; Lady Herbert is still so in love with you, even after seventeen years of marriage, that you may well ask that question, and it is not the idle rumours of an envious world which ought to shake your confidence in her, only the bitterness with which you named Lord de Montmorenci made me for a moment doubt—”.

"Doubt what? Oh no; it is quite another affair," he said, "which makes me dislike applying to him for the loan of money; quite another, I assure you. I don't dislike Lord de Montmorenci personally-it is only, as I said before, that sort of feeling which comes over one in the presence of a person who is supposed to have a right to give one good advice, which made me show any impatience at

the mention of his name."

"I can understand that feeling, I own I never could bear advice. But, to change the subject, I wonder that you allow this beautiful piece of ground to pass out of your domain; if it does, I dare say the cover will be entirely removed, and it will be sown with turnips or wheat, or put to some utilitarian purpose, which will sadly spoil your favourite sport."