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finer-were interspersed with spring-carts, full of blowzy, rosy girls, flaunting it in crimson ribands-black-legs-horsedealers-farmers' sons, in green short coats and top-boots -amazons, on side-saddle or pillion, in coarse blue ridinghabits, beaver hats, and rusty black feathers—fair maids, in clean cotton gowns, arm-in-arm with their sweethearts, crossing from time to time between the cords-ragged boys -beggars-tumblers-gipsies-thieves-and pickpockets. The ladies bowed and whispered from the carriages; the cavaliers sat, hand on the panel of a britzka door, idly lounging on their steeds, and laughing the short thick laugh of affectation-while the loud bawl of ballad-singers, roaring out" Cease, rude Boreas," and "Billy Taylor," and the cry of "Names of the horses and colours of the riders!" were mingled with the piercing yells of a persecuted dog-or the drum and shrill fife of a recruiting sergeant, who, parading the course between the acts, was followed by half a dozen country boobies, strutting with sixpennyworth of blue and red riband in their hats, exulting in the proud consciousness of having just bartered life and liberty for half a crown.

All these things, which but the day before had shocked and disgusted Louisa's delicate, it may be, rather too fastidious, taste, seemed now to her as animated and delightful as they were to the other lively young ladies of the party.

The carriage stopped at the entrance to the ladies' stand; down clattered the steps; out stepped the ladies. Half a dozen young men of fashion were now contending which should have the supreme felicity of handing Miss Mildmay up stairs. Smiling and blushing with pleasure, she entered the apartment, already crowded with the leading families of the county.

She cast a hasty glance through the agitated sea of bonnets-pink, white, and blue-nodding feathers, and black and white hats, which was waving restlessly to and fro, as the bearers chatted, laughed, looked out, looked round, and betted gloves, rings, and souvenirs with each other. She listened impatiently to the quick rustling sound of boot and cane, as the beaux clattered hastily up and down stairs, passing from the ladies to the betting-stand, divided between the charms of love and gaming. Her eye glanced hastily upon every fresh arrival: in vain-he was not to be seen.

She soon fixed her attention upon the betting-stand opposite, endeavouring to penetrate the confused crowd of country louts, gamblers, noblemen, and gentlemen who were too earnestly engaged in making up their books; in vain-he was not there.

At a very great distance, apart from the rest, seated upon a beautiful horse, attended by two grooms in the plainest liveries, but admirably mounted, she saw a gentleman that she thought resembled him; but as he neither approached

one stand nor the other, and very soon rode off the course, she could not feel sure even of this.

How the scene changed!-Merrily flew the merry gorounds-the children clapped their hands and screamed for joy; merrily tumbled the pink and blue tumblers; the people applauded aloud. Vainly, for her. The giddy, bustling, motley crowd below-the gay, glittering, fluttering crowd above the sergeant, drum, fife, and recruits fluttered, bustled, and paraded in vain. Her heart was far from the

scene.

Her thoughts were at this moment engaged in the very unpleasing occupation of unsaying all the agreeable things which they had been telling one another ever since her dance with Lord William-and "even pleasure lost its power to please.

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She had not sufficient attraction, then, said she to herself, to draw him even for five minutes to the place which every other gentleman on the field seemed to visit in its turn. How miserably had she mistaken the language of the eyes, and the accents of the evening before!

Mortification succeeded to security ;-all her sweet, airy, formless fancies disappeared as by a charm-in their place came wounding self-reproaches, for what she now called her own ridiculous vanity-absurd folly! idle fancy! and so on, were ringing in her head. She! a poor, insignificant

country girl, to imagine that she could for one moment fix the attention of such a man! A man of his rank! A man of his fashion! Was ever any expectation so perfectly ridiculous! It was plain that he had forgotten her already, and he should be forgotten in his turn. But not so fast, you pretty Louisa-perhaps that will prove less easy than you imagine.

It is a most provoking thing, that when a young gentleman runs away with a young lady's heart without making an adequate return, he most often runs away with a very inconvenient portion of her charms also. Louisa was quite an altered being-not half an hour ago she had been a blooming, animated, charming creature; she was now nothing but a languid, jaded, faded young thing, and appeared as wearisome and headachy herself as the noisy brutal course once more seemed to be to her.

It was the fashion at the races of Neston for the second day's sport to conclude with a play; and, accordingly, to the shabby little theatre of this shabby little town it was usual for the numbers who frequented the course to crowd; and there, seated indiscriminately in the ill-arranged boxes, lined with dingy, faded crimson, and dimly lighted by the miserable candles behind, to assist at a representation such as a company of strolling players usually administer to an indulgent public.

At times, however, a star of the first magnitude would vouchsafe to shine upon the boards; and upon this occasion Miss F*** K**** had consented to enrich the manager and to delight the eyes of the people of Neston by her appearance.

Now Miss F*** K**** was, perhaps, little aware, of what to the frequenters of London theatres may appear an incredible fact, that there is no place where a finished actress reaps such a harvest of honest, genuine applause and sympathy, as on the boards of an insignificant country playhouse. The minds of the daughters of the smaller country gentry, who form the élite of the audience upon these occasions, are, in fact, usually much better cultivated than is the case with those who fill a similar station in London-and who have no other means of varying the impressions received by Regent-street and Hyde Park except by those drawn from the beach at Dover or the chain-pier at Brighton; interspersed, for once in their lives, by a visit to the continent, which enables them to discourse of Mont Blanc and the Duomo of Milan.

Their lives pass in a gentle succession of nothings, just sufficient to keep the spirits in motion, and therefore they rarely find it necessary to seek for higher sources of interest.

Whereas girls who live entirely in the country are, of necessity, thrown much upon themselves for their amusement; and reading, writing, gardening, and conversing with those few friends of their own class that they have had an opportunity of acquiring, and to whom they are usually attached in the most affectionate manner, fill up their time in a way that has the happiest effect upon their tempers and imaginations-a little tendency to romance being usually the greatest danger which their characters incur.

Their sympathies are peculiarly awake to the poetry either of description or action, and a finished actress will find them perfect wax in her hands. It appears, likewise, that a smaller theatre, and the absence of all that glare and tinsel which seems necessary in the larger ones, adds very sensibly to the effect of these finer strokes of genius; tends to concentrate the soul in the action, and gives that sentiment of reality, that genuine laugh and cry feeling, which is the most delightful of all excitements to those under its influ

ence.

Louisa very seldom went to a play; but she was young enough, tender enough, new enough, to enter into this pleasure with extreme delight. On the scene, as in a glass, she beheld, though she understood it not, all of which her own generous and feeling nature was capable !-she felt its truth -she sympathized in its sentiment-she could herself have been the tender, the devoted one she saw! And so-lovelier

than Juliet-softer than Mrs. Haller-innocent as Perditamore tender than Ophelia-she sat and listened, eye and ear intent, as the thrilling actress began her part.

But before even the first act was over, Miss F*** K*** with all her witchery, was in danger of being forgotten; an enchantment far more powerful stole upon her senses. That dangerous romance!-that seductive poetry of real life!—that bright vision was unfolded for her!—visible but for a moment, to be regretted for ever!

Lord William, unperceived by her, had entered the box, and, after a few slight courtesies to the party, he began to squeeze between the young ladies, all vying with each other in the winning smiles and gestures with which they crowded together to make way for him, vainly hoping that he would, with his usual charming negligence, sink into the first vacant seat among them.

No such thing!

He pushed forward in a way that would have been thought rude enough in a less amiable man, and niched himself close behind Louisa.

She heard herself addressed, almost in her ear, by a sweet, deep voice, and in those low, flattering tones which no young girl hears with impunity. The inquiry was one of mere trivial politeness-but the tone!-it sank into her heart like the most delicious music-it sank, as the human voice sinks but once!

It is needless to dwell upon the feelings of a first and innocent love in the presence of its idol, before care, anxiety, and anticipation of consequences have marred its sweetness -before the villanous world has breathed upon this Eden. The soft stir of the spirits! the faltering voice-the beating heart! the sympathy-the confidence!

Suffice it to say, that Louisa was all that the softest young creature could be upon the occasion; and he, his dark, halfmelancholy eye!-his pensive brow!-his speaking countenance ! Devotion! fascination! very floods of tenderness! seemed almost pouring from those large deep orbs-while his lip, formed for many a varying expression, now breathed nothing but the fondest admiration, as, with an ease and confidence-strange, yet most innocent-she turned her sweet face upwards, and made him a sharer in all the thoughts and sentiments drawn forth by the piece.

It certainly was a singular, and by no means an uninteresting picture, in the midst of the rattle and gayety of such a party. But the little theatre was ill lighted, every one pretty much engaged with their own flirtations, and our pair in good measure concealed by Mrs. Carlton's large hat and feathers on one side, and by the edge of the box upon the other.

They felt alone, at least she did-yet without the shyness which to have been really alone would have occasioned.

There was a great hurry of carriages, a great noise of footmen, and swearing of coachmen, and all such confusions, when they got out. Lord William still held Louisa's hand as they waited for the carriage to draw up.

Now it happened that Mrs. Carlton had a coachman who loved alcohol, and a pair of very handsome, high-spirited horses, a conjunction more to be dreaded than that of any two stars in the empyrean. These horses, moreover, had been for some time champing, and pawing, and testifying their ill-humour at every fresh carriage which drove by them, and they now came rearing and prancing up. Mrs. Carlton jumped hastily into the carriage, and Miss Mildmay followed; but, before the door could be shut, the horses taking fright, or rather fret, at the screech of a little ragged urchin who stood near, sprang furiously forward, and dashed down the street, in defiance of the tugging coachman, who, his head being, as usual, confused by his potations, soon fell off the box.

There is a general hurrying forwards of servants, linkmen, gentlemen-a general cry, a general rush. But one, seizing a light, dashes forward with an impetuosity which carries him far beyond the rest. He forces his way through horses, carriages, men, with a vehemence nothing can resist, and arrives just as the pole and splinter-bar are crashing, and the carriage nearly overset, while the horses are rearing, foaming, and springing furiously at the obstacle which arrests their progress-a wall across a narrow street.

The

Mrs. Carlton is screaming with all her might-the crowd gathering round to assist and to save-Louisa, pale and trembling with terror, but still retaining her senses. door is forced-she is torn from the carriage--she is in his arms! He presses her to his bosom-he clears once more the crowd-once more he dashes aside every obstacle, and, escaping the press, flings, rather than lays, her on the cushions of an empty carriage which stood somewhat apart, ejaculating, "Thank Heaven!"

There was a silence of a few seconds. The whole appears to Louisa a bewildering dream-to Lord William an intoxicating delight. He starts back—he gazes upon her— and again he ejaculates, "Thank Heaven!"

"Thank Heaven, indeed!" whispers the terrified girl. "But where am I?-where is Mrs. Carlton ?"

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Compose yourself one moment, my life!-Miss Mildmay, I mean. Rest one instant, Louisa, and I will seek her. But you are faint !—you are ill!"

"Oh! nothing-only one moment," languidly smiling— and she fairly fainted away.

His confusion need not be described. He was really

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