you last night practised on Mr. Trevor. The consequences could have been nothing to me personally. Indeed, as far as I am individually concerned, I most sincerely regret that Mr. Trevor does not know all." Flounce stared, and Agnes proceeded—“ But, as you say, this knowledge might have had unhappy consequences-consequences with which I should have been reproached-and, for every one but myself, it is perhaps better as it is.' Flounce could not at all enter into her mistress' feelings. In every thing she did she had but one terror, and that was the being found out; and as long as concealment was accom plished, she was not very nice as to the means. "There is, however, one thing, Flounce," pursued Agnes, "that adds greatly to my unhappiness, and that is, that you should have sullied your lips with a falsehood on my account." "Oh, ma'am ! don't mention it, I beg; don't let that make you unhappy, for I think nothing of it." This was said hastily, and with a real good-will towards her lady; yet she felt, from the look of surprise that Agnes cast at her, that it was wrong, and she immediately qualified her indifference to the utterance of a lie by adding, " For I'm sure there is nothing in life that I would not do for such a lady as you are." "I feel grateful for your willingness to oblige me," said Agnes, gravely, "but shall never tax your duties to me with the' utterance of a falsehood. Your crime last night was shared by me, and we must bear its blame together. I am not insensible to the evidence it gave of your attachment, but I do not the less regret its occurrence. I am unhappy, too, Flounce, lest your own character should suffer in the eyes of your master from your having, I think needlessly, said that your first companion was Mr. La Tour. This may create surmises which you do not deserve, and thus some of the evils of this falsehood will most unmeritedly fall upon you." Flounce coloured up to the eyes; but her blush was attri buted by Agnes to motives very different to those from which it arose; and she added, "That it should be her endeavour to rescue her from any odium that this might bring upon her." Flounce curtseyed-blushed again-looked more confused --but at length said, "Oh, ma'am, don't trouble yourself; for I believe Sir Robert Leslie is going away to-day— "Is he? I rejoice to hear it!" exclaimed Agnes, in a tone of animation and pleasure that quite astonished Flouncethen, indeed, I am grateful to him." VOL. II.-14 "Lord, ma'am !" said Flounce, in a tone in which despondency was mingled with surprise, "why surely you don't mean it ?" "Not mean it!" exclaimed Agnes, and she was going to explain, but felt there was no necessity to prolong this humiliating colloquy. She therefore dismissed Flounce, who retired with some slight idea that her mistress was not quite in her right senses to rejoice in that for which she imagined she would grieve. Agnes felt her heart lightened of half its burden by this last intelligence of Flounce; and, knowing that Leslie could not leave the Hall without paying his respects to her, she quitted her boudoir, that he might not have to seek her for that purpose, and to prevent the possibility of their being by themselves at parting. She took up her position, therefore, in the morning-room although her appearance betokened quite sufficient indisposition to have given her the apology for keeping her apartment; but she thought it safer not to permit Leslie to know the extent of her agitation and sufferings. : She had not been long in the room before she saw Leslie's carriage, with the imperial on the top, pass the windows seemingly in the direction of one of the park gates. Her heart beat quick he was then in earnest, and the time was come for their separation; and she felt indeed grateful for an attention to her wishes which showed his preference of her comfort to his own gratification and she now attributed the whole of his conduct the preceding evening to the effect of that sudden impulse which, in her own character, she had so often found irresistible. : At this moment she heard Trevor's voice, exclaiming "Caught! caught! stole away!" with some other sporting exclamations; and he immediately entered the room, forcibly leading in Leslie in his travelling dress. "There is a pretty fellow!" exclaimed Trevor, “absolutely stealing away from us-pretending business- -a man who does not even know what the word means-who never had any business in his life." "Indeed, my dear Trevor," said Leslie, "I must go. Business of importance "Nonsense," interrupted Trevor, "havn't I interrogated your fac-totum, La Tour, and hasn't he assured me that it is no such thing? And don't I know that you have no business with which he is unacquainted? and havn't I asked Lord Turfington and Sir Harry Pointer to meet you, and matched my greyhounds against theirs, and named you the umpire? and hasn't Agnes invited Mrs. Bluemantle with her album for you to write in; and Lady Sarah Langton, and the deuce knows who, who only come in the hopes of a flirtation with you ?" 66 Upon my word, Trevor, it distresses me to refuse you.” "Then don't distress yourself, and don't refuse me," rejoined Trevor. "Come, Agnes, use your influence. It is some confounded disappointment or contretemps (and Trevor looked cunningly at Agnes) that has created this sudden whim; and you, Agnes, must add your entreaties to mine." "Nay, Mr Trevor," said Agnes, gravely, and as tranquilly as she could, "if Sir Robert Leslie has business of importance, perhaps we should do wrong to detain him." "Business of importance! nonsense; I tell you it is no such thing," said Trevor; "his most important business in life is that of tying his neckcloth and what can be more important to me than his decision in my coursing match ?" Leslie still protested, Trevor continued to insist, and Agnes was at length compelled, by the importunities of her husband, to request his stay, at least till after the visit of Lord Turfington and Sir Harry Pointer. On this request being made by Agnes, for the first time her eyes encountered those of Leslie; her own were immediately withdrawn, but not before she imagined that she had read that he complied most reluctantly with any thing which he thought displeasing to her. It is needless to add, that the travelling dress was changed for a shooting-jacket, the carriage ordered back into the coach-house, the imperial replaced in the dressing-room, and the wardrobes refilled with Leslie's clothes; and thus he had attained the object of convincing Agnes how much he valued her peace of mind, and how imperative he considered her commands, without the pain of obeying them. Agnes almost wept at this disappointment; but she not only exonerated Leslie, but gave him all the credit for his intentions, and consoled herself that a very few days would bring the expected guest, when the necessity for his further stay would no longer exist. Leslie, however, had immediately written off to Turfington and Pointer, who were of his set, under the seal of secrecy, to defer their intended visit, and he again became domesticated at the Hall. Agnes now carefully avoided being alone with Leslie : her morning rides were always in society, and her evening strolls were solitary. She contrived on all occasions to be so surrounded in the drawing-room, that there was no opportunity for the slightest confidential communication, had Leslie appeared to seek it. This however he did not, but rather seemed on all occasions to respect the wishes of Agnes, though evidently with such a degree of self-denial and of pain, that gained him additional credit for his delicacy and his forbearance. Day passed after day, and days increased to weeks, without the appearance of the expected guests. Agnes was anxious and uneasy. Domesticated in the same house, it was next to impossible that the utmost care should insure her from not being sometimes alone with Leslie; and it was not in human nature always to resist saying something that had allusion to the peculiarity of his position. It was true she repressed this with an immediate frown of indignation; but she shuddered to find that this indignation existed only on her countenance, and did not emanate from her heart. She once or twice ventured to express her anxiety for his departure; but this she did fearfully, lest he might suppose that she considered his presence as dangerous. Once or twice Leslie did make a faint attempt to depart, but was again stopped by Trevor. Agnes could not witness the present conduct of Leslie with indifference. She became alarmed at the increasing influence which he obtained in her heart. This made her miserablehalf destroyed her excellent temper-rendered her irritable and capricious-till her guests and her husband thought her a changed being. Sometimes she would shut herself up for the whole day in her apartment; then would propose a party of pleasure, in which she would not be content unless joined by the whole of her guests. At length, feeling that her danger was daily and hourly increasing while in the perpetual society of Leslie, she suddenly determined, at all events, to break up the party, and return to town, where at any rate she should not be under the same roof with him. This determination was no sooner made than executed. Trevor complied, because Lady Flora had gone to London to meet her sick husband, and he had given up all hopes of his coursing match. The guests were dismissed with that ease and freedom which modern good society allows; and Trevor Hall was again left to its uninterrupted solitude. CHAPTER XVI. PROGRESS. Ungracious boy! Hadst thou been the offspring of a sinful bed Had found excuse in an unnatural conception. SHIRLEY. LESLIE TO VILLARS. You ask me si elle est tombée ? Do you remember, Fred, le rocher tremblant, which excited our wonder in the south of France? A huge spherical mass of rock, looking as though it had been brought from some Brobdignag golgotha, which you could set in motion with your finger? Do you remember how it trembled at our touch-threatened every instant to tumble headlong into the valley below-and yet, how it righted (as the sailors say) upon its own foundation at last, and became as stationary, aye, and as firm, as ever? Well, Fred, this phenomenon is the best illustration I can light upon of the present state of Agnes. Like this rock, she is on the edge of the precipice; like this rock, she trembles on its brink, and appears on the point of falling into the gulf beneath; and, alas! like this rock, after all her vibrations, she steadies herself again upon her own pedestal of virtue, where she remains motionless, until another gentle impetus, given by your humble servant, brings on a repetition of the trembling. Thus, unfortunately, you see her heart resembles this phenomenon in its hardness, as well as in its vibration. I wonder if it should so happen that they were both precipitated into |