the rattling of his carriage wheels as they bore him from the house, her heart felt a void for which she could scarcely account. Her only appui seemed to have left her. Her greatest hope seemed to be failing her; and she unwillingly began to dread that the many romantic wishes she had indulged were doomed to meet with nothing but disappointment. She hurried, however, away from this thought, and sought relief in that never-failing resource to a feeling mind that has no positive grief to indulge in-music. She tried the harp, then the piano; from the piano she turned to her guitar; still all seemed discord. Her mind was out of tune. Sometimes, as a carriage approached, she would for a moment indulge in the hope that Trevor was returning; but as it passed, this hope died away; and the idea came to her mind, that after so long an absence from his usual pursuits and his old companions, it was but natural that they should detain him late this first night of his return. So apt is an affectionate heart to find excuses for the conduct of those it loves; so loth is it to admit a doubt as to the affections, upon the continuance of which it has placed its sole hopes of happiness. : Hour after hour rolled on. But still no Trevor till at length really alarmed at his protracted absence, she was on the point of sending his man to learn at what time he had ordered the carriage, when his knock at the door and his immediate presence quieted her fears for his safety; and a kiss of welcome, and a candid acknowledgment that his return to his club having been quite féted by his friends had caused his delay, procured a pardon for the first solitary evening he had yet made her pass. Than all that has been known before. COWLEY. Were you, ye fair, but cautious whom ye trust, ROWE. THE next morning's breakfast-table conversation wa Trevor with projects of society and schemes for g insisted that Agnes should immediately fix on her quadrilles, concerts, and assemblies, during the s e visiting-list was called for and augmented; a or-domo ordered to send out innumerable.tickets in ection to which the fashionable world extended, till nes was absolutely bewildered with the engagemen eties in prospect; and looked through the long pe of the season in vain for one evening of that do et, the anticipation of which, a few weeks since ned their whole hopes of happiness. At length she ventured to stop the buoyancy of Tr rits, by a gentle allusion to the impossibility of any domestic comfort in the vortex of such arrangeme proposed; and to express her fears that in the mi h general society, she should have very little, if any the enjoyment of his own. Oh, my love," said Trevor, "ça viendra with the in its proper time and season. Here one must ers do, if we do not wish to be quizzed and laughe eye,' see the men overpowered by the one, and the women dying of the other." "As to my talents, Charles, I value them only as they seem to amuse you. I want no other admiration than yours. A glance of approbation from your eyes would be dearer to me than the plaudits of the whole world; and as to envy, I have no ambition to excite it." "But then you know, my love, that as the Honourable Mrs. Trevor, who may be a Countess, you have a certain station in society to keep up, which-which-" and he hesitated; for he was really at a loss to find an excuse for the long series of dissipation which he had enumerated. I know I have, Charles," said Agnes, affectionately; and, believe me, I shall never forget it: but in keeping up. this station in society, do not make me lament that I am so seldom to be Mrs. Trevor for yourself alone. For it was you, and not your station, that made me so; and I declare to you, that should the title, which seems all at once to have such charms in your eyes, ever become yours, I should regret being addressed by any other name than that of Mrs. Trevor." 66 Thanks, thanks, my love, for your affection. It is gratifying, believe me-gratifying to my heart, and I feel your kindness to my soul; and so, as I was saying, the Marquis of Townly says you will receive cards from the Marchioness -for the 10th and 24th of February, the 12th and 30th of March, and for six assemblies, distributed through May, June, and July." A long list of other prospective engagements of the same nature were then enumerated. Boxes at the Opera and French play were to be secured.. Her name was to be proposed at Almack's; till by the time that Lady Emily Trevor was announced, who came to hear of the realization of all the romantic dreams of domestic happiness, in which her friend and sister had indulged, poor Agnes could hardly recollect that there were such words in the vocabulary; so completely had the whirl of gayety in which Trevor talked of living, banished them from her remembrance. All that Agnes could do was to assent in silence: though her heart felt acutely that in all these arrangements, the dear thought of domesticity, upon which she had placed so many of her hopes of happiness, seemed to have been entirely forgotten. Trevor took the opportunity of Lady Emily's arrival to start on his morning's round. Bidding his sister a welcome and a good-bye in the same kiss, with an "au revoir mon amie" to his wife, he quitted the room : leaving his friends to that delicious intercourse which the mutual narration of events which have occurred during a short separation, between persons who love each other, always produces. All the letters of Agnes had glowed with the description of the happiness she was enjoying at Trevor Hall. They spoke the full accomplishment of her dearest wishes-the realization of her most sanguine expectations. Even the letter announcing this sudden change of their determination to pass the whole year in the country, had not even hinted that it was not the perfect wish of her own heart, as well as that of Trevor. In repeating the pleasures and pursuits of their short sojourn in the country, Agnes again became animated; but Lady Emily thought that she heard a sigh mingle with these descriptions; and Agnes did really experience that feeling of melancholy which pervades the mind and heart, when alluding to those pleasures which are passed away, instead of those which are to come. Agnes was, however, too generous to give a hint of this incipient feeling to her friend; and anxious to hear how she went on with Hartley, she turned the conversation upon him. "Oh," said Lady Emily, "the creature is just the same teazing mortal he ever was. Where I am, there the man is sure to be with that perpetually grave face, frowning at all my little flirtations and gayeties. I have dismissed him a hundred times by hints and inuendoes; but I might as well, and as wisely, throw snow against a stone wall, as hints at a man that will not understand them." "He stands his ground though, I perceive," said Agnes, "in spite of all the fine gentlemen by whom you are surrounded and addressed." "Why, yes, he does that certainly; but it is with much the same air that a two-and-twenty pounder would maintain its station against batteries of pop-guns, or an English mastiff against a bevy of lap-dogs. My other beaux let fly their light arrows in all directions: they dazzle my eyes in their flight; whirl round my head, but reach no further. But Hartley stands like a well-trained engineer: he reserves his fire for great occasions, and comes upon me with some cannon ball of a virtue, that-that-that-" "Goes home to the heart, I presume you mean," said Agnes, finishing the sentence for her friend. "No, not exactly so, neither," said Lady Emily. "Reason is but a rough road to the heart. Though I begin to believe, that if once that path is discovered, it is the surest way to win it irrevocably. The man who wins a woman's heart through the eye or the ear alone, though he may make a more rapid progress at first, is not half so secure of its possession as he who reaches it through the medium of her judgment and her understanding." 66 Spoken with the true wisdom of my friend and monitress Emily," exclaimed Agnes; "you are indeed all dull reality, without the slightest portion of sentiment and romance in your composition. Now, I-I am all the contrary;" and a sigh, so gentle that she scarcely felt it herself, stole from her bosom, as imagination recurred to that indefinable fear which is the first effect of some dreaded disappointment. "Oh! you are quite mistaken, my dear Agnes, in your estimate of my disposition. I am naturally as ardent and romantic as yourself; and confess to you that there are many men by whom I have been addressed, who much more resemble my beau ideal of a lover, than poor Hartley. But a husband, Agnes, is for every-day wear, and not to be put on upon holydays alone, to glitter for a moment, and be laid by in one's wardrobe till one wants to be brilliant again. A husband is for home consumption, and not for parade abroad. In short, a lover is what wit, and a husband what common sense is to us. The one may amuse us for a moment, but the other is of use to us all our lives." Mr. and Mrs. Henry Pomeroy now came in to pay their congratulations to Agnes. They had flown to town with. eagerness from the comparative solitude of the country, the very moment the etiquette honey-moon of their marriage was passed. Amelia tired of the country, Henry maddened by her continued coldness. Amelia was still as beautiful as ever, and still as cold and ceremonious. Marriage had made no difference in her, except the speedy adoption of the privilege of a matron to chaperon others, and to take precedence of single ladies. Henry appeared pale, though a hectic flush would now and |