ourselves without a few pages of discussion of the subject, by which we hoped to discover whether these children of our imagination were naturally described as showing so plainly the dispositions which were to give the character to their future lives.

Whether the present characters of Amelia and Agnes gave already indications-the one, of a creature all "form ;" and the other, of a being all "feeling ;" and whether we might prophesy those events of their after-life, which it is the intention of these pages to record.

The Trevors and the Flemings, although moving in the same circle, were not intimate: they met in the unceasing round of fashion; but they did not visit.

The Trevors, proud of an ancient name and of a family that could reckon sixteen quarterings in their heraldry, looked upon Mr. Fleming as a parvenu; and Mr. Fleming, with all his innate respect for legitimate rank, still felt the consequence and pride of wealth, and was offended at the little attention that was paid him by the Trevors.

For these slights, Mr. Fleming consoled himself by the superiority of his establishment, and by the splendour of his parties, while the Trevors affected to despise the magnificent entertainments to which they received no cards; and to consider and talk of them as the attempts of a parvenu, to hide the meanness of his origin in the gorgeous and tasteless display of the wealth which purchased his place in society.

It was true, Mrs. Fleming's family on both sides was equal with their own; but then a woman reduces herself to the same rank with the man she marries, but never elevates him to her own; and Mrs. Fleming was not a woman to receive attentions that did not extend to her husband, or to keep up connexions with any acquaintance that in the least degree slighted Mr. Fleming, to whom she made a point of performing all those duties and attentions which were within her own power to command, the more punctiliously, because she was conscious there were many into which she had never yet been able to school that heart, which had been won and lost before he had any claim to its affections.

These feelings on each side had kept the families of the Trevors and the Flemings separate; but the young people were of that happy age which knew not, or did not understand, these distinctions; and the next morning after the

ball, therefore, brought young Trevor to pay a visit to his little partner.

This was an attention, however, which was so much disapproved by his lady-mother, and so very coldly received by Mr. Fleming, that it was not repeated; and our young Etonian was compelled to watch for the Miss Flemings in their walks, as the only means of continuing his acquaintance with Agnes.

The fact was, that Trevor at fifteen, from his association with boys of sixteen and eighteen who imagined themselves men, began to think that he was himself approaching to the period when he might be designated Mister instead of Master; and having been really struck with the fascinating spirits of Agnes, he fancied himself in love, and began to think that he should himself have a confidential communication to make to his school-circle in return for those to which he had often listened, and wondered when he too should find an opportunity of performing the same feats as those detailed by his companions.

The house occupied by the Trevors was not so far distant from the Flemings, but that our youthful sprig of nobility could watch the movements of the young ladies: the moment, therefore, that they quitted the Steyne with their governess, was the signal for the commencement of his own morning excursion.

While within sight of his domicile, he wandered carelessly along the cliff; but still with his eye fixed upon the objects of his pursuit, for he had learned a few of the ruses d'amour from his more experienced companions at Eton,-as soon, however, as he imagined himself out of the pale of observation, he quickened his pace, and directed it towards the little group of pedestrians on the beach, whom he soon contrived to overtake.

His presence was always welcome to Agnes, because it gave her the opportunity of talking of the juvenile balls and was never unacceptable to Amelia, because he was never deficient in those attentions which her aunt had always taught her to expect as her due from the other sex; and Amelia, cold as she was, was much more versed in all these technicalities than Agnes, who was only to be taught the value of these attentions by her own heart.

When the governess was with them, Trevor knew how to make himself welcome by a hundred little flattering words,

which were rendered still more acceptable by coming from the lips of a little honourable; and when they were only accompanied by their maid, he remembered how maids had been silenced by his companions in the neighbourhood of Windsor, and he tried the same recipe. Boys learn something at Eton; and so they ought, for it is an expensive place.

By this perseverance, and these means, he contrived generally to be the companion of their morning stroll. He wandered with them on the cliff-picked up shells and star-fish for them on the beach-became an expert Macadamiser of pebbles-threw ducks and drakes on the bright calm sea— and made love to Agnes in his boyish way; that is, they stood on the margin of the tide, till the white curling wave rose to their feet, and then he would snatch her away before it could wet her black satin slippers-then he would look out for the prettiest pebbles and shells-climb the cliff for any flower that graced the sterile rock-or dash into the wave to rescue a piece of sea-weed from the retreating tide to add to her collection. But in the midst of these more boisterous and boyish attentions to Agnes, he never forgot to pay others to Amelia, which were quite as acceptable, since he never presented a pebble or a shell without a bow; and he became a favourite of her's, because he never met or parted from her without taking off his hat; and though she was shocked at the hearty shaking of hands, which was the never-failing accompaniment of the meeting and separation of Agnes and Trevor; and though she could never join in their hearty laughs which were echoed by the cliffs when the waves were too quick for them, and filled their shoes with salt-water; yet his perpetual politeness-his never-failing attention when there was a channel furrowed into the sand by the sea, or any piece of rock in the way to be got over, reconciled her to his company, and she always welcomed him with her placid smile.

As for Agnes, she knew nothing-she thought of nothing but the enjoyment of the moment. She delighted in the company of 'l'revor, because he entered into her amusements -all was gayety and sunshine:

No sense had she of ills to come,

No care beyond to-day.

Trevor himself knew not the nature of his own feelings; he was in a precocious state of boyhood. He had heard his elder companions talk of love, and boast of successes, of the meaning of which he was ignorant. He saw Agnes; his young heart and imagination were attracted by her charms of person, and her naïveté of conversation, and he thought it would be manly, and give him something to tell about on his return to Eton; having, in his own mind, determined to represent his lady as a girl of sixteen, instead of thirteen. With this view, he pursued with indefatigable perseverance his morning rambles, for the purpose of joining the sisters, till he experienced sensations for the youthful Agnes, that, young as he was, made his meeting with her a happiness, and his parting from her a misery.

Before he sought his pillow at night he would throw up his sash and look if there were a light still in her window, and his first glance in the morning was in the same direction.

Perhaps, too, his youthful vanity was flattered by the evident pleasure with which his attentions were received, and a zest was added to these meetings by the necessity which his heart taught him there was for some degree of secrecy, as to the extent of the attentions he was paying to this branch of the family of the Flemings.

He pretended to think, also, that he was really in love; for youthful hearts will magnify their sensations; and what he felt, though nothing like that manly passion which inspires us in after life, was set down by Trevor as love; and, naturally enough, he interpreted the evident pleasure with which the young Agnes received his little gallantries into a reciprocal feeling; and,

Pleas'd with this flattering thought, the love-sick boy,
Felt the faint dawning of a doubtful joy.

And which of us has not felt the same ?-which of us does not recollect some incipient feeling of this kind, which threw a sunshine and an interest over our childish days? and ah-alas! how many are there, who can look back to this infant passion, as the only true one they ever felt; all the subsequent feelings of their hearts having the alloy of worldly interest to deteriorate and destroy them!

It is a melancholy thing to live in a world where the general result of experience, and the principal result of knowledge

is to deaden and repress the earliest, and, perhaps, the first feelings of our nature.

But a truce with reflections; they are no part of our narrative; and since we have arrived at a certain age, we have found reflection very intrusive and troublesome.

Thus matters proceeded at Brighton-the world came and went-stage-coaches increased-the town was full to suffocation-prosperity made the inhabitants insolent-visiters of fashion became disgusted-royalty deserted an ungrateful people, whose fortunes had been made by its sunshine-and Mr. Fleming quitted Brighton.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE RECOGNITION.

She pin'd in thought.

-Was not this love indeed?

SHAKSPEARE.

And thus the heart will break, yet brokenly live on.

BYRON.

THE London winter" commencing in July," as Lord Byron satirically observes, had now begun the streets of St. James's rattled beneath the carriages of the wealthy and fashionable, and the dust of Hyde Park flew in clouds beneath the horses of the elegants, who equestrianised, and tilburised, and cabriolised, in the short intervals between a breakfast at two and a dinner at eight.

All was bustle at the west end of the town; the clubs were full of lounging men, and the milliners' shops were full of expensive women; balls and bible societies were crowded to suffocation; the crush-room was a perfect jam; fans could not keep the Blues cool at the Royal institution; and Almack's and the House of Commons were well attended.

In short, all London life was at its zenith of animation