"There's no good in thinking any more about it, my dear," replied Patty, decisively. "It's no go."

"And all because of the bedroom being little!" rejoined Matilda, with a groan. "Oh! Patty! I'd sleep upon the floor with a blanket round me, with joy and gladness, that I would !-Yes, Patty, or without a blanket either, rather than go away from you—that I would!"

The excited feelings of the disappointed lady here overpowered her, and she burst into tears.

"It is folly and nonsense crying about it, Matilda," said Patty, with less of sympathizing softness than her friend might have wished. "That's not my way. They never make me cry now, let them do or say what they will. I always get my own way when I can, and when I cannot, which isn't often, I just snap my fingers at them, and take pretty good care to get something else out of 'em before I've done."

Miss Matilda here took Miss Louisa aside to the farthest corner of the room, and consulted her in a whisper, as to the possibility of her continuing to occupy their present bedroom for a week or two longer.

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My dear child," replied the tender-hearted elder sister, "there is nothing I would not do to help you; but you know we have reckoned the money over and over, and that there will be, when all's paid, but just enough to take us to our own door, and not a penny to spare. I wish to heaven you had not bought that blue silk gown, Matilda!"

"There is no good in taunting me with that now, Louisa; I had the best of motives for it, and it is cruel to throw it at me, at the very moment too when I am within such a hair's-breadth of making it answer. Dear, dear Louisa! do try to help me! Think what a thing it would be for both of us, if I was to marry!"

"What can I do, Matilda ?" replied the elder; "I can't do miracles you know." But after a moment's consideration she added, "There is but one way I can think of, and that's one I don't like at all. I suppose we might leave the shoe bill till next year."

"Good heavens! to be sure we might," replied Matilda, with recovered spirits, and suddenly giving her sister a most cordial kiss. "There is nobody of any fashion, as we all know, who does not leave bills every where." Then suddenly approaching Patty, who, despite the unfavourable state of the atmosphere, was employed as usual in making experiments with the telescope, and addressing her in a tone that expressed both tenderness and gaiety, she said, " My darling Patty! I do positively think it would break my heart to part with you a single hour before I was absolutely forced to do it, and Louisa says that of course I could keep on my own bedroom, if that was all.”

Considerably alarmed by this pertinacity, which appeared very likely to bring her into a scrape, Patty replied rather abruptly, "Yes, my dear, but it is not all, papa is every bit as proud as mamma, and he says that nothing in the world should ever make him invite any one to stay with us without having servants, footmen, you know, and all that. So it is no good to say any more about it."

"But my dearest Patty! Surely such a friend as I am―

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Say no more about it, I tell you, Matilda, but run and put your things on, and come down to the pier, it does not rain a drop now to

signify, and I am pretty sure I saw Foxcroft and Willis cross over as if they were going that way."

It was with a heavy heart, though with a rapid step, that the unfortunate Matilda ran up stairs to comply with this request, and mournfully desponding was the voice in which she murmured to her friend as they walked along, "Oh, Patty! if we should meet Foxcroft, how shall I bear to tell him that we go on Monday?"

"You must make the best of it, my dear, that is all I can say," replied her friend. "But step quicker, Matilda! There they are, as I live, just going upon the pier now! They must have stopped somewhere other since I first saw them."

The eyes of Patty had not deceived her; on reaching the pier they found the two gentlemen she had named, beguiling their superabundant leisure by leaning over the wall, and watching a distant ship or two through the haze. Of course the young ladies expressed some surprise at seeing them. "So then, you are no more afraid of a Scotch mist than we are ?" said Patty, giving her parasol to Mr. Willis, while she tightened the strings of her too fragile bonnet.

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Any thing is better than staying boxed up at home," replied the young man ; "and I suppose that's your idea, Miss Patty, as well as

ours ?"

"I suppose it is," answered Patty. "But I don't intend to stand still, shivering like this-I shall walk up and down just as fast as I can trot."

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Well, then, you had better give me your arm, or upon my life you will be blown over," said Mr. Willis, while Mr. Foxcroft offered his to her companion in the most touching of manners, namely, without saying a word; which always seems to indicate that protection on the one side, and dependance on the other, is a matter of course between the parties.

Patty and her companion chattered away at a great rate; but Mr. Foxcroft and Miss Matilda Perkins walked on for several paces without exchanging a word. The lady's heart was beating violently, and the gentleman's head was at work.

When an unmarried officer of the line is very hard up, it is by no means an unusual thing that he should turn his thoughts towards matrimony; but when conscious that his last birthday left him within a lustre of half a hundred, and that his hair is a dapple, between red and gray, he confines himself, if he be wise, to the minor prizes in the market, takes especial care that there be no fathers or brothers in the way, and is particular about nothing, save the certainty that the lady has got something, and that this something is at her own disposal. At the moment above mentioned, Lieutenant Foxcroft was turning in his head all the facts which had reached his knowledge tending to throw light on the financial concerns of his fair friend. Mr. O'Donagough had shown himself perfectly ready to give all the information he could, to which friendly openness he was perhaps in some degree prompted by the fact, that Mr. Foxcroft owed him a debt of honour, amounting to seventythree pounds-but in truth, his knowledge of the Miss Perkinses' concerns was not sufficient to justify giving advice on so important a point, and the brave lieutenant felt that he must be his own pioneer. This naturally gave something of restraint to his conversation, while on the other hand the collected tenderness of thirty-six years, in a bosom

peculiarly prone to receive soft impressions, produced a swelling fulness in the heart of Miss Matilda, which for a considerable time rendered it impossible for her to speak a word.

At length Lieutenant Foxcroft became fully aware that there was something dangerous in this protracted silence, and preluding the words by a slight cough, he said, "What a very unpleasant day for the seaside it is!"

It was with a sigh which an actress might have taken as a model, that Miss Matilda replied, "Very."

Again they were both silent; when the lady, perceiving by the green drops that trickled from her parasol upon her bosom, that it would probably soon rain too hard for even Patty to continue her promenade, determined that the precious moments which were passing, should not pass in vain, and struggling to subdue the vehemence of her feelings that she might speak distinctly, she said, "Captain Foxcroft! This is, I suppose, the last walk that we shall take together at Brighton. My sister and myself return to our London home on Monday."

They had just reached that end of the pier which abuts upon the sea, as this annunciation concluded; upon which the lieutenant stood stock still; and though the barrier against which the waves were rudely breaking was cold and wet, the agitated Matilda gladly availed herself of the support it offered; and, regardless of the smart silk-scarf that perished in the act, she placed both her arms upon it, and remained with her eyes intently fixed upon the ocean.

The news she had thus communicated, considerably startled Mr. Foxcroft, and plunged him in a very disagreeable dilemma; for he was by no means ready to act upon it in any way. He would, indeed, have been vastly imprudent had he committed himself either by declaring a passion or pronouncing a farewell. For while, on the one hand, the lady's evident independence, and equally evident partiality, urged him forward, his ignorance of the amount of what he might gain by proceeding, kept him back. His conduct under the circumstances was in every way judicious; being, in fact, the result of great experience, and a thorough acquaintaince with all such matters. After a pause, which told Matilda quite as plainly as any words could have done, that her news had almost annihilated him, he said, "Is it possible?"

"It is indeed!" she replied, with expressive emphasis.

Another pause followed.

"In what part of that vast wilderness will you be hid, my dear Miss Matilda?" said the lieutenant, with a truly military sigh.

"We live at Brompton," was the softly-whispered reply.

"Of course, our friends the O'Donagough's will always know where you are?"

"Oh! yes," she answered, while her heart was torn by conflicting joy at this proof that he meant to inquire for her, and grief at perceiv ing, that whatever might be his future intentions, there was for the present no hope whatever of a declaration. Such being too clearly the case, and the rain now falling in such torrents, that Patty and Mr. Willis had taken to their heels and ran home (not without a little joking upon the tête-à-tête at the pier head). Such being the case, Miss Matilda Perkins made up her mind to turn round and walk home likewise. But even in that wet, dirty, dismal moment, hope lingered at Nov.-VOL. LVII. NO. CCXXVII.

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her heart, and she determined to try what one honest, open, unmitigated look of tenderness might produce. The circumstances of her position were favourable to the experiment, for the "plentiful moisture” which encumbered her hair, gave her face a sort of forlorn and melancholy look, of which she was not wholly unconscious, and which she thought might serve her better at such a moment than the tightest curls. But, alas! there are some natures upon which the innocent little trickeries and pearly tears of tender woman fall like soft (dewdrops on the sturdy oak. They may glitter about it; nay, sometimes shine almost like a glory around its lofty crest, but not a fibre is moved thereby.

Nothing could be more expressive, more intelligible, more heartsearching than was this look of Matilda Perkins-but it was in vain! As well might cannon be expected to startle a well-trained charger, as such a look to shake the firmness of Lieutenant Foxcroft.

This is a subject painful to dwell upon, and it is enough to say that the two sisters departed by the stage on the morning appointed, without carrying with them any consolation whatever for the imprudent purchase of the blue silk-gown.

CHAP. XIX.

THE O'DONAGOUGH FAMILY TRAVEL BACK TO LONDON, AND ARE SNUGLY LODGED-A JUDICIOUS EXHORTATION-PATTY TURNS MUSICAL, AND MEETS WITH AN ADVENture.

ANOTHER Six weeks completed the period for which Mr. O'Donagough considered it advisable to remain at Brighton, and due notice was given to his lady and daughter, that they were to pack up their faded finery, and be ready for starting. The O'Donagough policy as to the most advantageous mode of performing a journey, had not undergone any alteration since their arrival, and therefore exactly the same process was gone through to restore them to the metropolis, as that which had brought them from it. Having chosen rather a late coach, they reached the renowned White Bear in very proper time for dinner; but Mr. O'Donagough, for reasons of his own, preferred ordering lun-. cheon; after which he once more set out in quest of a home for himself and his family. His absence upon this occasion was very short, for it being the latter end of October, lodgings were not difficult to find; and in less time than it would have taken most people to think about it, he had packed himself, his lady, his daughter, and all their baggage into a hackney-coach.

"You must neither grunt nor grumble, turn sulky nor look cross," said Mr. O'Donagough, as soon as the vehicle drove off, " if you don't happen to like the lodgings I have got for you. They are cheap, and that's the reason I take them. I don't intend that you should either see or be seen much for the next two months or so, and I desire that you will make up your minds to it at once."

"What does he say, mamma?" inquired the terrified Patty, turning to her mother; for what with the wheels, and the steps, and the windows, she had heard this speech but very imperfectly. "What does papa say about our not being seen?"