band. She set her cap at me in Paris, but I am too sagacious a bird to be caught by a little chaff; still I do not like to be forced to pay her attention."

"Are you not severe, Egerton?" enquired Horace," she seems a clever and amiable girl."

"I did not know I was disparaging a friend of Mr. Tulk's," said the young nobleman, with mock submission. "Shall I soon have the pleasure of drinking your wife's health?"

"How can you go on so, Stracy?-I suppose I am at liberty to give my opinion of a lady with as much impunity as yourself."

"Certainly, only you are so circumspect in general; but there is the dinner bell, by Jove!there, go out of my way, I want all my room to myself now-I have wasted all my time in talking to you; and say I shall be down in the twinkling of an eye, Algernon," he added, as the door closed upon his friends.

The evening passed away with Stracy, in making one of the group which formed around the harp of Miss Carbuncle, where all openly admired, at the same time, that many criticized, or denounced, the brilliant strains. Educated by worldly parents, with the sole object of marrying advantageously, this young lady paraded her accomplishments, only for the purpose of capti

vation.

She was the youngest of three sisters, who had

each been brazit me Laba miket; the two eider of whom had already been fashbaably disposed of to a bazodet, and the sou té a viscount. Arabella, in imitation of the good example set her, resolved to try a stifter flight, and looked with contempt upon any thing short of a coronet-many young and experienced men had been caught by her; but not possess ing the advantages, for which she intended to barter her liberty, had quickly received their dismissal, when they had summoned courage, after some time, to ascertain her sentiments respecting them. London-Paris-Rome-and Naples, had been tried in vain to furnish an alliance commensurate with her expectations; and she had now arrived at the acknowledged age of two-and-twenty, though some of her critical friends insinuated that, in adding a couple more years the mark would be more nearly attained: without having any immediate prospect of settling. Lord Stracy, she thought, would be a noble prize, and, consequently, during their not unfrequent meetings, she had endeavoured to secure him, with an assiduity which had hitherto entirely defeated her object; for Egerton started away from the idea of matrimony, as the resignation of a liberty he prized; and her attacks on the Continent had been too apparent to be mistaken.

But let us turn for a few minutes to Margaret Bentham, before closing the eyes of the inmates

of Highfield in sleep. The countess received her, with much urbanity, in the room that for the future was to be the retreat where she was to form the minds of her pnpils; but the timid girl thought that lady started, as her quick eye ran over the youthful, shrinking form of the embryo governess. Lady Trefoil, however, sent for her children, after a few minutes' conversation with their instructress, and, having presented them to her, left the study to rejoin her friends.

Miss Bentham was particularly fond of the society of children, and exerted herself to remove the idea the ladies Helen and Charlotte appeared to entertain of her, but in vain ; she could only elicit monosyllables from them, during the hour and half they spent together that evening; and with a heart swelling with the loneliness of her sensations, at this early stage of her trial, she sought her pillow, which, cavil not reader, if she moistened with her tears-for she was only eighteen.

12

CHAPTER XII.

Hope, like the glimmering taper's light,
Adorns and cheers the way:

And still as darker grows the night,
Emits a brighter ray.

BRIGHTLY shone the sun

GOLDSMITH.

on the succeeding morning; and Margaret rose with renewed spirit to meet her new duties. It was the desire of Lady Trefoil that her hitherto untutored children should be led, by degrees, to follow a regular course of study, and to learn obedience, and gain knowledge, by gentle means; therefore Margaret, who was all tenderness, determined to excite the affection of her little pupils before she made requisitions on their duty. They were perfectly untrained, she soon discovered, as well from her own observation, as from the hints of Lady Clara; who kindly undertook, on the morning after Miss Bentham's arrival, to give her every information in her power, relative to the management of her sisters.

Margaret was to have entire control over her school-room, subject only to the inquisition of the Countess; whose manners gave her no very formidable idea of her superintendence, and her courage augmented as the prospect of her occupations became more clearly defined. Lord Stracy's voice, calling his sister to accompany him and Miss Carbuncle in a walk to Brookside, interrupted her pleasing interview, and she immediately prepared to adopt Lady Trefoil's suggestion of a ramble with the little girls; who anticipated much pleasure in leading her to their favourite haunts.

Lord Stracy, unable to avoid paying some attention to his father's guests, and, at the same time, anxious, for more than one reason, to go to Captain Beresford's, resolved to make his walk serve both purposes; therefore, after having shewn Mr. Power over his newly arrived kennel, he returned with him to the house, in order to accompany Miss Carbuncle in her walk, according to an engagement formed at the breakfast table. Joined by Lord Power, who was now constantly in the train of Lady Clara, the young party set forth; and, after sauntering through the woods of Highfield for an hour or two, they entered the grounds of Captain Beresford.

"I fear, my dear sir, you will think we are

VOL. III,

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