you could not think that I was serious. And what cold words you have chosen. My warmest love-my fondest admiration must be always yours. Our feelings for each other have grown with our growth: they can know no change. But it is hard to part from you again for months;-it will be hard to pass in solitude the leisure hours which have been shared with you: for in solitude they will be passed. I cannot seek the society of strangers. Ellen, devoted as you are to your father, you will not wish for me, as I shall for you." "A few months, Frederick, and we shall meet to part no more, ,"Ellen said timidly; for she had feelings of inward consciousness, which made Frederick's last words sound to her almost harshly. We do sometimes contrive, by a kind of mental chemistry, totally to change the nature of words lightly addressed to us by others. "Look at them now," Eliza Beaumont whispered to Julia Harrison; "will you pretend to say that will not be a marriage now? I do believe that he is proposing at this moment." "No, really! what makes you think so? How is she look. ing? What does he seem to be saying? I do not like to turn my head that way, for fear of disturbing them." "You need not fear that-they are too much occupied to think of you. He is looking up in her face, and talking in such a very particular kind of way—you never saw anything the least like it and she sits listening like a statue-I cannot see her face for the broad blonde fall of her bonnet." "Oh, Eliza ! how vexatious! You are looking at the wrong people! Kate has got a yellow bonnet like mine, without any blonde at all. I would give the world to know what has passed between her and Mr. Butler. She promised to take my advice, and be dignified to day. If she would but act up 66 -I to what I told her, every thing would be settled." Well, never mind about Kate and Mr. Butler just nowwant you to look at Lady Ellen and Mr. Percival. No, you are just too late. Lady Hamilton has joined them again-and she has taken poor Mr. Percival's arm, and is walking off with him. What a thousand pities to disturb them! And there is Lady Ellen following them-they are gone quite away, I declare. Did you see Mr. Percival look back at me and bow? He always seems to wish to make acquaintance with me.' "Mr. Butler is the sort of man I shall never learn to know by sight," said Maria Beaumont, who had joined them two minutes before. "With his hat on, he is exactly like half a hundred others. But I saw just now a little man, yawning in a corner of the room, who is very much my notion of him. There is Kate's yellow bonnet between Mrs. Harrison and mamma. I wonder whether it was she or Mr. Butler that was dignified, and walked away from the other first." Julia was meditating a suitable reply to this attack, when Eliza eagerly caught her arm. "Look, Julia, look! I am almost sure that is Mr. Spry, standing with his back to us. Yes, I am quite certain. He wore that snuff-colored coat the other day-a very peculiar sort of snuff-colored coat, with velvet cuffs. We may as well pass in front of him, that we may see what picture he is looking at." "Do you not think," said Julia, hanging back, "that it will look rather too much as if we wished him to speak to us?" 66 Oh, no, he never can fancy that; and if he should happen to see us, he will be so glad of the opportunity. It is only natural that we should wish to look at the picture that seems to strike him so much;" and so saying, Eliza fluttered past him. But the measure was quite a failure. Mr. Spry stood with folded arms and contracted brow, in what he evidently considered a patriotic attitude, absorbed in the contemplation of a harsh wooden portrait of Kean, as Lucius Junius Brutus. 66 Well, what an odd thing!" said Eliza. "Never did I see such an odd thing in my life-a man with one stocking off and one stocking on! Just wait one minute, Julia-I really must just ask Mr. Spry who it is meant for. Mr. Spry! ah, I thought I should make you start-you did not see that we were so near. We want to know who that is a picture of?" "Of one in whose steps I humbly hope I may tread—one who strove and successfully for liberty-who hated and overthrew tyranny-a patriot-a man-Lucius Junius Brutus. Ardently indeed do I covet his fame, and wish that my name may ever sound like his;" and Mr. Spry sighed with suppressed emotion. Julia could not help thinking that Lucius Junius Brutus did sound better than Spry, and that such sentiments became him well; but Eliza thought that his snuff-colored coat became him better. "Oh! Mr. Spry," she said, "I wonder you should wish to be him—he is such a figure-and you know that you would have been dead and buried these hundred years-and that would have been a sad thing for your friends," The pathos of this sentiment had its effect. When Eliza bid him good-bye, because it was time for her to try and make her way back to the others, Mr. Spry, having given one more concentrated look at the picture, actually offered her his arm. "But we must not forget you," she said with a patronising air to Julia Harrison. You wish to get back to your mother I think. Put your arm through mine, and we will all go together. I was afraid how it would be," she found an opportunity to whisper. "I was afraid that if he once saw her, we never should get rid of him-stick close to me, pray." "Thank you," Julia answered, proudly, "I can make my own way. I do not find it necessary to ask any body to give me an arm. Why, Maria, you are quite mistaken; I see Mr. Butler still standing by Kate." "Hush, dear, you had better not, in your joy, speak so loud-it would be better policy not to let him know how anxious you all are to catch him-he may take fright yet.' Maria said this in as gentle a tone as if she were giving the pleasantest advice in the world; but all advice upon this subject was now superfluous. Kate had a shy, demure, satisfied expression upon her countenance, which could not be mistaken; and at times Mr. Butler stopped, and looked under the yellow bonnet, and said words at which Kate ventured to smile faintly, and raise her eyes to see who was observing them. And Mrs. Harrison addressed her daughter in a subdued voice, and was sure that she was tired, and longing to be at home, and they would go as soon as they could find Julia; and she could not resist taking Kate's hand and pressing it, as a sort of prelude to the hearty embrace she was to bestow as soon as she could get her to herself; and she laughed a hearty happy laugh at some rather common-place facetiousnesses that Mr. Butler addressed to her; and really, as she observed two hours after to her husband, began already to love him as a son. 66 66 Well, girls, is it time for me to go?" said Mrs. Beaumont. "So Kate Harrison's marriage is settled," she added, as soon as she had set herself and her rustling gown in motion. “I did not like to say much to her poor mother about it, for it must be a sad thing for her to part from her favorite daughter; and I suspect that Mr. Butler's family is lowish. I dare say she has a hard time before her, till she gets Mr. Harrison to consent to it. I am sure nobody can feel more for her than I do.' "Well, there is nothing like perseverance," said Maria. "He fought a good battle, however, before he gave in." CHAPTER XXI. Oh, power of Love! so fearful, and so fair- Give me th' avow'd, the erect, the manly foe, But of all plagues, good Heaven, thy wrath can send, Save, save, oh! save me from the candid friend!-GEORGE CANNING. It now wanted but two days of the time fixed for Lord Mordaunt's departure, and the Lindsays and Dalrymples, with Frederick Percival and Ellen, were assembled in the drawingroom in Grosvenor Square, after a farewell family dinner. Lord Lindsay and Lady Elizabeth always appeared to advantage in the society of their father. They really seemed anxious to do all in their power to show him attention and respect. It would have been strange if it had been otherwise. None ever looked upon his gray hairs and mild countenance, without feeling there is that in a virtuous old age which imposes more than either power or station. The courteous kind old man! On that evening, as he sate in his arm-chair, supported by crimson cushions, while Ellen took her favorite station on a low ottoman at his feet, he was a perfect picture of an old English gentleman. Frederick was leaning on the back of Lord Mordaunt's chair-whether for the convenience of talking to him, or of looking at Ellen, is more than we can determine: the situation was equally advantageous for both. But from the moment he entered the room, (which was not very early in the evening,) there was observable a change in her manner. There was a restlessness in it, which was quite unusual to her. Two or three times, while engaged in conversation with others, her eyes turned towards Frederick, as if to ascertain whether he were satisfied with what she was saying;-and then she would suddenly break off, and address herself to him. It seemed as if she had some fear that he would think himself neglected. And when at last he had found himself a place by her side, and was conversing with her in a low tone, upon a subject evidently deeply interesting to him, and which ought to have been equally so to her by every rule of the game which it was clear he at least was playing, it seemed by the changes of her countenance, that in fact her attention was caught by the conversation which the others were carrying on. "What have you done with your brother, Mary?" Lady Elizabeth asked. “When I saw him last, he looked as if he had adopted for his own all the cares and troubles that diversify the sameness of this mortal life. Have you left him to croak with the rooks? or has he condescended to return to the haunts of men and women, to give them another chance of making themselves pleasant to him?" "Do not laugh about him, Elizabeth. I never in my life saw a creature look so ill as Raymond, and his spirits are quite gone. But he says there is nothing the matter with him. I wish he would see Linn-this is quite a Linn case. I should be wretched about him, only Lindsay says that he is perfectly free from uneasiness." If the intensity of Mary's feelings were always to be regulated by Lord Lindsay's, her natural complacency was in no great danger of being disturbed. Mr. Dalrymple looked anxious. 66 "I sent Lord Raymond yesterday an invitation, to his house in Hertford Street, to propose his dining with us on the 21stthis day three weeks. I trust it has been forwarded to him. It would be very perplexing to get no answer. My love, it was rather a strange omission on your part, not to let me know that his return was uncertain." Of this conjugal appeal Lady Elizabeth took no notice, but went on making herself pleasant to Lady Lindsay, after her own peculiar fashion. "I wonder that you do not persuade him to go abroad with you. Though, to be sure, if he is to go about sighing and groaning, Lindsay would not thank you for having procured such an addition to your party. There is nothing so wearing as low spirits; do you not think so? He must really try and rally, for Lady Raymond's sake-she will feel so dreadfully lonely when you are gone." "Ah, poor mamma! she will, indeed," said Lady Lindsay, looking at her husband. She still half ventured to think that VOL. I.-14 |