tion. One thing she was resolved to accomplish, and that was his ruin, in the attempting of which she ran into the greatest danger of involving her

own.

On her return to her own house, she was, both surprised and confounded that the worthy magistrate had permitted Ardent liberty, to seek his sureties, and that he had driven back to the village for that purpose; this puzzled and perplexed her, as it differed very materially from the assurance given her by Lawyer Rapine, of the immediate confinement of her victim in the county gaol. She still had a hope remaining that he would get no one to be bound for him, and with that hope and expectation she remained satisfied for the present, waiting events as they should disclose themselves, and resolving to be guided by those circumstances that should warrant the further prosecution of our hero, or relinquishing it altogether. Her affairs were in this dubious state, and her mind agitated like the waves of a troubled sea, when Ardent drove by with his friends, who had zealously and kindly come forward to his rescue, and saved him at least from the perils of imprisonment at this juncture.

But to fully comprehend the sentiments of the lady, and her man-servant, at one and the same time, it will be necessary to relate a conversation that passed between them, for her servant was her coachman upon this memorable occasion, and had driven his mistress to the magistrate, a distance of twelve miles and back, the same day, time enough, as it appears, to see Ardent on his return to the magistrate with his friends, as before mentioned.

"I have had a bustling day of it, William,” said the lady to her factotum.

Yes, you have, Ma'am, or the dickins is in it." "But Ardent must go to gaol, that's certain; don't you think so, William?"

66

Mayhap not, and mayhap he may."

"Don't you think it very likely?"

"I don't know what to think of it at all, Ma'am, not I; and what it is all about, I cannot tell, no not if even people stop me in the street, to ask me about it, as they frequently do."

Why, you can say he broke the window."

"But did he not send the glazier next morning to mend it? I thought what would come of it. Mr. Ardent and you were at one time almost

always together,-walking, riding, dining, teaparties, and what not. You were never easy, unless he was with you, and you with him; and did I not fetch him frequently to you when in fits? I don't understand it at all; not I, or what to make of it. What with fits and other ailments, you kept on inviting him, or sending for him, until he fell in love with you, and now it seems you have too much of it, and sorry enough you are for it, I dare say. I thought as how there would be a blow-up before long. People say you are in love with him, and he is in love with you, and that you will soon be friends again."

"No, never again: I will drive him from the place, or he shall drive me.”

"See, Ma'am, talk of the devil, there he is, sure enough! Why, there goes Ardent back again in the same post-chaise that took him and the constables to the magistrates; there they go, the Reverend Mr. Aimwell and Mr. Foresight with him; they are gone, to my thinking, to set him free from your tanglements. They have but just this moment passed the window."

"What! the Reverend Mr. Aimwell and Mr. Foresight with Ardent? Then I am totally undone,

that is certain,-it is all over with me; he is the eel I always said he was. Gracious heavens! gone with them who I thought were my friends. Lawyer Rapine has totally deceived me: he gave me his word and honour, he would send Ardent to gaol, until the quarter sessions. Who would have thought that he should have escaped me again? I thought I had caught him, so that he could not escape me, until I could have succeeded in driving him from the forest, or beyond the seas, where Lawyer Rapine promised to send him. What do you think of this, William? don't it surprise you very much?

"I think, Ma'am, in my humble opinion, it is time you both had enough of it—such foolishness I never heard of in all my born days, not I; it is like children's play-they play till they fall out, and so have you two, or the dickins is in it. I would not worry myself any more about it, if I was you, and I now gives you my honest opinion."

"I must advise with Lawyer Rapine, and hear what he has to say to all this, for I begin to be tired of such running about. Go, William, tomorrow morning, and tell Lawyer Rapine I want to speak with him without delay."

6

Very well, Ma'am: I think as how you will get out of the frying-pan into the fire."

"So then I am to go upon this disagreeable errand, I wish it may not prove worse than a fool's errand, for I should be sorry to hear of your coming to any mishap,-you have always been a good mistress to me, and I cannot help wishing you would have no more to do with this same Lawyer Rapine. I don't like the look of him, not I, and that is a piece of my mind.”

"Leave me, William, leave me," said the lady ; and William, finding his oratory only made his mistress sorrowful, left her, and the lady began to reproach herself with her cruelty to Ardent, and then again became as resentful against him as ever, and expressed herself much after the following manner: which are indications of a mind truly pained with conflicting passions.

"O! Ardent, your words are becoming prophetic; but, to sooth my melancholy, I will sing the song you composed and gave to me, saying you thought it would suit me at no very distant period. Alas! that time is now come.