as

of reproach and sadness mingled in her gaze, though she would have said, "Infatuated young man! how could you thus demean yourself? Were there none in your own bright collateral sphere' whom you might have wedded, that you must abase your eyes on this merchant's daughter ?" Indeed, I had never seen Viola appear to such disadvantage. She was as gauche as a nouvelle riche on her presentation day; stammered, and changed colour when she was addressed, and appeared to me to have even shrunk in stature. Lady Glenalbert smiled condescendingly; she took Viola's hand encouragingly, bowing her head gracefully and graciously, as a candidate for the East-India Direction on his canvass, or an apprehensive member of parliament on the eve of a threatened dissolution : she even seemed greatly inclined to patronize her. Viola Sidney to be patronized! I thought of that first meeting with Lady Sarah Herbert, and could have wept with vexation.

In Lord Glenalbert's eyes, Viola could not look ungraceful; he only felt that the two beings he loved. best in the world, were now first made acquainted with each other; and, as he gazed on them alternately, his countenance beaming with joyous, animated affection, I am confident he devoutly acknowledged that he had not a wish ungratified.

There was nothing now to delay the wedding; it was expedited at the earnest request of his youngest sister, the Lady Mary Allonby, and was to take place early in the ensuing week. I now saw little, very little, of Viola; it seemed to me that she rather shunned my society, and every moment I had to spare I gave to Lady Mary, a lovely interesting young woman, in the last stage of consumption. She was of necessity left much alone, whilst her mother and sisters were ransacking all the fine shops in London for gay bonnets, dresses, &c., to do honour to the approaching nuptials. Mrs. Sidney proposed to the

countess, that I should sit with the invalid: the offer was graciously accepted. Lady Jane, and Lady Barbara, were faithful copies of their Lady-Mother, but Lady Mary resembled her brother in voice, gesture, and features. She interested me greatly; and the countess, with infinite condescension of manner, assured me, that Lady Mary had expressed herself as being much gratified by my society.

"Oh! I wish, I wish," said Lady Mary, to me one morning, "that they had fixed the wedding for this week: why might it not have been to-day, or tomorrow? A little, a very little while hence, I shall be in my grave. Glenalbert does not dream of this; he believes, as does also my poor mother, that the physicians spoke truly, when they said that my native air and the voyage home would quite restore me. I remember, too, when it was said that Italy would reestablish me; so the English doctors sent me abroad, and the foreign ones return me on their hands: they have bandied me to and fro, shuttlecock fashion," she added, in a tone of bitterness.

A violent fit of coughing here impeded her utterance; but, after a pause, she resumed:

"I must see Glenalbert married before I die; he has waited long enough for me-I would not cause him a yet longer delay;-besides, I have a horror of protracted engagements."

She broke off with a sigh so deep, so heart-felt, that I needed not to ask its cause. I endeavoured to divert her mind to other subjects, but without avail; for she said, in an unutterably sad tone:

"You do not, cannot know, my brother as I know him. I believe it would break William's heart,-I believe it would kill him, if, by any means, this marriage were broken off; I am very sure it would cloud all his future prospects-life would no longer have any charms for him. Calm and quiescent as he appears, his feelings are strong-their channels broad

and deep; and, if violently dammed up, who shall say what would be the consequences? He has a constancy and tenacity of affection, which is generally supposed peculiar to our sex."

I turned away my head; I strove to answer her, but the faculty of speech seemed denied to me. Lady Mary raised herself from the sofa on which she was reclining; she gazed on me as though she would have pierced my thoughts to their very centre; and she said, in a hoarse, hollow voice:

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"Viola loves Glenalbert-does she not ?-loves him as he loves her. Why do you not answer me?" she almost shrieked. Why did she yesterday avert her head, when Glenalbert spoke of Turretcliff? Why mounted the blood in her cheek, when he asked her, in his frank, unsuspicious manner, why, at the very moment when she had nearly made him jealous of a Mr..... Lyndham (was not that the name ?) she should all at once have ceased to mention him? You do not answer me," she continued, with frightful energy; "you will not"

I was striving to collect my thoughts. I was literally gasping for breath, when I saw her handkerchief applied to her mouth; in another second, it was saturated with blood.

For near two hours I remained with her, applying all the usual remedies. I sent off for the physician; the paroxysm was over before his arrival. He, of course, enjoined perfect quiet, which he found could not be obtained, until he had given his word not to mention the circumstance to her mother. He shook his head mournfully at me, as he promised compliance; intimating that hers was, as I had too truly feared, a hopeless case. He took his departure; and soon after Lady Glenalbert returned: we heard her voice on the stairs. Lady Mary grasped my hand: "Swear to me," she said, or rather gasped,

"that it

was not ambition that prompted Miss Sidney to accept Glenalbert."

"I swear it!" I said, with energy.

me you

"I believe you," she replied. "And now promise will not mention what you have just witnessed to mamma, or my brother. The wedding would be again postponed; and I must, I will, see him married before I die. I ask of you no further questions concerning Viola; be generous, then, and spare me any further remonstrances."

I dreaded a return of the paroxysm. I knew that all depended on her mind being kept perfectly tranquil. I gave my word as she desired: perhaps also I secretly dreaded the consequences of the marriage being again delayed. I kissed her fervently, and withdrew as the countess entered..

The day, the important day, was now drawing rapidly near. Whatever might have been the internal struggle, I felt convinced that Viola had conquered. She was, with the exception of being rather more pensive and thoughtful (and this, of course, was regarded, by all around her, as perfectly natural to one so situated), the same as she had been before that illstarred visit.

CHAPTER XIII.

The bride-maidens who round her thronging came,
Some with a sense of self-rebuke and shame,
Envying the unenviable, and others

Making the joy which should have been another's
Their own, by gentle sympathy: and some
Sighing to think of an unhappy home;

Some few admiring what can ever lure

Maidens to leave the heaven, serene and pure,

Of parents' smiles for life's great cheat; a thing
Bitter to taste, sweet in imagining.

Di chi mi fido, guardami Dio,

Di chi non mi fido mi guardero io.

Defend me from my friends!

SHELLEY.

ITALIAN PROVERB.

COMMON SAYING.

CHAIRS, tables, sofas, were covered; the floor was strewed; every nook and cranny of that large apartment were filled with silks, satins, laces, blondes; with rarest porcelain, whose enamelled dyes might have challenged the floral goddess to produce their peers; with ormolu clocks, that did everything but give a tongue to time;" with alabaster vases, in which a Naiad might have laved her fairy limbs.

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The rarest bijouterie, the brightest gems, sparkled amidst that glittering heap. It seemed as though Howel, Harding, Hamlet

"O words of fear, Unpleasing to a husband's ear,"