look, animated with the tendereft expreffion of gratitude and devout affection to his amiable benefactress-" But you, Madam,” said he, "have commanded me to entertain hopes more afpiring than I ever ventured to indulge in my happiest days. In what words can I express my thanks? I have no power to give them utterance. Pardon me, I beseech you, and pity my confusion: I would fain speak, but cannot; there is fomething at my heart, I know not what, too full, too vast, I cannot give it vent. Oh! my rever'd, my heaveninfpir'd protectress, whofe condescending goodnefs deings to take upon yourself the tender office of a parent to me, a nameless creature, let me for this one moment feed upon the fond perfuafion that I am your fon, and kneeling at your feet, embracing them, and bathing them with tears of filial love and gratitude, pour out that flood which elfe would burft my heart."

The emotions which this energetic addrefs raised in the maternal heart of Lady Crowbery, who faw her unacknowledged fon now kneeling at her feet, were fuch as defcription cannot reach; fhe had thrown her arms about his neck, and was on the very inftant point of de

claring

claring herself to him, when at once a fudden crash stopt the words upon her lips; the door of the chamber burft inwards, and, fprawling with her face upon the floor and her heels in the air, behold the perfon of old Bridget! Inftantly the lady gave a scream, and started from her chair; Henry nimbly recovered his legs, conscious that the posture he was in could not be too fuddenly shifted; whilft Zachary roared out with astonishment, making feveral demands in the name of the devil; to which Bridget, either being, or affecting to be, ftunned by her tumble, declined a reply, till being repeatedly urged by the authority aforefaid to give fome account of herself, and not finding it convenient to give the true one, fhe pretended to have flipped down as fhe was paffing haftily from her mistress's chamber, and falling with her whole weight against the door, burst it open in the mean time Jemima's bell ringing a furious peal, Zachary bade her begone for a blundering old fool; which, as Henry had now fet her on her feet, she thought fit to obey, and departed without more words.

In fact he had effected pretty nearly all the purposes of her commiffion, having spied out C

VOL. II.

enough

enough to form a very fufficient report of the lady's good liking for Henry; and as the had feen her throw her arms about his neck, without hearing what paffed between them on the occasion, it must be owned she had stronger circumstances in proof than commonly fall to the fhare of reporters in cafes of the like

nature.

From too great zeal to discover more than the small horizon of a key-hole was calculated to disclose, Bridget had preffed fo incautiously upon the door, that the lock, which was none of the best, having treacherously given way, fhe fell as we have related headlong into the room, just in time to stop the telling of that fecret, which was the most important that fon could hear, or parent com

municate.

Great was the uneafinefs which this unlucky accident occafioned to Lady Crowbery; and it was not without fome pains on the part of Zachary she was diffuaded from taking certain conciliatory measures with the old woman, for fealing her lips, on the prefumption of her having feen more than was prudent to make public; but as he contended ftrongly for Bridget's incapacity of making obfervations, whilft

'her

her face was on the floor, it was finally judged advifeable to let it pafs in filence, and not create a danger by over-anxiety for preventing it. The alarm, however, had so disconcerted Lady Crowbery, that she had no refolution to renew the conference, much less to touch upon that interefting discovery fhe was on the point of making, when Bridget interrupted her; so that after a few words spent in recommending Henry to remain quiet and out of fight at the cottage, till he heard from her again, fhe hastened to her fair companion, who was waiting for her in the carriage, and departed.

CHAPTER IV.

Nothing fo furious as a Woman fcorned. IT may well be fuppofed that Bridget loft no time in making her miftrefs acquainted with the cause of the disturbance and noise, fhe had heard in the Doctor's chamber, and also of what she had there difcovered: as fhe could give no account of their converfation, which was carried on in too low a key to reach her ears on the outfide of the door, Jemima was left to her own imagination C 2

for

for finding out motives for a lady's embracing a handfome young man, whilft he was kneeling at her feet, and these, according to Jemima's notions, could be but of one fort; fhe therefore fet it down for certain in her own mind, that Lady Crowbery was defperately in love with Henry, that her house was made a houfe of affignation, and her husband pander to an intrigue of the moft bare-faced nature.

These conclufions fhe had no fooner formed, than the difcerned at a glance all the advantages they gave her in a certain project, which fhe had long meditated, without being able to bring it into any practicable shape. Henry, who seemed to have escaped out of her hands, was by this lucky circumftance more than ever at her mercy; and though fhe was fenfibly piqued at the preference given to a rival very little her junior in age, and, in her own opinion at least, not at all her fuperior in charms, yet fhe was well pleased to be paid for her mortification, by having poffeffion of a fecret, the fuppreffion of which no facrifice on his part could be too great for, whilst there was fuch a perfon in being as Lord Crowbery; neither was the forry to find that Henry's

fcruples