Having alighted, Fidelia and Grandison hastened to dispel her alarm. Having explained the circumstance to which it was owing, anger and indignation quickly succeeded to it in her mind. What! through the folly, the perverseness of this thoughtless boy, as she chose to call him, was she to be disappointed in the hope she had set her heart on? Was it not enough that, by refusing to drive Fidelia back, as common politeness required, he had run the risk of irreparably offending her, but that he must expose her to the insidious attentions of his rival?

She tried to ascertain, by the looks of each, what had occurred in the drive; but, unable to satisfy herself, hastened back to the house, in order to find it out from Fidelia. Pretending to Grandison she was still so affected by the fright she had met with as to wish to lie down, he, of course, did not come in; and the moment he was gone, she proceeded to question Fidelia on the conversation that had taken place between them, saying, with a forced

smile, she concluded she had been listening to a great many fine speeches..

"By no means," Fidelia calmly replied. Lady Castle Dermot tried to be satisfied with this reply tried to believe there was nothing to confess, but in vain; fully verifying the remark, that where there is anxious hope, there is always extreme fear. At length, grasping the hand of Fidelia" You wonder perhaps at my questions," she said; "but I cannot but be anxious to know that there is no danger of my being disappointed in the wishes of my heart. Oh, should I be so, how bitter will be my portion of misery! In pity, in compassion, therefore, steel your heart against all that might lead you to forget my strong solicitude to call you daughter a circumstance that I think and hope as likely to conduce to your permanent happiness as mine: each isolated in a degree, we would make up to each other for the want of other connexions; in you I should find the affectionate daughter denied me by Provi

dence-in me you would have the tender mother not spared to you. Oh! from the moment I knew I might choose for my son-from that moment I have lost something of that terrible feeling of forlornness that has so long oppressed me. I know it may be said, that from this I might have rescued myself by forming other ties; but my affections are too indissolubly attached to those that I have lost to permit such a thought; besides that early habits and prejudices have given a reserve, a shyness to my temper, that renders a general intercourse with strangers highly unpleasing. I may yet perhaps enter into the particulars of what I now only hint at; you will not then, I dare say, be surprised at what you may now deem romantic and eccentric, when I paint to you the husband I have lost, the youthful sister mouldering in an early grave. See," she continued, suddenly rising and drawing up a long green curtain of silk which Fidelia had before noticed in the room, and disclosing, as she did, the portrait of

a female of extreme beauty, " if the affliction of losing such a relative as that was not enough to give a turn to the disposition!"

Fidelia gazed for a minute without replying, affected not merely by the emotion of the countess, but the manner in which the object of her admiration had been presented to her view.

"Beloved Julia!" cried the countess, "how soon was the radiant beauty of that countenance veiled by sorrow! Instead of the glittering coronet, how soon did the grass of the grave wave over that brow!" She wept, she clasped her hands in sorrow, and letting fall the curtain as suddenly as she had raised it, threw herself upon a couch, nearly exhausted by her feelings.

Alarmed, distressed, Fidelia hung over her: at length she began to recover, and again grasping the hands of Fidelia as she dried her tears, thanked her for her kind solicitude about her." Oh, as you hung over me," she cried, "how strongly did

you bring that sister I lament to my view! Your likeness to her is astonishing, and, I will now acknowledge, even more than your desolate situation, first excited for you an interest in my heart. But tell me, may I indulge the hope on which I dwell for happiness?”

Fidelia shrunk back.-"Oh, madam, on that subject I entreat your forbearance! Be assured, there is nothing wanting to strengthen your claims on me?"

66

Ah, this is vague, this is idle!" said the countess, resentfully: "I know but as the wife of Castle Dermot there is no other way of always being sure of your attentions. "Tis not natural to suppose your father would permit you to remain single, even if inclined yourself to do so, and, once married elsewhere, I may bid adieu to you."

But there was no prospect of that at present, Fidelia observed.

"Oh, there was but too great a one!” lady Castle Dermot said; and was about speaking of Grandison, when she checked