of mind. She could not be ignorant of the fact, that Burgoyne was wretched. She appreciated his attachment, convinced as she was of its truth and sincerity; and she highly esteemed him as a man, if we except the blot of irreligion, (a great one certainly,) although she could never accept him as a lover. Grateful for the good opinion he had evinced in his declaration of affection, she was deeply afflicted at the weight of grief which a consciousness of blood upon his hands must have added to his already agitated mind; and the fact of her brother's having also some share in the latter transaction caused her the most sensible distress. Lord Iford therefore, to whom Louisa was much attached, consented to the delay she wished for, being of course aware of Burgoyne's proposal; and his opinion of his bride elect was, if possible, heightened by the delicacy and generosity of feeling which her request evinced.

There was one other person, who was scarcely less distressed at this time than Louisa; we

mean Lady Georgina Capel; but though much concerned at the duel which had taken place, she had not so great a weight of sadness on her mind as the future Lady Iford.

Upon Lady Elizabeth's entering the drawingroom, when Hyde had shaken hands with her and departed on the day he left town, she found Georgina drowned in tears, and of course received a full confession of the attachment which subsisted between her and Mr. Nugent.

The penetrating eye of Lady Elizabeth had long before, however, made that discovery, but she good-naturedly allowed her sister to suppose that this was the first intimation of it she had received; and with Georgina's beautiful head on her bosom, she administered such kind consolation, and encouraged such hope of their parents' approval of Hyde's addresses, as she thought she could with justice and truth permit her tongue to give birth to. She advised her sister to keep up her spirits, and even to attempt cheerfulness if she felt it not. There was, she

said, no occasion to show the world what was in reality the case, that her grief was caused by the departure of Mr. Nugent, and still less cause was there, while he was away, to distress and perplex her parents. They had, she said, seen several little instances of uncertainty of spirits, and a vacillating disposition in Mr. Nugent, and it would perhaps be as well to wait till he should have had a stronger trial before he was admitted as a declared suitor; or, at least, till a second meeting should have convinced her that he had not, during his absence from England, already changed his mind.

Of course Georgina protested against the possibility of such a thing; and, indeed, she but did Hyde justice. In her opinion, which she expressed to her sister, Hyde was a model of constancy, and the standard of manly excellence; and who is there that does not, or ought not, to think the same of the man she would marry? That his spirits were uneven she confessed, and feared that some weight un

known to them might hang upon his mind; but that he should so soon grow cold, or prove the fickle being that could forget the attachment between them in the short space he was to be absent, was a thing not to be heard of, much less regarded as a probability.

At dinner, according to her sister's advice, Lady Georgina endeavoured to appear composed, and as if nothing had happened. A month or six weeks duplicity, however, was a sad prospect for her. Oh, she felt she could never disguise the state of her feelings from parents who would have such constant opportunities of observing her: the effort she was sure would be vain, though she might hold out for a week, she thought, or perhaps ten days; and as these thoughts passed and repassed over her mind, she was called on to help her father to a pâté. "Ten?" she asked, as she had already put three in the plate.

"No, I thank you, one will be sufficient," said Lord Malmesbridge.

Georgina blushed at her own absence of mind, and became confused. Elizabeth looked wretched, for her love of her sister was excessive. Dinner was but half concluded, when Lord Malmesbridge began to talk of "his young friend Hyde Nugent," wondering how far he had got on his way to Plymouth, when Georgina, unable longer to command herself, burst into a flood of tears, and left the room.

It was that sudden swelling of the throat, that suffocating feeling which attacks us when we unexpectedly hear mentioned a subject on which the full soul requires but the slightest touch of but one string to open its flood-gates, that overset Georgina's composure. This was a short "ten days," indeed!

Fortunately her brothers dined out, and the servants, she hoped, were not aware of the cause of her agitation; but the truth could no longer be kept a secret from Lord and Lady Malmesbridge, who exchanged a peculiar sort of look on the occasion. Elizabeth left the