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She was proof against the splendour of Ashdale Park, and the elegances of Beausejour, but the castle had a decided effect upon her heart. The walls were nine feet thick; there was a donjon keep at the top of a tower nine hundred and forty-one years old; and Lord Montreville's teeth were extremely goodalmost as good as Captain Langley's. From the vaults under the Caerwhwyddwth Castle subterraneous passages, to the end of which no one within the memory of man had penetrated, were supposed to extend to the ruined monastery of Caermerwhysteddwhstgen; and then Lord Montreville was quite thin-not the least inclined to corpulency. He was older than Sir Charles Selcourt, but he was much more agreeable, he was certainly a great deal older than Captain Langley, but then Captain Langley was not the least clever. All their tastes agreed exactly. He was enthusiastic upon the self-same subjects, puppies, donkeys, goslings, and Lord Byron.

Her mind was in a wavering state, when the following conversation took place between herself and Milly.

"This is poor Miss Lizzy's birthday, miss, and we have all been drinking her health and happiness to-night at supper. She is twenty-two this very day."

"And I shall be nineteen next birthday, Milly. We are all growing very old. It is almost time I should be married. How old were you when you married?"

"Nineteen, Miss Lucy."

"Just about my age. And how old was John?" "In his twenty-one, miss."

"Dear! I don't think that was difference enough. A man ought to be a good deal older than his wife, that he may advise her, and guide her, and all that, as mamma says, when she is out of sight of her mother."

"I can't say, miss. The Bible says, 'I will make an help meet for him;' so I suppose the woman is to help the man, as well as the man to help the woman; and if they are to help one another, why I reckon they should be something of an age."

"Perhaps that may be best, nurse, where they both have to work, and where the man should be young and strong to labour for his family; but in another line, nurse, among richer people, you know, where there is no occasion to be strong and to work hard, it is such a thing for a giddy young girl to have a steady sensible man, who can tell her all she ought to doa man much cleverer than herself, a person she can quite look up to."

"Maybe it is, miss."

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"And then, as mamma says, a married woman, if she is not quite ugly, is liable, you know, to have men-young mentalk to her,-talk to her a good deal, -more than they should; and then it is such a thing to have a husband who can tell her exactly whom she should talk to, and whom she should not talk to."

"But sure, miss, I should think every woman, married or single, might know when a gentleman said any thing as was not becoming for her to listen to."

"Yes, certainly; but mamma says, that in the great world a young woman might get herself talked about just for talking all about nothing at all to one of those fashionable dandies, and that if she has a husband who knows the world well, he will tell her just how far she may listen to such people."

"Well, my dear Miss Lucy, we poor folks don't understand about talking and being talked about, and listening and not listening. For my part, as long as I have lived in this wicked world-and a wicked world it is in some ways-I never knew a young woman as was married to a young man as was the man of her heart, as ever lost her good name for all she might be affable and pleasant-like with her neighbours. But the gentlefolks knows best, to be sure."

Milly was unsatisfactory: she saw what was going on in the family, and she could not like it: it was no business of hers, and she would never think of stepping out of her place. Lucy was uncomfortable. She loved Milly, and, moreover, she had settled in her own mind to love like Milly. She longed to know what she thought of Lord Montreville, and at length she plunged into the subject.

"Don't you think Lord Montreville is a very pleasing-looking man, Milly ?"

"Yes, miss, he looks very well for his years." "He is so clever you can't think."

"Is he, miss?”

"And so very good-natured!"

"That is a good thing for all his servants, I am sure, miss." "And for every one else who is connected with him."

"Yes, certainly, miss."

"He is the most agreeable person, and loves all sorts of animals, and seems to like to have every thing about him happy." " Sure, miss.”

"Do you know, Milly, I should not be very much surprised if you might some day have an opportunity of trying whether he made those around him happy or not."

"Indeed, miss!"

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pleased with Lord Montreville, and not quite pleased with Milly. She went to sleep and dreamed she was the Marchioness of Montreville, chaperoning her sister Emma to Almack's. People cannot prevent their dreams. "In vino veritas." Likewise, in dreams there is truth. Many a weakness, many a secret preference which the waking thoughts would not be guilty of harbouring, have been revealed to the dreamer in visions over which he or she had no control. The emulator of Milly's pure, disinterested, uncompromising, uncalculating affection would never wittingly have allowed the idea of worldly vanities and splendours to have influenced her mind; but I fear we should lower our heroine too much in the opinion of the young and romantic reader, were we to inquire too deeply into the degree in which they did influence her view of the subject.

The next morning she jokingly repeated her dream to Emma.

"Oh, Lucy!" exclaimed Emma, "what a charming dream! And you know mamma says, if you marry, I may come out at seventeen, and if you don't, I must stay in this poky schoolroom till I am eighteen. You never can refuse Lord Montreville."

CHAPTER VI.

A' l'age où j'étais on n'a pas le courage de résister à tout le monde, je crus ce qu'on me disait tant par docilité que par persuasion; je me laissai entraîner, je fis ce qu'on me disait, j'étais dans une émotion qui avait arrêté toutes mes pensées; les autres decidèrent de mon sort, et je ne fus moi-même qu'une spectatrice stupide de l'engagement éternel que je pris. MARIVAUX.

WHAT with the jests of others and her mother's counsels, both open and implied, Lucy had no doubt of Lord Montreville's intentions. The whole affair seemed only to depend upon herself. What was her surprise when at seven o'cloek, instead of Lord Montreville, a note arrived, apologizing for his absence on the plea that he had been summoned away upon business, Lucy thought lovers were to be devoted things, who were to have no business but that of gaining their lady's favour,

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