here, that was certain, and I ought to have minded that she was not thrust into temptation. I shall remember it with shame to my dying day. "Which means to say that so should I." "No, you did not know so much of the evils of the world." "I told you before, Mr. Pendy, that I'm twenty times more sophisticated than you arc. You talk of knowing the world? I wish I didn't. I'm tired of everybody!" her friends, and not willing that his sunbeam should fleet so "like the Borealis race!" "will it not annoy your cousins? " "They ought to be annoyed!" "And are you certain that you would find Miss Charlecote in town? I thought her stay was to be short." "I'm certain of nothing, but that every place is detestable." "What would you do if you did not find her?" "Go on to Euston Square. Do you think I don't know my way to Hiltonbury, or that I should not get welcome enough-ay, and too much, there ?" And on the way home she described her expedition, and had the pleasure of the curate's sympathy, if not his entire approval. Perhaps there was no other being whom she so thoroughly treated as a friend, actually "Then if you are so uncertain of her like a woman friend, chiefly because he movements, do you not think you had better thoroughly believed in her, and was very let me learn them Lefore you start. She blind to her faults. Robert would have might not even be gone home, and you would given worlds to have found her once, what not like to come back here again; if—” Mr. Prendergast found her always. She left him to wait in the drawing-room, while she went on her mission, but presently rushed back in a fury. Nobody cared a rush for the catastrophe. Lolly begged her not to be so excited about a trifle, it made her quite nervous; and the others laughed at her; Rashe pretended to think it a fine chance to have changed "the life of an early Christian," for the triumphs of the stage; and Charles scouted the idea of writing to the man's employer. "He call Derval to account for all the tricks of his fiddlers and singers? Much obliged!" Mr. Prendergast decided on going to town by the next train to make inquiries of Derval himself, without further loss of time, and Cilly declared that she would go with him, and force the conceited professor to attend; but the curate, who had never found any difficulty in enforcing his own dignity, and thought it no business for a young lady, declined her company, unless, he said, she were going to spend the day with Miss Charle cote. "I've a great mind to go to her for good and all. Let her fall upon me for all and sundry. It will do me good to hear a decent woman speak again! besides, poor old soul, she will be so highly gratified, that she will be quite meek" (and so will some one else, quoth the perverse little heart); "I'll put up a few things, and not delay you." "This is very sudden!" said the curate, wishing to keep the peace between her and "Like a dog that has been out hunting," said Lucilla, who could bear opposition from this quarter as from no other. "You wont take the responsibility, that's the fact. Well, you may go and reconnoitre, if you will; but mind, if you say one word of what brings you to town, I shall never go near the Holt at all. To hear-whenever the Raymonds, or any other of the godly school-keeping sort come to dinner-of the direful effects of certificated schoolmistresses would drive me to such distraction that I cannot answer for the consequences." "I am sure it is not a fact to proclaim." "Ah! but if you run against Mr. Parsons, you'll never abstain from telling him of his stray lamb, nor from condoling with him upon the wolf in Cat Alley. Now, there's a fair hope of his having more on his hands than to get his fingers scratched by meddling with the cats, and so that this may remain unknown. So consider yourself sworn to secrecy." Mr. Prendergast promised. The good man was a bit of a gossip, so perhaps her precaution was not thrown away, for he could hardly have helped seeking the sympathy of a brother pastor, especially of him to whose fold the wanderer primarily belonged. Nor did Lucy feel certain of not telling the whole herself in some unguarded moment of confidence. All she cared for was, that the story should not transpire through some other source, and be brandished over her head as an illustration of all the maxims that she had so often spurned. She ran after Mr. Pren- | yearned for, and without which these pleas dergast after he had taken leave, to warn him against calling in Woolstone Lane, and desired him instead to go to Master's shop, where it was sure to be known whether Miss Charlecote were in town or not. Mr. Prendergast secretly did grateful honor to the consideration that would not let him plod all the weary way into the city. Little did he guess that it was one part mistrust of his silence, and three parts reviving pride, which forbade that Honora should know that he had received any such commission. ures would be but shadows of enjoyment. Yet that they were not including her in their party gave her a sense of angry neglect and impatience. She wanted to reject their invitation indignantly, and make a merit of the sacrifice. The after-dinner discussion was in full progress when she was called out to speak to Mr. Prendergast. Heated, wearied, and choking with dust, he would not come beyond the hall, but before going home, he had walked all this distance to tell her the result of his expedition. Derval had not been uncivil, but evidently thought the suspicion an affront to his corps, which at present was dispersed by the end of the season. Italian bass was a married man, and had returned to his own country. The clue had failed. The poor lost leaf must be left to drift upon unknown winds. The The day was spent in pleasant anticipations of the gratitude and satisfaction that would be excited by her magnanimous return, and her pardon to Honor and to Robert for having been in the right. She knew she could own it so graciously, that Robert would be overpowered with compunction, and forever beholden to her, and now that the Charterises were so unmitigatedly hate- "But," said the curate, by way of comful, it was time to lay herself out for good-pensation, "at Master's, I found Miss Charness, and fling him the rein, with only now lecote herself, and gave your message." and then a jerk, to remind him that she was "I gave no message." a free agent. 66 'No, no; because you would not send me up into the city, but I told her all you would have had to say, and how nearly you had come up with me, only I would not let you for fear she should have left town." A long-talked-of journey on the continent was to come to pass as soon as Horatia's strain was well. In spite of wealth and splendor, Eloïsa had found herself disappointed in the step that she had hoped her Cilla's face did not conceal her annoymarriage would give her into the most élite ance, but not understanding her in the least, circles. Languid and indolent as her mind he continued, "I'm sure no one could speak was, she could not but perceive that where more kindly or considerately than she did. Ratia was intimate and at ease, she continued Her eyes filled with tears, and she must be on terms of form and ceremony, and her hus- heartily fond of you at the bottom, though band felt more keenly that the society in his may be rather injudicious and strict, but house was not what it had been in his moth-after what I told her, you need have no er's time. They both became restless, and Lolly, who had already lived much abroad, dreaded the dulness of an English winter in the country, while Charles knew that he had already spent more than he liked to recollect, and that the only means of keeping her contented at Castle Blanch, would be to continue most ruinous expenses. With all these secret motives, the tour was projected as a scheme of amusement, and the details were discussed between Charles and Rashe with great animation, making the soberness of Hiltonbury appear both tedious and sombre, though all the time Lucy felt that there she should again meet that which her heart both feared and fears." "Did you ever know me have any ?" "Ah, well! you don't like the word, but at any rate she thinks you behaved with great spirit and discretion under the circumstances, and quite overlooks any little imprudence. She hopes to see you the day i after to-morrow, and will write and tell you so." Perhaps no intentional slander ever gave the object greater annoyance than Cilly experienced on learning that the good curate had, in the innocence of his heart, represented her as in a state of proper feeling, and interceded for her, and it was all the worse because it was impossible to her to damp his kind satisfaction, otherwise than by a brief "Thank you," the tone of which he did not comprehend. The letters were on the breakfast-table when she came down, the carliest as usual, and one was from Honor Charlecote, the first sight striking her with vexation as dis "Was she alone?" she asked. "Didn't I tell you the young lady was comfiting her hopes that it would come by a with her, and the brother." "Robert Fulmort?" and Cilla's heart sank at finding that it could not have been he who had been with Owen. 66 Ay, the young fellow that slept at my house. He has taken a curacy at St. Wul welcome bearer. Yet that might be no rea- "My dearest Lucy-until I met Mr. Pren- ! dergast yesterday, I was not sure that you had actually returned, or I would not have delayed an hour in assuring you, if you could "Did he tell you so!" with an ill-con-not doubt it, that my pardon is ever ready for you. 'stan's." cealed start of consternation. I "Not he; lads have strange manners. should have thought, after the terms we were upon here, he need not have been quite so much absorbed in his book as never to speak!" "He has plenty in him instead of manners," said Lucilla; "but I'll take him in hand for it!" Though Lucilla's instinct of defence had spoken up for Robert, she felt hurt at his treatment of her old friend, and could only excuse it by a strong fit of shy conscious moodiness. His taking the curacy was only explicable, she thought, as a mode of show ing his displeasure with herself, since he could not ask ner to marry into Whittingtonia, but "That must be all nonsense," thought she, "I will soon have him down off his high horse, and Mr. Parsons will never keep him to his engagement-silly fellow to have made it or if he does, I shall only have the longer to plague him. It will do him good. Let me see! he will come down to-morrow with Honor's note. I'll put on my lilac muslin with the innocent little frill, and do my hair under his favorite pet, and look like such a horrid little meek ringdove that he will be perfectly disgusted with himself for having ever taken me for a fishing eagle. He will be abject, and I'll be generous, and not give another peck till it has grown intolerably stupid to go on being good, or till he presumes!" For the first time for many weeks Lucilla awoke with the impression that something pleasant was about to befall her, and her wild heart was in a state of glad flutter as she donned the quiet dress, and found that the subdued coloring and graver style rendered her more softly lovely than she had ever seen herself. ("Many thanks," was the muttered comment. "O that poor, dear, stupid man, would that I had stopped his mouth!") "I never doubted that your refinement and sense of propriety would be revolted at the consequences of what I always saw to be mere thoughtlessness-" ("Dearly beloved of an old maid is, I told you so!") dear child showed so much true delicacy and "-but I am delighted to hear that my dignity in her trying predicament—” ("Delighted to find her dear child not ab solutely lost to decorum! Thanks again.") "-and I console myself for the pain it has given by the trust that experience has proved a better teacher than precept." ("Where did she find that grand sentence ?") "So that good may result from past evil and present suffering, and that you may have learnt to distrust those who would lead you to disregard the dictates of your own better sense." ("Meaning her own self!") "I have said all this by letter that we may cast aside all that is painful when we meet, and only to feel that I am welcoming my child, doubly dear, because she comes owning her error." ("I dare say! We like to be magnanimous; don't we? O, Mr. Prendergast! I could beat you!") "Our first kiss shall seal your pardon, dearest, and not a word shall pass to remind you of this distressing page in your history." ("Distressing! Excellent fun it was. I shall make her hear my diary, if I persuade myself to encounter this intolerable kiss of peace. It will be a mercy if I don't serve her as the thief in the fable did his mother the unworthy one! I'll never forgive that when he was going to be hanged.") "I will meet you at the station by any train on Saturday that you like to appoint, and early next week we will go down to what I am sure you have felt is your only true home." ("Have I? Oh! she has heard of their journey, and thinks this my only alternative. As if I could not go with them if I chose-I wish they would ask me though. They shall! I'll not be driven up to the Holt as my last resource, and live there under a system of mild browbeating, because I can't help it. No, no! Robin shall find it takes a vast deal of persuasion to bend me to swallow so much pardon in milk and water. I wonder if there's time to change this spooney simplicity, and come out in something spicy, with a dash of the Bloomer. But, may be, there's some news of him in the other sheet, now she has delivered her conscience of her rigmarole. Oh! here it is-") "Phoebe will go home with us, as she is, according to the family system, not summoned to her sister's wedding. Robert leaves London on Saturday morning, to fetch his books, etc., from Oxford, Mr. Parsons having consented to give him a title for holy orders, and to let him assist in the parish until the next ember week. I think, dear girl, that it should not be concealed from you that this step was taken as soon as he heard that you had actually failed for Ireland, and that he does not intend to return until we are in the country." ("Does he not? Another act of coercion! I suppose you put him up to this, madam, as a pleasing course of discipline. You think you have the whip hand of me; do you? Pooh! See if he'll stay at Oxford!") "I feel for the grief I'm inflicting—” ("Oh, so you complacently think 'now have made her sorry!'") conceited inference! Just because he could not stand sentiment! Master Robert gone! Wont I soon have him repenting of his outbreak?") "I have no doubt that his feelings are unchanged, and that he is solely influenced by principle. He is evidently exceedingly unhappy under all his reserve-" ("He shall be more so, till he behaves himself, and comes back humble! I've no notion of his flying out in this way.") word with him on the subject, I am certain "-and though I have not exchanged a that his good opinion will be retrieved with infinite joy to himself as soon as you make it possible for his judgment to be satisfied with your conduct and sentiments. Grieved as I am, it is with a hopeful sorrow, for I am sure that nothing is wanting on your part ior of which you have newly learnt the nebut that consistency and sobriety of behavcessity on other grounds. The Parsonses have gone to their own house, so you will not find any one here but two who will feel the quiet of the Holt, where you shall have for you in silence, and we shall soon be in all that can give you peace or comfort from your ever-loving old "Feel for me! you may get it? feed caterpillars "H. C." Never. Don't you wish Teach the catechism and till such time as it pleases Mrs. Honor to write up and say 'the specI'll imen is tame!' How nice! No, no. not be frightened into their lording it over me! I know a better way! Let Mr. Robert find out how little I care, and get himself heartily sick of St. Wulstan's, till it is, Poor 'turn again Whittington indeed!' fellow, I hate it, but he must be cured of his airs, and have a good fright. Why don't they ask me to go to Paris with them? Where can I go, if they don't? To Mary Cranford's? Stupid place, but I will show I that I'm not so hard up as to have no place but the Holt to go to! If it were only possible to stay with Mr. Prendergast, it would be best of all! Can't I tell him to catch a chaperon for me? Then he would think Honor a regular dragon, which would be a shame, for it was nobody's fault but his! I shall tell him, I'm like the Christian religion, for which people are always making apologies that it doesn't want! Two years! Patience! It will be very good for Robin, "—but I believe uncertainty, waiting, and heart sickness would cost you far more. Trust me, as one who has felt it, that it is far better to feel one's self unworthy than to learn to doubt or distrust the worthiness or constancy of another." ("My father, to wit? A pretty thing to say to his daughter! What right has she to be pining and complaining after him? He, and four-and-twenty is quite soon enough to bite off one's wings, and found an ant-hill. As to being bullied into being kissed, pitied, pardoned, and trained by Honor, I'll never sink so low! No, at no price." take up with these new pets of her's and cheat you." "The Fulmorts? Stuff! They have more already than they know what to do with." "The very reason she will leave them the Poor Mr. Prendergast! Did ever a more more. I declare, Cilly," he added, half in innocent mischief-maker exist? Poor Honora! Little did she guess that the letter written in such love, such sympathy, such longing hope, would only excite fierce rebellion. Yet it was at the words of Moses that the king's heart was hardened; and what was the end? He was taken at his word. "Thou shalt see my face no more." To be asked to join the party on their tour had become Lucilla's prime desire, if only that she might not feel neglected, or driven back to Hiltonbury by absolute necessity; and when the husband and wife came down, the wish was uppermost in her mind. Eloïsa remarked on her quiet style of dress, and observed that it would be quite the thing in Paris, where people were so much less outré than here. "I have nothing to do with Paris." "Oh! surely you go with us!" said Eloïsa; "I like to take you out, beeause you are in so different a style of beauty, and you talk and save one trouble! Will not she go, Charles?" "You see, Lolly wants you for effect!" he said, sneeringly. "But you are always welcome, Cilly, we are wofully slow when you aint there to keep us going, and I should like to show you a thing or two. I only did not ask you, because I thought you had not hit it off with Rashe, or have you made it up?" "Oh! Rashe and I understand each other," said Cilly, secure that though she would never treat Rashe with her former confidence, yet as long as they travelled en grand seigneur, there was no fear of collisions of temper. "Rashe is a good creature," said Lolly, "but she is so fast and so eccentric that I like to have you, Cilly, you look so much younger, and more ladylike." "One thing more," said Charles, in his character of head of the family, "shouldn't you look up Miss Charlecote, Cilly? There's Owen straining the leash pretty hard, and you must look about you, that she does not jest, half in earnest, "the only security for you and Owen is in a double marriage. Perhaps she projects it. You fire up as if she had!" "If she had, do you think I should go back?" said Cilly, trying to answer lightly, though her cheeks were in a flame. "No, no, I'm not going to let slip a chance of Paris." She stopped short, dismayed at having committed herself, and Horatia coming down, was told by acclamation, that Cilly was going. "Of course she is," said forgiving and forgetting Rashe. "Little Cilly left behind, to serve for food to the Rouge Dragon? No, no! I should have no fun in life without her." Rashe forgot the past far more easily than Cilla could ever do. There was a certain guilty delight in writing "MY DEAR HONOR,-Many thanks for your letter, and intended kindnesses. The scene must, however, be deferred, as my cousins mean to winter at Paris, and I can't resist the chance of hooking a marshal, or a prince or two. Rashe's strain was a great for more success another season. sell, but we had capital fun, and shall hope I would send you my diary if it were written out fair. We go so soon that I can't run up to London, so I hope no one will be disturbed on my account. "Your affectionate CILLY." No need to say how often Lucilla would have liked to have recalled that note for addition or diminution, how many misgivings she suffered on her peculiar mode of catching Robins, how frequent were her disgusts with her cousin, and how often she felt like a captive. The captive of her own self-will. "That's right!" said Horatia to Lolly, "I was mortally afraid she would stay at home to fall a prey to the incipient parson, but now he is choked off, and Calthorp is really in carnest, we shall have the dear little morsel doing well yet. |