observed Maria, with a significant sneer, you are mighty sorry for William-but you are thinking, all the while, of Belgrave.

Grace's pale cheek crimsoned, as she looked round to see whether the servant (who had followed them at a sauntering pace, which seemed to say he was not much delighted with his commission) was near enough to hear them, and then in a low voice, replied, “that is a very unkind observation, Maria; but you cannot mean that I should be so foolish, so presumptuous, as to think of Belgrave Mansel, except as a friend and the brother of

"Presumptuous," repeated Maria! "I wish Grace you had a little of my spirit, and then you would learn to set a higher value on yourself, and not suffer such people as the Mansels —

"Hollo, what is all this about, girls?" exclaimed a plain, farmer-looking man, who at that moment jumped over the style from an adjoining field. "Where have you left the boys? Where's my friend Will, and Old Sober-Sides, his brother? and who's that Johnny Lick-platter following you? I hope he's not had the impudence to be making love to either of my little cherubs, because if he has, I can tell'un —

"No, no, dear father, you quite mistake," interrupted Maria, hastily; "he has been sent by his master to see us home."

"See thee home, child! why what has become of thy own eyes, since thee went to church this morning, that thee couldn'st find thee own way? Grace, my child, what is the meaning of this?" he added, in a graver tone, "who is this man's master, and

"I have the honour, sir, to serve Sir Walter FitzGeffrey, and at his desire attended these young ladies home," said the servant, stepping forward with an air of consequence, which seemed assumed to daunt the farmer.

"Likely, likely," replied the latter; "but though I'm obliged to you and your master for your civility, I can't understand how it came to be wanted, seeing they had two honest lads to take care of them, that would have beat half a dozen of such like chaps as you."

The lacquey tossed his head with an air of infinite contempt at this speech, and his anger was not lessened, when in reply to something Maria whispered in his ear, the farmer replied,

"Half a crown! I'd see him hanged first. Why, child, I do not give more than that to a good honest fellow for a day's hard work, and its likely I'll throw it away upon the likes of him, that is come up here may be only as a spy, for some rake of a master."

"Oh, no, indeed, father, the poor gentleman is no rake," observed the ingenuous Grace, "for he is quite old and ugly, and looks as if he was dying with the yellow jaundice, like poor old Betty Thomas."

Aye, indeed-well, I'm sorry to hear that," said the kind-hearted Woodford; "I would be loth to wrong any man, much more one that's afflicted as you say he is; so come in, my man, and have a cup of ale, and you can give my service to your master, and tell him I'm thankful for his good intentions, but they were quite needless, for my girls here could come every inch of their way from T-▬▬▬ blindfolded; and as to anybody's harming them, I believe there's little fear of anybody

that knows Roger Woodford offering harm to anything, living or dead, that belongs to him."

The servant started back a few paces, at sight of the tremendous fist which the farmer clenched and advanced within a few inches of his (the man's) nose, to enforce his last observation. But the good-humoured smile, with which the farmer clapped him on the shoulder, observing—

"Don't be frightened, lad, I'm not going to do thee any harm," had the desired effect of re-assuring him; and he followed his now friendly conductor into the kitchen, while the two girls entered the house by another door, to communicate to their mother the result of their evening's adventure.

The peevish reproof which Mrs. Woodford was about to utter at her daughter's long stay, was converted into instant and pleasurable surprise; when Maria, on entering the parlour, where the lady of the house kept her state, exclaimed

"Oh, Mamma! such an adventure!-all your predictions have been likely to come to pass this eveningfor 1 have been very near coming home in a carriage!— and with the owner of it, too! such a polite, gallant man!—and, oh, so different from the awkward, country clowns that we have been used to!"

Mrs. Woodford's curiosity and earnestness to hear this adventure, was not exceeded by her daughter's pleasure in relating it; but when she learned, that the servant who had attended them was actually then in the kitchen, and being regaled by the hospitable farmer, she hastened out of the room, as fast as an infirmity, which compelled her to use crutches, would let her,

at once to satisfy her curiosity, by learning all she could of this important stranger of his man-to prevent the husband, whom she despised, from exposing, as she said, his ignorance-and to impress the servant with what, she thought, he could not fail speedily to discover; namely, that she was herself infinitely her husband's superior, and one whom it would be no disgrace even to his master to associate with.

"What is the matter with you, Grace?" said Maria, turning from the glass, before which she had been, evidently well-pleased with the reflection it presented, standing for some minutes after her mother had left.

Grace turned away to the window, to hide the tears that were stealing silently down her cheeks.

66

Why do you not speak to me, dear Grace?" and Maria, who was really affectionately attached to her sister, threw her white arms around her neck.

The gentle girl strained her passionately to her bosom; but, unable to utter a word, could only reply by a still more copious flood of tears.

"Nay; now, Grace, you are foolish-what have I done to call for all this? Granting I am, as I know you think I am, a little vain, and fond of admirationand suppose I did feel a little proud of being selected by this noble and elegant stranger, still —

"Elegant!" repeated Grace, recovering her speech, and staring at her sister with unfeigned surprise; "surely you cannot seriously call that man elegant !-But that is not what I am thinking of," she continued; "I do not fear his influence: for I am sure if you see him again, you will confess that

"Well, well-never mind what he is;" Maria

impatiently interrupted, "you must confess that his carriage, and horses, and servants, in short, every thing about him bespeaks the man of taste and fashion."

"It may be so," said Grace, with ingenuousness; "but I confess, Maria, I know nothing of taste or fashion, nor do I wish to know more, if this man is a specimen. We were so happy before he came among us this evening," she observed, the tears again streaming down her cheeks, "and now see how different. Instead of sitting down to our comfortable supper with William and-and-his brother, they are wandering about miserable and unhappy, for Belgrave cannot be happy, I know, if William

"For heaven's sake, Grace, don't teaze me any more about William; if he chose to be unreasonable and take airs upon himself, I do not see why I should fret myself to death." And again Maria returned to the contemplation of her beautiful face and form in the mirror.

"My dear child, my own girl," said Mrs. Woodford, re-entering the room, "I am now indeed happy; Sir Walter Fitz-Geffrey, I understand, from his servant, is a man of immense fortune, a bachelor, and I have reason to believe, determined to marry. He is coming here to-morrow, and if I judge rightly, it will be my Maria's own fault, indeed, if she does not fulfil all her mother's predictions. Yes, yes, I have always felt convinced that I should live to see my child restored to that rank, which her mother's girlish imprudence deprived her of. What is that girl sobbing about?" she added, suddenly breaking into the harsh

1.