the old women?-Whom do you mean? inquired Orlando.

Mean! answered she; why, who should I mean, but mistress, and mother Lennard? There's no other old woman in the house as I knows on, nor there had not need. They've been inquiring after you.

tie

After me?

Yes, replied Betty. And Madam I suppose will

you on to her apron-string soon, for she is never easy without you. Upon my word, Mr. Orlando, you look a little rakish though, I think, for such a sober young gentleman, and considering too that you did not demean yourself with dancing as you used to do with us servants, after the gentlefolks were gone. I warrant however that you did not pass the time at prayers.

You give your tongue strange license, said Orlando, who endeavoured to conceal his vexation, for he imagined that all alluded to Monimia. However, do tell me, if Mrs. Rayland wishes me to breakfast with her?

I knows nothing about her wishes, replied the girl; I only knows that Lennard have been asking every servant in the house about you, and crossquestioning one so that I suppose she thoft I had got you locked up in my cupboard, as they say she used for to have the men-folk in her younger days in the housekeeper's store-room. The old woman

and the oven for that! Set a thief to catch a thief! I do desire, said Orlando, that you would have done with all this, and tell me whether Mrs. Lennard expects me at breakfast? However, added he, pausing, I will alter my dress, and wait upon her at all events; and do be so good as to prepare in the mean time some breakfast for my brother.

execute this last commission; and Orlando, after changing his clothes, went to Mrs. Lennard's room to inquire whether Mrs. Rayland wished to speak to him, and at what time he might wait upon her. This however was not his only motive; he thought he should immediately discern by Mrs. Lennard's reception of him, whether his fears of a partial or an entire discovery were well founded. He fortunately found Mrs. Lennard in the housekeeper's room; and, accosting her with his usual interesting address, he inquired how Mrs. Rayland did after the fatigues of the evening, how she was herself, and whether he might at any time that morning make a personal inquiry after Mrs. Rayland?

The sage housekeeper received his civilities with great coolness, and answered, even with some asperity, that Mrs. Rayland was much better than ever she could have expected after so much company. As to your inquiring after her, Sir, added she, I don't know indeed how that may be; perhaps (fixing on him her penetrating eyes) there are other people in the house after whom you would rather ask.

Orlando, whose conscious blood rose into his cheeks at this speech, felt them glow, and the sensation increased his confusion. No, replied he, hesitating. No, certainly you cannot.

suppose .. that there is any body..... that I ..... that I wish to inquire after more than Mrs. Rayland . I was much afraid that the fatigue would be too much for her.

There are other people, replied the lady, who were fatigued also. I must beg the favour of you, Mr. Orlando, not to interfere with my niece. I suppose it was by your desire or contrivance that she took the liberty of leaving her room last night, contrary to my positive orders.

Orlando, a little recovered from his consternation, endeavoured to laugh this off, and was proving to Mrs. Lennard that it was impossible for him to have occasioned this disobedience, when a summons came for her to attend Mrs. Rayland; and I was ordered, Sir, said the footman, to desire you would come up also, if you were about the house.

Mrs. Lennard now stalked away with great dignity, and Orlando followed her, more than ever alarmed for Monimia.

CHAPTER XXIV.

INSTEAD of the reproaches Orlando expected to hear, Mrs. Rayland received him, if not with so much cordial kindness as usual, at least without any appearance of anger. After the usual compliments on his part, and some inquiries on hers, whether all those who were immediately her guests had gone as soon as they left her, Mrs. Lennard withdrew, and Orlando was left alone with the old lady, and again trembled lest some remonstrances were to be made; for his mind was so entirely occupied by that subject, that he forgot it was possible for the attention of others to be differently engaged.

His apprehensions increased, when Mrs. Rayland, after a solemn silence, thus began:

I believe, Mr. Orlando, I have given you abundant proof that I esteem you above the rest of my kinsman's family.

Orlando bowed, and would have said that he was sensible of and grateful for her kindness; he could make nothing of the sentence-but blushed, and faltered while Mrs. Rayland went on.

Your father has once or twice proposed sending

you out into the world, and has consulted me upon the occasion. I suppose you are not unacquainted with the plan he has lately thought proper to propose for you.

Orlando, relieved by hearing that her discourse. did not tend whither he feared it would, said that he knew General Tracy had offered his father to procure him a commission; an offer, Madam, continued he, of which I waited to hear your opinion before I myself ventured to form any wishes upon the subject.

This was carrying his complaisance farther than he had ever yet done. But, confused and apprehensive as he was, he said any thing which might turn the discourse from what he most dreaded, without having his mind enough at liberty to inquire rigorously into the truth or propriety of what he uttered; and even the independent spirit he had always prided himself on supporting, was lost amid his fears for Monimia.

Mrs. Rayland looked at him steadily for a mo

ment

You are ready then, said she, to follow any line of life, Orlando, which your friends approve? I am, Madam! and always have been. And you do not dislike the army? Very far from it, Madam.

I have been accustomed from my youth, reassumed the old lady after another pause, to consider the profession of arms as one of those which is the least derogatory to the name of a gentleman. It is honourable, Madam, to any name.

My grandfather, continued Mrs. Rayland, after whom you were by the permission of our family called-my grandfather, I say, Sir Orlando Rayland, appeared with distinguished honour in the service of his master in 1685, against the rebel

Monmouth, though not of the religion of King James. My father Sir Hildebrand distinguished himself under Marlborough, when he was a younger brother, and saw much service in Flanders. Of remoter ancestors, I could tell you of Raylands who bled in the civil wars; we were always Lancastrians, and lost very great property by our adherence to that unhappy family during the reigns of Edward the Fourth and Richard the Third. My great great grandfather, who was also called Orlando.

Mrs. Rayland had soon totally forgotten the young hero who was before her, while she ran over the names and exploits of heroes past; and, lost in their loyalty and their prowess, she forgot that hardly any other record of them remained upon earth than what her memory and their pictures in the gallery above afforded. Orlando, however, heard her not only with patience but with pleasure. In recurring thus to them when the question of his professional choice was before her, it appeared that she had somehow associated the idea of his future welfare with that of their past consequence; and besides the satisfaction this discovery afforded him, he began to hope that his fears of any discovery were quite groundless.

Mrs. Rayland having at length completed the catalogue of the warriors of her family, and having no more to say, returned to the subject which had given rise to this discussion.-Therefore, young kinsman, I say, that if this worthy General Tracy will favour you with his countenance, if your father and your relations approve of it, and if you yourself are disposed for the profession of arms, I shall be glad not only to give you some assistance towards setting out, but to aid you from time to time