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THE MARRYING MAN,"

THE MATCH MAKER," THE JILT," THE BREACH OF

PROMISE," AND THE LIFE OF A BEAUTY."

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. III.

LONDON:

T. C. NEW BY, 72, MORTIMER STREET,

CAVENDISH SQUARE.

AFTER the restoration of their darling, all things went on apparently much as usual with Sir Noah and Lady Fathom; we say apparently, because "the heart knoweth its own bitterness, and a stranger doth not intermeddle with its joy."

Sir Noah rose from his bed (to which his sprain had confined him for some weeks) an altered man, but the alteration was one of those silent,, inward changes, often undreamt of, even by those who sit by our sides, or lie in our bosoms. Grumbleby had raised a spirit in the hitherto quiet, pre-occupied breast of old Sir Noah, a spirit it is much easier to raise than to lay

VOL. III.

B

the spirit of jealousy! And Lady Fathom, still languid and weak from the anguish she had endured, connecting the restoration of her darling with her cousin's devotion, and seeing that cousin daily look sadder and paler, had admitted into her hitherto joyous, thoughtless heart, an interest which as yet was chiefly pity, but of that pity which the adage says is akin to love.

These were two unsuspected, but terrible changes in the hearts of this oddly matched, but hitherto happy couple. Terrible, because they were changes, neither would for the world have owned to the other; and directly in married life, either party becomes anxious for secresy, conscience should arouse to candour.

Poor Sir Noah's state was a very peculiar one; not only was he naturally the most credulous and unsuspecting of men, but all his habits both of thought and conduct were so entirely scientific-fits of mental abstraction were so common to him, that he often forgot for hours together, the new and inconvenient passion,