really trembled beneath the surprised gaze of his cousin. Scarcely able to articulate, he at length said, in a low faltering voice, "I cannot pay this visit with you, Blanche. I must be off to-morrow early for Oakwood, where my presence is absolutely necessary." "Julian," said Blanche, reproachfully and earnestly, "are you really not anxious to see Evelyn? Are you so altered as to cease to love her as you used to do?" and she fixed her deep and expressive eyes inquiringly upon him. "Ask me no questions, unless you wish to distract me!" exclaimed her cousin, starting from his chair, and pacing the room with hurried and agitated steps. "O Blanche, you little know what you cause me to suffer every time you mention that name. It is like probing a frightful wound. I shrink, and my flesh quivers under its influence. Say no more," he added vehemently, seeing that Blanche was about to speak. "I am going and God knows when you will see me again! -but, O Blanche, dearest cousin, you who have always been - me; for I have lost the power of doing so for myself. I am, as it were, spell bound. Adversity! how blunt are all the arrows of thy quiver compared to those of self-reproach.” Blanche felt shocked and grieved; and more so, as she feared that she guessed too well the cause of all this anguish. To soothe his mind, she said, in tones of the gentlest kindness: “But, Julian, what is it that thus weighs so heavily upon your spirits, and draws you from your most natural and dearest ties. Confide in me-in the sister of your adoption-to whose advice you have so often listened. Speak to me tell me all, and I will assist you to the best of my poor knowledge;” and Blanche again affectionately approached him, and seizing his reluctant hand, for he seemed bent upon making his escape, drew him towards her. “Tell you!-sully your pure mind by the history of vice and folly !-pollute the air you breathe by repeating words which would convey a tale of shame! No, no! Blanche; I dare no longer confide my sorrows to you; I must be alone with my misery." With these words he disengaged his hand from the kind grasp of his cousin, and hastily quitted the apartment, leaving her motionless with astonishment, and distressed beyond measure, at thus witnessing what appeared to her a confirmation of the darkest suspicions to which the conduct of Julian had given rise. CHAPTER VII. "How happy must thy parents be Whose hearts no greater pleasure seek By thee their fond, their duteous child." LADY CLAIRVILLE still kept herself secluded in her apartments. Clad in the deepest sables, was it sorrow that inclined her to solitude? or was it that she mourned over the frustration of all her long-cherished schemes? The latter was the case; stung with the bitterest disappointment that the subjects of her machinations had escaped from her dominion, she brooded in sullen silence over the affairs of the last months. The voice of conscience, too, had whispered in her ear; and her troubled mind "saw forms which others saw not, and heard voices which sounded only in the ears of guilt." The sight of her niece she most sedulously avoided, for with her was associated all the particulars of Lord Clairville's death-scene. Blanche, profiting by her absence, had, with Mrs. Stewart's sanction, received the visits of Herbert Cecil; and now, still further presuming on the quiescent nature of her conduct, had resolved, without delay, to pay a visit to Kensington. " The morning after her interview with Julian, though deeply regretting that he had so absolutely refused to accompany her, she ordered the carriage for her expedition with many emotions of pleasure, and in a short time found herself at the door of the humble abode of the Cecils. On first beholding the meanness of the habitation which had so long formed the home of those so dearly loved, and by education and |