the determined air of one for whom the avenging hour had struck at last, and he was followed by Edward alone, the habitual serenity of whose mien was in nowise impaired by the anticipation of the forthcoming ordeal.

"Don't wait dinner for us after half past seven, Helen," were Sir Charles's parting words, "but I will try and let you know how things are going on."

Her husband was as good as his word, for Lady Helen received, at about five o'clock, a few hurried lines, which she was kind enough to communicate at once to Cécile, informing the family that a very strong expression of his Protestant sentiments had been very rapturously cheered, and that if Edward, who was to speak later, were to be equally successful, the day would be all for the Basinstokes. As Edward was by far the more practised speaker of the two, his mother could have but little doubt that Sir Charles's most sanguine expectations would be realized. Great, therefore, was her astonishment, and that, indeed, of all who had remained at the Hall, when, on being joined by both the gentlemen, a few minutes after they had sat down to dinner, they observed every possible

token of irritation and disappointment in the luckless Baronet's countenance and manner. So long as the servants were present, no explanation could of course be elicited, but no sooner had the door closed upon the last of them, than Constance, with her usual aplomb, inquired if anything had gone wrong.

"Gone wrong!" replied the father bitterly. "Oh! dear no, not in the least. I shall have to close up the old house here, and go and live abroad, that's all. I would rather finish my days at Rome, I'll be hanged if I wouldn't, than again pass such a month as the last."

"Well, there might be greater misfortunes than that, mightn't there, Cécile ?" resumed Constance. "But how is it, dear Papa? I thought that your speech had been so well received."

“So it was, and so would anybody's who had spoken out manfully against the Pope and the Papists."

Then did Edward break down after all ?"

"Break down! No. I wish to Heavens that he had, or stayed at home either, sooner than I should have heard him proclaim his

milk-and-water rubbish, and bring me also into it, forsooth."

"Come, come," interposed Edward, smiling, "I only said that you had voted for the Catholic Emancipation Bill, as I should, had I been in Parliament then."

"And a cursed fool I was, too, for my pains, and a proper simpleton you must be for having recalled my folly at such a moment."

"Well, but what could I say, after all, save what I feel and think. I only told them that, for the honour of the age, and of the country, I had always hoped and held that the Act of 1829 was final-final, at least, as against pains, penalties, and disabilities."

"And so we are to do nothing, nothing in life, whatever insults or aggressions the Pope may attempt to palm upon us ?"

"I do not say that: I have no objection to any declaration setting forth the opinions and sentiments of the majority. But so long as we insure to our clergy alone all the endowments, with the corresponding legal recognition and privileges, we are unassailable, I should say, from the Ultra Protestant party, to what

"But of late, you seem entirely to have forgotten, Edward,". exclaimed Lady Helen, "that we are a Protestant country."

"Indeed, my dear Lady, I have so completely forgotten it, that I cannot remember ever having thought it. We are, to my mind, as a nation, essentially and not very unequally divided upon matters of religious belief, and I do think that we should try and legislate in a measure for all, since we impose our burdens upon all, and claim the allegiance of all."

"But we do not obtain the allegiance of all," retorted Lady Helen, "since so many are satisfied to divide theirs between our Queen and a foreign sovereign."

"What! the divided allegiance again, my lady? I really thought that that was exploded, ever since we admitted that Catholics might, as well as Protestants, command our regiments and our ships."

"But do they, or do they not receive their Bulls, commands, and so forth from Rome, and

obey them, also, I want to know ?" exclaimed the Baronet, emphatically striking the table with his fist.

"Don't break the glasses, I say," replied the incorrigible Edward, "and Cécile will tell you all about it."

"Indeed I will not," said Cécile smiling. "I beg leave to remark that I am saying nothing at all, and not even looking up from the table."

Then, I suppose that I must state," resumed Edward, "under correction, of course, from the most Holy Expurgatorius, that there are still, in the Christian world, a certain number of benighted millions who, obstinately looking to the Unity of their Faith, and to the stability of its institutions, do prefer a Spiritual to a Temporal, a Catholic to a National Head. I cannot help laughing once a day, at least, when I think how well satisfied we English are to live in utter oblivion of all that is going on, even at our very gates. has been my fate to repeat this very question to Austrians, to Spaniards, and to Frenchmen, each ready to run his sword through my body if I expressed the slightest doubt of the inde

It