when we contrast these ignoble equipages with the soul-exalting chariot and four of palmier days. Whether from the effects of the journey, or from some other cause, it occurred to more than one present, and especially to Saint Cecilia, that the ever-courteous manners of Lord Tewkesbury were, upon the whole, less cordial and open than on former occasions. But, as we have said, he arrived at so late an hour, that any very lengthened conversation was scarcely practicable. It was not so on the following morning, for no sooner had breakfast been disposed of, than, at the request of her brother, Lady Helen retired with him alone to the library.

My dear Helen," said the latter, when he had closed the door upon them, "you are of course too kind and civil to admit that you are a little surprised at my unforeseen appearance, but I must tell you frankly that I have another motive besides the sincere pleasure of meeting you and yours. St. Edmunds has been with you now for an unusual time; which, should you think, among the many attractions that Redburn offers, has mainly influenced him ?"

"I cannot exactly say; but, I trust, upon the

whole, that matters are progressing according to our wishes."

"Ah!" resumed the Earl, thoughtfully, "I am very happy to hear you say so. None can know better than you do how the case really stands."

"Have you heard anything," anxiously inquired his sister, "which could give you a contrary impression to mine?"

"Well, I have-something.

This niece of

yours, Cécile she struck me, last year, as a quiet, unpretending girl enough."

66

Quiet she may be, but unpretending, c'est une autre affaire. How is she concerned with our subject?"

'Simply, my dear Helen, because it has been surmised in my ear that Master St. Edmunds' eyes have been fixed upon her of late, rather more than upon any one else."

"That would be curious enough, ha! ha! ha!" rejoined Lady Helen, with an ironical laugh. But a second afterwards, some new misgiving having doubtless crossed her mind, she added: "If you wish to have my opinion of the girl, I will tell you that she is just exactly as designing, as dangerous, and as artful a piece of

goods as was ever imported from her native land for the perversion of England."

'You don't mean to say so.

Then, I don't see that we should be over-confident, my dear, that things are going on here exactly according to our wishes."

"My confidence," replied Lady Helen, "proceeds merely from the notion that St Edmunds, being not quite blind, could not possibly be such a fool as to put the girl for an instant in comparison with Conny. If you have any doubts,

however, the sooner the matter is looked into the better, for it would be no joke, indeed, were he to go astray to this extent."

Upon my word, it wouldn't," exclaimed the Earl. "If Conny and he could but take a fancy for each other, nothing would be more satisfactory; but failing this, our common expectation, I would rather that the boy never married at all than see him set his heart upon this Popish girl. In short, the thing cannot be thought of for a moment, and so the sooner that is established the better. How shall we set to work?"

"Why, you can speak to St. Edmunds yourself."

"To be sure, my dear; but he is a very

cool hand, this nephew of yours, I must tell you, and pretty well accustomed to diplomacy in this line. Ten to one that I should get nothing out of him which would give us much insight into this business."

'Then, perhaps I had better speak to Cécile," observed the not unwilling Lady Helen.

"I don't know what to say. It may be rather a delicate conversation, both for you and for her."

"Oh! as for me, Tewkesbury, perhaps you know already that I never find my duty too delicate or too painful to perform; as to her, you may set your scruples still more completely at rest. French blood is not at all so sensitive on these matters."

It chanced, as her ill-fortune would have it, that she to whom this last good-natured sentiment more immediately applied, at that very moment appeared at the door of the library, in quest of another volume of the work that she was reading. On perceiving that the room was not untenanted, as it usually was at that hour, she hastily drew dack, but it was too late.

Nothing could be more opportune or more decisive," whispered Lady Helen to her brother,

and then, in a louder voice, she exclaimed: "Cécile, come here, if you please, and shut the door after you.

The luckless Saint was obeying, with no greater alacrity than she generally displayed, in responding to a summons from the same quarter, when her aunt continued:

"Come quite close up to us, pray, and look us steadily in the face, if you do not think that it is too great a favour to confer upon two very determined heretics. That is right; now, attend to my questions, and answer them with as much sincerity and good faith as may be. I must tell you that we are not given to be very truthful," added she, in a most audible whisper, to her brother.

It is our duty to state, in extenuation of the frequency with which Lady Helen would reiterate this insinuation against her niece's veracity, that Cécile had, soon after her first arrival at Redburn, and when yet at the mature age of fourteen, been betrayed once into telling a slight falsehood. Though the offence had been visited, at the time, with three distinct punishments, each fully commensurate with the transgression, and though no similar failing was