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first place, I am not the greatest culprit, and then, it really was by a mere accident that we discovered that odious wire-work."

It was," added Edward; "but henceforth, we shall take very good care that your bracelets shall conceal no such evil secrets."

"I trust that you will not have many opportunities of thus interfering where yon have not "but concern," answered the indignant Cécile; you really must excuse me: I am not fit company for Don't come any one this afternoon. with me, dear Constance, or at all events, you must not stay with me, for I must take a little rest now, if I am to appear at all this evening."

Constance, however, would again accompany her retiring cousin, and as she did not show anew the light of her countenance below during that afternoon, her brother and St. Edmunds were left mutually to impart whatever solace or entertainment the conversation of each could afford to

the other or to himself. Why, during this lengthened dialogue, the name of Miss Cécile Basinstoke, who surely might have called forth some compassionate recollection, was not once mentioned between the two young men, we leave the intelligent reader to conjecture.

CHAPTER V.

SAINT CECILIA REPRIMANDED.

NOR even at dinner-time did the fair Constance re-appear, the alarm, which Cécile had given her, having been the cause, or the pretext for one of those headaches to which she conceives herself subject. Singular indispositions they are, by the way, those headaches of Constance Basinstoke, shedding a fearful gloom, for the time, on the circle from which she is withdrawn, but by no means affecting either the radiant beauty or the glowing spirits of the fair sufferer. Her brother, too, being absent, in consequence of an engagement at the Thornhills', the small party was reduced to its remaining four members.

first place, I am not the greatest culprit, and then, it really was by a mere accident that we discovered that odious wire-work.”

"It was," added Edward; "but henceforth, we shall take very good care that your bracelets shall conceal no such evil secrets."

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"I trust that you will not have many opportunities of thus interfering where yon have no concern," answered the indignant Cécile; "but you really must excuse me: I am not fit company for any one this afternoon. Don't come with me, dear Constance, or at all events, you must not stay with me, for I must take a little rest now, if I am to appear at all this evening."

Constance, however, would again accompany her retiring cousin, and as she did not show anew the light of her countenance below during that afternoon, her brother and St. Edmunds were left mutually to impart whatever solace or entertainment the conversation of each could afford to the other or to himself. Why, during this lengthened dialogue, the name of Miss Cécile Basinstoke, who surely might have called forth some compassionate recollection, was not once mentioned between the two young men, we leave the intelligent reader to conjecture.

anxious glance, she hastily raised her forefinger to her lips, and then depressed it in the direction of her wrist; but saving this slight indication of the silence to be observed upon a somewhat delicate point before the company, no communication of a confidential character could be exchanged with her until the latter end of the evening. Then, Sir Charles having fallen fast asleep, and Lady Helen having gone up to her daughter's room, our hero was enabled to draw near the fair Romanist, and to inquire after the wounded arm.

There was something both haughty and deprecating in the look which she cast upon him, as she coldly answered:

"I was not aware that it was generous, or gentleman-like, to allude to a secre which would never have been willingly im parted."

"Perhaps you should remember, Miss Basinstoke, before you reprove me so sternly," replied our hero, "that I might plead some peculiar right to be anxious there, where I must feel that I was myself principally to blame."

"If there was sternness or reproof in my

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answer," said she, somewhat softened, " you must recollect that I am occasionally obliged to enlist them into my system of selfdefence."

"I was not aware that I have deserved to be reckoned among your aggressors.'

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"No, in truth, Lord St. Edmunds," exclaimed she, evidently moved by the tone, still more than by the words, of the speaker; "none, I mean no stranger, of course, has ever yet shown me so much-so much courtesy and forbearance, and it would be most ungrateful on my part to forget it."

"Oh! I am not at all offended," resumed he, smiling at her earnest manner; "though, God knows, that I have no sort of claim yet upon your consideration, saving that which the strongest sympathy and admiration might venture to urge. You need not, therefore, wear another iron bracelet for the reproof which you administered just now to my indiscretion."

"You must expect another and a severer one," said Cécile, raising her fore-finger, "if you will again intrude upon the forbidden ground."

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