fore I was aware of it, and from that mo- | grace a high station, —a station, in point ment I had no peace. The dreadful man of fact, far higher than that I can offer you. actually fetched the book, while a stony Yet the Sellings are an old family, Miss smile of approbation lighted up his mother's stern face. Of course after that it rained every other day, and between the book and the boat my hours were passed in perpetual penance. Well, it came to an end at last. They proposed to me a few days before the one fixed for their departure, and as it was rather a prolonged affair I had better give it in detail. As usual, Lady Selling began. She always had to start him in all his undertakings, great and small. Benson," and here his voice changed, and he spoke more naturally" they came over with the Conqueror, and the castle is uncommonly old. It's out of repair, to be sure, but A faint, faint sound, as of a low cough, caused me to look towards the portière which hung over the doorway leading to the large drawing-room, and I could not be mistaken in the bronze nose which was just visible in the folds. Sir Robert saw it too, and by his slight start, and the conscious way in which his eyes sought my face, I "My dear," said she, as we three sat sol- perceived that for once he had failed to folemnly in the little drawing-room after break-low out the line his mother had laid down fast- the Hume torture, as I imagined, on for him. He had actually digressed, subthe point of beginning, My dear, my stituting a few sentences of his own for son Robert has something of importance to those she had intended him to pronounce. say to you. From the encouragement you have given him, I cannot doubt your reply. May the blessing of Heaven rest on you both." And rising, she extended her bony hands in the air towards us and Hume and vanished. 66 I believe I thought it rather striking, and was vexed with myself for a strong inclination to laugh. She rather spoiled the effect of her exit by putting her long nose in at the door again, and saying: "Don't let the fire out, dear boy." That did me good, and I felt equal to glancing at Sir Robert, who, with Hume in his hand, was walking ponderously up and down. His face was as stolid and unmoved as usual. I felt that he was conning over a speech prepared probably by his mother, and in the inmost recesses of my own heart I was feebly striving in my turn to prepare the negative which I all the time knew I should not have courage to pronounce. For one bright moment I wondered how it would feel if I could say it. But I felt all the impossibility. Meantime, placing himself in the peculiar attitude which I have seen many and many a man assume when about to give utterance to a prepared speech at a public meeting, with one hand slightly leaning upon the table, and the other half-concealed in his coat, while his left boot sought support from the right, he commenced in a parrotlike, monotonous tone, reciting his lesson. "Miss Benson," said he, "my mother has so prepared the way that I feel that but few words will be necessary. The intimacy of the last few days has touched my heart with a profound sense of your many rare qualities. I feel that you are well calculated to Lady There was an awkward pause. Selling visibly quivered behind the curtain. I painfully hoped I should not laugh. In this emergency, Sir Robert's eyes fell on Hume, and he actually had an idea, the first and last of his life, in all probability. 64 He extended the book to me. This book," said he, with awful solemnity, "had a good deal to do with it. We've been very happy with Hume, and all I ask is this. You like Hume; you chose it. As you liked and chose Hume, so I want you to like and choose me." I declare to you, my dears, there was a very faint sound of applause from the curtain, and I suspect that, however garbled, some part of the speech might have been found in the original copy, by Lady Selling, Widow. Mother and son were positively inspired, and he approached to take my hand, reiterating the striking sentiment, "As you liked and chose Hume, so I want you to like and choose me." 66 Oh yes," said I; "yes, of course, only I am afraid I hated Hume. Yes, I do hate and detest him." For my life I could not have helped it, my dears. I had said it, "Yes" and all, before I knew what I was about. Poor Sir Robert! And poor Hume! For one of them let the other fall flat upon the floor, and the other stood aghast. Before he had time to rally, the portière was drawn aside, and Lady Selling and her bronze nose stalked majestically in, and took possession of me. Yes, that is the only word that expresses it. Her grim bony hand grasped my shoulder, and held me with an indescribable sense of possession. From that moment I felt that it was all over with me. The extraordinary good luck which had enabled me to refuse my disagreeable suitor with an affirmative was nullified. I felt that I was Lady Selling, and I grew positively rigid with horror. 66 66 Robert," said her ladyship authoritatively, "Robert, dear boy;" and her stony eye being turned doorwards, Robert, dear boy," followed it, and went out, carrying Hume with him. Hume had furnished him | with an idea, and he clung to it. "Miss Benson," said her ladyship solemnly, releasing me as she spoke, but pushing me into a chair, and fixing me with her stern eye, "Miss Benson, I am surprised at your conduct. After the encouragement you have undoubtedly given my son, the least we had a right to expect of you was that you should receive his proposals with civility. Do you know what you have done? Do you know you have refused the greatest blessing woman can have?" "Poor woman!" thought I, but I faintly murmured Yes," for she looked for an answer, and I could think of nothing else to say. She caught at the word, and the expression of her countenance changed as she continued in a somewhat milder tone: "Perhaps, Miss Benson, we may have been hasty. We may have mistaken your meaning. In fact, on consideration, I cannot but think this must be the case. Is it not so?" Again she paused, and again the fatal "Oh yes" crept to my lips. ment I thought it a reprieve, but before the day was out I felt that it would have been better to have had it over. My dears, that woman never left me, and she never ceased talking of her son. I heard all about him, from the day of his birth to the very hour of his unfortunate arrival at Markham Hall. I believe that in that one day she did all the talking which should have served her for a lifetime. Oh, how I hoped that he would return from his ride engaged to some one else. I had heard of hearts caught on the rebound. Would that it might be so in this case! My situation was a curious one, for though undoubtedly engaged to the Sellings, I could not with any truth have asserted that I was the affianced of Sir Robert. Well, the stern woman did not release me until the dressing-bell had rung, and I was safe in the hands of my maid. Then, as Sir Robert was heard ascending the stairs, she left me. What passed between him and his mother I know not. I only imagined that it must be all arranged to her satisfaction, because she stopped me for one moment on the stairs, and solemnly blessed me. Lady Markham being just before us, nothing more was possible at the time. That wa enough, however, to make me very uncomfortable all dinner-time, although Sir Robert came in late and took no notice of me whatever. Sometimes I felt inclined to hope that he had made the acquaintance of a larger heiress in his ride, and that the private blessing on the stairs was intended to console me for my loss. But all the time I knew this was too good to be true, and I passed that dinner-hour in a state of miserable uncertainty as to whether I was engaged to Sir Robert Selling or not. Let us then at once remedy this most unfortunate mistake," said she, rising. "I have not now to learn," she added, with an iron smile, and an attempt at graciousness which ill-suited her, "I have not now to learn that on these occasions young ladies are apt, from very nervousness, to say what they do not mean. I myself have experienced the sensation. But fear not. I will seek my son, and all shall be set right." She left the room as she spoke, and I, feeling that my only chance of escape from a lifelong slavery to these grim warriors, mother and son, lay in instant flight, lost no time in creeping through another door, and speeding towards my own room. My one thought was an intense desire to find myself in my bonnet and shawl. That, I felt, would be the first step towards further flight. Alas! not so easily was I destined to escape. My room was far off, and as I scamHe instantly dropped my hand. I was pered down one of the long passages, I fell glad of it, for I wanted to alter my position again into the arms of Lady Selling herself. so as to command the portière, feeling inIn that moment she had descried her stinctively that I might have some hope with "Robert, dear boy," riding across the park, Sir Robert alone. Alas! the bronze nose and was returning to tell me that the ex- was plainly visible. The chandelier cast a planation must be deferred. For the mo-bright light upon its whole length. Ig I gave The doubt lasted till Lady Markham had been talked into her usual after-dinner sleep in the drawing-room, and then it ceased. For Lady Selling looked at me with what was meant for a smile, beckoning me through the fatal portière, when I perceived Sir Robert waiting for me in the little drawing-room. She led me up to him, and placing my hand in his, cast her eyes to the middle compartment of the ceiling, and with an iron groan, expressive of intense satisfaction, once more left us. myself up for lost, and turned resignedly to Sir Robert. Apparently his mother had told him to say as little as possible, and had left him to select his own phraseology, as less dangerous on the whole; for he cleared his throat twice before he began, and then only said : "It seems I was mistaken this morning, Miss Benson. I'm very glad, I'm sure." He paused, waiting for an idea. His dull small eye sought Hume on the table. It was gone. The source of eloquence was withdrawn. I had the courage to hold my tongue. In vain! The portière quiv ered. "And I'm very glad, I'm sure," repeated poor Sir Robert, hastily; his eye seeking not mine, but the portière. "I suppose it's all right now, isn't it?" Hardly was it placed, however, before the portière was pulled aside, and Lady Selling marched into the room. Apparently she felt that it was time to embrace me as a daughter-in-law elect, although what gave her the horrid inspiration at that precise moment I know not. Certain it is that Sir Robert led me forward as she advanced, and with a groan which caused the very chandelier to vibrate, and a gesture which knocked over the backgammon-board, she received me into her voluminous shawl. "This is as it should be, my children." said she a sentiment which found no echo in my breast, especially as at that moment one of my ear-rings catching in her lace, I was detained a close prisoner, my ear pinioned to her shoulder, and it was not without difficulty that I was extricated. Nor was this all. Holding my hand, she drew the arm-chair in which reposed my kind friend Lady Markham. She placed me side by side with her son before that chair, and in set terms she announced our engagement. This plainly demanded an answer, and I, also looking fixedly at the bronze nose on which the light gleamed yet more bril-me into the next room, and led me up to liantly, faintly murmured, "Yes; oh yes!" The dull eye really gleamed for one moment, as with an air of intense relief and satisfaction, which plainly said, "That's a good thing over," he pulled two arm-chairs before the fire, and motioning me into one, placed himself in the other, and relapsed into the silence which was natural to him. How long we sat thus I know not. To me it seemed centuries; and when next I had the opportunity of looking in the glass, I fully expected to see grey hairs and wrinkles. Nothing came to break the horrible silence of that hour, save the falling of the cinders from the grate, the ticking of the clock, and an occasional groan from one or other of the old ladies in the next room. "If this is being engaged," thought I, "what must it be to be married!" for you know at school we had always thought the engagement must be the best fun of the two. Now Lady Markham had a little way of her own of sleeping with her eyes more than half open; and as she was very old, very wrinkled, and very fat, it required an intimate acquaintance with her to ascertain whether she was in the land of dreams or of reality. At this moment even I felt in doubt on the subject, but mother and son felt none. One continued to pronounce her solemn sentences, and the other to enforce them with stiff bows, which nearly convulsed me with laughter; while dear Lady Markham nodded emphatically at one or the other, and more than once opened one eye. The sudden cessation of Lady Selling's voice appeared really to rouse her for one moment, and she looked up with a puzzled expression which convinced me that until that moment she had slept. Seeing us all standing up before her, she became aware that something was expected of her, and collecting all her energies she nodded twice at Lady Selling, saying: 66 Told ye so, mee dear; told ye so! Sad stuff! sad stuff!" then tapping me on the cheek with her fan, she caught sight of Sir Robert still bowing before her; and, making a great effort to shake hands with him, muttered a sleepy hope that he had enjoyed himself, and sunk back into undoubted sleep: nay, snoring under our very eyes. The bronze colour on Lady Selling's face deepened considerably, and Sir Robert looked at his mother. She was, however, far too much a woman of the world to give vent to her anger, and turning to me she said: "Having received the sanction and blessing of her who stands in the place of a mother to you, my child, I think you would do well to withdraw." What passed after my departure I do not know; but the first thing I heard the next morning was that my dear old guardian had had a fit. She was subject to fits of a distressing, but not of a dangerous nature, and I do not wish you to infer that this one was caused by anything the Sellings had said or done. I imagine that it was coming on when I left the room. I was accustomed to hear of these attacks, and was on this occasion chiefly affected by the immediate consequence, which was the departure of the Sellings. Words cannot describe my delight on hearing that Lady Selling thought it right to telegraph for Lady Markham's sister, and take away her "Robert, dear boy," by the first convenient train. That train, alas! did not allow of their leaving the house until one o'clock, and I had to endure two interviews before that hour; one short one with Lady Selling, and a mortal two hours with her son. Lady Selling blessed me three times more: once on wishing me good-morning, once at the commencement, once at the close of our interview. I think she considered each blessing another link to the chain which bound me to her son. She told me that in the present state of my dear guardian's health she felt it a duty to withdraw from Markham Hall; but that as our engagement had received Lady Markham's sanction, there could be no reason for concealing it. She intended to write to all her friends, and hoped that I would do the same. She gave me a letter which she desired me to present to Lady Markham as soon as she should be able to attend to it, which she trusted would be the case in a few days. She concluded by hoping that I would not fail to reply to the letters which "Robert, dear boy," would as a matter of course address to me. For once in my life I did not give the required assent. I was far too frightened to speak. I felt that the meshes were being drawn tighter around me, and that every moment rendered my escape more hopeless. Yet even then I could not summon courage to pronounce the negative which my heart prompted, and which almost rose to my lips. My silence availed me nothing. She took my assent for granted, and left me to Sir Robert; warning us that we had only two hours to pass together, and grimly advising us to make the most of it and to be as happy as possible, and adding as she left the room; "Under existing circumstances, dear boy, no subject can be so interesting to our dear Charlotte as the annals of the family of which she is about to become a member.". 7 Well did she know the "dear boy" with whom she had to deal! It was the only subject on which he could talk, and for those two mortal hours he kept me listening to the genealogy of the family of Selling! He began at the Selling who came over with William the Conqueror, and he only stopped at his own great-grandfather because the carriage was announced. I had to listen to the names of their wives and children, to their many sins and few virtues; and when the charming butler interrupted us, Sir Robert apologized for leaving his tale incomplete, and promised to send me the rest in his first letter! Oh the ecstasy of seeing them drive off! of knowing that for three or four days, until Lady Markham could read her letter, I might dismiss them entirely from my mind! For me there need be no Sellings in the world, for that time at least, and I seized the astonished Harry by both hands, and positively danced around the hall with glee. Alas! my joy was short-lived. I was stopped in my career by the very butler who, ten minutes before, had appeared to me as an angel of light, and who now assumed to my mind the form of the blackest of demons, as he handed me a note from M. Carl Toolou. That audacious little foreigner informed me that he had been on his way to call on Lady Markham to make mention to her of the engagement which the most charming of mesdemoiselles had been graciously pleased to enter upon with his unworthy self. Hearing, however, at the lodge of the sudden illness of that most venerable and excellent miladi, he did not at the present moment venture to intrude; but he trusted to mademoiselle's kindness to walk herself towards the Brown Beeches that after luncheon towards the three o'olock. The groan which I uttered on reading this tissue of impertinence would have been worthy of Lady Selling herself. Harry was busy making his dog stand upright, or he must have noticed it. But, oh, to the end of my days I shall bless that boy; for at the precise moment, I may say the crisis of my fate, he exclaimed, "I say, Lottie, now these people are gone I suppose you really can ride. May I order the horses at half-past two?" "Yes. Oh, a thousand times yes!" I exclaimed; and at half-past two we started. "Shall we go to the common?" said I, | the hall-table. I knew that Lady Markfor once hazarding a suggestion, for I knew ham's sister, Miss Max, must have arrived that this must take us far from the Brown by this time. I knew her to be an old maid Beeches. Imagine my horror when he replied: "Not to day, Lottie, please. Keeper has a dog to show me, and I want to call at his house." "Keeper! His house was at the very spot I dreaded. There was no remedy, and we cantered off: my one hope being that we should arrive too early. No such luck. I at once perceived the dreaded figure among the trees, and I entreated Harry not to leave me alone on my horse, in a voice of agony, which only served to amuse him. He went into the house, and Monsieur Carl advanced. "Hélas!" said he; "I am désolé. I see that Mademoiselle has not been able to escape from the cher cousin." I felt myself colouring crimson. His sharp eyes were fixed on my face, his hand was on my horse's neck. He went on Yes," said I once more. "And après," he went on, speaking very quickly and coming very near, après, Mademoiselle shall be free as air- to come to go n'est-ce pas ? and then she shall see once more her poor dévoué Carl." And my poor dévoué Carl stepped back to lift his hat to Harry, who shook hands with him with all the rough cordiality of an English schoolboy, supposed he was come down again to worry his old pupils, and, vaulting into his saddle, with a "Come on, Lottie, and a cheerful nod to the little drawing-master, extricated me from my most embarrassing position with an unconscious ease which caused me to bless him fervently to myself for the second time that day, as I blushingly returned Mons. Carl's profound bow and cantered down the park. And now, my dears, I must tell you that that two hours' ride was the only time of real peace which I passed between my leaving school and my marriage. For two hours I threw off all thought of my annoyances and engagements, and gave myself up to the pleasure of the moment. without so much as a nephew to assist her through the journeys and railroads of life, and the sight of that hat struck a chill of fear to my heart. It was not a servant's hat. There could be no doubt about it. It was of finest quality, sleek and glossy, with the name of a Bond Street tradesman and an unexceptionable glove inside for I peeped. I flew to my room, where I passed the time in agonies of perplexity as I thought of the past, and of fearful antici pation as the future, in the shape of the dinner-hour, approached. - The last bell rang. It was necessary to go down. In the drawing-room I found Miss Max, a parrot, and — alas! too truly -a young man. Miss Max was exactly like a squashed toad with a large oval face. The parrot kept saying absurd things, and then looking the other way and pretending it had not said them. The young man was talking with extraordinary rapidity, and he hardly stopped to be introduced to me. He was giving Miss Max a detailed and most minute description of his good management during the journey they had that day ac complished together, which struck me as rather unnecessary. He talked on all dinner-time, and was still talking, principally of himself, when we left the room. ten minutes which elapsed before he rejoined us, Miss Max explained to me most graphically the relations which existed between herself, the parrot, and her young ma whose name I may as well here mention w James Kennet. In the She informed me that she had been living in a state of original sin until the 23d of August, 18, at ten minutes past four precisely. At that hour a dear friend had taken her, rather against her will, to listen to the sweet counsel which was expected to fall from the lips of a reformed drunkard. Unfortunately the drunkard was out. His wife believed that he had gone to speak a word in season at the gin-shop round the corner. She went to fetch him, and the friends waited. In the pause which ensued, Miss Max distinctly heard a strange and scarcely human voice exclaim, three times in rapi succession "Oh fie! oh fie! oh fie!" She was immediately struck with a sense of inbred sin, nor was the impression lessened by the discovery that the voice em nated from a parrot in a corner of the room. She went home smitten to the heart, and I had hardly entered the house before the being a woman of decision, she at once cloud returned. I saw a gentleman's hat on | formed two resolutions. First, To purchase i |