the house, caused his Lordship to go with precipitation to the window, and he beheld Miss Clermont, Miss Herbert, Mr. Clermont, and Captain Danesford, at the very threshold. Captain Danesford appeared to be endeavouring to lead Miss Clermont away, and she was laughing, and declaring she would know the secret. It seems that a board, put up announcing the adjoining house was to let, had been mistaken by Miss Clermont, as designating that one, which the Lanti inhabited, and she said she was looking out for such a house for a friend of hers, and thought it would exactly suit her.

Captain Danesford had whispered to Mr. Clermont, who was walking some way behind the ladies, and they endeavoured to deter them from going in; but the more they did so, the greater was their curiosity, and Miss Herbert being swift of foot, ran on, and was actually at the door, when the rest of the party followed.

Banyan, whose ears still tingled with the idea of the vitriol his kind mistress had spoken of pouring into them, guessed that the arrival of strangers would not be agreeable to her; and, grinning and bowing, he had opened the door wide, and made signs to Miss Herbert's inquiries, if the house was to be let, in the affirmative; she said, "Why do you not speak?"

He again signed that he was dumb.

"Poor boy!" putting half-a-crown into his hand; "so you will show us the house." And she advanced into it, just as the rest of her party followed; the gentlemen, distressed at their wilfulness, and Miss Clermont apparently enjoying their evident confusion. But, when Sarah Herbert beheld her father, in an instant her spirits sank; they stood opposite each other in silence, and in utter dismay. The signora was the first to recover her presence of mind; she affected to take Miss Herbert's visit as one made to herself, inquired for Lady Herbert; and, when Miss Clermont and her brother, and Captain Danesford followed, she declared herself delighted to see such a bevy of friends. "Lord Herbert had just come," she said, "to propose a soirée musicale at Herbert House, and to settle the day, and now Miss Herbert would help them in choosing what music she should sing."

She did the honour of her abode with perfect composure; but Lord Herbert could not rally himself into being natural, and, declaring he would leave it to the ladies to determine in so weighty an affair, he wished the

Lanti good day; and, calling to Banyan to order his cabriolet, who made signs that it was in the stable, his lordship left the room.

Miss Herbert wished to do so likewise; but Miss Clermont seemed bent on remaining longer. She professed herself to be tired, and, sitting down, began to converse with the signora. She asked her for how long she had had the house, and what was its price, and a thousand particulars respecting herself and her engagements as a public singer, with an apparent interest, which pleased the Lanti, and which she replied to with a mixture of ingenuousness and impudence which would have been very amusing to a mere studier of character; but which Miss Clermont turned to another account. At length, the Lanti addressed herself to Mr. Clermont, and asked him how it chanced that he had returned from sea so soon? He said that his ship had been unexpectedly recalled in order to be appointed to another station. And when Miss Clermont had gained all the information she wanted, they left the Hermitage.

Miss Herbert's countenance betrayed the shock she had felt in having seen her father visiting the Lanti, but she said nothing; and to Miss Clermont's observation, that it had been an unexpected pleasure to get a glimpse of Lord Herbert, she only answered, that it was very good in her papa to take the trouble of setting the arrangement of the concert which he intended to give.

"I commend your prudence, my dear Miss Herbert. It is quite right. I am happy to see you have profited by my advice; on former occasions, you were not used to be so discreet.

As soon as the Lanti was left alone, she called, in no voice of harmony, to Banyan.

"You little dog, you, how came you dare to let all dose vimen into my hose? Come near, you vero démonio”– and she almost pulled off one of his ears. "You are deaf, Mostro Nero? Oh! you no answer,"-slapping him.

Banyan opened his mouth, and grinned, pointing to show that he could not speak.

"Ay, and you shall be deaf, too, before long, I can tell you."

The little victim danced upon his feet, first on one, then on the other; and grinned from ear to ear.

"Vat, you dare to laugh, Corpo di Bacco; you shall smart for it." And, taking up a whip that she had for

her dogs, she ran after the unfortunate boy, crying out, "Régalo, régalo, pel Banyan," and licked him most unmercifully round and round the room, till he escaped by jumping out of the window.

So much for the Signora Lanti's feminine graces.

CHAPTER XV.

'Tis very true; I thought you once as fair
As women in th' idea are;

Whatever here seems beauteous seem'd to be

But a faint metaphor of thee.

But then methought there something show'd within,
Which cast this lustre o'er thy skin.

But since I know thy falsehood, and thy pride,
And all thy thousand faults beside;

A very Moor, methinks, placed near to thee,
White as his teeth would seem to be.

Nay, when the world but knows how false you are,
There's not a man will think you fair.

COWLEY.

THE day was come on which Lord de Montmorenci had promised to meet Miss Herbert, and on which she trusted to procure the portion of her fortune which she demanded from him. They met alone in the drawing-room, having watched their opportunity, or rather Miss Herbert having done so; for Lord de Montmorenci earnestly hoped that her mother would come in, and insist upon knowing the cause of her child's agitation. He had even doubted whether or not it were his duty to inform Lord Herbert of the circumstance, notwithstanding his extorted promise of secrecy; and, but for a too certain guess at the motive of Lord Herbert's demands on his child, he would have done so. But he could not bear the idea of paining Lady Herbert, by a discovery of her husband's entanglements with unworthy objects, which he knew had been the chief cause of the derangement of his affairs; and Lord de Montmorenci had taken the resolution of advancing the money himself, run

ning the risk of losing it, rather than suffer Lady Herbert, or her daughter, to become the victims of Lord Herbert's delinquencies.

In few words, therefore, he informed Miss Herbert of his determination, and told her that the money she had demanded was lying at his banker's hands, placed there in her name, and subject to her disposal.

Miss Herbert called him her protector, her friend.

"Not, only," she said, "my guardian, but my guardian angel."

"You distress me, dear Miss Herbert. I have only done what every true friend would have done in my place; but, it is necessary that I should warn you, this is the last pecuniary sacrifice I will make. You forbid me to speak to Lord Herbert on the subject (although I feel conscious that this money must be requisite to him, not to you,) or rather, you imply that I must not do so, for you have commanded my secrecy towards every one in regard to the transaction; otherwise I should have warned your father of the dangers he incurs by associating with those who make him pay for all their vices."

"Whatever you may think, Lord de Montmorenci, I implore you not to say a word to papa; he would hate you, and would banish you his house, and we should never see you again, and I should be so sorry."

The deep expression of anguish which marked Miss Herbert's countenance, and her attitude of eager supplication, as she clasped her hands together, were to Lord de Montmorenci irresistible. He promised her that he would not divulge one word of the transaction to any person.

Miss Herbert gradually recovered composure.

"I may tell papa, then," she said, after remaining some time silent, "I may tell him that the money is in banking house. Bless you, bless you, dear Lord de Montmorenci, for having thus arranged the business. I was in despair. I thought I saw mamma struggling to conceal some hidden sorrow; and as for papa, I feared something too terrible to put into words; but you have now delivered us from all these threatened dangers. Thank you, again and again."

Lady Herbert entered. She looked at her daughter, and then at Lord de Montmorenci; she was certain they had been conversing on some subject of unusual interest, but she said nothing till she was alone with her child. Then she asked,

"Tell me, Sarah, of what were you discoursing, when I came into the room. I know that of late you have been much agitated; something has occurred which you have concealed from me. Oh! my child! the first beginning of wretchedness in families is concealment; even if we have something to blame ourselves for, better tell it to those most dear to us, than hide it from them. The evils are incalculable which grow out of a system of disguise; those who practise it enter upon a labyrinth, the mazes of which they can seldom penetrate, or pass through in safety. Sarah, dearest, remember, that one step in the career of deceit, inevitably leads on to a thousand; if you would enjoy peace, have no secrets from your nearest and dearest relatives."

Miss Herbert threw her arms about her mother's neck, and sobbed audibly.

Lady Herbert endeavoured to sooth and compose her; but it was with great difficulty she succeeded, and she was aware that her daughter had a secret which she would not disclose to her.

This new cause of sorrow threw an additional gloom over her which she could not dispel. Hitherto Sarah had been to her a source of unmixed bliss; she was the sunny spot on her dark horizon, the nucleus on which her existence turned; but every worldly trust is unstable, the most hallowed affections are apt to degenerate into idol-worship, and then they are cast down and broken.

"If Sarah ceases to love me," thought Lady Herbert, "I only wish to die; no hold remains to me in life."

To feelings such as Lady Herbert's there is no medium in happiness, the common degrees of affection, which constitute the acme of others' capabilities of loving, were not the hundredth part of what she had to bestow; but then she required an equal return, and where could she expect to find it?

While Lady Herbert brooded over the mystery which her daughter tacitly refused to explain, Lord Herbert was in a state of anxiety and perplexity more harrowing still, because it was self-created. He rang the bell so violently that Lady Herbert, in an agony of fear, ran down to his study.

"What do you want, Mabel?" he asked, in an angry

voice.

She said she feared he was not well, or that some accident had occurred,