task on these occasions than the ascent, and now rendered more slippery and perilous by the rain. He was exposed all this time to the view of the party, and had the mortification to hear a loud peal of laughter at his expense, led by the cruel Dacres, at whose instigation he had composed the speech, and ascended the tower. He, however, reached terra firma in safety, inwardly vowing never more to be made a fool of by one who styled herself his colleague. Upon joining the unsympathizing knot of fashionables he found Sir Gilbert, whom Miss Dacres now openly called Goose Gibbie, seated on a heap of stones in a corner of the building with his boot off, ascertaining the extent of the damage his shin had sustained by coming in contact with the unyielding root table. Foley Ogle, by order of the lady, was obliged to give up his place in Miss Dacres's nondescript carriage to the suffering baronet, whose horse he mounted.

The contusion of Sir Gilbert was not the

only pain he had to suffer; as Miss Dacres, with pretended sympathy and much mock gravity, gave him a lecture on the impropriety of so impetuous an attack upon and so decided a hankering after the good things of this world as he had evinced at the luncheon-tabe, and which had proved in fact the cause of his accident. She indulged him also with two fables and a fairy tale before they arrived at the abbey, the whole of which were easy of comprehension to

child of five years old. All Sir Gilbert could do was to swear at the table, including in his own mind the fair charioteer. None cared what they uttered before the Dacres, so long as it did not happen to be personal to her. She was in fact, as Lord William Capel said, "one of us," could pull a horse's mane, and cut his tail, and on occasion take her own part. This qualification, however, had not as yet been put to the test. Altogether the party went off, the latter part at least, as most affairs of the kind do, heavily. The rain had damped the ardour

of the gentlemen, and the ladies were tired and out of spirits. Foley Ogle on the return had quickly begun to feel uncomfortable sensations. Opal's stirrups were rather long for him, but he would not have them altered, protesting that he could do very well without any; he therefore, at starting, had thrown them across the pommel of the saddle, but the iron coming in contact with his upper leg, he was obliged to let them down, and before the Ogle's foot found its place in the stirrup, his instep was severely bruised, from the excusable wish Opal's horse evinced to get back to his stable; and as this prince of puppies had on that day as usual, when he did not purpose riding, sported tight pantaloons, thin shoes, and silk stockings, the better to display his Apollo legs, it may be imagined how very little satisfaction he derived from this unexpected equitation.

Hyde and Lady Georgina were silent during the whole of the ride back. Reflections, thoughts, and anticipations of future happiness,

so completely absorbed their minds, that all other conversation after that which had taken place in the first part of the morning, seemed "stale, flat, and unprofitable;" and unable now to resume that delightful species of communion, they found themselves quite unequal to the task of any other. Neither had Hyde an opportunity during the whole of that evening of again alluding to the morning's topic. A gentle pressure of the hand, given and returned, unperceived of all others, was the only proof of how the mind of each was engaged.

CHAP. IX.

Were it not as well to leave out "honour ?"

SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL.

AFTER the observations Herbert had made during the ride to Brabazon Castle, he thought himself justified in concluding that it was a done thing; the young couple were of course to be married. If confirmation of this were want-ing, he had it in the fact of Hyde and Lord Malmesbridge being engaged in close conversation for more than half an hour that evening,