Astonished at a conduct so incomprehensible, Douglas earnestly besought an explanation.

66

"There!" cried she, at length, pushing the towards him: paper see there what I might have been but for you; and then compare it with what you have made me ! "

Confounded by this reproach, Henry eagerly snatched up the paper, and his eye instantly fell on the fatal paragraph; the poisoned dart that struck the death-blow to all that now remained to him of happiness—the fond idea that, even amidst childish folly, and capricious estrangement, still, in the main, he was beloved! With a quivering lip, and cheek blanched with mortification, and indignant contempt, he laid down the paper; and, without casting a look upon, or uttering a word to, his once adored and adoring Juliana, quitted the apartment in all that bitterness of spirit, which a generous nature must feel, when it first discovers the fallacy of a cherished affection. Henry had, indeed, ceased to regard his wife with the ardour of romantic passion; nor had the solid feelings of affectionate esteem supplied its place: but he loved her still, because he believed himself the engrossing object of her tenderness; and, in that blest delusion, he had hitherto found palliatives for her folly, and consolation for all his own distresses.

But

To indifference he might for a time have remained insensible; because, though his feelings were strong, his perceptions were not acute. the veil of illusion was now rudely withdrawn. He beheld himself detested where he imagined himself adored; and the anguish of disappointed affection was heightened by the stings of wounded pride, and deluded self-love.

CHAPTER XVII

"What's done, cannot be undone; to bed, to bed, to bed!"-Macbeth.

THE

'HE distance at which the whist party had placed themselves, and the deep interest in which their senses were involved, while the fate of the odd trick was pending, had rendered them insensible to the scene that was acting at the other extremity of the apartment. The task of administering succour to the afflicted fair one therefore devolved upon Miss Becky, whose sympathetic powers never had been called into action before. Slowly approaching the wretched Lady Juliana as she lay back in her chair, the tears coursing each other down her cheeks, she tendered her a smelling bottle, to which her own nose, and the noses of her sisters, were wont to be applied, whenever, as they choicely expressed it, they wanted "a fine smell." But, upon this trying occasion, she went still further she unscrewed the stopper; unfolded a cotton handerchief, upon which she poured a few drops of lavender water, and offered it to her Ladyship, deeming that the most elegant and efficient manner in which she could afford relief. But the well-meant offering was silently waved off; and poor Miss Becky, having done all that the light of reason suggested to her, retreated to her seat,

:

wondering what it was her fine sister-in-law would be at.

By the time the rubber was ended, her Ladyship's fears of Lady Maclaughlan had enabled her to conquer her feelings so far, that they had now sunk into a state of sullen dejection, which the good aunts eagerly interpreted into the fatigue of the journey. Miss Grizzy declaring, that although the drive was most delightful-nobody could deny that—and they all enjoyed it excessively, as indeed everybody must who had eyes in their head, yet she must own, at the same time, that she really felt as if all her bones were broke.

A general rising therefore took place at an early hour, and Lady Juliana, attended by all the females of the party, was ushered into the chamber of state, which was fitted up in a style acknowleged to be truly magnificent, by all who had ever enjoyed the honour of being permitted to gaze on its white velvet bed-curtains surmounted by the family arms, and gracefully tucked up by hands sinistercouped at the wrists, etc. But lest my fashionable readers should be of a different opinion, I shall refrain from giving an inventory of the various articles with which this favoured chamber was furnished. Misses Grizzy and Jacky occupied the green room, which had been fitted up at Sir Sampson's birth; the curtains hung at a respectful distance from the ground; the chimney-piece was far beyond the reach even of the majestic Jacky's arm; and the painted tiffany toilette was covered with a shoal of little tortoise-shell boxes of all shades and sizes. A grim visage, scowling from under a Highland bonnet, graced by a single black feather, hung on high. Miss Grizzy placed her

self before it, and, holding up the candle, contemplated it about the nine hundredth time, with an awe bordering almost on adoration.

"Certainly Sir Eneas must have been a most wonderful man-nobody can deny that; and there can be no question but he had the second-sight to the greatest degree-indeed, I never heard it disputed; many of his prophecies, indeed, seem to have been quite incomprehensible; but that is so much the more extraordinary, you know - for instance, the one with regard to our family," lowering her voice "for my part I declare I never could comprehend it; and yet there must be something in it, too; but how any branch of the Glenfern tree of course, you know, that can only mean the family tree-should help to prop Lochmarlie walls, is what I can't conceive. If Sir Sampson had a son, to be sure, some of the girls-for you know it can't be any of us; at least I declare for my own part-I'm sure even if anything-which I trust, in goodness, there is not the least chance of-should ever happen to dear Lady Maclaughlan, and Sir Sampson should take it into his head-which, of course, is a thing not to be thought about-and indeed I'm quite convinced it would be very much out of respect to dear Lady Maclaughlan, as well as friendship for us, if such a thing was ever to come into his head."

Here the tender Grizzy got so involved in her own ideas, as to the possibility of Lady Maclaughlan's death, and the propriety of Sir Sampson's proposals, together with the fulfilling of Sir Eneas the seer's prophecy, that there is no saying how far she strayed in her self-created labyrinth. Such as choose to follow her may.

For our part, we prefer accompanying the youthful Becky to her chamber, whither she was also attended by the lady of the mansion. Becky's destiny for the night lay at the top of one of those little straggling wooden stairs common in old houses, which creaked in all directions. The bed was placed in a recess dark as Erebus, and betwixt the bed and the wall was a depth profound, which Becky's eyes dared not attempt to penetrate.

"You will find everything right here, child," said Lady Maclaughlan; "and if anything should be wrong, you must think it right. I never suffer anything to be wrong here-humph! Becky, emboldened by despair, cast a look towards the recess; and, in a faint voice, ventured to inquire, "Is there no fear that Tom Jones, or Gil Blas, may be in that place behind the bed?

"And if they should," answered her hostess, in her most appalling tone, "what is that to you? Are you a mouse, that you are afraid they will eat you? Yes, I suppose you are. You are perhaps the princess in the fairy tale, who was a woman by day, and a mouse by night. I believe you are bewitched! So I wish your mouse-ship a good night." And she descended the creaking stair, singing,

"Mrs. Mouse, are you within?"

till even her stentorian voice was lost in the distance. Poor Becky's heart died with the retreating sound, and only revived to beat time with the worm in the wood. Long and eerie was the night, as she gave herself up to all the horrors of a superstitious mind-ghosts, grey, black, and white, fitted around her couch-cats, half human,