Barton, in having her quiet and orderly family disturbed by such an inmate."

"I never before heard that Mrs Barton's family was either quiet or orderly; but even if it were, I don't see how Mr Gordon's presence can be any annoyance."

"Ah! my dear Miss Osborne, I see you know very little about him. Mrs Barton told me in confidence, that ever since he came there, the house has been turned upside down. Mrs Smellarat,' says she to me, it's not to be told the plagues that laddie brings on me. When we were by ourselves, Mr Barton, honest man, slipped away to his bed by eight o'clock; but now,-what between playing piquet with Neddy, as he calls him, and cracking about shipwrecks and Jack-tars,-I can never get him to his bed till ten or eleven o'clock at night; and you, Mrs Smellarat,' said she,' that know I never hear a word out of his mouth for months thegither, may guess how confounded I was to hear him lilting away at-" On board of the Arethusa," and beating time

with his crutch to the skirling of that laddie's flute.'"

"Really, madam," replied Charlotte, "I cannot sympathize with Mrs Barton's complaints; on the contrary, I think Mr Gordon employs his time in a most praiseworthy manner, when he devotes it to amusing his uncle, to whose kindness he is so much indebted."

"As you very sensibly observe, he does owe a great deal to Mr Barton, who, I am told, had much difficulty in preventing his father from disinheriting him. Some sad story, I believe; one may be sure, when they hear of boys being packed off to sea, that it is all over with them on shore. I say nothing, however; the affair is none of mine; and since Mr Barton has been so imprudent as to allow him to have a haunt about the house, he must just make the best of it."

"I believe," retorted Charlotte, indignant at these aspersions on her lover," if the truth were known, it would be found"

"I am quite of your opinion, that, if the

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the known, it would be found that Maton had done a very imprudent

domesticating this young man in amily, and Nancy grown up too. But is not all,-Mrs Barton told me herthat when she returned home the other from paying a few visits, she happened into the kitchen, and there she found two sailors, sitting at a table set out with

cold beef, and bread and cheese, and Mr Edward cutting slices as thick as a divot from the good round of beef; and when she went up stairs to learn the meaning of this wastery, she found Mr Barton rummaging in the press for ale and whisky; and when he saw Mrs Barton looking very ill pleased, he tried to excuse the extravagance, by saying, that one of the men had saved Edward's life when he was wrecked in the Mediterranean, and the other (whom Mrs Barton said they called a lolly boy, though she declared he could not be less than fifty) had nursed him during a violent fever, and that they both had walked the whole way from Hull on purpose to

see him. I understand that Mr Edward divided his purse between them, so I suppose he will sorn on my poor friends the Bartons till his pay-day comes round again."

"Allow me," said Charlotte, with high displeasure in every look and tone," to tell you

"That he is a great flirt," interrupted Mrs Smellarat; "I fancy there is little doubt of that fact; they say he has carried matters pretty far with several ladies-I left him just now on the sands in full chase of a very pretty girl who was walking there. Perhaps you have seen Miss Lennox-I am sure he would have spoken to her had she not been attended by one of her numerous admirers."

- Charlotte having discovered the malice which dictated these remarks, determined not to give her tormentor the triumph of knowing she had inflicted pain. Assuming therefore an air of unconcern, she replied carelessly, that she did not wonder at his

admiration of Miss Lennox, who was certainly a very lovely woman.

Pray, how is your cousin Mr Russell? have you seen him lately?"

"He is perfectly well, and I hope will soon be in Edinburgh."

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Perhaps he is there already."
Perhaps he is."

Maybe a little nearer," retorted Mrs Smellarat, looking significantly at Philip's hat, which her prying eyes had discovered under the sofa, when, seeing by Charlotte's glowing cheeks and eyes sparkling with indignation, that her patience and forbearance were exhausted, she gently tapped her shoulder and saying "Young ladies will have their secrets, but you may depend on my silence," she hastily departed, leaving Charlotte undecided whether to laugh or cry at the impertinence and malice of her unwelcome visitor.

As soon as the Busy-Body was gone, Charlotte called her brother from his place