but Julia's yet remained. She therefore exerted herself to listen to it, as follows:

"MY DEAR AUNT,-I hope neither you nor my uncle will be angry with me for having followed Madame de Villebois' advice, which was, that I should set off for Paris, under the present favourable opportunity, as recommended by my dear brother. You appeared so averse, yesterday evening to my going, that I thought it would perhaps be better not to enter into any more discussion on the subject. Madame de Villebois told me, indeed, that in your delicate state of health I ought not to resume any conversation that might agitate your nerves, and above all, not to distress you by taking leave. She has shown me, also, that it would be more considerate in me towards my cousin Nicholas to withdraw myself, for a time, from his society, on account of the too partial regard he has manifested for me, and which you also, my dear aunt, were kind enough to wish me to return in a way which I am sure I never shall be able to do, though I shall always feel a sincere affection for him as your son, as well as being my dear mamma's nephew, and my own cousin.

"I should be very sorry, my dear aunt, for you to think I have behaved ill on this occasion, the first of my life wherein I have had to decide for myself. I assure you that until the arrival-to me totally unexpected-of the courier, I had not the most distant thoughts of leaving your kind protection; but my brother's desire to see me, and Madame de Villebois' arguments, overpowered my resolution; and I can now only hope that by the time I write to you from Paris, which I shall do immediately on my arrival, any momentary feelings of displeasure my sudden departure may have occasioned will have entirely passed away from your mind and so, with duty to my uncle, and love to my cousin, and thanks for all your kindness,

:

"I am, my dear aunt,

"Your affectionate neice,

"JULIA COURTNEY."

"Well! what a deceitful girl!" exclaim certain of our readers-females, of course; "downright wicked, I call it!" But pray, ladies, suspend your judgments. When Julia wrote that letter, she wrote nothing but what she believed to be the fact; but before we enter into any further explanation respecting its contents, we must observe the effect they produced upon her uncle and aunt, and upon her cousin Nicholas, who looked, on the hearing of them, very much like an unlucky schoolboy who sees the pet bird he has been endeavouring all the half-year to tame suddenly break its string and fly away over his head.

"What a dreadful thing!" exclaimed Mrs. Crosby, throwing herself on the sofa, and applying her vinaigrette to her nostrils. "All the country will get to hear of her leaving us

in this way, and they will think we have used her ill. Mr. Crosby, pray run yourself directly to the posting-houses, and see what horses have gone off this morning-perhaps we may be able to stop them, or to send after them!"

"Would it not be better, my dear," said Mr. Crosby. very calmly, and taking up his knife and fork again, "to consider first whether it may be advisable to stop them? It is pretty clear that Julia herself is tired of Crosby Housedepend upon it, that is at the bottom of all her illness. Her brother guesses, I dare say, that she has had enough of us— very likely she may have written to tell him so,—he very kindly sends for her. Madame de Villebois has been all agog to get to Paris ever since the thing was mentioned, and on the very first chance of carrying her point, she, like an artful French jade as she is, persuades Julia into this silly clandestine way of setting off all in a hurry, for fear we should clap a spoke in the wheel, and keep her till her brother could come for her himself."

Yes, Mr. Crosby, that has been it, sure enough, and a very silly disgraceful step it is, as you say. I shall leave Harrogate directly, for I know everybody will be talking about us."

'Why, my dear, as to that, if we hold our own tongues, most likely nobody will trouble their heads about the matter, or, indeed, need know anything about it. We can say the truth, and that is that an opportunity unexpectedly presented itself for her to go to Paris, to spend a few months with her brother. And, after all, her going away with an old woman, begging her pardon for calling her so, her governess (a fine governess, truly !), is not like her running off with some harum-scarum fellow of a young man.'

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No, dear child! she is too innocent, and has too much the look of her mother, ever to do anything of that sort, I am sure; or to think of anything of the kind. It would have broken my heart if there had been anything of love in the case; I should always be fancying my poor sister Courtney would be getting out of her grave to upbraid me for having taken such bad care of her child."

It was accordingly agreed among the Crosbys that they should keep the matter to themselves, and go out as usual; which they did for another week, when, finding that they

were neither looked at nor talked about more than before, they returned to Crosby House with a large stock of Harrogate water bottled up for their own private drinking. Nicholas tried to divert his mind from dwelling upon his absent cousin by resuming the study of the bullion question. Mrs. Crosby embraced the Homœopathic system, and Mr. Crosby walked about his "paternal acres," and gazed upon his bullocks, and calculated his incomings and outgoings as heretofore. But we must not forget that all this is an episode. Now, episodes ought not, according to established rules of proportion, to go beyond a single chapter, and here, behold, we have run into a third. It frightens us to look at it, and yet its subject-matter is not half done; so we must devote one more to Julia and her lover.

LORD ORVILLE had pressed Julia, in their very second interview, to a secret and immediate marriage with him; but she could not bear the idea of contracting so solemn, so indissoluble an engagement, without the knowledge and consent of her brother. "When Clement returns," said she, blushing as she spoke,

دو

"Celestial rosy red, Love's proper hue;"

"or, if I should go to Paris, and you should come whilst I am there- She stopped, and raised her eyes to him with an appealing eloquence that besought him not to urge her further. But this proposition, though he admired and loved her all the more for the sense of duty and propriety it denoted, by no means suited his lordship's views. He knew very well that Courtney, whether he should return to England or remain in Paris, would never consent to Julia's marriage with him—not even after he came of age, so long as the Earl of Maltravers should withhold his approbation of the union ; nor could he hope to be absent from Maltravers Hall for more than a few days at a time, without awakening suspicion

in his father's mind; and he was certain that should a marriage contracted in his minority be discovered by the earl he would immediately cause it to be set aside. This danger, at any rate, he might have obviated, simply by waiting till he was of age but Lord Orville never had waited, and moreover thought that Lord Orville never ought to wait for anything he wished to attain.

That same morning Madame de Villebois found, on looking at the silk she had bought the day before, that she had mistaken the "shad." She therefore sallied out again alone, and at precisely the same hour, to rectify the error, according to her own statement of her errand. Chancing to take the confectioner's en route, she found out that an ice strawberry would be very refreshing, at that precise moment; she accordingly entered, and in the inner-room, by wonderful sympathy of taste, she found Shirley with two glasses of the tempting material that instant placed before him. With the discussion of their ices came the discussion also of the plan of Shirley, which ended in the appearance, that evening, of Constantino, the courier at Crosby House No sooner was Madame de Villebois alone with Julia, in her bedroom, than she opened the full battery of her arguments with her pupil respecting their immediate departure for Paris. In general it is very easy to convince the judgment when the will is on the same side of the question. Still Julia hesitated and trembled. She longed to see her brother; she should be miserable to be kept away from him -to have to pass the long dull winter at Crosby House-to see Lord Orville no more, for many months, perhaps never! But then her aunt would think it so unkind to leave her so abruptly; perhaps it would make her ill.

"It will make her much worse ill," said Madame de Villebois, "to see that pauvre cher terrible Monsieur Nicholas, fret himself into one atrophy, or tic-doloureux, with always looking at your beautiful face."

"Ah, madam, I dare say you are right! I should indeed be grieved to let this opportunity of going to my dear brother escape me; and perhaps it may be better to go away without saying good-bye to my aunt, than to vex her by persisting in going out of the house in open day, and in the face of every one, contrary to her wishes."

"Ah, now you are one dear raisonnable enfant, cher cœur! if you were one own daughter of me, I could not love you more better !"

"How kind you are, madame? how anxious for my happiness!" exclaimed Julia, as she threw herself into Madame de Villebois' open arms, and gave vent to her varied and contending feelings in a flood of tears. Madame de Villebois strained her to her breast, and whilst she held her there made a rapid calculation in her own mind of what was to be done regarding the preparations for the journey, and how many days might elapse ere the bona fide settlement upon her of two hundred a year for life might be placed in her own hands. Her first step was to prevail upon Julia to go to bed; her next, when she had seen her safely curtained up, to ascertain that the Crosbys also had retired for the night. She then descended to the bureau of the Granby, where she had a short interview with the courier, who was accompanied by a porter with a hand-barrow. She remounted the staircase, and in less than half an hour the courier and the porter departed, the hand-barrow laden with trunks, the greater number of which were to be placed in a warehouse for Madame de Villebois, under another name, till sent for: one small trunk of Julia's and a few packages were for the journey.

At break of day Madame de Villebois stood at Julia's bedside, with hot coffee. She then, herself all ready equipped for starting, assisted her to dress, hastening her as much as possible, in order to leave her no time for reflection. They then softly descended the stairs, and found the faithful Constantino waiting for them in the hall, talking to the night porter, who, accustomed to early departures, as well late arrivals, saw nothing extraordinary in the proceeding; and if he had, would speedily have merged his wonder into admiration and gratitude on seeing a sovereign remedy against tale-telling glittering in his hand as he opened the ponderous door to give the ladies egress.

Just out of sight of the front of the house was waiting not the warm and well-hung travelling chariot, but a post-chaise, which, from the splashes on its wheels and windows, appeared to have recently performed some of the stages that belonged to its vocation, as hack. Julia, however, saw nothing but

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