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comprehensive class. Judging by analogy, the world is prone to believe that the mind which cannot bend must needs be strongs they might has reasonably conclude that the rigidity of the muscles induced by rheumatism is an evidence of vigour. Lord Trevanian had the full benefit of this mistake, palpable as it was. From his repulsive habits he had scarcely any intimate acquaintance, a circumstance that kept up the popular delusion as to his character; for those who knew him well, were at no loss to discover that in spite of the hauteur and solemn inflexibility which he affected, he was the selfish, heartless, servile tool of the ministryg utterly empty and ignorant upon many points, of which he arrogated a superior knowledge, while he was shallow and superficial upon all

In the most important step of life he had committed a blunder, which surprised all those who were willing to take his judgment at his own valuation. He had married a woman for her beauty who was as superior to him in ta lent, as she was unfitted for him in every other respect. Lady Trevanian yielding to the im

portunity of her parents, and dazzled by the prospect of a splendid alliance, found herself soon after her marriage the miserable wife of a man whose understanding she despised, from whose principles she dissented, to whose person she was indifferent, and whose frigid stateliness of manner appeared to her at once ridiculous and revolting. It might have been difficult to pronounce to which of this ill-assorted couple the marriage yoke proved the most galling; they wore it notwithstanding for three or four weary wrangling years, when they formed a rather unusual compact. A separate maintenance and establishment for Lady Trevanian, by rendering this disagreement notorious, would not only have convicted his Lordship of a glaring mistake in his choice, but would have called upon him for pecuniary sacrifices, which he always contemplated with aversion, for he covet ed money on account of the power and supe riority which he imagined it to confer: a compromise was therefore made which spared both his pride and his purse. They agreed to occupy the separate wings of Trevanian House, their

London residence, an extensive pile which allowed such an arrangement without any material inconvenience; while the state rooms in the centre were appropriated to such grand political dinners or festive parties, as it might suit either of them to give, on which occasions they met together, not indeed with the cordial delight of mutual affection, but with the cold urbanity of well-bred people, who respected themselves too much to let the world perceive how little they respected each other.

Although Lady Trevanian was a woman of spirit and talent, she evinced in all matters of conduct a lamentable want of judgment, of which she never afforded a more striking evidence than when she decided that she was now at full liberty to disregard appearances, and to act as she pleased. Licentious as was the age, there were certain observances of decorum which few married females felt warrant. ed in neglecting, and when the more timid of Lady Trevanian's friends withdrew from her society, it was rather on account of her want of prudence in this respect, than her want of

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virtue. Indignant at this affront from parties,
some of whom she knew to be as culpable,
though they might be more discreet than her-
self; and hopeless of recovering the estimation
she had forfeited, she determined, at least, to
enjoy her bad reputation, and abandoned her-
self to gallantry, as if to justify her quondam
friends for the step they had taken. *Setting
herself up for a bel-esprit, her moiety of the
house was the resort of the wits and literati, her
bon-mots were repeated whenever the hearer's
were not too fastidious to listen to them, she
branded all observance of the decencies of life
by the name of hypocrisy and cant, assumed
an effrontery of carriage quite foreign to her
original character, and seemed daringly re-
solved to out-brazen the world and defy its
malice.

Her face, which at the period of our history,
was still handsome, bore fearful testimony to the
struggles and irregularities of her life. It was
completely auto-biographical, and its character
decidedly volcanic; betraying the fire of the
passions that had been raging within. It dis-

closed the lurking contest of pride battling against a consciousness of criminality, and it might be truly said that her audacity was but a perpetual effort to conquer her, natural modesty. Determined boldly to stare down scru tiny, she fixed her eyes, upon every gazer with a scornful look that seemed to say, "Yes, I am the Lady Trevanian of whom you have heard so much-and what then ?" but through all, this superficial covering of defiance, nothing was more distinctly legible than the wretched. ness beneath.

But Lady Trevanian, who, under happier auspices, might have been a virtuous and irreproachable wife, did not cease, even in the vortex of her misconduct, to be a fond and anxious mother. Her only son, the Captain Trevanian, of whom we have already made slight mention, had been sent to a public school by his father, after which she rarely saw him; her two daughters had been entrusted to her own management. Helen, the eldest, at the request of a rich old bachelor uncle, whose

great age rendered it probable that his great