hour to the summer-house, a purpose which she was prevented from fulfilling by a message from a poor woman in the neighbourhood, one of her pensioners, who had been taken suddenly and alarmingly ill. At the bed-side of this humble sufferer she was detained nearly the whole morning, while Adeline was fidgetting about the house, impatiently waiting her return, and half resolved to seek her own dear darling Arcadius without her. In this interim Lady Crockatt, Miss Crawley, and Mrs. Chatsworth arrived on a visit to the inmates of Harpsden Hall, and seeing the garden gate open, walked in for the purpose of showing the grounds to Miss Crawley, who had never been there before. In their perambulations they chanced to approach the summer-house just as Reuben, hearing a footstep, and presuming it to be his customary visitant, whom he only knew as Miss Trevanian, popped his head through the trapdoor, and exclaimed in a whispering voice-"Miss Trevanian! Miss Trevanian! is it you?" He again concealed himself as soon as he had discovered his mistake, but not before

Mrs. Chatworth had caught a glimpse of his descending head, although without recognizing him, while the other party had distinctly heard the words, which they very naturally applied to Helen. Here was indeed food for scandal that promised to afford a full and gratifying repast. Mrs. Chatsworth, herself a notorious demirep, was of course proportionably indignant, though she declared she was more hurt than surprized, as from the demure and guarded deportment of Helen, she had always set her down for a bad, sly girl. Miss Crawley wondered who the man could be, and what he could see in such a starched, prim-looking thing; Lady Crockatt called for her salts, protesting that the very thought of such gross improprieties had made her perfectly sick; and all agreed that it was quite impossible to perform their intention of visiting at a house where such abominable proceedings were allowed. They accordingly again quitted the grounds by the garden gate, reentered her Ladyship's carriage, and driving over to the Rookery, bustled into the bowlinggreen, open-mouthed, to communicate the im

portant discovery they had made, and express their horror at such a flagrant outrage upon all decency and decorum, committed by a young hypocrite who had presumed to set herself up, forsooth, for a pattern and a prude.

Emily had contracted a friendship for Helen Trevanian, which had been fostered rather by the warmth of her feelings than by the lapse of time, into an ardent attachment. Lady Trevanian, as we have already stated, had not been very long settled in the neighbourhood; but Emily, delighted by the placid amiability of her new friend, admiring her talents and accomplishments, edified by her superior good sense, and struck by her scrupulous regard to propriety in every action of her life, had, in that short period, learnt to reverence as deeply as she loved her, until she looked up to her as a model of all that was unassumingly pure, dignified, and delightful in the female cha racter. For some time, therefore, she was really at a loss to understand the drift of the conversation; when, upon her arrival at the alcove, whither the Squire had beckoned her, Mrs.

Chatworth exclaimed, with a triumphant toss of the head, "So! Miss Hartfield, I have a fine story to tell you about the friend you are always crying up; something marvellous and romantic, so prepare to be astonished, and what's more, it's all true."

"Whoop! you don't often astonish us in that way," cried the Squire. "You have only to add that there's nothing scandalous in the story, and we shall admit that it's marvellous."

"Nay, the company shall judge for themselves," said Mrs. Chatsworth. "I merely mean to relate an occurrence of which Lady Crockatt, Miss Crawley, and myself, were eye or ear-witnesses, leaving others to draw what conclusions they please. I am the last person to judge uncharitably myself, particularly of a young lady, and a demure young lady, and an exemplary young lady, that sets up for superior wisdom, and propriety, and prudery, and all that sort of thing. As to the mother, she has been really too bad; nobody attempts to defend her, quite shocking; cannot, however, help pitying the daughters, poor things, so I call

now and then, just to chat with them, and afford them a little amusement, for I'm sure they don't get much at home; at least I used to think so, but Miss Trevanian, seems, has little amours and recreations of her own, which nobody knows any thing about."

"Don't bestow the gentle name of recreations upon such abominable wickedness," cried Lady Crockatt. "Faugh!-my salts, Crawley. What a world we live in! I can't bear to hear it, nor even to think of it. Do pray go on, let

them know all."

"If I could but have seen the lover!" exclaimed Miss Crawley, bridling up; "but after all, he must be some low fellow, without an atom of taste, for surely there are handsomer young women in the neighbourhood, though none, perhaps, quite so accommodating as Miss Trevanian."

Emily had coloured deeply at the apparent purport of these insinuations against her friend, but as nothing explicit had yet been stated, she remained in a silent, and almost breathless attention, awaiting a relation of the fact from