enabled to gain the gate unobserved. Nearly all the servants had betaken themselves to the front of the house to gaze at the soldiers, so that the fugitives, without encountering a soul, began mounting the back stairs, it being Adeline's intention to conceal her companion in one of the unoccupied garrets. The sound of voices and descending footsteps, however, suddenly compelling her to abandon her purpose, she darted across a narrow passage into a wide corridor, turned into Helen's painting-room, ushered Reuben into a light closet at the further end, where her sister kept her colours and the implements of her art, bade him lock the door on the inside, and telling him she would presently return to conduct him to a better hiding place, hurried down stairs again to await the return of Helen, and consult with her what was best to be done in this most agitating crisis.

On the arrival of Lady Crockatt's carriage at the gate of Harpsden Hall, Emily suggested that to avoid giving any unnecessary pain to Lady Trevanian, especially as her son the

Captain, and two of his brother officers, were understood to be in the drawing-room, it might be advisable to betake themselves to the painting-room, where they might perhaps find He len, and whither she might at all events be summoned to enter upon an eclaircissement of the mysterious apparition, and the words re ported to have been uttered, in the summerhouse. To this proposition her companions willingly assented, and they accordingly proceeded to the room in question, Lady Crockatt taking the lead, when Reuben, unused to these hide-and-seek emergencies, tapped gently with his knuckle against the door, exclaiming at the same time in a whisper, "Miss Trevanian! Miss Trevanian! is the coast clear? can I make my escape now ?"

"I will swear that this is the same voice we heard in the summer-house cried Mrs. Chats worth, while her face flared up with a malicious joy. "Better and better;-concealed now in the closet of her own painting-room! Well, dear Miss Hartfield, what say you to this?? My salts my salts! what will the world

my

come to next-was there ever-Eugh! my heart-burn- ejacuated Lady Crockatt; while Miss Crawley, lifting up her hands, eyes, and shoulders, all at once, pronounced with regularly increasing emphasis the words→→→ "Horrid! shocking! abominable! scandalous! beastly!"

With a face of crimson, and staring eyes, Emily had stood for a few seconds transfixed and aghast; but suddenly recollecting herself, she cried out in a loud and passionate voice, "This is some worse than Popish plot, some damnable and deep-laid conspiracy to ruin Helen. This fellow may be some sorry scoundrel who has been hired to assassinate her character; but I will drag him out, and expose his infamy; I will tear him from his hiding place; be he the devil himself he shall show his face, and confess his falsehood."She grasped the handle of the closet door as she spoke, and finding it locked, shook it violently, every vein of her reddened face swelling with indignant passion, as she cried in a still louder tone" Come forth, thou villain! come forth

1

thow traitor! thou pestilent defamer of the innocent, come forth Thou slanderer, thou liar, thou base, blurking assassin ! come forth, or by Heaven, I will raise the house, and have the door battered from its hinges.ed od bagepa

At this juncture Helen, having returned to the house, had learnt in a hurried communication with Adeline that Reuben was concealed in her closet, that he was provided with loaded pistols, that Captain Trevanian was in the drawing-room, and that she had just caught a glimpse of a party of ladies, whom she supposed to be Lady Crockatt and some of her friends, as they entered the painting-room, though she could not possibly divine their motive for not being regularly announced by the servants All the complicated dangers of this terrible crisis, and the tragical resultsqit might occasion, flashed at once upon Helen's mind; the blood mounted to her cheeks, and her countenance exhibited an expression of anxiety and distress; but without losing her -self-possession she only paused to exclaim, "O Adeline! Adeline! to what have you

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T

exposed me!" and immediately hurried towards the painting-room. Catching the loud and angry voice of her friend as she advanced, she ran forward, rushed into the apartment, disengaged the hand that was still violently shaking the door, planted herself against it, and exclaimed with an appealing earnestness, and a look of eager agitation, “For the love of Heaven, Emily, forbear! Be silent, I conjure you, I implore you! Nobody shall enter this closet. The consequences of a discovery at the present moment might be fatal."

"Then there is a discovery to be made— there is a man secreted in the closet, and you are privy to his concealment !" ejaculated Emily. The indignation which had hitherto braced her voice and feelings refused any longer to support her, she burst into tears, and sobbed out in broken accents, "O Helen, Helen Trebvanian! I could not have believed this poslosible!")197

19dWell, my dear, is this enough for you? Are you satisfied now?" inquired Mrs. Chatsworth tauntingly.