"Tant mieux, ma chère: it is quite the mode. The Sedley wears nothing else. When I last saw her playing cards with the King, in the Painted Gallery at Whitehall, she reminded me of what the poet said of her 'Such ropes of pearl her arms encumber, Voyons! have I arranged all that I am to wear? O Ciel! quel coup d'étourdi! I have never settled about my head.” 66 Nay, if I am to wait till that is settled," said Helen, smiling, "I shall be too late for the ball; and so for the present I must leave you to your pearls and point lace." Adeline was still deeply engaged in trying the effect of various costumes, by coquetting before a swing glass, when Helen rejoined her in her ball-dress, presenting a figure which combined all the attractions of unrivalled female loveliness, attired with tasteful simplicity and modest elegance, although it failed to meet the approbation of her sister. "Tiens" she ex claimed, in an accent of surprise; "Voyez donc la petite Trembleuse! on diroit que tu sor's d'une Pension. Positively, Helen, you look like a Quakeress or a school-girl; I could almost have taken you for Grace, our Anabaptist maid. Mais, je ne puis concevoir !-c'est unique!" and she walked round and round her with looks of contemptuous amazement. "I am sorry that my dress does not please you," said Helen calmly; "but I believe it is quite decorous, and at all events it is now too late to alter it, for the carriage will shortly be at the door." "O Ciel! then I must hurry on my things; it is really choquant, barbare, not to allow one more time." Her toilet was at length completed, and she had so liberally availed herself, in every respect, of the latitude of fashion and her own ridiculous taste, that she offered a complete contrast to her sister. In beauty, indeed, though its character and expression were totally dissimilar, she might be thought, at the first glance, almost to compete with Helen; but her fantastical though stylish-looking dress was too obviously adopted for display and effect; it was the costume of a theatrical dancer, well enough calculated to excite admiration, but by no means fitted to ensure respect for its wearer. In her deportment too, as if conscious at once of her beauty and her splendid trappings, she betrayed a more than usual share of swimming and simpering affectation-bridling up her head, nodding her tall plumes, diving, and ducking, and seeming to challenge all eyes, as she paraded along; a carriage rendered the more conspicuous by the unassuming and ladylike self-possession of her companion. Lady Trevanian had abjured the errors of her youth, but she could not bring herself to abandon all claims to the possession of that beauty by which they had in great measure been produced. Since her first settling in the neighbourhood this was the first public oppor tunity afforded her for establishing her title to admiration, and she resolved to improve to the utmost. Her dress was accordingly magnificent; she sparkled in all her diamonds; it the lustre of her fine eyes was heightened by The ball-room was already crowded when they arrived, and they had not advanced far through the gay assemblage, ere Adeline encountered Captain Gahagan, one of the party concerned in the duel-scene of the morning, and the same who had accosted her so tenderly in the church-yard, when he picked up her prayer-book. He was now accoutred in a handsome full-dress dragoon uniform, and being a perfect stranger to mauvaise honte, he advanced towards her, addressed her as Miss Trevanian, and requested the honour of dancing with her; a solicitation to which the capricious coquette, who had fled from him with terror in the morning, but who was now won by his fine figure and finer regimentals, gave a simpering and confused assent. Lady Trevanian, conceiving him to be some London acquaintance whom she did not immediately recollect, resigned Adeline's arm to the proffered one of the Captain, and soon after VOL. II. seated herself with Helen upon an elevated bench "Provoking creature!" whispered Mrs. Chatsworth, as she caught a glimpse of her Ladyship from the extremity of the apartment, “how handsome she still looks, and what beautiful diamonds she has! I wonder," she continued in a louder tone, "that poor Lady Trevanian should venture here, considering the notoriety of her former life." Whoop! Mrs. Chatsworth," said the Squire, who had overheard the observation, "if all the bad ones were to stay at home, you and I know another that wouldn't be here." "Very likely,” replied the lady colouring slightly, and biting her lip, "I can only say I wonder at her assurance." “Sink me! so do I. Haugh! haugh! haugh!" The Squire was about to follow up this attack by some coarse sarcasm, when his attention was drawn to an altercation on the subject of Sir Ambrose Jessop, who in his politic anxiety to ingratiate himself in all quarters, had inad vertently engaged himself to dance with Mrs. |