burst into the room, exclaiming, "O Ciel! quelle joie extatique! he's coming! he's coming!Ah! Helen, did I not tell you that he was a faithful and a loyal knight,-brave as a Bussy d'Ambois or a Scanderbeg, and true as the steady Clytus to his Statira, or Arethusius to his Hya cinthia, or Orontes to his fond Andromeda?" She sailed about the apartment in an ecstasy as she uttered these words, drawing up her head, assuming a stately step, casting furtive glances at the mirror, and affording no other explanation of her transports than a reiteration of the words -"He's coming! he's coming!" "I am in no hurry," said Helen, resuming her painting; "when your fit is over, you perhaps, inform me who is coming." will, “La, my dear, how can you be so inconceivably opaque? Eh, comme tu as l'esprit bouché! Who should it be, but my own dear Arcadius? Come to the window, and see him with your own eyes. Doesn't he look handsome in his own clothes? May I die, if it isn't the pretiest plum-coloured suit I ever beheld. And there's Mr. Goldingham with him, in his flat three-cornered beaver, and his old-fashioned horn-headed cane. See how his coat pocket sticks out! La, Helen, only suppose it should contain the marriage articles, the settlements, and the favours for the footmen, and all that! I vow I shouldn't wonder." "Your imagination, Adeline, seldom fails you upon these points; but, for my own part, I see no reason to conclude—” "Fi donc, Helen! always reason, reason, rea son. Comme tu me parais simple avec tes raisonnemens! Hark! hark! there's the bell of the great gate, and we must of course go down to the drawing-room. La, what a figure I am! My berger has come out of curl, and these confidants don't hang becomingly, and my cornet is too much over my cheeks. Tell me, Helen, Créve-cours set off the nape of my neck do my killingly?" 'Oh, no doubt they will merit the name!" replied her sister, smiling. "Bien pensé, ma sœur! May I die! if I must not have a favorite at each temple, a meurtrière to unite the locks, engageants to my sleeves, and a venez à moi breast-knot. Dis donc, Helen, tine, this cornet edged with point d'Espagne, or my bonnet à la folle?" "The latter, by all means, you are deter mined to set your cap at your visitor in so pointed a manner.' way when "Oh, there is no necessity for that, I promise you. But I must run away to my own room. Give me one of your black patches, Helen, or I shall forget to draw attention to the dimple on my chin. Grace! Grace!—that psalm-singing girl is always out of the she is most wanted. Au revoir! au revoir!" Without waiting to be summoned, Helen descended into the drawing-room, when Goldingham, before she could congratulate his nephew upon his safe return, hastened up to her, and in the warmest terms expressed their joint thanks for the inappreciable benefits she had conferred upon them both. Turning to her Ladyship, he enlarged in glowing language upon the maginvariably nanimity and superior good sense evinced by Helen, which he considered t more extraordinary in one so young; declared that it put such greybeards as himself completely to the blush; and concluded by felicitating her Ladyship on the possession of such a paragon of a daughter. During this eulogy, Helen kept her looks fixed upon the ground, while a deep blush overspread her features; and as Reuben cast a glance at her long black eyelashes, overshadowing her glowing cheeks, like the dark streaks stealing into the vermilion of the tulip, he thought he had never gazed upon anything more interesting and lovely. As soon as Goldingham's silence allowed him, he expressed, in the most passionate language that an overcharged heart could dictate, his gratitude for the generous protection she had condescended to afford him; hoping she would pardon the deep anxiety he must have occasioned her, as her Ladyship had already forgiven him for intruding himself into her service under a feigned name. "Nay, Sir, I have forgiven you more faults than that," said Lady Trevanian; "for I had often occasion to observe that you knew no thing of your business, and made but ́a bungling butler." In the most frank and unaffected manner Helen was congratulating her visitants on the happy cessation of all their troubles, and disclaiming her own title to the praises lavished upon her, since she had only obeyed the dic tates of common humanity, when the door opened, and Adeline, in her bell-hoop, came swimming into the room with all the established steps and studied nonchalance she had learnt from her French governess, the ribbons, pinners, ruffles, and lappets of her outré dress streaming from her as she advanced, the patch upon her chin not having been forgotten, and her multitudinous locks being all upon the qui vive, ready to do execution and earn their beau-killing names. Handsome she still looked, for no disfigurement could render her otherwise; nor was she deficient in a certain air of distinction, but there was as usual something so fantastical in her garb;—her manner, that of a forward girl affecting confusion and bashfulness, was so conceited; and her Frenchified conversation |