world! Oh no! But she knows not how much undue restraint Nature has to indemnify herself for; nor how far the bow must be bent the contrary way before it can attain its natural perpendicular. Besides, with all her timid bashfulness, I have seen a sparkle in the eye, and an arch play about the mouth, that tell me that Mrs. Willoughby and Miss Hastings will probably have nothing in common but. the person."

"You would then prefer," said Lord Burghley, "the eccentricities,

the

petulancies, the stoutly-declared will of Lady Charlotte, to the even course. of propriety, and yielding spirit of Isabella ?"

"Oh! for propriety and yielding, I give her no more credit than for the colour of her gown; the one is imposed and the other chosen by Lady Jane. The taste and the temper of

women never declare themselves till after they are married. But for what is really their own, who would not exchange the softest smile that ever mantled over the ruby lips of Isabella, for one of those love-inspiring, though disdainful glances, that dart from the eye of the fire-souled Charlotte ?"

"I would not," said Lord Burghley, with emphasis, "if the suffrage of a sexagenary may have any weight; and it is plain that Willoughby would not. He may boast a little more penetration than you lay claim to, my friend; and probably may have seen enough of the taste and the temper also of the virgin, to resolve to shun the wife. And had not Dunston been hoodwinked by something more than love, he might have seen the same, but he will find it out some of these days; for I have more news for you Willoughby does not only marry Isabella

Hastings, but Dunston weds Lady: Charlotte Stanton, and that in a fortnight."

"What, our nouveau Riche ?" exclaimed Mr. Lascelles. "And is the haughty Charlotte come to this? Yet I thank you for your news, my Lord: it has saved me some useless compassion. I was just going to propose that Mr. Willoughby should be hanged on the next willow tree, as a recreant knight; but, if the lady is not induced to hang herself in despair, I do not know why the false swain should be hung in terrorem. When the consolation is so near, and in such a form, the injury cannot have been great.'

"The injury," returned Lord Burghley, "is just as many thousands as Mr. Willoughby's income exceeds Mr. Dunston's, and no more."

CHAP. IV.

"He offer'd the jewels, and gold in store; So she gave her hand-and they said no more." OLD BALLAD.

"My dear Isabella," said Mr. Willoughby," as he sat playing with the shining ringlets of his young bride, "you are all that I can wish. The sweetness of your temper, and the elegance of your appearance, secure my happiness. Let me always see you thus good-humoured and well-dressed, and I shall have nothing to ask."

Such, in the estimation of Mr. Willoughby, were the boundaries of matrimonial happiness, and such the means of securing it; and in marrying Isabella Hastings, he believed that he had given a pregnant proof how discreetly he could conduct this most important transaction of life. Ten years' experience in the ways of the world, unchecked by parental restraint, and ́ borne above the control of circumstances by the powers of an affluent fortune, had allowed Mr. Willoughby to taste of every stream that is supposed to flow from the fountain of pleasure; and at two and thirty he was inclined, with a much wiser man, to pronounce that all was vanity.

It is not, however, that in exhausting the relish for life, that we get rid of our existence; and at the age to which Mr. Willoughby had yet only arrived, he might reasonably reckon