been carried by a maxim which she had been accustomed to consider as the stimulator to every generous thought.

It had made her deaf to the warnings of Lady Rachel; it had exposed her to the treacherous flattery of Sir Charles Seymour; it had made her a party in the censure of her husband; it had aggravated every painful feeling; and it had nearly converted her wish for redress, into a purpose of retaliation!

The evil was of tremendous magnitude; but where was the remedy? Isabella thought that it could only be found in a frank confession of her faults, and in the wisdom of Lady' Rachel.

To Lady Rachel, without hesitation, and with a hope, rather than a fear of receiving from her the chastise

ment that she felt she deserved, did

she repair.

Isabella repeated her visit at the same early hour, at which it had been made the day before; as being sure not only that she should be admitted, but that she should find Lady Rachel disengaged.

She was admitted, and she did find Lady Rachel disengaged; but she was by no means the Lady Rachel of the preceding morning! the folio was not closed on the entrance of Isabella, the hand was not stretched out to welcome her; there was no peculiar expression of countenance; there was not even the caustic remark, or the satiric reproach which, though it might wound the ear, re-assured the heart, by proving the interest that was excited. All was distant, stately, and ceremonious!-the very tone in which the accommodation of a chair was offer

ed her, smote upon the feelings of Isabella with the sharpness of a two edged sword; but Isabella was too truly humbled, too intimately sensible that she deserved the reception that she met with, to be moved by any spark of resentment, or to feel any fear, but that she should not be able to restore herself to so much favour, as to secure her the correction which she so much desired, and obtain for her the counsel she so much wanted.

"My dear Lady Rachel," said the trembling Isabella, "do not terrify me with that air of estrangement, and forgetfulness? I do indeed deserve that you should withdraw a kindness which I have so litttle benefited by, but I cannot support such a loss.

"I come to humble myself before you; I come to confess that you are right, that I am wrong; to acknowledge the error of the way I have been

in, and to benefit by the benevolent wisdom, which but yesterday promised to point out one, more pure, more safe, more happy.”

"The repentance is sudden! the wants must be pressing!" returned Lady Rachel, without relaxing one feature of her face.

Oh, if you will not touch me with your golden sceptre," said Isabella, "I shall die!"

"There then," said Lady Rachel, touching Isabella's hand with an ivory rule which lay on the table, "that is as near as I can go to golden sceptres. What wilt thou Isa

And now, bella?"

Isabella scarcely knew what she would. She had a long story to tell; but it was rather of the progress of her own feelings, than of what had been done by others. Yet the extraordinary incident of the evening be

fore, was what she most wished to divulge; yet how divulge it without leaving the impression on Lady Rachel's mind that the warning was deserved.

"If the thing were possible," said Isabella, "I could almost fancy that you were at Lady Terant's last night."

"And why so?" said Lady Rachel ; "what phantasmagoria was playing off there, that could put such a fancy into your head?"

"The deception was not of the eye, but of the ear," replied Isabella. "I certainly heard a voice which came from I know not where, and it uttered words which none but you have a right to utter."

"Have some compassion on my nerves," said Lady Rachel. "If the being seen where we are not, is a sign that we shall soon be seen no more; the being heard when we do not speak,