you must permit me to tell you that, when young ladies, who think that they have completed their education, have occasion to speak of that part of the person of young noblemen, which is covered by a portion of the coat that does not button up, it is by no means consonant with the best notions of propriety to call it "his dear back."

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Hoity toity! here's a sermon from aunt Mat."

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"Aunt Mat indeed! Agnes," turning to Lady Astell, reprove your too forward nięce, if you please."

"We will, my gentle sister, that there be neither reprovings nor reproaches this blessed evening. I almost love her for the wildness of her spirits. O Matilda! is not Augustus coming home?"

"Augustus is coming home!"

The words were repeated by all present. They were a talisman for the purest happiness. "Now, my dear Rebecca," said Mr. Under

VOL. I.

M

down, almost getting the beautiful romp on his knees, "let us hear the end of your argument in favour of turning the village lads into horses. From so methodical and systematical a young lady, the reasons must be very forcible."

"Ah! you're laughing at me, dear, naughty Underdown; but I don't care. I have got very good reasons: in the first place, neither Augustus nor myself are very heavy."

"Oh, ho, ho! the secret's out at last!" and all present joined heartily in the good man's laugh. "No other reason is requisite; so you

ride with the Earl."

In the midst of the hilarity in which the beautiful, and now much improved hoyden joined, the gates of the lodge were heard to slam to, and a single horseman dashed up at speed to the door. The laugh was suspended— did I say, only the laugh?-every faculty of the whole party seemed wound up in one intense feeling of anxiety. No one spoke or moved, until the same horseman was heard to retreat.

As the noise of the clatter of his steed died away along the gravelled avenue, a slight yet very perceptible shudder passed over the frame of Lady Astell the first dread presentiment of evil.

This silence was at length broken by three slow and, just now, ominous taps at the door; and no other person had sufficient fortitude to utter the simple words, "Come in!" but the youngest of the party. The old and whitehaired butler entered, with a large letter upon a salver, but the seal was designedly placed underneath. He advanced with a grave and slow step to Lady Astell; she extended her hand towards it tremblingly, and no sooner had Jacob seen it in her possession than he hurried from the drawing-room with all the agility of a young man.

No sooner had Lady Astell's eye caught the large black seal, than she shook the letter from her, as if, incautiously, 'she had taken up some noxious reptile.

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"I cannot, I dare not read it; Mr. Under

down-dare you?" Having said this, she could scarcely prevent herself from fainting. Miss Matilda had already taken an attitude.

Mr. Underdown picked up the fatal letter; but, before he broke the seal, he rang for the

servant.

"Where is the messenger who brought this?" "Gone, sir; he would not even alight: said, sir, he had orders to return immediately."

"Did he not say who sent this ?"

"He did not, sir; he said nothing else." "You may go." When the servant had

retired, Mr. Underdown said, in the most soothing of all human tones, "My dear, dear Lady Astell, we must prepare ourselves for some affliction. Let us each pray inwardly, for a space, for fortitude, before we break this dismal seal. I am grieved, much grieved, to say, that the superscription is in the handwriting of the Commodore;" and then, his voice faltering so as to be almost inaudible, he continued, "We ourselves for the worst."

must

prepare

"Yes," said the little dutiful daughter, sobbing aloud: "the direction is in father's nasty pothooks and hangers. What can have happened to dear Augustus?"

"Let us kneel and pray."

"Now am I prepared. My dear, my noble friend, read the letter, but silently; and then tell me, in one single word, my fate," said the mother, with the dreadful calmness of a settled despair.

He

Mr. Underdown turned his face away, and, whilst the tears streamed down his thin and pale cheeks, he slowly read the woe-fraught document from beginning to end. Having done this, he folded it up, and put it, with a sorrowful deliberation, in his waistcoat-pocket. advanced towards Lady Astell: she stood up with a smile-a smile!-oh! that sickly, ghastly, heart-rending smile-to receive him. "Speak: oh! my friend! fear me not; I am nerved to hear the worst. I am strong speak."