rally seeks concealment. Still there was enough tenderness and confidence, apparently, existing between them to warrant some curiosity on the part of Lady Florence. She could perceive that he loved the gentle Blanche for her own sake; but there was a second feeling which puzzled her, unconscious as she was of a little secret in the heart of Blanche which corresponded too truly with that which burned within the bosom of Julian, not to render his cousin still more dear in his eyes.

"Time and watchfulness must fathom this mystery," thought Lady Florence, as she in vain sought an elucidation in her own mind. "I can fancy this girl-peeress loves her cousin; I can see, by her excessive vigilance when he speaks to me, she is a little jealous; but I am confident his feelings towards her are purely those of a brother;children brought up from infancy together, with a view to matrimony, seldom care much

for each other. He knows he can marry her

any day he chooses therefore, why that degree of gloom upon his spirits? Can he love another ?" The question struck like a barbed arrow to her heart; and even then the imprudent Florence shrunk not from the fearful consciousness, that she was suffering an interest to take possession of her, that, like too many of the same nature, begun in folly, must end in tears.

CHAPTER VIII.

His frame was slight, his forehead high,
And swept by threads of raven hair;
The fire of thought was in his eye,

HAD Lady Florence St. John, with all the worldliness and trifling inclinations of a woman of fashion, possessed at the same time the internal, as well as assumed, apathy-the usual characteristic of the class to which she belonged her present pursuit would have been one of little peril to herself. If merely an

affair of rivalry, it would have affected her only as her supremacy was proved or set aside; and Julian, won from his allegiance to the Baroness, would have been a thing of nought, except as the spoil gathered from a rival power. But, alas! for Lady Florence, there was a deep well-spring of tenderness in her heart, which was not the less plenteous because till now it had remained hidden and untouched. Although she deluded herself with the belief that she merely sought amusement by her plans, and was only acting up to foregone jesting assertions, that there was no offering more flattering or touching than les prémices d'un jeune cœur - there was a wilder and more unhallowed incentive in her bosom, which threatened to inflict misery on all concerned.

At times, fearing that some deep and absorbing passion could alone have subdued a

mind and spirit such as Julian's, Lady Florence thought it possible she might gain some elucidation of the mystery from Lady Clairville herself, who, she was quick-sighted enough to perceive, regarded him frequently with a furtive, but anxious scrutiny, as though all was not quite as she wished.

The opportunity of some private conversation soon presented itself; for although the claims of Lady Clairville's numerous guests precluded everything in the shape of a tête-àtête, during the morning, the impatient Florence eagerly seized the occasion afforded by her hostess, one evening; who, on the plea of a headach, retired to a couch in a distant corner of the saloon, immediately on quitting the dining-room.

Thither Lady Florence followed her; and, seating herself by her side, in the most sooth

ing bewitching manner, bathed her temples

VOL. I.

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