feelings, which only required tact and oppor tunity to strengthen. When the gentlemen adjourned to the drawing-rooms, Julian was immediately at her side; and that evening, which was mild and beautiful as the last, she was induced to take his unoccupied arm and join Lady de Cressy, and himself in their moonlit walk upon the terrace. From this time, all reserve and coldness had vanished from Julian's manner towards the exquisite enchantress. Once having possessed himself with the idea that she resembled Evelyn, the fancy grew upon his imagination, and appeared to sanction and encourage his attentions to her at least, it was thus he accounted for them to himself. Nor was anything wanting on the part of Lady Florence to strengthen the delusion; while she most sedulously guarded against all appearance of appropriating his strict attendance on herself, by avoiding to withdraw with him from the usual circle which surrounded her; guessing with much discernment, that nothing was so likely to hurt the exalted idea he probably entertained of his own constancy: but her manner to him was softness and sympathy itself. She led him by degrees to talk of Evelyn, and ended by gaining his entire confidence. How soothing-how delightful it was to his previously perturbed feelings to be able to speak of her he loved to one who appeared so fully to appreciate her merits and perfections, and who entered so warmly into all his sorrows! while it was an exquisite balm to his wounded spirit to hear the "one loved name" pronounced with raise and sympathy, by a voice whose silvery weetness lent even a further charm to the theme. Julian walked with her, rode with her, took long drives with her through the picturesque scenery which surrounded Oakwood, and soon - too soon, the society of Lady Florence became most necessary to him. Their conversation at first was certainly all of Evelyn; but still, whilst repeating her name, were not his eyes fixed upon a countenance of most transcendant beauty did he not wait an answer from lips, whose rosy smiles, whose every movement was eloquence? There was danger to the most devoted-the most constant! His proud mother looked on in silence, and smiled triumphantly. "The silly boy is at length disenchanted," she would say,-" and Evelyn Cecil's reign is over. That clever charming Lady Florence has done the work for me most dexterously—most beautifully. Once disentangled from that first ridiculous. love, he will soon find himself obliged to get rid of the second, and then think himself but too happy in securing for a wife the amiable and richly endowed girl he now scorns. This last reflection brought ever with it a glow of satisfaction, and it mattered not to her by what means the end was to be accomplished. The marriage of Julian with her ward was the one consuming hope of the ambitious heart of Lady Clairville. It filled her every thought, and was the inciting cause of all her actions. For this she bartered the eternal peace of her son, and exposed him to the seductions of one, beautiful as a Houri, and exacting as a Cleopatra; for whom admiration was danger-and love a crime! CHAPTER XV. "In the darkest night, and the bright daylight, In earth, and sea, and sky, In every home of human thought, THERE was one who now looked on at passing events with a dissatisfied eye. Blanche de Cressy was hurt and mortified; not however, as her self-constituted rival believed, and gloried while believing; for though loving Julian, it was but with the affection of a tender sister she regarded him; still it grieved her to see how completely another was usurping her place, and that she, whose bosom had hitherto been the repository of all his hopes |