the state my brother is in about you. Is there anything on earth I can do for you?"

"Shut the door, Berryl," said Fanny, affecting not no hear the voice from the honeycomb, though in reality feeling the sting of its hypocrisy; "the draught is too much for Lady de Clifford."

As one of kindness was the only office Mr. Herbert Grimstone had no ambition to fill, so it was the sole one from which he had no reluctance to retire; therefore he pocketed Miss Neville's affront, and withdrew; but he had scarcely done so, before the door was assailed with another knock. It was Frump, with the dowager's note.

"H'ill thank you, Mrs. Frump, if you please," said Berryl, sharply, as she took the note, "not to knock in such an obstropolus manner, when my lady his hill." "Missus wants a hanser, if you please, mum," said the plebeian Frump, without taking the slightest notice of the aristocratic Berryl's reproof.

"Open it, dear, will you?" said Lady de Clifford to Fanny, as soon as the note was brought to her; "who is it from ?"

Miss Neville made no other answer than by reading it aloud in old Lady de Clifford's voice and manner, though her gravity nearly gave way when she came to the d'argent. When she had finished it, she turned to her sister and said, "Well, my dear madam, what do you mean to do ?”

"You know I must see her," groaned Julia, "so I suppose the sooner I get it over the better. My compliments, Berryl, and I shall be ready to see Lady de Clifford whenever it suits her convenience; and Julia, darling, go with Berryl; she wants to get you ready to go out."

No sooner were the sisters left alone, than poor Lady de Clifford gave way to a flood of tears.

"Fye upon you, sister mine," said Fanny, throwing her arms round her neck, and hiding her own tears by mingling them with her sister's, "how can you let such a set of contemptible reptiles sting and wrong you to death in this way? A woman with your mind and your sense should be above it, and beyond them. Were I you, or even were I in your place, being only what I am, which is not to be compared with you by a million of worlds, I would neutralize all their venom by sovereign contempt.'

"Ah! Fanny, if you were me, you would do as 1 do. Reason and mind are strong things, especially in the abstract; but what are they, when opposed to the overwhelming power that springs from the weakness of a broken heart? It is not of my husband's cruelty, his neglect, nor even of the insult of his unconcealed infidelities that I complain, so much as of the crafty, cold-blooded hypocrisy I am eternally called upon to endure; and the junta formed by himself, his mother, and his brother, who are for ever plotting, not only against my present, but my future, peace. At every personal outrage I receive, I am compelled to league against myself, by authenticating falsehoods to screen them. As far as the world goes, this I would gladly do; but to carry the jest so far as to be obliged to appear to them as if I believed their foulest deeds fair, when they choose that I should do so, is a little too much."

"Indeed is it, and too long have you borne it; were you, I would conceal it no longer, but let them take the consequence of their conduct."

I

"I should find little redress, I fear, by so doing, for you know the frightful power that is vested in men, and there are certain mean tyrannical natures that always do a greater to justify a lesser wrong."

"Very true," said Fanny, "I am fully aware that all breaches,

' though small at first, soon opening wide,
In rushes folly with a full-moon tide;
Then welcome errors, of whatever size,
To justify it by a thousand lies;

but still, as I said before, if you did not shield that detestable family quite so much, you would fare the better for it: for instance, although you have not said it, I am as convinced as that I am sitting here, that it was some fresh piece of violence on the part of my brutal beau frère which has bruised and blackened your hand in that frightful manner, and when his vile old mother comes insulting you with her hypocritical condolences, upon what she is pleased to mystify as your accident, I would boldly tell her that it was no accident, but more of her amiable son's handywork, for which she will no doubt reward and applaud him: brute as he is, I really think him an angel of light, compared to that withered old bale of wickedness."

"My dear Fanny," said Lady de Clifford, shaking her head, "I fear that would do me little good, for there is no redress for a woman, publicly or privately -our sex have no esprit de corps, but are, with very few exceptions, so weak and so wicked, as upon all occasions to aid and abet the other sex by countenancing their profligacy and upholding their tyranny and injustice. Were women but true to themselves and to each other, their position as human beings would be widely different from what it now is, and ever must be, while they continue satisfied with being the degraded nonentities they are at present. I am no advocate for the ridiculous and immoral chimera, called the "Rights of Women,"-for they have no rights; at least none that can or ought to empower them to fill those masculine niches in the world, which would authorize them to kill their fellow-creatures as soldiers, cajole them as statesmen, or cheat them as lawyers. A woman's proper and only empire is her home, and unless her nature could be physically changed that is, unless she could cease to be woman -it never can or ought to be any other; but still there should be some cruelty to animal act, that would extend its protection to her in that sphere. If every man that had been notorious in the violation of his duty and cruelty to one woman, was shunned and contemned by every other on the strength of it, instead of (as is now the case) being not only tolerated, but additionally countenanced, the number of domes tic tragedies would sensibly decrease and eventually almost cease to exist. How different is the conduct of men with regard to their own sex! It is neither their imaginary intellectual or their real superiority of physical strength, nor even the laws they themselves have made, which constitutes their omnipotence half so much as the indissoluble manner in which they invariably uphold and support each other; for let them be ever so generous, high-minded, and chivalric in their feeling towards women, yet no sooner do they cabal together, when the injuries of a woman are the mooted point, than some corresponding and sympathetic chord of interest, feeling, vice, passion, or prejudice, is sure to be struck, which induces them to coalesce with those whom they have abstractedly condemned and theoretically opposed."

All you say, Julia, is but too true; and," added Vol. II. E.

Fanny musingly, "I wish to goodness I could be an optimist, and then I should have some chance of be ing content; but it is the diving and doubting that distracts one, and suggesting amendments in one's own mind to certain persons and things, which Providence evidently does not coincide in; as Hume says in one of his dialogues concerning natural religion'Some small touches given to the brain of Caligula in his infancy might have converted him into a Trajan. One wave a little higher than the rest, by burying Cæsar and his fortunes in the bottom of the sea, might have restored liberty to a considerable part of mankind. There may, for aught we know, be good reasons why Providence interposes not in this manner; but they are unknown to us: and though the mere supposition that such reasons exist may be sufficient to save the conclusion concerning the Divine attri butes, yet surely it never can be sufficient to establish that conclusion.""

"Dear Fanny, that was a very natural doubt for David Hume; but I should be sorry if it continued to be yours. I was lately reading a little work of Krummacher's, called 'The Vision of the Night,' which would, I think, satisfactorily answer all your doubts, if indeed the Scriptures have not already done so; and do you not remember, in Isaiah, that cheering promise -'For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee; neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord, that hath mercy upon thee?'"

"Yes," replied Fanny, "that is one among the many assurances amid the words of everlasting life, sufficient to support us through the most galling and perplexing trials, did we but remember them to ponder upon; but unfortunately it is the characteristic of great affliction, to banish every thought but what relates to itself."

"Alas! that is true," said Julia, "since there is even a divine instance of it on record; for our Saviour himself, in the sharpness of his mortal agony, cried out, 'My God, my God! why hast thou forsaken me?' and in great distress we never can collect or subdue our thoughts sufficiently to remember that our sufferings are God's especial will, which would enable us to submit ourselves to them: but are all too apt to imagine that nothing but desertion of us on the part of the Al

mighty can account for our persecution, and yet, were our thoughts sufficiently with God to have him always in them, I am convinced this would not be the case."

"Certainly; but do you not, in common with every one else, find that it is the petty envyings, the low hypocrasies, and the small deceptions-in short, the insects of life, that sting and irritate one out of a healthy equanimity of mind? Every great calamity brings with it a certain degree of dignity sufficient for its support; to say nothing of their being of rarer occurrence; and if one might be allowed to choose one's own misfortunes, I think there are few, if any, would not prefer being torn to pieces by a lion to being stung to death by gnats. For instance, Julia, confess that you find it easier to endure your husband's wholesale ill usage, than the retail attacks of his old wasp of a mother, or the puny buzzings of his gnat of a brother ?"

who

Whatever reply Lady de Clifford might have returned to this last question of her sister's was prevented by a knock at the door.

Fanny," ," said the former, turning very pale, "will you see who is at the door, dear?"

"My dear madam," replied Fanny, assuming the dowager's voice, and paddle-like motion of the hands, "I have no doubt it's the wasp coming to pay you the little affectionate visit she threatened; with, I suppose, the laudable intention of assuring you that her son is the best husband in the world."

"Pray," cried Julia, catching her sister's sleeve as she rose to go to the door, "don't leave me if it is her, for I can't bear to be alone with that woman."

"Nor shall you, dear, for you don't know how to answer or deal with her."

"Pray, pray, Fanny, for my sake, don't say anything to her."

"I won't," said Fanny, "unless the case should be very urgent."

Here another knock compelled Fanny to open the door.

"My dear madam," said the dowager, passing Fanny with a stiff bow, and advancing to the bedside, where poor Lady de Clifford had closed her eyes to shut out so disagreeable a vision, "I'm vaustly sorry to hear of this here terrible accident. I assure you De Clifford has been in a terrible way about it-really