It was in vain that Lady Harriet, exasperated beyond endurance, strove by continual changes of costume to render emulation hopeless. It is difficult to baffle female ingenuity. The needles of her tormentors were in constant exercise upon all sorts of rubbish, which, under their dexterous fingers, assumed the appearance of the happiest product of the most felicitous of milliners. A mistake, occasioned by the great resemblance between two hats, worn by two very different personages, led to an extraordinary change in the fortunes of one of the individuals concerned.

The general-officer commanding the district came over one day from the garrison in which he was stationed, to inspect Colonel Spilsbury's regiment, which was drawn ont for the purpose, upon the adjoining race-ground. Being very near-sighted, and rather purblind into the bargain, he took Miss Grubb, walking in a white paperhat, embroidered with worsted, for Lady Harriet Spilsbury, newly alighted from her carriage. The general recognised a wild garland of hops, and could not distinguish the difference. Trifling causes, it is well known, often lead to wonderful effects. An extremely interesting face appeared beneath the paper-hat, and a vivid blush, and a low obeisance, acknowledged the unexpected courtesy of the great man, who, surprised into sudden admiration, inquired the name of the young lady to whom he had just spoken. Desiring the aid-de-camp who gave the response, to secure the best place at the spectacle to Miss Grubb's party, he rode off to his post, and this trifling occurrence passed unnoticed in the bustle which ensued. The general dined with the officers at their mess, and, somewhat to the surprise of the party, graciously invited Mr Grubb to take wine with him-an act of condescension which drew forth the poor assistantsurgeon's most grateful thanks, and which was considered by those who observed it, to be a cheap attempt at popularity. A party at Lady Harriet's finished the evening, to which of course only the élite of the corps were admitted. General Bossinett, who, for reasons of

his own, joined the circle early, unacquainted with the domestic arrangements of the corps, inquired of his hostess why he had not the pleasure of meeting Miss Grubb. A hint from a commandant usually proves sufficient. Lady Harriet filled up a card of invitation for Mr and Miss Grubb, directed the postman to say that he had forgotten to deliver it before, and sent it at so late an hour, that acceptance would have been impossible from any, save the humble individuals who did not think themselves entitled to an option. Mr Grubb would not on any account have risked the colonel's displeasure, by appearing to slight the tardy civilities of his proud and capricious wife; and though his daughter was preparing to retire for the night, he urged her to arouse herself to animation, and to make her toilet with all possible dispatch. She obeyed, secretly connecting the incident of the morning with the embossed card, now stuck over the chimney-piece for the benefit of all future visitors.

In an incredibly short period from the date of the invitation, the Grubbs found themselves, for the first time, in Lady Harriet Spilsbury's elegant drawing-room. Charlotte's entrance occasioned considerable surprise; but nobody thought fit to take much notice of her, and General Bossinett, not desiring to appear too particular, contented himself with keeping an eye upon her, until an opportunity offered to enter into conversation.

He

was pleased with her manners, and, though too expert a tactician to allow his admiration to appear, it was sufficiently strong to make him lament the necessity of pursuing his tour of inspection on the following day. Charlotte Grubb felt pleased and gratified by attentions from so high a quarter; but she entertained no ambitious hopes. Bred in the school of adversity, her expectations had been sobered down to the realities of her situation; and though she could not help being flattered by the distinction, she was afraid that it would subject her to much of the cruel jocularity from which she had already suffered so deeply.

General Bossinett quitted the place, but his influence did not cease. To the surprise of the whole corps, Lady Harriet Spilsbury called upon Miss Grubb on the morning after her first introduction, and an intimacy took place for which no human being, save the parties concerned, could account. Charlotte herself was for some time in doubt respecting the cause of so much kind attention on the part of a person who, a short time before, seemed to be scarcely conscious of her existence, and was sometimes disposed to attribute the extraordinary and unlooked-for acts of courtesy to motives of benevolence, wholly foreign to the disposition of her new patroness. Not feeling quite certain of the ground on which she stood, her frequent visits at the colonel's mansion did not lead to too strong an elation of spirit. She knew that when Lady Harriet should take her departure, all her mortifications would be redoubled; and though no one now became a mark for the raillery of the facetious, on account of any little civility to her, such moderation would not last for ever. The visitors at the colonel's mansion were obliged to treat Miss Grubb with some degree of respect, and many deemed it expedient to be polite. Major Hawtry did not belong to this number. He seemed absolutely to be offended by her presence, and, convinced that she was in love with him, felt afraid that he was giving too much encouragement to her presumption, by sitting in the same room with her. Lady Harriet, who, from the first, had been in General Bossinett's confidence, invited Miss Grubb to accompany her to a small watering-place, about thirty miles distant, but within an easy ride of the head-quarters of the district. Here she had frequent opportunities of seeing her admirer, and here she took the whole garrison by surprise, by the announcement of her marriage. The wedding was celebrated in a very private manner, General Bossinett being averse to all show, and, moreover, feeling that he had in some degree rendered himself obnoxious to the ridicule of his juniors, by committing a love-match at so advanced a period of life. The sudden elevation

of a person whom we have despised and ill-treated, cannot fail to excite an uneasy sensation; and, even in the absence of feelings of self-reproach, few have sufficient generosity to rejoice when an inferior is raised above them. The general's marriage threw a damp over the society which his bride had quitted. Major Hawtry styled it an awful misalliance; and the others, though endeavouring to laugh over their secret vexation, shewed that the attempt was a failure. The assistant-surgeon, who had been frequently practised upon by the wicked solemnity of his quizzers, had penetration enough to perceive that the congratulations poured into his ear were forced; he learned, indeed, that it was a very fine thing to be father-in-law to so magnificent a person as a general commanding a district, but he took the civil speeches made upon the occasion for what they were worth.

If Charlotte Grubb had been of the mould from which fictitious heroines are formed, she would have signalised her elevation by a show of astonishing magnanimity, forgetting all the slights and injuries put upon her by the ungenerous members of the corps, and, by sparing them, teaching them to spare others who might be in situations resembling that from which she was just emancipated. But Charlotte was of human, not poetic nature; and it becomes our duty, as accurate historians, to mention, that having a little spice of spirit in her disposition, as well as some share of humour, she was not indisposed to take a gentle revenge for the insults she had suffered. When, some months after her marriage, Colonel Spilsbury's regiment was marched, by a fiat of the War-office, to the garrison commanded by her husband, the greater part of the officers found themselves rigidly excluded from the entertainments at which she presided. This was a dreadful blow. Their pride was humbled to the dust. They now saw the hideousness of their former conduct in its proper light. May we not say that their punishment was just? The Applebys, who had proved the greatest delinquents, were marked out

as peculiar victims; and it was curious to observe how meanly they comported themselves under the infliction. Meanness, however, is always to be found in connection with tyranny, and the Applebys were not singular in this respect.

The ease with which Mrs Bossinett fell into the duties and observances of her new situation, astonished all her former acquaintance. Few could have guessed how rapidly she had risen from the subordinate ranks, and how recently she had become invested with all the power to disturb, discomfit, harass, and annoy all underlings and inferiors, given by the Articles of War, the Mutiny Act, and the Rules and Regulations of the service, to the wife of a major-general in command. She could with difficulty be recognised in her new character by those who had known her long and intimately. Her manners, which had been humble and reserved, were now self-possessed and almost haughty. She was dis

tinguished for a plain richness of attire; and by welltimed allusions to her former poverty, she defeated the malice of those who might have taken pleasure in recalling it to her recollection. In short, she seemed to know, by intuition, what to discard and what to retain, appertaining to her former condition, in order to secure the respect of the circle to which she had been so lately introduced. To no person was the bride's position so completely altered as towards Major Hawtry. Her assumed partiality had rendered her, in her unmarried days, an object of such extreme contempt to this gentleman, that he had never been at the trouble to observe whether she was handsome or not. The first glance which Major Hawtry obtained of the general's bride, completely changed the current of his feelings. They met at a ball, at which she took the lead with all the grace and dignity which might have been expected from those who possessed many more early advantages than fell to her share. plain and very simple robe of dark velvet fell in easy folds over a figure, whose contour had never been so favourably displayed before. A margin of rich white

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