take their chance of meeting the eyes of her to whom they were addressed. She had scarcely done this when her mother entered, and inquired how she had found Lady Worral. Rosina briefly informed her, and then sitting down to her needle-work, pursued it in unbroken silence.

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In the course of the afternoon, Hannah happened to open her port-folio. Dear me!" exclaimed she, as she turned over its contents, "here are the violets I thought I had lost!" Rosina made no reply; and presently looking up from her work, saw Hannah silently reading the verses. A slight colour rose on her cheek, but she made no comment on them; and withdrawing them from the port-folio, quitted the room. Rosina pursued her work with a sigh.

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It was fortunate for her that Mr. Huntley did not call this evening. She conducted herself so as to excite no other remark than the silent one, that she spoke less than usual, and seemed rather out of spirits. At night, her pillow was steeped in tears; while Hannah, little imagining that any thing disturbed her, slept peacefully at her side. Oh, that Mr. Huntley had never come to Summerfield!" was now Rosina's wish. Alas! there appeared little chance of his soon quitting the neighbourhood. Hannah's portrait was still in its first colours. On the following day she sat for her picture. Rosina pursued her needlework by her side, jealously listening to every syllable of Huntley's which might confirm her suspicions. Although his conversation was unusually commonplace, it seemed to Rosina, to betray his affection for Hannah at every syllable; and at any rate, the greater portion of it was addressed to her. Rosina did not consider that this might partly arise from her own monosyllabic answers, which rendered it impossible for any one to maintain a connected dialogue of any spirit or length with her. In spite of her intended indifference of manner, her unwonted silence and flagging spirits could not fail to be noticed. Huntley feared he had unwittingly offended her, and endeavoured to restore her to her usual cheerfulness; but his efforts were vain: Rosina was not to be drawn out, even by anecdotes of Sir Thomas Lawrence, and disquisitions on Mozart. He gave

up the trial, hoping the young lady would find her good humour in her own good time; while Rosina, unconscious how much peevishness she had displayed, was deceiving herself in the belief that she had exercised great self-command.

It was fortunate that Rosina's approaching visit to Mrs. Shivers occasioned so much employment for her thoughts and

hands. The discovery of Mr. Huntley's supposed inconstancy had woefully depressed her, but with the Pleasance in prospect, it was impossible to be quite miserable. She sighed as she absently pinned and placed the sleeve of a frock which she was modernizing. The sleeve was stitched into the wrong armhole and made up inside outwards, so all her work had to be done over again; and while she was fretting over her stupidity she forgot to think of Mr. Huntley. Then, when all was once more in a fair train, her thoughts were no sooner off duty than they flew back to the violets, to the Sortes Virgilianæ, to the sittings under the walnut-tree; and just as she was beginning to feel that she should never be happy again,-it occurred to her to wonder whether Miss Pakenham always wore silk stockings. Let no one laugh at Rosina; for amidst the deepest grief, the mind has a natural propensity to relieve itself by momentary distractions of a similar tendency.

Friday came; and Matthew was to drive his sister to the Pleasance between the hours of three and four. But at halfpast two, Miss Pakenham made her appearance in her aunt's pony phaton. She had had no idea that it had not been promised and expected. Only imagine, if, after all the doubts and difficulties that had occurred, two equipages at Rosina's disposal had driven down the lane at once! Matthew would have found that Mrs. Shivers's carriage literally "stopped the way."

Maria had heard that the Wellfords lived in a cottage; a very comprehensive word, which sometimes designates a ground-floor palace. Certainly she was rather surprised to find the White Cottage so very unpretending in appearance; but she praised and admired every thing there was to praise and admire, and drove off with Rosina, leaving Mrs. Wellford and Hannah convinced that she was one of the pleasantest young women in the world. This was very kind and judicious of Maria, for it is easier to put a family out of conceit with their house than to give them another; and a lady cannot help seeing at a glance what it would take a gentleman a twelvemonth to discover. A few flower-pots, a few books, and one or two pretty faces convince a gentleman that a mere hovel is a cottage ornée; a lady sees that the carpet has been darned, that the chintz furniture has washed out, and that the apparently rose-wood table is an imitation. Mrs. Wellford's table was mahogany. However,

Once out of Summerfield, so many subjects offered for con

versation, that it would have been difficult for the most lovelorn damsel to have nursed her secret griefs. Rosina was at once transplanted out of her little world; and, at the end of five miles' drive, found herself among people who thought seldom of Mr. Russell, seldomer of Lewis Pennington, and had never heard of Mr. Huntley.

Mr. Pakenham had gone to Scotland to shoot moorfowl; the domestic society, therefore, at the Pleasance, was as confined as that which Rosina had left behind her; but besides the exertion of mind always excited by strangers, and strangers in a higher sphere than ourselves, there was a great deal of quiet gaiety in Mrs. Shivers's mode of life. Morning visitors were not unfrequent, and scarcely an afternoon passed without a call being made at some park, lodge, or villa in the neighbourhood. This gave Rosina an opportunity of seeing a greater variety of society than had ever before been afforded and her situation as a visitor to Mrs. Shivers caused her to meet with unfailing attention and politeness.

her;

One of their earliest calls was on the Hinckleys of Hundleford. They found the family at home, and yet not at home-that is to say, they were practising archery on a lawn in front of the drawing-room windows. Mr. Hope and one or two other loungers were looking on, and a good deal was said about hearts and darts, and Diana, and Cupid. Rosina was disappointed in her brother's favourites: the eldest Miss Hinckley was plain, and the younger sisters were affected. There was a kind of showiness about them, however, which might impose on a very young man. They dressed, talked, and carried themselves like beauties, though beauties they were not. At present archery was the grand important business of life at Hundleford, and nothing could be talked of but the lovely white hats and green feathers of the archer uniform, Miss Joliffe's graceful attitudes, and Mrs. Peterson's bad shooting.

Much discourse was passing between the self-important Mr. Hope and one of the young Mr. Hinckley's about a Lady Jane Somebody, with whom they seemed on very familiar terms. Rosina, whose imagination was dazzled by grand names, listened attentively to snatches of their conversation, and thought Lady Jane, whoever she was, must be a very odd person. Mr. Hope talked in raptures of the "old girl." Her ladyship, it appeared, was a huntress. She had lately hurt herself in clearing a five barred gate. Her physicians were mentioned, and Mr. Hope expressed with strong feeling his

emotions on being at first told that they could not save her. Tom Hinckley declared his opinion that she was spoiled. Mr. Hope contradicted him with eagerness, and assured him that in another season she would be as well as ever. He should turn her out to grass!-Lady Jane proved to be a favourite mare.

At

At Mr. Field's at Field House, they found the table covered with Methodistical books; and Rosina heard doctrines discussed and tenets expounded in a manner wholly new to her. There was a union of simplicity and energy in Mrs. and Miss Field's manner, which rendered it impossible to suspect them of hypocrisy; and the new ideas they awakened furnished Rosina with materials for profitable consideration. Barham Lodge again, the Miss Petersons made such a display of accomplishments and blue-ism, as to give her a sickening of pretension; and at Stepsford, only five miles from her native village, old Mrs. Joliffe and her nieces had so much tittle-tattle to relate of their neighbours, the Joneses, and the Whites, and the Simpsons, and the Atkinsons, and appeared to deem all the rest of the world so uninteresting in comparison, that Rosina was led to question whether she herself were not somewhat too much disposed to think Summerfield affairs of primary importance. Mrs. Shivers and Miss Pakenham amused themselves by commenting on the varieties of character which they met in these visits, without indulging in ill-nature; and Rosina profited more by the casual morals thus drawn, than if they had fallen from the lips of persons of whose station and opinion she stood less in awe. She saw Miss Pakenham receive attention and admiration without displaying any elation or self-conceit; she heard folly reprehended as freely in the wealthy and titled as in the insignificant; she heard pretension ridiculed, and conscientious limitation of expenses praised. She heard girls laughed at for dressing beyond their station and neglecting domestic duties, and their parents blamed with more severity, for bringing them up improperly. Miss Pakenham was lively and acute; Mrs. Shivers's conversation, without any tinge of effort or pedantry, united enough of natural wit with acquired knowledge, to require a little effort to keep up with her. She played extremely well on the harp, and Rosina had an opportunity of pleasantly improving herself by accompanying her on an excellent grand piano. Her fancy for learning Italian returned when she listened to Maria's tantalizing encomiums of Tasso, and saw the beautiful engravings in Mrs. Shivers's Gierusa

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lemme. An hour devoted every morning to this study agreeably exercised her mind; and the profusion of fine prints and drawings in the port-folios around her, only made it a difficult task to decide which she should first attempt to copy. The library was a world of happiness in itself. Surrounded by so many sources of amusement, what wonder that Rosina's spirits should rapidly recover from their depression, and that she should learn to think of Mr. Huntley with a degree of indif ference, which to herself she called resignation? Absence," it has been observed like a puff of wind, makes a well kindled flame burn brighter, but blows a smaller one out." The visit was prolonged from a week to rather more than a fortnight, and its conclusion was gayer than its opening. Hope and the Hinckleys dined at the Pleasance; and perhaps Rosina's estimate of Mr. Huntley's manners and education was rather altered by the glimpses thus afforded of young men in a rank of life superior to his own; so that from thinking of him somewhat more highly than he deserved, she now began to rate him rather below his real worth.

Mr.

On the day after her quitting the Pleasance, Mrs. Shivers and Miss Pakenham were going to Hastings. She returned to Summerfield with abundant materials for long details to her mother and sister, and with a heart scarcely retaining the impress of its sometime love.

CHAPTER XXII.

FINE ARTS.

AND how sped Mr. Huntley's painting and wooing? With satisfaction, almost with exultation, he had heard of Rosina's projected absence. Somehow, she had always seemed to stand across his path-his feelings and language had been misconstrued, nor did there seem any chance of his explaining them, till he had an opportunity of speaking in plainer terms than he had yet dared to use.

Rosina was gone, and the path was clear! He could finish Hannah's portrait and besiege her heart at the same time.

VOL. I.-Q.