failed; I felt all the bitterness of pent-up grief forced at last to vent itself in action, and though heartily ashamed, with sighs, and a faltering voice, I confessed all my weakness-all my dismay.

" I had hoped,"

My condition affected Granville. said he, “that your assurances of recovery had been better founded, particularly after the impressions you said had been made upon you by the sage Fothergill."

"I will yet," replied I, "rise superior to this weakness; but who can be wise, amazed, temperate and furious, loyal and neutral, in a moment?' I only wish that you had brought me word that the event was over; for it is easier to bear a positive evil than uncertainty. Yet you say the fact is certain."

To my surprise, Granville paused at this; nay, hesitated and looked uneasy.

"I fear," said he, "I was not quite so correct as I ought to have been, but was misled by the firm countenance you shewed, to state a thing as certain, which was only, as I believe I expressed it, expected.” "But there is no doubt," cried I-" which is the same thing."

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Why, as to that, also," answered he, "I ought not perhaps to pledge myself; though from Foljambe's assurances, and Bertha's civilities to the

"Civilities!" exclaimed I; "Gracious heaven !" So cold a return for love! And will she go to the altar with civilities-and will he accept them ?" and I own I felt disdainful.

"Come," said Granville, " this misunderstanding,

the consequence of my blunders, need not be. Bertha will never give her hand without her heart; nor could I mean to say so; all that I did mean was, that being the avowed object of the marquess's attentions, she had not withdrawn from them."

"How could she withdraw," said I, gaining cou"while he was in the house? and from your account, the offer has not yet been made."

rage,

"Not to herself, though sufficiently announced as intended; at least so I have been assured by her brother, his bosom friend."

"His wish," answered I, "was probably father of the thought, and, after all, you may be mistaken. Bertha and Albany were never made for one another."

"That may be a flattering unction which I would not wish you to encourage.

"Hear me, Granville," said I.

"Whatever unc

tion it may be, be assured it is on her account, not on my own. To pretend, or hope ever to be able to pretend, to this young lady, is not within a possibility in my own mind; and if I cannot conquer my madness, I must submit to be conquered by it, and allow it to prey upon me as it lists. But, without reference to myself, I may yet be permitted to rejoice if she escape from a man not worthy of her. Such, with all my inferiority of condition, I am bold enough to pronounce of Lord Albany, in every thing but his coronet.”

"I honour you, my good fellow, for this,” replied Granville," as well as for every other trait of character you have shewn throughout this unfortunate

acquaintance. Would that you could renounce your feelings."

"I say not so," replied I, " for I am very well satisfied with them. They do not injure me, and at least injure nobody else. Subdued and regulated as they are, I believe they even do me good; for they keep me out of mischief, and prevent me from loving any one of my own degree, whom I might ruin, and be ruined myself, by marrying."

Granville smiled at this sally, and I left him, as usual, to meditate in solitude upon the critical information he had communicated.

I was in truth sincere in my last observation. My conviction of the total hopelessness of my passion for Bertha had got such entire possession of me, that it became, as I have said before, part of my mind, and gave me no disturbance; while, on the other hand, to think of her in all the sweet array of her attractions, purified my heart, as well as warmed my imagination. The thought of her was my favourite companion, yet interfered with nothing else; it interrupted neither business nor duty, while it elevated and refined the pleasure I took in both. Possibly, I thought, should Lord Albany succeed, though it might go far to cure me, it might not render me half so happy, for it would lower my opinion of Bertha.

From this danger, however, I was soon relieved; for when I again saw Granville, which was after an absence of a week from Oxford, and communicated this sentiment of mine, while he acknowledged its refinement, and what he called its romance, he said, "If

it be really so, I am glad to be able to relieve you from the danger of being cured, by what you would hold to be so derogatory to your mistress as marrying a marquess and fifteen thousand a-year; for the post has just put me in a condition to tell you she has refused Lord Albany ;-though in the sparkle of your countenance I know not whether to read joy at her not sinking in your estimation, or at your own hopes not being extinguished."

I assured him that in this last supposition he did me wrong, and that my joy, which I did not disguise, solely arose from the proof he had given that I was right in my estimation of her.

"I believe you," said he, heartily shaking my hand; then taking out a letter, he communicated the details of his interesting news.

The letter was from Mr. Hastings, for it was much beneath Foljambe to communicate what he said so degraded his sister.

"You know, my good nephew," said Mr. Hastings, "that I have never countenanced this affair, though I could not myself so affront a man of Lord Albany's quality, by telling him to desist, or urging any objection on my own part as a father; and knowing full well that Bertha herself would not be favourable, I thought it best to leave it entirely to her. The result is, as I foresaw, that she has declined his proposal. The coolness this has produced with the marquess would be nothing, but I am sorry to add, the ire of my son against his sister is unbearable."

Mr. Hastings then went on to say that it was still

stronger against her than when she declined the addresses of Sir Henry, and he did not, it seems, conceal from his father, any more than Bertha herself, his disgust at her conduct. She was a poor, mean-spirited wretch, unworthy her name and station, and might, to use his own expression, go to the devil her own way. As for her principal objections—the youth of them both-which was stated, he said, as a mere blind-or the incompatibility of their dispositions and habits-he did not believe a word of them, and condemned her as an artful hypocrite. He only, however, touched so far upon what he had urged in the affair of Sir Harry, in regard to her thoughts of another, as to say he would rather see her in her grave, or send me to mine, than such a thing should be.

"How to meet these bursts of feeling, or how treat these threats," said Mr. Hastings, "I know not; but I fear danger in them to some one or other, from his unreflecting and headlong violence. I am quite sure that Mr. Clifford deserves no part of his wrath, and so I am positively assured by Bertha herself. I own I am disappointed, as well as Lord Albany; and as I have many reasons for not wishing that she should be addressed by any one at present, I own I am glad of her delusion, and cannot with any justice go to the extremes to which I am urged by this headstrong boy. Pray heaven that his own settlement with Lady Charlotte, which still proceeds, may in the end reclaim him. But the worst is, that he has quarrelled with his intended brother-in-law, or rather the brother-in-law with him. The marquess accuses him of having mis