sure, judging by myself, that I need not say

do not forget me.

Your most affectionate,

ISABEL DENISON.

Miss Shepherd read this letter and smiled. She watched for the days on which Isabel usually wrote to her, with an anxiety which she had never felt on any subject before, and if by chance the expected letter did not come, it was a disappointment which even her well-regulated mind could not prevent from throwing a shade over the day. They came like gleams of sunshine over her heart. She had read this letter and smiled. Thinking it would please Herbert Grey, she gave it to him on their next meeting: he read it, laid it down, and sighed.

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Now, Herbert, why do you sigh?" said Miss Shepherd, with some dissatisfaction. Surely there is nothing in that letter but what should give us pleasure?"

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"I hardly know why I sighed," said Herbert, and yet he sighed again. "So bright,

so confident, it makes me tremble-tremble lest I should lose her," he added, in a low, tremulous voice. "But you are right; there is nothing to sigh about. How happy she seems, and how unspoilt !" and he took up the letter again.

That Herbert should sigh was not unnatural. Her mention of him was not, perhaps, quite such as would please or satisfy a lover's anxious heart. Perhaps he felt this, although Miss Shepherd could not.

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Isabel spoke the truth as to her own feelings. When Mr. and Mrs. Denison arrived in London after Easter, having spent the winter at Torquay for the benefit of Mrs. Denison's health, she was presented, and, as the phrase is, came out." So graceful, so beautiful, and an heiress, it was impossible that she should not make a sensation, and the admiration and flattery lavished upon her were sufficient to satisfy even Mr. Denison's exacting pride and affection. And Isabel was excited: there were moments when her heart beat at the looks and words of admiration which

seldom failed to greet her, but it was only for the moment-their memory faded from her mind as quickly as the voices from her ear, and in a position calculated to dazzle the strongest, she was not satisfied. The seclusion of her life, a friend to deeper thought than is common with young girls, her short but interesting acquaintance with Herbert, and the vein of romance which, uneventful as her life had been, had tinged its early history, made the frivolous gossip and often unmeaning conversation of her London acquaintance insipid, if not tiresome; and though she liked the excitement of her present life, she was not carried away by it. She was dissatisfied. It requires some object more than commonly interesting, to make a London ball-room agreeable night after night, except to the very young, or the very heartless. The time was approaching, however, which was to try her more severely.

A few mornings after the date of her letter to Miss Shepherd, Isabel ran hastily down to breakfast, having been delayed to a later hour

than usual. When she opened the door, she saw a young man sitting with Mr. and Mrs. Denison. He got up as she entered.

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Why on earth are you so late, my dear Isabel?" said her father. "Clarence has been waiting this half hour to see you. Lord Clarence Broke, Isabel."

As she bowed, a thought just flashed through her mind. "I must have seen that face before;" but after an instant's surprise, Lord Clarence came towards her.

"We are old acquaintance, surely, Miss Denison ?" and he held out his hand to her with a smile that had once haunted her me→ mory.

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"Old acquaintance!" said Mrs. Denison; Why, where can you and Clarence have met, Isabel ?"

She looked at him with a puzzled look; then there came a blush and a smile; and— "Ah! I remember;" but she did not explain. Lord Clarence, in a few words, related their meeting near Ellerton.

"I little knew who you were, Miss Deni

son," he said, turning again towards her; " and though I have often and often thought of your kindness, I little thought we ever should meet again." He had sate down for a moment, but soon rose to go.

"Have you taken your seat, Clarence?" asked Mr. Denison.

"No; I go down to the House to-day, and I have to ride into the country first, to look at a horse, which makes me rather in a hurry this morning. Is there anything going on? I have been talking and speechifying so much lately myself, that I have not had time to read or to hear anything."

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Yes, I believe there will be rather an important division to-night."

"Ah! well, I shall be down there. I heard that I must take my seat to-day. Do you go out to-night, Emmeline?"

"Yes, we are going to a ball at Lady Louisa King's. Shall we see you there ?"

"If you had asked me that question ten minutes ago, I should have said Certainly not; but now, I think, I shall avail myself of a