return

only a business interview,' con

tinued he, addressing his guests.

excuse me for a few minutes.'

'Pray

He left the room, and Mrs. Mauden and the ladies of the party withdrew at the same time to the drawing-room.

The breakfast-room or morning room at Mauden Hall was next to the diningroom, not separated from it, according to a frequent but inconvenient arrangement, by folding doors, but by a substantial wall.

Whether it was that the curiosity of the guests had been so strongly excited by the evident agitation of the Squire as to increase the sensibility of their auditory nerves, whether their imaginations represented the reality of that which they supposed likely to occur, or whether they apprehended the truth, I cannot say; but, certainly, it seemed to them that while their own conversation became flat and dull, and interrupted by long intervals of silence, that in the breakfast-room was at first animated, then loud, and finally violent.

Frank

Frank Mauden, the third son of the Squire, had taken his mother's place as soon as she had left the room, and endeavoured, with that easy and pleasant grace which all of us have seen so often in the manner of English sailors, first, to prevent the visitors from missing the genial presence of his father, and afterwards to hinder them from noticing the loud and angry voices of the speakers in the next room. But his attempts failed signally; most unusually, a gène, a gloom, hung over the dinner party. No one was inclined to converse, or to be amused, and Frank Mauden, at last, in despair, rang for coffee, and the gentlemen adjourned to the drawing-room.

Mrs. Mauden's self-control enabled her to conquer, or at least to conceal, the curiosity which she naturally felt respecting the unexpected visitors who had so unseasonably withdrawn her husband from his guests; and she conversed pleasantly as usual with her friends. One of them, always a welcome visitor at Mauden, was a tall, pale, elegant

elegant-looking woman, addressed by Mrs. Mauden familiarly by her Christian name of Clare, and the mistress of a house, half mansion, half cottage, which stood within Mauden Park, and known as The Chase. This lady's name was Glynne.

A young person, apparently about nineteen years of age, was making tea at

a small table at the further end of the drawing-room. It was a custom at the Hall to have tea made in the drawingroom on such occasions, and it had grown into a habit, during three or four years, that it should be made by the same young lady -a person not pretty, not elegantlooking, rather brown in complexion, rather square in the build of her forehead, rather broad-shouldered, and short in person. We have seen her before. Her name was Sybilla Payne.

'It is very good of you to let Sybilla make tea for me, dear Clare,' said Mrs. Mauden, 'It causes such an excellent diversion. The gentlemen generally charge," as Fred would say, the principal

66

group,

group, on entering the drawing-room, and if some of them are attracted to the tea table, so much less in the way of entertaining falls on us.'

'Yes, if they once approach Sybilla, either by means of philosophy, or quarrelling, they will find enough to occupy them,' said Mrs. Glynne, smiling. 'But you should rather say, that it is very good of Sybilla to come, than of me to permit her to do so. I am her very obedient humble servant, I assure you.'

The door of the room was now opened by a servant, and Mr. Mauden entered the room, followed by two gentlemen, whom he proceeded to present to his wife as Mr. Martyn, and Count Severski.

The first-named of the strangers was a young man, apparently from twenty-five to thirty years of age. His name was English, and he had an English look, yet his manners were more those of a foreigner than of a native of our rude and sea-beaten isles, scarcely French perhaps, more like those of a very polished German, or Pole,

or

or Russian.

In fact, they possessed that air of good breeding which is cosmopolitan rather than national, and but for his name, and his face, and figure, it would have been impossible to say to what country he belonged.

Perhaps a degree more charming was the address of his companion. He apologised volubly in French for the travelling dress in which he appeared among Mrs. Mauden's society, and finding that a little difficulty was experienced by that lady in replying in the same language, he immediately spoke English, smiling at his own blunders, which were, indeed, very few, and soon made her forget her curiosity respecting the cause of his visit, by his very agreeable conversation. The size and shape of the drawing-room, so delightfully spacious, with its deep windows, like little side chapels, he said, dedicated to the presiding saint of conversation, he praised warmly; and the paintings, which were really good, and were celebrated over all the county, he examined critically.

He