attend to what was passing behind her. Just as his lordship concluded the last sentence, Agnes saw Clifford go out with his friend; and she, who had but the minute. before gazed on him with looks of admiring fondness, now wished, in the bitterness of her soul, that she might never behold him again!

"I never wish," said the Colonel, a match of interest to be a happy one." "Nor will this be so, depend on it," answered his lordship; "for, besides that Miss Sandford is ugly and disagreeable, she has a formidable rival." "Indeed!" cried the other, "a favorite mistress I suppose."

Here the breath of Agnes grew shorter and shorter; she suspected they were going to talk of her; and, under other circumstances, her nice sense of honor would have prevented her attending to a conversation which she was certain was not meant for her ear; but so great was the importance of the present discourse to her future peace and well being, that it annihilated all sense of impropriety in listening to it.

"Yes, he has a favorite mistress," answered his lordship." A girl who was worthy a better fate." "You know her, then?" asked the Colonel.. "No," replied he, "by name only; and when I was in the neighborhood of the town where she lived, I heard continually of her beauty and accomplishments; her name is Agnes Fitz-Fitz- "Fitzhenry, I suppose," said the other. "Yes, that is the name," said his lordship; "how came you to guess it?" "Because Agnes Fitzhenry is a name I have often heard toasted; she sings well, does she not?" "She does every thing well," rejoined the other; and was once the pride of her father, and the town she lived in."

Agnes could scarcely forbear groaning aloud at this faithful picture of what she once was.

"Poor thing!" resumed his lordship, " that ever she should be the victim of a villain! It seems he seduced her from her father's house, under pretence of carrying her to Gretna-green; but, on some infernal plea or another, he took her to London."

Here the agitation of Agnes became so visible as to attract Mrs Askew's notice; but as she assured her she should be well presently, Mrs Askew again gave herself up to the illusion of the scene. Little did his lordship think how severely he was wounding the peace of one for whom he felt such compassion.

"You seem much interested about this unhappy girl," said the Colonel. "I am so," replied the other, "and full of the subject too; for Clifford's factotum, Wilson, has been with me this morning, and I learnt from him some of his master's tricks, which made me still more anxious about his victim. It seems she is very fond of her father, though she was prevailed on to desert him, and has never known a happy moment since her elopement, nor could she be easy without making frequent but secret inquiries concerning his health." "Strange inconsistency" muttered the Colonel. "This anxiety gave Clifford room to fear that she might, at some future moment, if discontented with him, return to her afflicted parent before he was tired of her ; so what do you think he did?"

At this moment, Agnes, far more eager to hear what followed than the Colonel, turned round, and fixing her eyes on his lordship with wild anxiety, could scarcely help saying, "What did Clifford do, my lord?"

"He got his factotum, the man I mentioned, to personate a messenger, and to pretend to have been to her native town, and then he gave her such accounts as were best calculated to calm her anxiety; but the master stroke, which secured her remaining with him, was, his telling the pretended messenger to inform her that her father was married again-though it is more likely, poor unhappy man, that he is dead, than that he is married."

At the mention of this horrible probability, Agnes lost all self-command, and screaming aloud, fell back on the knees of his astonished lordship, reiterating her cries with all the alarming helplessness of frenzy.

"Turn her out! turn her out!" echoed through the

house for the audience supposed the noise proceeded from some intoxicated and abandoned woman; and a man in the next box struck Agnes a blow on the shoulder, and calling her by a name too gross to repeat, desired her to leave the house, and act her drunken freaks elsewhere.

Agnes, whom the gentlemen behind were supporting with great kindness and compassion, heard nothing of this speech, save the injurious epithet applied to herself; and alive only to what she thought the justice of it, "Did you hear that?" she exclaimed, starting from his lordship's supporting hand, who with the other was collaring the intoxicated brute that had insulted her-" did you hear that? Oh God! my brain is on fire!" Then, springing over the seat, she rushed out of the box, followed by the trembling and astonished Mrs Askew, who in vain tried to keep pace with the desperate speed of Agnes.

Before Agnes, with all her haste, could reach the bottom of the stairs, the farce ended, and the lobbies began to fill. Agnes pressed forward, when amongst the crowd, she saw a tradesman who lived near her father's house. No longer sensible of shame, for anguish had annihilated it, she rushed towards him, and, seizing his arm, exclaimed, "for the love of God, tell me how my father is!" The tradesman, terrified and astonished at the pallid wildness of her look, so unlike the countenance of successful and contented vice he would have expected to see her wear, replied, "He is well, poor soul! but-" "But unhappy, I suppose?" interrupted Agnes; "Thank God, he is well! but is he married?" ried! dear me, no; he is-" "Do you think he would forgive me?" eagerly rejoined Agnes. "Forgive you! answered the man— "How you talk! Belike he might forgive you, if-" "I know what you would say," interrupted Agnes again, "if I would return. Enoughenough. God bless you! you have saved me from distraction." So saying, she ran out of the house; Mrs Askew having overtaken her, followed by the nobleman and the Colonel, who, with the greatest consternation,

"Mar

had found, from an exclamation of Mrs Askew's, that the object of their compassion was Miss Fitzhenry herself!

What the consequence of his lordship's addressing Agnes might have been, cannot be known; whether he would have offered her the protection of a friend, if she wished to leave Clifford, and whether she would have accepted it, must remain uncertain; but before he could overtake her, Clifford met her, on his return from a neighboring coffee house with his companion; and spite of her struggles and reproaches, which astonished and alarmed him, he, with Mrs Askew's assistance, forced her into a hackney-coach, and ordered the man to drive home. No explanation took place during the ride. To all the caresses and questions of Clifford, she returned nothing but passionate exclamations against his perfidy and cruelty. Mrs Askew thought her insane; Clifford wished to think her so; but his conscience told him that, if by accident his conduct had been discovered to her, there was reason enough for the frantic sorrow he witnessed.

At length they reached their lodgings, which were in Suffolk street, Charing-cross; and Agnes, having at length obtained some composure, in as few words as possible related the conversation she had overheard. Clifford, as might be expected, denied the truth of what his lordship had advanced; but it was no longer in his power to deceive the at last awakened penetration of Agnes. Under his assumed unconcern, she clearly saw the confusion of detected guilt; and, giving utterance in very strong language to the contempt and indignation such complete depravity occasioned her to feel, she provoked Clifford, who was more than half intoxicated, boldly to avow what he was at first eager to deny; and Agnes, who before shuddered at his hypocrisy, was now shocked at his unprincipled daring.

"But what right have you to complain?" added he. "The cheat I put upon you relative to your father, was certainly meant in kindness; and though Miss Sanford

will have my hand, you alone will ever possess my heart; therefore it was my design to keep you in ignorance of my marriage, and retain you as the greatest of all my worldly treasures. Plague on his prating lordship! He has destroyed the prettiest arrangement ever made. However, we shall part good friends as ever."

"Great God!" cried Agnes, raising her tearless eyes to heaven, "is it for a wretch like this I have forsaken the best of parents? But think not, sir," she added, turning with a commanding air towards Clifford, whose temper, naturally warm, the term wretch had not soothed, "think not, fallen as I am, that I will ever condescend to receive protection and support either for myself or child, from a man whom I know to be a consummate villain. You have made me criminal, but you have not obliterated my horror for crime, and my veneration for virtue; and, in the fulness of my contempt, I inform you, sir, that we shall meet no more."

"Not till tomorrow," said Clifford; "this is our first quarrel, Agnes; and the quarrels of lovers are only the renewal of love, you know; therefore, leaving this bitter, piercing air to guard my treasure for me till tomorrow, I take my leave, and hope in the morning to find you in better humor."

So saying, he departed, secure from the inclemency of the weather, and darkness of the night, that Agnes would not venture to go away before the morning, and resolved to return very early in order to prevent her departure, if her threatened resolution were any thing more than the frantic expressions of a disappointed woman. Besides, he knew that at that time she was scantily supplied with money, and that Mrs Askew dared not furnish her with any for the purpose of leaving him.

But he left not Agnes, as he supposed, to vent her sense of injury in idle grief and inactive lamentation, but to think, to decide, and to act. And they, indeed, met no more. What was the rigor of the night to a woman whose heart was torn by all the pangs which convictions such as those she had lately received, could give? And