Whether it was that the old snapdragon suspected my veracity from the expression of my tell-tale countenance, I knew not; though I think it far from improbable, as I never in my life could acquire from my cousin Nicholas that happy nonchalance with which he would utter you half a dozen lies in a breath, without the slightest embarrassment or discomposure of muscle: certain it is, that my tormenting auditress soon convinced me that it would be easier to extract a guinea from a miser's purse, or a plain answer from a diplomatist's portfeuille, than to obtain from her the information I so eagerly panted to obtain. With an excess of good breeding, ludicrously at variance with the sourness of her physiognomy, she eluded my request to be admitted to see the lady, parried my enquiries, thanked me for my civility, and, requesting me to give myself no farther trouble about the trinket, (which she pledged herself to return to the right owner at an early opportunity,) fairly bowed and curtsied me out of the house, without my having been able to arrive at any other certainty than that I had thrown away five pounds ten upon a most unprofitable speculation, and one which presented not the shadow of a return; in short, the cool, sarcastic demeanour of that terrible old woman fully convinced me that, from the very first, she had penetrated my motives, seen through my stratagem, and made my whole scheme recoil upon myself. One advantage, however, I had at least gained by my attempt; that was the securing still farther the assistance of my friendly Abigail, to whom I made the most magnificent promises, on the simple condition that she should transmit the desired intelligence to an address with which I furnished her; and, with nothing beyond this frail foundation to rest my hopes upon, I at last quitted London, leaving Nicholas behind me, and fully resolving to extricate myself as soon as possible from any engagement which my mother might have formed for me, that I might return to the metropolis; where only I had any hope of succeeding in my search after the, perhaps unconscious, possessor of my runaway heart.

The evening of a cold, wet, and

dreary day in the month of March saw me once more at Underdown Hall, as gloomy, uncomfortable, and thoroughly out of temper as any dutiful young gentleman in the world could possibly be, when thwarted in his pursuits by the untimely interposition of his mamma. The genuine joy, however, expressed by my dear mother at my arrival, and the cordial greetings of Sir Oliver, soon alleviated, if they failed to dissipate entirely, my chagrin. I say nothing of the friendly shake of the hand vouchsafed me by the taciturn Captain, or the simpering congratulations of Miss Pyefinch, who remarked, in the most flattering manner, that "Master Stafford" (I was nearly twenty-two, and measured five feet eleven in my stockings)" had grown surprisingly, and was very much improved altogether since she saw him last." I found the worthy baronet as stout, as jovial, and as proud of his ancestry as ever; time, indeed, had laid a lenient hand on him, and, but that his hair had begun to assume the tint of the badger rather than that of the raven, little difference was to be observed in his appearance, from that which he had exhibited at the time I had first been presented to his notice. Not so Mrs Stafford; her health had never been good since my father's death, and it was with pain I now remarked that she looked much thinner, and was evidently much weaker, than when I had last quitted her; but her spirits were still good, much better indeed than I had long been accustomed to see them, and her eye gleamed once more, occasionally, with a portion of that playful fire which during the lifetime of her husband had marked its scintillations. She was evidently much pleased at something; but what that something was which afforded her so much apparent satisfaction, remained a mystery not to be solved till the following morning. I therefore repressed my curiosity as I best might, and retired to my couch, in the ardent hope of being visited in my dreams by enchanting visions of my fair but unknown enslaver. Sir Oliver had forced on me certain rations of cold pork for supper. I fell asleep, and dreamt of the devil and Mrs Morgan.

At length

"The morn, in russet mantle clad, Peep'd o'er the top of "our "high eastern hill."

After a breakfast which appeared to me to be unusually protracted, I retired with my mother to her dressing-room, there to receive from her a communication of those weighty motives which had induced her to summon me thus abruptly. I learned that her so doing was the consequence of a letter which she had lately received from a paternal uncle of mine, of whom I had hitherto heard but little, and seen nothing, General Lord Viscount Manningham, the elder, and now sole surviving, brother of my lamented father. This epistle stated the fact of his lordship's arrival in England, after an absence from his native land of many years' duration, in the course of which time his paternal affections had been severely lacerated, by witnessing a fine and dearly-loved family of promising children yielding, together with their mother, one by one, to the fatal effects of a climate but too uncongenial with a European constitution. Of three boys, and as many girls, one only of the latter now remained to him; and, trembling lest the same dreadful cause which had robbed him in succession of her brothers and sisters, should also deprive him of this, now become his only, hope, Lord Manningham had relinquished the high and lucrative situation, and the state, little short of regal, which he held in one of our richest colonies, to seek once more the shores of his own country, loaded, indeed, with wealth, but all too dearly purchased by the loss of his wife and offspring. Great indeed were the changes which the gallant Viscount found had taken place during his long absence from England. His two brothers were, both of them, no more; of all his once numerous relatives and connexions my mother and myself were the solitary survivors, neither of whom he had, of course, ever be held. His attachment to his brothers, and to Charles especially, had been a strong one; and although the confined state of his own finances, which in the earlier part of his career were altogether unequal to the decent support of his rank, had prevented his

doing for him what his affection dictated, and indeed forced him to sacrifice all his early habits and attachments for the valuable appointment which eventually crowned him with wealth as well as honour, still he ever entertained the kindliest feelings towards his youngest brother, and, as far as lay in his power, aided his promotion, by the exercise of all the interest he possessed; fully de termining, at the same time, to appropriate to his use no niggard portion of that daily increasing property which the gradual contraction of his own family circle rendered the less necessary for his and their exclusive use. Death, as we have already seen, frustrated this project; and Colonel Stafford expired, comparatively ignorant of his fraternal intentions; but now that the same cruel spoiler had robbed him also of those beloved boys to whom he had once looked up as destined to transmit his name and honours to posterity, he recurred with greater warmth than ever to his original design, and, as the father was beyond the reach of his benevolence, resolved to confer his benefits on the son. In this intention he was the more confirmed, as that son was now, by the failure of his own issue-male, become heirpresumptive to the title of Manningham, and the last possessor of the noble name of Stafford.

Such was the tenor of his epistle, which concluded with the expres sion of an earnest desire to see him who was destined to inherit his honours, and intimated that the character he had already heard of his nephew, (my mother read me this part of the letter with a swelling heart,) in reply to the enquiries which he had instituted respecting him, made him anxious that the meeting should take place as soon as possible. The letter, which, I need hardly say, was a very long one, and couched in the handsomest and most affectionate terms, contained also a pressing invitation to my mother, urging her to accompany her son to Grosvenor Square, as his engagements with Ministers would, for a time, render it impossible for the ex-Governor himself to visit the Hall; a hint, too, was conveyed of an embryo plan, the object of which was the union of the senior and junior

branches of the House of Stafford, by the marriage of the two last remaining scions of the family.

Of all the proposals that could have been submitted, it is doubtful if any one could have been recommended of a nature more gratifying to my mother than the one thus alluded to. Lord Manningham's wealth was now immense, and, being almost entirely of his own acquisition, was, of course, with the exception of the very small entailed estate which went with the Viscountcy, completely at his own disposal. To me, indeed, a barren title would descend, but that, without the funds necessary to support its dignity, might rather be considered as a misfortune than a boon. An arrangement like that proposed would obviate every inconvenience. Report spoke highly of the person and accomplishments of the Honourable Miss Stafford, although (from her father's time having been hitherto too much occupied since his return to admit of his forming a suitable establishment) she had not yet been introduced into general society, but at the next birthday she was to be presented; then, of course, her career of fashion would commence, and, beyond all doubt, num. berless admirers, among the votaries of ton, would rapidly present themselves in the train of the possessor of so many charms, and the inheritrix of so many rupees. On every account, therefore, my mother was anxious that I should lose no time in securing to myself an interest both with my noble uncle and his fair daughter; and nothing prevented her from at once writing to me, and explaining the whole affair, but the idea she entertained that she could better expatiate upon the advantages of such a match in a personal interview, combined with a wish of hear ing from my own lips the pleasing assurance, that my most earnest endeavours should be forthwith applied to the realization of this, her most fondly cherished hope.

Although naturally of a sanguine temperament, and fully alive to all the advantages which rank and property bestow on their possessor, there was nevertheless a something in all this which did not present itself to my view in quite such glowing colours as it did to that of my

VOL. XXXV. No. CCXXI,

mother. To be thus unceremoniously disposed of, without being even consulted on the subject, appeared to me neither consistent with the respect I thought my due, nor altogether reasonable. Miss Stafford might, for aught I knew to the contrary, be all that my mother represented her to be, but then againshe might not-or, if she were, I might not like her, or-though selflove whispered that was scarcely possible-she might not like me. Nor should I be acting with candour were I to deny that, had this proposal been made to me before I quitted Oxford, it might have been viewed in a very different light. At present the charms of the unknown fair one certainly tended most materially to bias my inclinations, and though I was not so far gone, either in love or in romance, as at once to resolve on rejecting so fair an offer,-if offer that might be called, which at most was only an insinuation,-still the recollection of the tender, yet modest glances I had encountered in the pit of Covent Garden Theatre, undoubtedly contributed to render me averse from a proposal, my acceptance of which would, of course, preclude the possibility of any farther acquaintance with the object of my search, even should I be fortunate enough to discover her retreat. Nevertheless, I could not help feeling the force of Sir Anthony Absolute's observation, “it is very unreasonable to object to a lady you have never seen;" and the idea at the same moment occurring to me that my attendance on Lord Manningham in town would be, perhaps, the most efficacious method I could take to make the discovery that lay so near my heart, I gave my assent to the proposal, that I should pay my uncle a visit, not only without reluctance, but even with an alacrity, to which an unwillingness to occasion so much pain to my mother, as I saw the expression of my real feelings on the subject would give her, mainly contributed. A sort of coxcombical feeling that, perhaps, after all, i MIGHT like a young lady who, it was ten to one, might not like me, contributed to decide the matter, and I

66

gave in my adhesion" with a tolerably decent share of apparent resignation. My mother, however,

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