addressed sir Henry de Vesci, who shared with sir Charles Southwell the duties of steward for the evening." I do beseech you, sir Henry, to consider," said the angry lady, thrusting her highly-rouged face, in an agony of maternal anxiety, close to the baronet-" I beseech you to consider that my daughter has had no dancing all night!”

"I can assure your ladyship," returned sir Henry, with solemnity," I have exerted myself to the very utmost to procure a partner for Miss Opium; but some gentlemen come to the ball so fatigued with hunting, others so idle, and others so".

"I declare, if here isn't a reinforcement!" exclaimed the lady, applying her eyeglass in the direction of the door, and scrutinizing a party that were just entering. They consisted of three young men, two of whom report soon announced to be English; the third, a lawyer upon circuit, was soon acknowledged as an acquaintance by Matilda, and joined the Southwell

Southwell party. Lady Opium, anxious to know if either of the two other gentlemen were proper partners for her daughter, addressed herself to Olivia Pendennis with-" They say, Miss Pendennis, those gentlemen are from England; perhaps they may be known to you."

But Olivia Pendennis, in a transport of grandeur at having been spoken to by lord Templemore, and being of the same party with lady Louisa Southwell and "all the Southwells," neither heard nor heeded her ladyship, but replied by a vacant glance, first at her tucker, and then at the brilliant chandelier depending from the ceiling. At this moment all doubts were pleasantly removed by the approach of sir Henry de Vesci, conducting one of the gentlemen, whom he presented to Miss Opium, as Mr. Morgan, of Llangwyllien, in Caernarvonshire, while his companion desired, at the same time, to be introduced to Olivia Pendennis, by the name of Mr. Lambton. If squire Morgan

was as awkward and stupid almost as Miss Opium herself, Mr. Lambton, on the -contrary, united to uncommon personal beauty a degree of agility and grace rarely witnessed. Praises of the handsome stranger quickly circulated around; and even Miss Southwell experienced a vague desire of adding him to the number of her conquests.

At supper, Matilda sat between the barrister, who was no other than her old admirer, counsellor Mac Calembourg, and lord Templemore; but the attentions of the latter were entirely devoted to Geraldine, who had been his last partner, and who, little suspecting the envy which devoured her neighbour, was, every moment, more and more overpowered with ennui at the want of cultivation, intelligence, or taste, that too fatally betrayed itself in every sentence uttered by her noble partner. This was a state of mind Miss Southwell was unequal to conceive. She doubted not that Geraldine was delighted with

her

her new conquest, and it hurt her pride, as she would, in confidence, have phrased it, that Geraldine should be delighted at her expence. M. Necker has somewhere observed, that those who do not like the trouble of amending their faults, by an ingenious refinement of self-love, often convert them into good qualities. This was the case with Miss Southwell, who always pronounced the words "my pride," with as much complacency as if she had said, my generosity, my benevolence, my prudence, or any of

"Those numerous virtues, which the tribe
Of tedious moralists describe."

Such being the disposition in which she found herself, all the good things with which the counsellor's conversation abounded, even all his treasured hoard of latest Dublin news and scandal, were insufficient to raise a languid smile on the lips of his fair auditor. Not so Cobham Pendennis, who had been forgiven his involuntary share

I 4

share in the unlucky adventure of the shower-bath, and who had hovered, all the evening, with distant and humble adoration, around the fair idol of his affections. He listened with open mouth and admiring eyes to all the counsellor's brilliant sallies, and secretly sighed that he could not exchange his own sheepish awkwardness, and ponderous gravity, for the ease and vivacity of a Dublin barrister. One quadrille had been danced after supper, and symptoms of weariness began to appear in some of the elder part of the company, when the clear, fine-toned voice of sir Charles Southwell, exclaiming "Make way for the waltzers!" gave a fresh impulse to every body's spirits. In an instant a space was cleared, and about eight couple advanced, linked two by two in the mazy round, which they traced with alternate slowness and spirit. Mr. Lambton and Miss Southwell were soon distinguished as by far the most graceful pair; and so conscious did the other dan

cers