forlorn, deserted creature. My own sweet Arethusa is gone with the dowager lady Templemore on a tour to the lakes of Killarney; Mrs. Arthur Gore talks of quitting us in a day or two, and then I shall be left quite alone with Mr. Gore, which is worse, as you well know, than no company at all. You have frequently promised to give me your sweet society for a short time at Mount Amaranth. I should not take this opportunity of reminding you of this engagement, did I not know of the approaching departure of the family at Meadowscourt, and, at the same time, that it is a month or two before the high gaiety of Dublin. I have therefore no remorse in taking you, for a short time, from lady Louisa, and beg you to consider, that, in making this visit, you will confer a real obligation on your admiring friend, "ANNE ARETHUSA STRATFORD GORE."

While Geraldine was thinking what an

swer

swer to return to this invitation, she was startled by the entrance of lady Louisa Southwell; but it was no longer the lady Louisa of the night before." I sought you," said her ladyship, "because I have been unable to rest, in consequence of the unpleasant, though just impression you must have received of me last evening. This is the misery of my lot. Domestic anguish embitters a temper originally good, I flatter myself, though warm; and then that very asperity endangers the affections of the beings whom I most wish to oblige and attach. But will you not, Geraldine, bear with a frailty of which I have so fully disclosed to you the source? will you not say that you, forgive me?"

The heart of Geraldine melted into the tenderest compassion at this appeal. All her preconceived projects and objections vanished. It seemed to her a kind of treachery to talk of leaving her friend at the moment she leaned on her for pity and support, and, haughty as her general disK 6 position

position was, frankly avowed and asked pardon for her failings.

As these thoughts passed rapidly through Geraldine's mind, her eye glanced, as quickly, from lady Louisa to the note of Mrs. Stratford Gore, which had for a moment shaken her resolution, and to which she now purposed to send a decided refusal. Lady Louisa's eye followed the direction of hers." A letter from the learned and sentimental Arethusa, I see," she said— "she thinks she excels in the éloquence du billet."

Geraldine briefly explained to lady Louisa the contents of the note.

Her ladyship appeared to muse a little, and then, to her great surprise, exclaimed -"Accept the invitation, by all means."

We are strangely-constituted creatures. A moment before, Geraldine had earnestly wished, yet hardly dared to hope for, such a permission; and now that it was given, she wished it retracted, and could not forbear thinking something more was

.neant

meant than met the ear in lady Louisa's sudden concession. She had at length discovered her to be a woman of warm feelings and strong passions, at the same time a complete woman of the world; in short, a good-hearted and generous intriguante, who employed the fine talents and ample means with which nature and fortune had endowed her, in pursuits that she ever meant to be productive of good; but at the same time Geraldine felt an inexpressible reluctance to be the unconscious object of some new scheme, suggested by the late circumstance to her ladyship's fertile genius. This repugnance was vain: the die was now cast. It was settled that she should go to Mount Amaranth, and lady Louisa stood for some time engaged in affectionate conversation with her, during which she arranged the manner of their reunion in Dublin, as soon as Geraldine's visit to Mrs. Gore should be terminated.

:: While Geraldine thus acquiesced, for

the

the present, in the plan of remaining in the country, there was a young lady, who, through rather less fitted to shine in the great world, was much more anxious to enter it. This was Olivia Pendennis. She had been persuaded by her last partner that she was not only a beauty, but a wit; and ambition now whispered a most extravagant dream-no less than, by flattering Miss Southwell, to receive an invitation to accompany the family to Dublin, and perhaps even to get introduced at the Castle.

"I desire, Olivia," said Diana Pendennis, in the tone of amiability usually adopted by sisters who have the advantage rather in years than beauty, "I desire I may hear no more of this egregious nonsense. What! a girl without fortune, the niece of a petty country schoolmaster, to be presented at the Castle!"

"A man of letters, a celebrated traveller and tourist, you might more properly say, Diana; for our uncle is better known in those characters than as a schoolmaster;

and