may still think she sleeps in the blue room. Now, I will tell you what you shall do: tell Browne, if you find nothing else will do, that I will be his security that he is paid; he will not doubt my word; and say, that if I do not pay him before six months are expired, he may come to me for the money. is much better than giving a bill, because he may pay that away to somebody else, and then I shall not find it so easy to get rid of, as I may of Browne, in the character of a dun."

That

Away hastened Harrison; and lady Emily having heard a thundering knock at the door, hastened to the drawingroom, and reclined her fine form on a sofa, in the most captivating attitude imaginable.

СНАР

CHAPTER II.

Hasty Marriages.

LADY Emily Lessington, and lady Laura Mandeville, were both earl's daughters, and were first cousins, brought up together from early infancy. Lady Laura, the daughter of the earl of Belmont's only sister, and her sole offspring, having been deprived of both her parents at the early age of five years, was consigned by her widowed mother, the countess of Esterton, on her deathbed, to the guardianship and care of her brother, lord Belmont, who loved his little niece with the most tender and paternal affection.

Laura was two years younger than her cousin Emily; and never did two sisters regard each other with greater fondness

fondness than these lovely children, whose outward graces and attractions, as they approached near womanhood, promised fair to outshine those of every other female star, that sheds its beautiful and brilliant rays over the horizon of polished society.

The young ladies, though they never differed on any subject whatever, and never had a dispute in their whole lives, yet were very different in disposition. Lady Emily was only by fits and starts what the excellent-hearted and truly good-principled Laura was at all times, and in reality; but they were both, at the ages of fifteen and seventeen, possessed of all that volatility and want of prudent caution, so natural to early and prosperous youth-ignorant of all care, indulged in every wish, and blessed with health and spirits, to give the most delightful zest to all the superior gifts of fortune, with which they were so amply endowed.

The

The earl of Belmont was a widower, and passed much of his time with his lovely daughter and niece in the country. But his seat was situated near a gay provincial town, at no very great distance from London; so that the public diversions of that splendid metrópolis, and many of its crowded parties, and late dinners of ceremony, were cheerfully dispensed with, and very little regretted for the happy roofs of Belmont, situated in the most lovely part of Berkshire.

One spring, two dashing officers of the Guards, then having the military rank of captains, came to pay a visit to one of the most distinguished families in the vicinity of Belmont; the one was captain Ardenbrooke, the other captain Carleton ; they had every advantage of person, manners, and high descent, to recommend them; but they were both poor, through their own prodigality.

Never, in the whole circle of their acquaintance, had the two female cou

sins-beheld men so prepossessing; the officers also were instantly captivated by the young ladies; and the intimacy of the earl with the family at whose man sion these sons of Mars were on a visit, facilitated the plans of the gentlemen, and the wishes of the ladies.

The earl saw the predilection in their favour that was formed by his niece and daughter with sensations far from plea. surable; but naturally of a very quiet disposition, he forbore to mention it to them, fancying sometimes that perhaps his continual care and watchfulness over these objects of his unbounded affection, had caused him to fancy what had na foundation in reality, and he dreaded to breathe an expression to two such young creatures, and thereby give them an idea they possibly had never entertained, on the dangerous subjects of love and mars riage, with men especially so much their superior in years, and experienced in all the ways of gallantry and persuasión:

Thus