open only to every kind and generous feeling. s He carried lady Laura home in his chariot to lady Emily, of whom and of her cousin he entreated pardon for having so long separated two such hearts in their constant communion with each other. Lady Emily thought at that moment she could not sufficiently appreciate the generous proceeding of her husband; she pressed him and her friend to her bosom by turns, and for a short time all was love and harmony bétween this truly-fashionable pair.

But that inconsistency which had ever marked the colonel's character, again caused him to relapse into his former little vexatious caprices, and perhaps we may call it jealousy, of his lady prefer ring any one before himself. He cer tainly did not tell lady Laura Carleton, who was left an independent widow of large fortune, for Carleton had very prudently and generously taken care that so she should be-he did not absolutely c 6

tell

tell her to quit his house, but he said, every thing else to her that was ill-na-. tured and repellant; so that lady Laura, wishing to make a short tour abroad, departed for Switzerland; and the colo-. nel, when he found her actually going, made use of tears, menaces, and persuasions, to induce her ladyship to remain where she was; but as she knew, whatever his wife might be fated to endure. from his capricious temper, she was not. obliged to put up with his ill-behaviour, she wisely, though very good-humouredly, took her leave.

As the ill-temper of lady Emily increased towards him for thus depriving her of the best comfort of her life, his temper also became soured, and again. he solemnly forbade their correspondence, and insisted that, on no occasion whatever, it should ever be renewed. It did however again take place, as before, in spite of all his prohibitions; and though the cousins were debarred the pleasure

of

of seeing each other, now that the seas rolled between them, they cared not whether their correspondence was interdicted or no.

CHAP

CHAPTER III.

The Blue Room.

THE Colonel had not been married to lady Emily above three years, when she felt herself convinced of his infidelity, by a circumstance that she herself witnessed, at her own dwelling, when her ladyship having gone out, with the intention of passing the morning in shopping, returned suddenly and unexpect edly, having forgot to give an important commission to her waiting-maid, with which she chose not to trust any one but herself.

As she stepped out of the carriage, she fancied she saw an expression of embarrassment on the countenance of the colonel's valet, accompanied with a kind

of

of saucy smile, as he spoke to one of her own servants. She, however went up stairs, ran to the nursery to kiss her darling boy, and, as she came down the last flight of stairs, she stopped as she passed the blue room, on distinctly.hear. ing from thence many expressions of the most soothing tenderness from her hus band, addressed seemingly in answer to sentences of gentle complaint, uttered in the most remarkably dulcet sounds of a female's voice; and frequently her lady-, ship's ear was struck with the expression of " dear George," from the lips of this female, to which was added, “ ever kind, ever the same!"

66

Lady Emily happened just then to have a desire of carrying a point, with her husband, that he had tried to com bat against, but which he could not yet, find in his heart absolutely to deny to such irresistible beauty; for the colonel was then, and indeed always remained, a very uxorious being; therefore, though

lady