might reveal herself to her darling child.

Colonel Ardenbrooke was most agreeably surprised when he found himself nominated to take the charge of his late friend's child; the charge was indeed an important one, especially to a man whose hours were immersed in every fashionable pursuit; but real affection will do much, and he resolved to fulfil his trust to the utmost.

It happened at a most inauspicious. time, when it was determined by Mr. Hartington that the young lady should reside under the colonel's roof: lady Emily, though not a guilty wife, had suffered her heart to stray from home; and to cover her own imprudence, she affected the most violent jealousy against her husband. What could he do? how could he possibly, without raising a violent tempest, introduce even the subject? how tell her he was going to take a young lady into his house as an in

mate?

mate? He felt sure that lady Emily would never believe that she was the daughter of his friend, but pretend to think that, child as she was, she was only some cherished favourite of his own; for it was so customary for a man in the decline of life to have a chere amie. quite young enough to be his youngest daughter.

With joy he heard that lady Laura Carleton had arrived only a few days from Paris, and was remaining for a short time at Brighton: he hired post horses immediately, and almost flew to her, and telling her as much as he dared, he entreated her to write to his wife, while he swore every solemn oath that he could think of, that the girl was Dorrington's; he implored lady Laura to use in her letter to her cousin all the persuasion she was mistress of, and he begged she would forget all past grievances, and be a frequent guest at his house, when she came to town: he deD 2 clared

clared it was his excessive love for his wife that rendered him jealous of every one that shared her affection, even of such an angelic being of her own sex; but now he earnestly supplicated that their correspondence might be renewed the same as ever. Poor deceived man! it had never yet been broken off.

Lady Laura, in the most tender, delicate, yet energetic manner, pleaded the cause of the young stranger: she assured her friend that she would pledge her life on the colonel's veracity-" And oh, my love," added she, "think only for a moment if your Henry was a female, and wanted a safe asylum-oh, think how I should love the blooming girl for its dear mother's sake! You know how often have we witnessed, and incessantly heard of the real affection that bound your husband to Dorrington; you will, therefore, I am sure, be your own generous self, and receive the young lady in your kindest manner: she will be

with you on the day after you receive this letter."

It was this last passage that awakened all the better feelings of lady Emily, when her evil genius bringing to her mind the recollections of what had passed in the blue room, prompted her to think that Clarissa Dorrington was the daughter of her husband, and that the beautiful stranger she had seen was undoubtedly her mother. She did not, however, experience any very severe pangs of the heart on this occasion, but was resolved to shew her generosity, by behaving as kind to the orphan as she possibly could. She found she was not a poor orphan: no doubt then, she reflected within herself, that the frequent handsome loans her husband had required of her, and the annuities he had raised on his own estates, at exorbitant interest, were all devoted to the enriching of this his illegitimate child: how indeed could it be otherwise? with all his money thus obtained,

D 3

tained, either by legal or illegal interest, nobody was paid, and his involvements became deeper and deeper; though but a very few years had passed since, by the earl of Belmont's death, he had become in possession of thirty thousand pounds; as his lordship would settle no more on his daughter exclusively, since he found her husband to be the least extravagant of the two. Alas! while lady Emily was astonished at her husband's want of prudence, and the increase of his debts, many of which were of her own contracting, she, with double his annual revenue, was herself in continual embarrassments, her quarterly stipend (for she never could touch the principal) being generally condemned long before it was due.

The morrow however arrived that brought with it the interesting Clarissa Dorrington, and Ardenbrooke beheld, with the fondest interest, the softened image of his friend, who seemed to him

to