CHAPTER VI. "He that but fears the thing he would not know SHAKESPEARE. "The love that follows us sometimes is our trouble, Which still we praise as love." Ibid. "Happy and worthy of esteem are those Whose words are bonds, whose oaths are oracles, Whose tears pure, messengers sent from the heart, Ibid. IN the course of the next week, Gertrude re Her mother had readily turned to Audley Park. yielded her assent to the request contained in Lady Clara's note, and although Father Lifford had growled a little about it, he did not on the whole object. He said that he supposed foolish people must please themselves, which they well knew was his way of withdrawing from active opposition. It was therefore with a light heart and a radiant countenance that Gertrude set out for Audley Park, looked again upon its brightness, and entered the drawing-room which had been the scene of so much enjoyment, and where she was now most affectionately received. Lady Clara kissed her, Lady Roslyn smiled, and Mr. Latimer exclaimed in the words of Maurice's song: "Come, Lady-Bird, come rest you here, "We caught her the first time," Lady Clara said; "now she has returned of her own accord." "D'Arberg," said Mr. Latimer, "could not tell us whether you were coming or not. We all longed to fly to Lifford Grange yesterday in that yellow post-chaise, which bore him off at an early hour. You cannot think how we have missed you. Lady Clara has been quite depressed, Lady Roslyn cross, Mrs. Crofton melancholy, poor Mark on the point of hanging himself, and "You, Mr. Latimer?" "O I,-I sent for arsenic yesterday, and had you not returned to-day there would have been a coroner's inquest to-morrow. I can't eat at dinner, the Miss Apleys talk to me so much." "That is a hint." "No, Lady-Bird, your warblings help digestion. By the way, Lady Clara, I hope the magnetiser is coming here again. She ought to know him." "He said he would dine here on Wednesday." "We had great fun the other night. He sent Miss Apley fast asleep, and put Fanny, on the contrary, in such a state of excitement that she talked the most charming nonsense. He is to tell us a great deal about clairvoyance the next time he comes." "I have often heard Mesmerism spoken of," Gertrude said, "but have never tised." seen it prac "O then, Mr. Edwards shall devote himself to you on Wednesday." What nonsense d'Arberg talked about it. Not safe to have anything to do with it! I should have thought him a more sensible man. I really think he believes in witchcraft." "O no, he does not." "I beg your pardon-he said he could not see how one could explain away what was said in the Bible about it." "And do you?" Gertrude asked. "I don't know, I never tried." 66 'Then you disbelieve without examining," Lady Clara said; "that is hardly philosophical. M. d'Arberg was not at all dogmatical about it." "You always stand up for him, Lady Clara." "But I do not set down any one else-not even you, which I own would be difficult." He laughed and said: "And I own that you are the best natured person in the world ;—I never heard you run down any one." "It is so fatiguing," she said with a pretty little yawn (if such a thing can be pretty). “I have not Mrs. Crofton's energy.” "Malicious humility!" he exclaimed,-" Admirable laziness!-the merit of virtue and the charm of vice. I like to see you idly reclining in your arm-chair, letting the stitches drop from your work, with the same charming indolence with which you spare the reputations of your neighbours. And have you missed us, LadyBird?" he continued, "have you in the shades of Lifford Grange given one thought to those you left behind? I had some thoughts of disguising myself as a sailor, or a tramper, and laying wait for you in some of those dark thickets near the Leigh; but there is a story in the neighbourhood that your father keeps bulls in his park, and I was afraid of being tossed in your presence,-not |