ing—but the expression was, if possible, lovelier than ever. The fire and spirit of Kate's blue eyes was subdued into an exquisite expression of serenity and pensiveness; but on the present occasion her bosom was agitated by so many conflicting feelings— she felt conscious that her very sense of embarrassment was a delicious one-as gave a surprising vivacity of expression to her features. Lord De la Zouch's heart melted within him, as he looked at them, and reflected on the sufferings through which they had passed, and felt a delighted consciousness of the pleasure which his appearance occasioned that virtuous but long oppressed and harassed family, and in the scene of their graceful and honourable poverty: and devout and earnest were his wish and his hope, that Providence would be pleased to crown with success his interference in their behalf. His lordship would not be denied on one matter, upon which he declared that he had made up his mind—that they should all of them return with him to dinner in Dover Street ;—and, to be sure, the sight of his carriage, which he had ordered to follow him within an hour's time, gave them to understand that he really was in earnest-and they both hastened up to dress, oh, with what bounding hearts, and elastic steps!—Lord De la Zouch felt, as they all sat together in his carriage, as though he were a fond father restored to the presence of long-afflicted children; and his courtesy was touched with an exquisite tenderness. When they entered the spacious and lofty drawing-rooms, which, though then wearing the deserted appearance incident to the season, reminded them of many former hours of splendid enjoyment, they felt a flutter of spirits, which it required no little effort to overcome. The drawing and dining-rooms struck them as quite prodigious, from their contrast to the little apartments to which they had been so long accustomed in Vivian Street and several other little circumstances revived recollections and associations of a painfully interesting nature; but as their spirits grew more exhilarated, they felt a sense of real enjoyment to which all of them had long been strangers. One or two sly allusions made by his lordship to the probable future occupants of the house, and the more modern air they might choose, perhaps, to give it, suddenly brought as bright a bloom into Kate's cheek, as ever had mantled there! When they had returned home, it was impossible to think of bed-all of them had so much to say, and were in so joyous an excitement; and before they had parted for the night, Aubrey, unable any longer to keep to himself the true source of his enjoyment, electrified them by a frank and full disclosure of the great event of the day! A day or two afterwards, Lord De la Zouch, having accomplished his benevolent purposes, returned to the Continent, having pledged Mr Aubrey to communicate with him frequently, and particularly with reference to the progress of the important proceedings which he had caused to be set on foot. The splendid chance which now existed of retrieving his former position, was not allowed by Mr Aubrey to interfere with his close attention to his professional studies, to which he might yet have to look for the only source of his future subsistence; and he continued his attendance at Mr Mansfield's chambers with exemplary punctuality and energy. It was not long after Lord De la Zouch's second departure from England, that the melancholy events occurred which have just been narrated-I mean the serious illness of Lord Dreddlington, and the untimely death of Lady Cecilia. The Aubreys had no other intimation of those occurrences than such as they derived from the public papers— from which it appeared that his lordship's illness had occasioned the fright which had ended in so sad a catastrophe with Lady Cecilia; and that his lordship's illness had originated in agitation and distress, occasioned by the failure of extensive mercantile speculations into which he had allowed himself to be betrayed by designing persons. In passing down Park Lane, Mr and Mrs Aubrey, and Kate, saw a hatchment suspended from the house of Mr Titmouse; and, some short time afterwards, they saw that bereaved gentleman himself, in the park, driving a beautiful dark-blue cab, his tiger and he both in mourningwhich became them equally. Black greatly alters most people's appearance; but it effected a peculiar change in Mr Titmouse; the fact being, however, that, desirous of exhibiting even extra marks of respect for the memory of the dear deceased Lady Cecilia, he had put his sandy mustaches and imperial into mourning, by carefully dressing them with Indian ink, which gave a very touching and pensive character indeed to his fea tures. CHAPTER IX. WHILE Mr Pounce and Mr Quod, after their own quaint fashion, are doing decisive battle with each other in a remote corner of the field of action; and while-to change the figure-Mr Titmouse's pedigree is being subjected to the gloomy, silent, and mysterious inquisition of the ecclesiastical court, let us turn for a moment to contemplate a pitiable figure, a victim of the infernal machinations of Mr Gammon-I mean the poor old Earl of Dreddlington. He was yet a month after the death of his unhappy daughter, Lady Cecilia-staggering under the awful. shock which he had experienced. Before he had been in any degree restored to consciousness, she had been buried for nearly three weeks; and the earliest notification to him of the melancholy occurrence, was the deep mourning habiliments of Miss Macspleuchan, who scarcely ever quitted his bedside. When, in a feeble and tremulous voice, he enquired as to the cause of his daughter's death, he could get no other account of it—either from Miss Macspleuchan, his physicians, or the Duke of Tantallan-than that it had been occasioned by the shock of suddenly seeing his lordship brought home seriously ill, she being, moreover, in a very critical state of health. When, at length, he pressed and challenged Miss Macspleuchan upon the matter -viz. the reality of the blighting discovery of Mr Titmouse's illegitimacy-she resolutely maintained that he was labouring altogether under a delusion-indeed a double delusion; first, as to his imaginary conversation with Mr Gammon; and secondly, as to his supposed communication of it to Lady Cecilia. Her heart was smitten, however, by the steadfast look of mournful incredulity with which the Earl regarded her from time to time; and, when alone, she reproached herself in tears with the fraud she was practising upon the desolate and broken-hearted old man. The Duke, however, seconded by the physician, was peremptory on the point, believing that otherwise the Earl's recovery was impossible; and as his Grace invariably joined Miss Macspleuchan in treating the mere mention of the matter as but the figment of a disordered brain, the poor Earl was at length silenced if not convinced. He peremptorily prohibited Mr Titmouse, however, from entering his house--much more from appearing in his presence; and there was little difficulty in making that gentleman seem satisfied that the sole cause of his exclusion was his cruelty and profligacy towards the late Lady Cecilia:—whereas, he knew all the while, and with a sickening inward shudder, the real reason-of which he had been apprised by Mr Gammon. Very shortly after the Earl's illness, the Duke of Tantallan had sent for Mr Titmouse to interrogate him upon the subject of his lordship's representations; but Mr Gammon had been beforehand with the Duke, and thoroughly tutored Titmouse-dull and weak though he was-in the part he was to play, and which Mr Gammon had striven to make as easy to him as possible. The little ape started with well-feigned astonishment, indignation, and disgust, as soon as the Duke had mentioned the matter, and said very little―(such were Gammon's peremptory injunctions)—and that little only in expression of amazement—that any one could attach the slightest importance to the mere wanderings of a brain disturbed by illness. 'Twas certainly a ticklish matter, the Duke felt, to press too far, or to think of intrusting it to third parties. His Grace very naturally concluded, that what his own superior tact and acuteness had failed in eliciting, could be detected by no one else. He frequently pressed Mr Gammon, however, upon the subject; but that gentleman maintained the same calm front he had exhibited when first questioned by the Duke; giving the same account of all he knew of Titmouse's pedigree-and clenching the matter by sending to his Grace a copy of the brief, and of the shorthand writer's notes of the trial-challenging, at the same time, the most rigorous investigation into every circumstance in the It was very natural for the Duke, under these circum case. stances, to yield at length, and feel satisfied that the whole affair rested on no other basis than the distempered brain of his suffering kinsman. Nothing shook his Grace more, however, than the sight of Titmouse: for he looked, verily, one whom it was exceedingly difficult to suppose possessed of one drop of aristocratic blood!—Miss Macspleuchan, a woman of superior acuteness, was infinitely more difficult to satisfy upon the subject than the Duke; and though she said little, her manner showed that she was satisfied of the existence of some dreadful mystery or other, connected with Mr Titmouse, of which Mr Gammon was master—and the premature discovery of which had produced the deplorable effects upon the Earl under which he was at that moment suffering. The Earl, when alone with her, and unconscious of her presence, talked to himself constantly in the same strain; and when conversing with her, in his intervals of consciousness, repeated over and over again, without the slightest variation, facts which seemed as it were to have been burnt in upon his brain. Miss Macspleuchan had―to conceal nothing from the reader-begun to cherish very warm feelings of attachment to Mr Gammon; whose striking person, fascinating conversation, and flattering attention to herself—a thing quite unusual on the part of any of the Earl's visitors—were well calculated to conduce to such a result. But from the moment of Lord Dreddlington's having made the statement which had been attended by such dreadful consequences, her feelings towards Mr Gammon had been completely chilled and alienated. Her demeanour, on the few occasions of their meeting, was constrained and distant; her countenance clouded with suspicion, her manners frozen with reserve and hauteur. Mr Gammon's first interview with the Earl, after his illness and bereavement, had become a matter of absolute necessity— and was at his lordship's instance; his wishes being conveyed through the Duke of Tantallan, who had intimated to him that it was indeed indispensable, if only to settle some matters of business, of pressing exigency, connected with the failure of the Artificial Rain Company. The Duke was with his noble kinsman at the time of Mr Gammon's calling-having intended to be present at the interview. They awaited his arrival in the |