well off now, I assure you; and our present residence is so pretty! Such a sweet garden! and such a charming hothouse!"

"Indeed!" returned the old man, with a significant nod to his friend; "well, then, let your papa take care he does not make his house too hot to hold him, and that another house be not added to his list of residences." Here he laughed heartily at his own. wit, and was echoed by his companion.

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But, pray, how long has he been thus again favoured by fortune?"—“Oh dear! I cannot say; but, for some time; and I assure you our style of living is very complete".-"I do not doubt it; for children and fools speak truth, says the proverb; and sometimes," added he in a low voice, "the child and the fool are the same person." "So, so", he muttered aside to

the other traveller; "gardens! hothouse! carriage! swindling, specious rascal!" But Annabel heard only the first part of the sentence; and being quite satisfied that she had recovered all her consequence in the eyes of her young beau by two or three white lies, as she termed them (flights of fancy, in which she was apt to indulge), she resumed her attack on his heart, and continued to converse, in her most seducing manner, till the coach stopped, according to her desire, at a cottage by the road-side, where, as she said, her father's groom was to meet her, and take her portmanteau. The truth was, that she did not choose to be set down at her own humble home, which was at the further end of the village, because it would not only tell the tale of her fallen fortunes, but would prove the falsehood of what she had

been asserting. When the coach stopped, she exclaimed, with well-acted surprise, "Dear me! how strange that the servant is not waiting for me! But, it does not signify; I can stop here till he comes." She then left the coach, scarcely greeted by her elderly companions, but followed, as she fancied, by looks of love from the youth, who handed her out, and expressed his great regret at parting with her.

The parents, meanwhile, were eagerly expecting her return; for, though the obvious defects in her character gave them excessive pain, and they were resolved to leave no measures untried in order to eradicate them, they had missed her amusing vivacity; and even their low and confined dwelling was rendered cheerful, when, with her sweet and brilliant tones, she went carolling about the house. Besides,

she was coming, for the first time, alone and unexpected; and, as the coach was later than usual, the anxious tenderness of the parental heart was worked up to a high pitch of feeling, and they were even beginning to share the fantastic fears of the impatient grandmother, when they saw the coach stop at a distant turn of the road, and soon after beheld Annabel coming towards them; who was fondly clasped to those affectionate bosoms, for which her unprincipled falsehoods, born of the most contemptible vanity, had prepared fresh trials and fresh injuries for her elderly companions were her father's principal and relentless creditors, who had been down to Wynstaye on business, and were returning thence to London; intending, when they arrived there, to assure Sir James Alberry,-that friend of Bur

ford's father, who resided in London, and wished to take him into partnership,—that they were no longer averse to sign his certificate; being at length convinced he was a calumniated man. But now all their suspicions were renewed and confirmed; since it was easier for them to believe that Burford was still the villain which they always thought him, than that so young a girl should have told so many falsehoods at the mere impulse of vanity. They therefore became more more inveterate against her poor father than ever; and, though their first visit to the metropolis was to the gentleman in question, it was now impelled by a wish to injure, not to serve, him. How differently would they have felt, had the vain and false Annabel allowed the coach to set her down at her father's lowly door! and had they beheld the in