You shall have all your beaux round you there, and you shall put on Victorine's new dress, and you shall be the prettiest woman in the room”—and she kissed her lovely sister, as she was now half reclining on the side of her bed, in vestito di confidenza, with nothing but a loose dressing gown drawn round her, and the ample downy slipper encircling her diminutive ankle.

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"Yes, Fanny, we shall have a good ball, I have no doubt; and you shall have George Grainger and Lord Arthur Mullingham all to yourself in a corner." George Grainger, à la bonne heure," replied Lady Frances, "but as to Lord Arthur, he is my bête noire, and you may keep him for one of your own partners. I like Grainger because he tells me all the wicked stories of Paris, and because he knows every thing about every body, and because he wears such very nice clothes, and has not a single farthing of money to pay for them. It always happens that men are twice as agreeable when they have not got a sous in the world.-But we have strangely forgotten your runaway lover, whilst we are talking over all our other beaux-what fun, if he should arrive to-night or to-morrow morning, so as to be here in time for the ball! I should like to have him of the party, when we go to the ambassador's -wouldn't it be nice?"

VOL. I.

"Just untie this knot for me, there's a dear," said Emily; and, as her sister stooped to execute the task, she threw her arms round her neck, and kissed her many times, and, as she kissed her, she sighed and when Lady Frances rose up, she found her cheeks were wetted with her sister's tears, and she bent over her again, and clasped her once more to her bosom, for she felt that there was more there than could be expressed-hurt pride at the delay of Lord Clanelly, fond anxiety for his safety, anger at his silence, hope of his arrival—all these feelings seemed to mingle in her tears; and the two sisters, as they embraced each other on the bed, wept together, and spoke not.

It was just at this conjuncture, that the ringing of the porter's bell, the opening of the gates, and the rattle of carriage wheels, described in the last chapter, was heard in the court-yard below. Emily sprung up with her finger on her lips

""Tis he-it must be Clanelly!"—and she paced hastily up and down the apartment, agitated with a transport of hope, and doubt, and joy. Twice she approached the window, determined to hazard one gaze on her lover as he descended from the voiture, but as her hand was on the blind to draw it back, she hesitated and stopped. "What would he think," she said half aloud to herself" if he saw

even so much as my shadow on the curtain!"– there seemed a degree of indelicacy in the movement, and she abandoned the idea.-" And yet," said she to her sister, "I should like to have seen how he is looking after his long journey-all the way from Rome-it is a long distance; but Clanelly has vigour and strength enough for anything: how I long for breakfast time to-morrow!"

"How are you sure that it is Lord Clanelly, after all?" remarked Lady Frances.

"We will soon see," was the reply of Lady Emily; and she opened the door of the adjoining closet where her maid had been waiting. "Jane,” said she, "go down stairs, and find out from the servants who it is that is just arrived." The soubrette presently returned with the news that it was an English lord, and that he had asked for the rooms which had been engaged for Lord Clanelly. This intelligence satisfied Lady Emily that it was her lover, and, having once more embraced her sister, she fell asleep, with the most joyful anticipations of the morrow.

CHAPTER III.

THE following morning early, Lord Carmansdale, having breakfasted and attired himself, selected from his collection the gold box set with diamonds, as his companion for the day, and prepared to descend on his unpleasant mission to the apartments of Lord Furstenroy and his daughters.

"What are you going now to do with that diamond box?" said the careful Anton, "warum möchten sie sie heute mitnehmen? I'm sure one of the others will do for to-day. Suppose you were to lose it?"

The interference of his domestic was so habitual to his lordship, that it was only regarded as a useful admonition, and laying aside the gold tabatière, he chose in its place the oriental agate box, with rich gold chasings, of the date of Louis quatorze. Then, that all might be in harmony, he armed himself with an ebony cane, with a gold pomme of somewhat similar workmanship, which he had once bought as

a curiosity, having been formerly the property of the grand monarque himself. It has been recorded as one of the finest actions of that most magnificent fribble, the fourteenth Louis, by I know not which of his innumerable biographers and annalists, that one day at St. Germains, a gentleman in waiting having answered with greater freedom than became him, his majesty rose from his seat, opened the window, and calmly threw out his cane into the court below; by which figure of speech he intended to convey to the officer, that had he retained the weapon in his hand, he could not have commanded his temper sufficiently to prevent his stooping to chastise him. It was a favourite speculation with Lord Carmansdale whether this might not be the identical cane of the story; and he appealed to his general referee Anton, as usual, to know whether he thought the stick had ever really belonged to the king of France.

"Very probably," said Anton, "for I observed the other day his name is scratched on the ferrule, and who knows but what he might have done it himself es ist ganz wahrsheinlich ?"

His master raised the end of the cane, and found the ciphers Louis XIV. scratched on the spot where his servant had directed him.

"Alas! Anton," said he, "I fear this is nothing