"I'm sure I don't remember." "Was she in black?"

"Yes, I think she was; I'm not sure though."

"Was she a handsome, genteel looking woman?"

"Yes, so far as I can tell; there seemed to be nothing very smart about her; but I can't say that I looked much

at her."

"Was she tall, or short, or fat, or thin? give as good a description of her as you can recollect."

"Oh! why let me see; she was a tall, and rather thin person, with a pale face, and small features, and greyish eyes, I think; but she'd got a great veil on, I remember."

"Confound her veil! muttered the Earl. Where did she come from? did you take her up at a house, or was she walking along the street?"

"She came out of this here street, and stood at the end, and motioned for me to draw up to the corner."

"Out of this street!" iterated the Earl and Howard at the same moment, in a tone of surprise.

"Yes; she came down the steps of the door of one of these houses I know; one of them near the top."

"Was it this very house?"

66

Very likely; but I cannot say for certain.'

"How do you know that she came forth from one of these houses?"

"Because I happened to be looking up this street, as I stood opposite the end of it; I was looking, as I say, after a fine chariot and horses, that was drawn up on this side of the way.".

"What kind of a carriage was it that attracted your attention?" demanded the Earl.

"I believe it was the kind that is called a landau; it was painted blue, and the liveries were of the same colour."

few minutes, she got into the coach again, and directed me to drive to some house in the strand."

"What house; a private house? could you find it again, think you ?"

66

No, I'll be hanged if I could. It was a shop I know, but I can't tell of what kind, if I was to die for it." "And did the lady go into the shop?" "No; she went to the private door; she got out of the coach, and knocked herself, and went in, and stayed about ten minutes, and then came out, and once more entered the coach; and when I had turned round and driven back to the top of the Haymarket, she, pulled the check, and desired to alight; then putting a crown into my hand without inquiring my fare, she walked away, and I saw nor thought no more about her.'

When Howard had re-examined the man with regard to some of the principal points in his evidence, in all of which he closely adhered to his former testimony, it was agreed, to take down his address, and to dismiss him, and the Earl prepared to bestow the promised reward, when the coachman remarked; that "the lady had paid him out of a purse exactly similar to the one, which Lord Annesley now held in his hand, she having dropped it on the step, he had picked it up to return it, which had occasioned him to take notice of it."

Now this purse was of very curious manufacture, being brought from Russia by Howard, who had presented it to the Earl, at the same time that he gave one to the Countess, and another to Meliora.

"That is very, very odd," said the Earl in a thoughtful tone, and with an expression of dark suspicion on his brow, "I never saw but two more like it in all my life."

"And yet, my Lord, it is not improbable that there may be five hundred more like it," said Howard coolly,

brought over to this country, under similar circumstances; a Russian traveller would readily be struck by those purses as pretty toys to make presents of."

66

Yes, yes, certainly, to be sure, it might be so-likely enough," replied the Earl, still musing, "But I never saw any in the shops."

Very likely," returned Howard, in a tone of indifference, The Countess has lost her's, has she not?"

"So I am reckoned, my Lord." The Earl now discharged Simpson; and, as soon as he was gone, turned round to his two companions, saying, with an air bordering on triumph and satisfaction," Well, gentlemen, what do you think now ?”

"It is a very singular affair," said Twiss.

"Just what I did before,” answered Howard, who, during the examination of the last witness, after stalking, in silence, two or three times across the library, seated himself in the large arm chair, and, taking down a volume, occupied his attention in reading, appearing to treat the evidence which went so far to implicate the character of his young fair friend, with sullen indiffer

ence.

"But now," he added, in a tone which indicated that he had started an idea that pleased him, "I wonder what the Countess will say to your accusation of her matchless Meliora.'-By the bye, while I think of it, I have got a message to deliver from my wife to her ladyship; and, now that I am here, if she can be spoken with at present, I would wish to see her."

"I must request, Mr. Howard," said the Earl, somewhat sternly, "that you will not attempt to bias the opinion of the Countess in this matter, nor bespeak her favour and countenance in behalf of her fair companion."

"My business with her ladyship is very brief," answered Howard, without condescending to reply to the particulars of the Earl's request.

The footman was then summoned, and Howard was conducted to her ladyship's boudoir, where, after remaining but a few minutes, he returned to the library, when, in a very authoritative tone and manner, he thus addressed himself to Lord Annesley :-"My Lord, I desire that this mysterious affair may, for some time longer, be kept wholly private. You have adopted your suspicions and surmises on the subject; presume that I may be allowed to entertain mine, though, possibly, they may prove as unfounded and chimerical as your Lordship's; yet, at least, they do not rest on the head of a defenceless female orphan! The delay of a few days must be permitted me, to seek for, and bring forward, my proofs. In the interim, I command that Miss Jerningham's feelings may never be wounded for a moment by your injurious and de

rogatory suspicions. Constrain yourself to behave to her with the same kindness as heretofore, and look that your lady follow your example. It is a point of justice that is rendered to the meanest criminal, by the wise law of this blissful land, that he be considered innocent until proved to be guilty; and Miss Jerningham, my Lord, is innocent; I could lay my hand on my heart, and swear that she is innocent, pure as snow. Remember, no inuendos, no insinuations, my Lord. If you do not promise me this on your honour as a gentleman, I shall make free to place Miss Jerningham under my own roof, for the present; you may have half my bank, if you will, as bail for her reappearance.'

This arrangement the Earl decidedly negatived, but engaged, though apparently with reluctance, not even to hint, either to the Countess or to Meliora, the discovery concerning the perpetration of the forgery, which, in his own mind, he felt convinced that he had made, but suffer the matter to sleep in silence, until he should see or hear from Howard on the subject. Howard felt satisfied with the Earl's solemn assurance to this effect, and he and Twiss bade his Lordship a friendly good morning.

Lady Annesley was a woman whose passions were stronger than her principles were stable. She, early in life, had been transplanted from the obscurity of a country village to the dazzling maze of fashionable life. In the absence of temptation, forbearance is no virtue ; and it was not until she moved in a sphere, whose allurements called into action the dormant evil propensities of her nature, that such propensities were known to exist.

Her

The Countess had no offspring to engross her affection and care. attachment to her Lord, who was by many years her senior, was neither very fervent nor very powerful; but although that on this point the breath of slander had never sullied her name, the lady was not without her errors, and those were of a most ruinous and incurable description. She had surrendered her whole heart to a destructive passion for play!

About three years after her ladyship's marriage, she became accidentally acquainted, during a winter's residence at Bath, with an Irish young lady, named Beresford, who, by the obsequious at

tentions which she paid to, and the sycophantish arts which she used to ingratiate herself with " my Lady," succeeded in obtaining a very considerable share of the Countess's favour, and even of influence over her conduct; and when, at her Ladyship's request, the artful yet insinuating girl came to spend a short time on a visit in Hamilton-place, the few days were prolonged to weeks, the weeks became months, until Miss Beresford finally established herself as a member of the Earl's household, occupying that kind of office in which she had been succeeded by Meliora. But the Earl, having long viewed with disgust the airs, the arts, and dissimulations of the upstart favourite, had, on one occasion, detected her in the basest misrepresentations and falsehood, in traducing the character of an honourable lady among his acquaintance; a fabrication which her own brain had created, in order to gratify the feelings of resentment and pique, which, she well knew, that her lady bore towards the object calumniated, which so much incensed his Lordship, as to cause him, in his anger, to command her immediate departure, accompanied with an injunction never again to enter his house. Remonstrance she dared not use, and extenuation she had none to offer. Even the intercession of the Countess failed to avert the doom denounced; and the disgraced and humbled favourite resigned her situation, to the inexpressible delight and relief of numerous waiting-maids, milliners' apprentices, and so forth, who had suffered under the insolent sway of her petty authority.

This woman had been the medium to introduce to her Ladyship a dangerous character, who styled himself Colonel Levison, and who had, formerly, served in a subaltern rank in the army, but, at this time, supported a very respecta ble figure in society, by means of the gaming table. It was not long before he made himself master of her Ladyship's weak side. He engaged her in play, and, at the outset, allowed her to fancy herself a gainer of several thousand pounds, but of which Levison, deeply versed in all the chicanery of his profession, re-possessed himself as soon as he thought fit. Notwithstanding he continued to feed her infatuation, by occasionally affording to her similar temporary triumph. Miss Beres

ford, too, had her profitable share in the design; for being, necessarily, rendered a confidant in the pecuniary transactions between her mistress and her friend, she, in order to supply the drain which was so repeatedly applied to her Ladyship's purse, mentioned a very worthy man (an usurious Jew) who, happening conveniently to have a large capital lying idle, would not object at a moderate advantage, (an exorbitant interest) to accommodate the Countess of Annesley with a few thousands.

In the course of little more than a year, her Ladyship had lost immense sums of money, sacrificing, at the same time, the greater loss,-her peace of mind, her self-approval, and her husband's confidence and affection, in the event of her delinquency being discovered to him. Yet she fancied, that her only hope of extrication from her involvement consisted in plunging deeper into the labyrinth, that the fury of desperation might retrieve the errors of indiscretion.

The Countess made it a point of honour to be very prompt and punctual in the discharge of her gaming debts; but the last sum, that she had lost to Levison, had been standing several weeks, without her Ladyship's having it in her power to redeem the pledge which she had given for the payment of it, when, unfortunately for Lady Annesley, it happened that Levison was very nearly detected and exposed in some palpably false play towards a young nobleman, whom he had duped to a large amount; and finding it necessary to decamp while he might do so in safety, became pressing to Lady Annesley for the six hundred and seventy pounds which she owed to him. She could evade no longer; yet wherewith could she satisfy her rapacious creditor? Her liberal settlement was already mortgaged for the next year to come; she had received value for all her jewels, excepting one set alone, which it was absolutely requisite for her to retain. The usurer had positively refused to advance another shilling, until some part of the immense account that he had to exhibit against her Ladyship was cancelled.

Levison was in haste, and very urgent; an hour's delay might prove fatal to him; and her Ladyship had only one day allowed her to bring for

ward the money. She was driven to distraction, and even felt prompted to seek in suicide a relief from the harassing anxiety with which her mind was tortured; but the next moment, turning with terror from the idea of death, she felt ready to throw herself on her knees before her husband, and acknowledge all her offence; then, shrinking from this humiliating alternative, she sought, once more, for some quarter from whence she might obtain the desired sum. Her thoughts rested on Howard; but he was more the Earl's friend than her's; besides, he was so eccentric; and to enjoin him to secresy, would wear an appearance so singular. She knew, indeed, that her brother, who was coming to town expressly for the purpose of investing property in the funds, would not hesitate to advance her demand, but his arrival was hardly to be expected for two or three days, and Levison could not wait on an uncertainty. The Countess passed a sleepless night, in revolving schemes that might extricate her from her dilemma, and, ere morning, had determined on a measure which, in the hour of cool reflection, she could never have had recourse to. Her brain was bewildered; her blood was in a raging fever; her views of things were confused; she was incapable of judging rightly; and it was in this frame of mind that, before any one was yet stirring in the house, she left her chamber, descended to the library, and taking the banker's checques from a tabledrawer in which they were deposited, after cutting out from thence a blank form, carefully replaced the book, while she carried the leaf to her own dressingroom; and there, without suffering herself to ponder on the act, and without being aware of the awful penalty which the law inflicted on the crime of forgery, even in that most mitigated shade of it, proceeded to trace her husband's signature, copying it from some old letters that she retained in her possession, and otherwise to fill up the instrument, as best suited her purpose. Knowing that it had been the Earl's determination to spend a few days at Kington, she entertained no apprehension of an immediate detection, and proposed to refund the six hundred and seventy pounds the instant that her brother should arrive in town, and thus, as she hoped, bury the matter in oblivion.

The forged order her Ladyship was

anxious to get conveyed to Levison before twelve o'clock, but was yet unresolved whom to employ as her messenger on the occasion, when chance most conveniently favoured her with an opportunity. The room in which the family breakfasted was situated at the extremity of the long range of rooms, and furnished with a large bow window that overlooked Hyde Park.It chanced that the Countess, in walking towards this window, after the morning meal was concluded, descried, at a little distance, the well-known figure of her banished favourite, with whom, unknown to her Lord, she had maintained a close and intimate correspondence, ever since the day of her departure.

Miss Beresford's attention

was, at the same instant, naturally directed towards the habitation of her benefactress; the Countess perceived it; and, unseen by her husband, who was employed with the newspaper, contrived to communicate by signs, that she was desirous of speaking with her, motioning her to repair to the gardengate, while the Countess hurried down stairs to an apartment, on the groundfloor, which led out by a glass door into the shrubbery, through which she fled, till she reached the place of meeting, where she found Miss Beresford already stationed. Here, concealed by the evergreens, they continued for a few minutes in earnest conversation; and before they separated, Lady Annesley delivered to her convenient friend the fatal forgery, with instructions to get it cashed, and paid into the hands of Colonel Levison, with all possible despatch. The obsequious embassador, ignorant that the order was falsely executed, promised a prompt and implicit obedience to the command of her "dear Ladyship," but requested, lest the Earl should see her as she emerged from her hiding-place, that she might be permitted, if the coast was clear, to make an escape through the parlour; the Countess did not oppose her motion, and, passing swiftly along a shaded avenue in the shrubbery, she gained the hall door unnoticed by any one, save Simpson the porter, who, as he caught a glimpse of her receding sable figure, mistook her, as he had deposed to his master, for Miss Jerningham. Lady Annesley then returned with a lightened yet palpitating heart, to the drawingroom, where she encountered an un