indifferent whist-player. I foresee that he will become popular in London; for he loses his money without, as is too often the case, losing his temper also; and pays his twenties and fifties with more sang-froid than other men exhibit in losing their guineas. Yes, he will be vastly popular, I foresee."

"What a very distingué personage your friend, le Chevalier de Carency, is,” remarked Lady Godalming. "He is of the noble family De Carency, near Turin, is he not? How easy it is to see that he is one of l'ancienne noblesse ; that ton de bonne compagnie, that air comme il faut, and, above all, the tact with which he insinuates, rather than pays, a compliment. Yes, these agremens are only to be found in the descendants of the ancient noblesse."

So, here is the fastidious Lady Godalming caught by his flattery; and the supercilious Lord Haverfordwest, one of the most influen

tial leaders of fashionable society, conciliated by this artful and designing man's affectation of being a bad whist-player, who loses his money freely, and can pay when he loses. Even so long ago as the period when he was at Florence, he had the reputation of being an adept at whist; consequently, I am persuaded his careless play was all a ruse, to deceive those around him.

He found means to approach me, during the evening, and murmured in my ear,

"Beware how you venture to display the fierté and coldness with which you have treated me this day; for I have the power, ay, and the inclination too, if you provoke me to it, to take ample vengeance on you."

While uttering this audacious threat, the shameless dissembler was smiling as gaily and as insinuatingly as though he were addressing to me the most elegant compliments.

But, in spite of the indignation which his atrocious tyranny excited in me, I felt the dread influence he exercises over me; and that, though in a splendid home, and surrounded by the great and noble, I was only his puppet

the enslaved, debased concealer, if not the abettor, of the crimes of the foulest and most loathsome monster that ever disgraced mankind.

Every sound of his voice makes me tremble; every glance of his eye, like that of the basilisk, transfixes his victim. I know not how my agitation escaped general remark: but Lord Annandale alone spoke of it; and he attributed it to my recent indisposition. I thought the party would never have terminated; and, when at length they went away, a violent hysterical attack, with which I was seized, alarmed my dear and kind husband so much, that he sent for my physician, who prescribed

quiet and repose-two blessings that are only for those free from guilt, and which never more will be mine on earth. Well might I have exclaimed, when the doctor was recommending restoratives, and gentle opiates,―

"Can'st thou not minister to a mind diseased;
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow;

Raze out the written troubles of the brain;

And, with some sweet, oblivious antidote,

Cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff
Which weighs upon the heart?"

Little do those around me dream of the terrific thraldom in which I, the object of envy to so many, am placed. Yet there is one whose eye is often upon me, and with an expression of suspicious scrutiny beneath which mine never fails to drop. This vigilant observer is, I scarcely need add, Claudine. Her whole manner towards me is changed ever since De Carency's visit to Annandale Castle.

There is a want of respect in it; yet a sort of pity, too, even more humiliating than her familiarity. I have her as little near me as possible, and she perceives that our separation is intentionally arranged by me; a slight which piques her into increased brusquerie. Oh, the misery, the degradation of being subjected to the insolence of our own menials! But what is this minor misery in comparison with the overwhelming ones that I must endure? Delphine, this state of things cannot long continue; I feel as if the principle of life was giving way beneath the fearful mental sufferings to which I am a prey, and as if reason were tottering on her throne.

Adieu, chère Delphine, I am too ill to add more than that I am always your affectionate friend,

CAROLINE.