to be treacherous to her in stating to you what I have learned from her own lips. Her position in society, and the opinions of her proud family, are, perhaps, her first worldly care. Her views in life are, and always have been, connected with the splendours of an establishment."

"Miss Windermere confesses this?" said Albert Grey, with a sigh.

66

Often, often ; not in chance conversations, but repeatedly, as a proper and deliberate resolve," replied Constance.

"Oh, Constance !" said Albert Grey, with melancholy calmness, "I wronged you, if I deemed you unkind. You were right, you cannot comfort me. Yet," he resumed, "I cannot condemn myself; my thoughts of Alice Windermere have ever been hallowed. So little presumption mingled with their fervour, that, until yesterday, none would have rejoiced more cordially than myself in hearing that she was engaged to any man worthy of her, and capable of making her happiness secure. But I am altered, sadly altered. Advise me, Constance, for I am incapable of self-guidance."

"I know that you do not ask my advice lightly," replied his sister, and she spoke in a more cheerful tone: "I feel that you will follow it. I have told you the rule which Alice has set for herself; one from which she I will not, believe me, swerve, for she deems it a rule of duty. Lady Windermere, and especially that hard, rigid man, Sir Reginald, her brother, would not permit her to follow any other, even did she desire to do so. You must discipline your feelings to more useful objects than those of mere imagination; wean yourself from an idol which you may not wisely worship. Dream no more, Albert, of the daughter of the proud Sir Hugh Windermere, the sister of the still prouder Sir Reginald."

The words of Constance were painful, but conclusive. Albert Grey proceeded to assure her of his resolve, in all future intercourse with Alice Windermere, to guard his looks and his conversation; and henceforward, by a gradual but firm tyranny over himself, to outroot the insane passion which had imperceptibly grown within him, and had fed on his best energies.

The dialogue and the vows of amendment

were, however, abruptly cut short by a sudden greeting from the well-known voice of Lord John Huron.

"Mortals!” cried the happy-hearted young nobleman, from a point of rock that jutted high over head through the foliage of corneltrees and birches "mortals below! behold Prometheus, not exactly bound to this rock, but what is equally undesirable, altogether unable to escape from it. What! no answer? Oh! I confess I did not deserve a reply," continued his lordship, laughing; "I said mortals, and Miss Grey is offended, as every angel has a right to be, when degraded by such a profane sobriquet."

"Miss Grey's voice," responded Albert Grey, looking upwards at the fearful height, "is by no means ambitious of travelling on such a lofty embassy. Whence came you into your pleasant predicament, my lord? dropped from the sky? or are you only commencing your journey to Olympus for the spark?"

My position is rather equivocal, I must allow," replied Lord John. "The simple fact is, that Percy and myself being in the sward

above, espied a lady and a swain in the valley below, wrapt in singularly serious conversation. Imagining that we had caught a brace of poetic lovers-always fair game, you know, in public woods- I plunged down towards you for some legitimate sport, by the shortest road; namely, the face of this confounded precipice. Percy preferred the beaten circuitous pathway; yet, it appears to me, that he will join you, after all, before I can discover either how to ascend or descend."

"An excellent place, however, for meditation,” cried Albert Grey, laughing and waving his hand. "Farewell, my lord, farewell! we will despatch rope-ladders to your rescue!"

But a mad hair-brained leap downwards into the midst of a dense hazel-bush, relieved the mercurial lord from his jeopardy, and, scrambling and rolling by turns, he at length placed his foot on firm ground, at the moment when Lord Percy came up to the spot.

My elegant and deliberate brother," said Lord John Huron, surveying the woful suffering of his own habiliments in their rough descent.' My elegant brother is an advan

66

tageous man to associate with-always a cleanly, respectable - looking person. With your leave, Percy, I take your arm, that strangers may see that I am on intimate terms with a gentleman."

Lord Percy smiled at his brother's humility, and accepted the foil; and, arm-in-arm, they accompanied Constance and Mr. Grey to the ferry.

The brothers were alike in no respect, save in the general stamp of nature's best nobility, in form and bearing. Each was graceful, and each was handsome: but a deep and quiet tone of intellectual cultivation in the one brother, formed a strong and interesting contrast to the ever-varying playfulness of the other. The full and thoughtful eye, too, of Lord Percy Huron, shaded by long lashes, and his dark, yet clear complexion, seemed to hold small fellowship with the florid, healthful cheek, and the humorous glance, of the buoyant Lord John.

Lord Percy and Lord John Huron, however, had more than one element of similarity in common; and those were of the high class,