more deeply moved to-morrow,” answered Lord Percy Huron. "There is "something exquisitely touching in the ceremony which separates the daughter from her early friends, and gives her to a new guardian, and a new home."

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Emily will look lovely, very lovely, will she not?" said Constance : 66 so fair gentle !"

"A very lovely bride, indeed!" replied Lord Percy. "The orange-blossom will become her brow, do you not think so?"

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Oh, I think so!" said Constance Grey.

Molyneux is fortunate-more than fortunate!" continued his lordship: "he is about to possess as his own, one whom he has chosen above all women, and with the knowledge that her whole heart rests upon him."

"A woman's heart is not a worthless gift," said Constance, sighing.

"It is the only earthly gift above earthly price!" exclaimed Lord Percy, with warmth. Grey will agree with me, that all good men and true so estimate its worth."

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"Come, Grey, speak!" said Lord Percy; "add your honourable testimony to mine."!

"A woman's heart," replied Albert Grey, coldly," has not, in my opinion, any peculiar inherent value. When pure and true, it is certainly beyond price; but, if mercenary or faithless; if vain, and pleased at trifling with others more constant

"Hush! silence, this instant!" exclaimed Constance, placing her small hand playfully upon her brother's lip: "we will not, for we cannot speculate upon your ungallant impos-> sibilities. Who, excepting your unmanly self, ever imagined a woman's heart capable of faithlessness?"

Why, Grey, you are become worse than a misanthrope!" rejoined Lord Percy Huron, raising his hands in utter astonishment. "You' are suddenly transformed into a slanderer upon the defenceless and the faithful: your apostasy is astounding!"

"Oh, I gave their full meed of praise to the faithful," replied Albert Grey, calmly, "if such there be !"

of gallant cavaliers like ourselves, Grey, until we find them otherwise," replied Lord Percy. "Politeness so orders it, certainly: I, therefore, submit," answered Albert Grey.

"You submit with very ill grace," said Constance, laughing.

"You have positively insulted the entire sex, Grey; a novel crime in you, but an unpardonable one," said Lord Percy Huron. "As a befitting punishment, I shall insist on immediately withdrawing you from a lady's society, and compel you to accompany me, at least to the village, if not to the Castle, where I am, unfortunately, expected."

He drew the arm of Albert Grey through his own, bowed, and Constance was, in a few minutes, again left to meditate upon the part she would have to bear in the ceremonies of the morrow.

CHAPTER XV.

"Si tout autour de moi est monotone et décoloré, n'y a-t-il pas en moi une tempête, une lutte, une tragedie?"

VICTOR HUGO.

LORD PERCY proceeded with Albert Grey towards the village. They had, of late, been but little together. The one scarcely welcomed his old friend when he came, the other feared to press his society where it had almost ceased to please.

Grey had maintained his gloomy secret; not a word had ever escaped him that might lead to suspicion of the nature of that sorrow which brooded heavily over his spirit.

He mourned, but it was to himself; he sought no sympathy, he dreamed not of condolence; not a day, not a night passed without his challenging the possibility that Alice still

might be true in her heart, and that her conduct might have been the result of undue influence, of intimidation, of slander; but such! a possibility was not sanctioned by any thing which he had witnessed. In the last melancholy interview, Sir Reginald had been harsh to him only; to Alice, he had been kind and gentle. He tried to persuade himself that she must sometimes think of him; that, at least, she must feel for the misery which her light conduct had brought upon him but even such faint consolation waned and expired. Week after week he heard of the sensation which the beautiful and brilliant daughter of Sir Hugh Windermere awakened in the fashionable world; of the admiration she excited; of the flattery she received from crowds, as though she sought the homage of the many. Such charms in life he felt he had never held out to Alice, but he had never dreamed her guided by such unquiet tastes; and he often recalled what Constance had told him in the deep and sequestered valley, on the day following the excursion to the woods and the Point of Pennersley.