'Ask Ailie,' said Susan, 'for here comes the schoolroom party, and I am considered prejudiced.'

Leonard greeted his cousins gaily, their governess with more polished courtesy. Take my seat, Miss Alison; I like the turf better. You all look hot and tired, the white Lily excepted.'

'I was riding,' said Lilias.

good expedition.'

'We had a very

'A sketching expedition,' added Patty. 'You must know, Leonard, that Miriam Leigh has infected us all with high art. Papa reported that there was a very picturesque gipsy encampment on Langhurst Common; and when Ailie objected to Miriam's intention of going there alone, she looked so piteous, that we were obliged to offer to go with her, rather a waste of this fine afternoon, when we might have been enjoying life under the trees.'

'We must see the performance before we can judge whether the afternoon was wasted,' said Leonard, stretching out a long arm for the sketching basket, while Patty attempted in vain to rescue it from his grasp.

'Please don't look, Leonard. Ailie's is the only tolerable sketch among them. Miriam's was worth seeing, but she has taken it home with her.'

Leonard disregarded the remonstrance, and stray sheets were soon fluttering over the grass. Patty bore her cousin's strictures very good-humouredly, but Lilias, whose sketch was next produced, was more sensitive to his remarks. 'I know,' she said, when Leonard undertook to prove on scientific principles, that no tent could have stood erect on

such crooked poles,-'I know that Miriam's tent had the same tumble-down look.'

'But how about the real tent?' said Leonard. 'It would be more to the purpose to appeal to the original than to the copy.'

'I don't think so at all,' Lilias answered, with a naïveté which amused her cousin. You will understand what I mean,' she added, 'when you see her drawing. It is a perfect picture.'

6

'You must know, Leonard,' said Susan, that Lily has sworn eternal friendship to the niece.'

'No I have not,' replied Lilias, plaintively; ‘I wished to love her, but she will not let me. I begin to think that she cares for no one but herself.'

'I don't think that, Lily,' said Miss Alison. 'I suspect that very deep feelings lie beneath that this calm exterior.'

'She was more calm and cold today than ever,' said Patty; 'I don't think she spoke three words this afternoon, except about her drawing.'

'Oh yes, about the fortune-telling,' said Minny; 'did you not hear that? When the old gipsy tormented us to have our fortunes told, I said I would consent, for the fun of the thing, if it were not wrong. Miriam looked up, and said in her odd, oracular way, "Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof." And when I answered that if to-day were evil, it would be satisfactory to know that to-morrow might be better, she said; "Yes; but how if we knew that to-morrow was to be more dark and hopeless than our worse fears ?" I did not

ite understand her, or know what to answer,

for she was quite in earnest, and I had been only in play.'

'Poor Minny!' said Leonard; the shock of being plunged suddenly into earnest, is worse than a shower-bath. But the niece's character is evidently worth study. Will she be here to-night?'

'No,' said Miss Alison; she said piteously that she so seldom had an evening to herself, when Lily proposed that she should come in to tea, and I did not like to press it. I fancy that she is comparatively happy when she has the house to herself, and can spend her time between her drawing and embroidery.'

'And does Uncle Ralph interfere with these pursuits?'

'No; he is rather proud of them. And yet, I do not know why it is, but they certainly do not assimilate.'

Ailie looks reproachfully at me,' said Susan, ' but very unjustly. And Miriam is more urbane to me than to the rest of the world.'

6

Yes, I believe that she really likes you,' said Patty; she wove this wreath of ivy-leaves for your hair this evening.'

The offering reminded Susan that it was time to dress; and thus the party broke up.

60

L

CHAPTER VI.

Sie kommt in diesen stillen Gründe,
Ich wag' es heut mit kühnem Muth.
Was soll ich beben vor dem Kinde,
Das Niemand was zu Leide thut?

UHLAND.

EONARD WRAY had been Mr. Mordaunt's ward, and he was more at home at the Mains than in his mother's house, whose second marriage to Sir Joseph Lawley had been resented by the wayward and high-spirited boy with imprudent warmth. He was generally known and liked in the neighbourhood, and his entrance was warmly greeted by the guests who had assembled in the drawing-room when he appeared, very well looking, and perhaps rather too well dressed; though his air of high breeding seemed to disclaim the imputation of coxcombry.

To one gentleman, however, who stood beside Susan's chair, he was evidently unknown; and in compliance with Leonard's whispered injunction, 'Introduce me, Susan,' she named Mr. Merton with a slight blush, expressive of annoyance rather than embarrassment. Mr. Merton had succeeded to the estate adjoining the Mains since Leonard's former visit, and he came as a stranger into the

neighbourhood; but the eagerness with which he responded to Mr. Mordaunt's advances, had already ripened their acquaintance into intimacy. He appeared to be some years older than Leonard,-sensible and gentlemanlike, but not brilliant, Leonard decided; and his manner wanted the undefinable ease and lightness which is only to be acquired in London society.

Leonard redeemed his promise to exert his powers of entertainment, and much talk went on at the end of the table, where he had secured a place between Susan and her father, who smiled with that reluctant amusement which he always accorded to Leo's humour.

'I have been hearing,' Leonard said, leaning across to the table to attract Mr. Cornwall's attention, for he sat with folded arms, completely abstracted from the sounds around him, I have been hearing so much of your niece's genius for drawing, that I am quite anxious to see her sketches.'

'She draws very nicely,' said Mr. Cornwall.

'Yes, indeed,' added Mr. Mordaunt, with greater warmth. 'I have seen some uncommonly clever things. And how did the gipsy camp turn out, Susan ?'

'I am ashamed to say that I never asked to see the sketch,' said Mr. Cornwall; and he really did look ashamed of the admission.

'I shall take Leonard to Duck Dub to-morrow,' said Susan, that he may see the whole collection, although Miriam does not much approve of their exhibition.'