"How do you know that it was Miss Jerningham, if you did not see her?"

"I saw her, my lord, at one end of the hall as I came in at the other; she seemed to be in a hurry, for she slipped out, and pulled the door hastily after her."

"What time was this?"

Very shortly after eleven o'clock; it might be a quarter "And at what time did Miss Jerningham return?" va 'Just as the clock struck twelve."

"You have an accurate memory, Simpson."

"So I am reckoned, my lord."

The earl now discharged Simpson; and, as soon as he wa gone, turned round to his two companions, saying, with an air bordering on triumph and satisfaction. Well, geutlemen, 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 indifference. "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 favor and counte nance 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; I 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, command that Miss Jerningham's feelings may never be wounded for a moment by your injurious and derogatory suspicions. Con train 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 honor 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 appearance.'

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.

The countess had no offspring to engross her affection and care. Her attachment to her lord, who was by many years her senior, was neither very fervent nor very powerful; but L. 33. 1.

8

1

of slander had never sullied her name, the lady washout her errors, and

longed to Mished 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 favorite, had, on one occasion, detected her in the basest misrepre sentations and falsehood, in traducing the character of an honorable lady among his acquaintance; a fabrication which her own brain had created, in order to gratify the feelings of sentment 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 favorite resigned her situation, to the inexpressible delight and relief of numerous waitingmaids, milliners' apprentices, and so forth, who had suffered under the insolent sway of her petty authority. ve bludo 9d2

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 respectable 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,

In the course of little more a year, her ladyship had Jost 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 honor to be very 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 e 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 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 mense account that he had to exhibit against her ladyship was cancelled. 9 16

Levison

on was in haste and very urgent; an hour's delay

ЗООЧИТАЯ - 23 ДАХ ЛІТЕЯмот

been tog of guoixus asw gidaybel 194 19bio beprot edT might prove fatal to him and her ladyship had only one days allowed her to bring forward the money. She was driven to distraction and even felt prompted to Seek suicide a relief from the harassing anxiety Y with which 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 b 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 eccen tric; and to enjoin him to secresy, would wear an appearo who ance so singular. She knew, indeed, that her brother, 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 un 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 loer 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 stiring in the house, she left her chamber, descended to the library, and taking the banker's cheques from ba table-drawer 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 dressing-room ; 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 Kingston, 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 boped, bury the matter in oblivion.