in performing a trifling gallantry of this sort, which speaks volumes.

We have already said that Emma's was a countenance,

"Where the loveliest expression to features is join’d
By nature's most delicate pencil design'd;

Where blushes unbidden, and smiles without art,
Speak the softness and feeling which dwell in the heart."

Her manners possessed a degree of almost infantine simplicity: but there was also an innocent and affectionate gentleness in them, which rendered her a most interesting object, to the lovers of unsophisticated nature; particularly as her mind was too highly cultivated, her imagination too brilliant, and her judgment too correct, to be long hidden from an observing eye, though the veil which timidity threw over them, occasioned her, by superficial observers, to be more remarked for her mild unassuming manners and constant good humour, than her talents, which she carefully concealed from

the

the generality of her acquaintance, well knowing that the display of them more frequently gains envy than admiration, creating many enemies, and often alienating even friends; with this disposition she appeared to the most advantage, in proportion as the circle was confined, and never had she been thought by Edmund so charming as in their tête-à-tête. He had always admired her but knew not to what extent until this auspicious morning, when he was flattered by the interest that he had excited, and which she had been unable to conceal; delighted with the new and facinating style of her conversation, equally removed from every thing pedantic or trifling, and amused with the playful wit by which she adorned it, Edmund in gazing on her forgot all the allurements of Lady Laura, and the tender pressure of his hand, with which she had honoured him in her fright; but he felt grateful to the lucky accident, that had placed him in the situation so favourable

favourable to his wishes, and he took care to express his sense of it to his fair companion, who answered with truth, that she had suffered too much alarm to feel any obligation to the cause, though it had ultimately produced the good of removing her into an open carriage, which she always preferred. Edmund asked if he might have the gratification of thinking that any portion of her fears were for his safety, or if it was Lady Laura's that engrossed them entirely," Neither," replied the blushing Emma, "for to acknowledge the truth, I thought my brother had gone to her assistance, and therefore it was for him that I felt afraid." "Then," returned Edmund in a tone of mortification and disappointment, " my emotions were misplaced, they arose from the hope of your being interested for me, and they were exquisite." "Do you

think then, that I could be uninterested when you were in danger?" she asked in the softest accents, but conscious that

the

the tone of her voice, expressed more even than her words, she endeavoured to qualify them by adding with a smile

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though you certainly could not expect me to feel the same for you as for my brother." She had raised her eyes timidly to Edmund's, but something that she read there, impelled her to cast them down, and crimsoned her face with blushes, whilst he exclaimed with a mixture of tenderness and vivacity, "Indeed, my dear Lady Emma you are right, I do not wish you to feel for me as for a brother, and allow me to assure you that I shall never feel for you as for a sister; though your sisters will be always dear to me as my own." He looked earnestly at her, he read in her countenance, the faithful index of her thoughts, that she understpod him, he was emboldened to drop her title, the wearisome repetition was displeasing to the ears of love, he called her, "Emma," she blushed more deeply, a smile played on her countenance, but

it

it seemed restrained by the novelty of her sensations, they were mixed and indefinable; Edmund saw her embarrassment, he alternately feared and hoped, he repeated, "Emma, my Emma," the pronoun had a wonderful effect on the ears of her to whom it was applied. She looked up; tears started into her eyes, and a sigh, the sure unerring herald of love, escaped from her agitated heart, the delighted Edmund re-echoed it; and then, readers! a total silence ensued, neither wished to break it, yet both were sorry when they arrived at the lodge of the castle.

CHAP.