our departure from Berkeley Square, or I shall never get her away. Alley, my dear creature, I greatly depend on you. Do every thing not to encourage your mother in this weakness; yet you are a very good girl, I have seen you in some trying situations, and you have always behaved nobly." "I cannot promise you, my dear father, how I shall behave on the present occasion," answered her Ladyship, suppressing a gentle and almost involuntary sigh; "I am now a mother myself, and know how tender are the feelings of one. Oh, they are beyond compare! you know not how anxious a mother's heart beats for her child." "So, we shall be in a fine way, Wyndham," cried Mr. Trelawney, regarding his beloved daughter with fonder affection than ever; while Lord Wyndham, taking the hand of his Alexina, and fondly pressing it in his own, exclaimed, "My dear love, for the sake of your father, we must all endeavour to acquit ourselves in the best manner that we are able, and we can do no more." At length the important day arrived for the christening of little William, and Mr. and Mrs. Clarendale being still in Berkeley Square, Lord Wyndham requested that the ceremony should be performed by him; and a most sumptuous entertainment was provided on the occasion, the Earls Beauverie and Perimont, intimate friends of Lord Wyndham, being invited to dine at Mr. Trelawney's, the latter nobleman having long promised to stand godfather to the child; but when the whole of the family assembled in the drawing-room, a finer picture of Family Portraits were perhaps never beheld on the canvas together, to de light the eye, as well as most irresistibly to engage the heart. Emma looked most transcendently lovely as she entered the room with Ellen, Mary, and Lucy Clarendale; but it was neither Emma, Ellen, or Mary, that Lord Beauverie so particularly admired, for he fixed his eyes on the blushing Lucy, and exclaimed to Lord Wyndham,— "Is that lovely creature nearest the window also the daughter of Mr. Trelawney ?" To which his Lordship replied,— "No, my Lord, it is Miss Clarendale at whom you are now looking; she is a niece of Mr. Trelawney's, and the only daughter of Mr. Clarendale, to whom I have just had the honor of presenting you." "She is, then, most exquisitely beautiful," exclaimed Lord Beauverie; indeed, I never beheld a more interesting group of youthful females." "And I assure you, my Lord, they are no less amiable than beautiful," answered Lord Wyndham : "the youngest daughter of Mr. Trelawney is, perhaps, one of the most accomplished young women in England." The Earl of Beauverie was not only fully satisfied in this particular, but by entering into conversation with the lovely girls, soon discovered on what system their education had been formed: it was not merely superficial, or calculated only to shine for a fleeting hour in the present fashionable day, but to render them competent to perform the more active duties of wives and mothers, whenever they should marry, and to prove blessings to their husbands as well as ornaments to the age in which they lived; and though all the young ladies shared in the attentions of Lord Beauverie on this day, yet the lovely Lucy appeared to be the particular object of attraction, which af forded the highest gratification to the feelings of the relatives of this amiable young creature. The timidity of a young female, unaccustomed to mix in the society of personages of exalted rank, threw a modest veil over the charms of Lucy, which she was quite unconscious only added to the loveliness with which nature had so peculiarly gifted her, and, in the eyes even of this accomplished nobleman, rendered her a thousand times more engaging than if she had studied to please. Lucy said but little, but that little was blended with such sweet simplicity and modest ingenuousness, that his Lordship seemed at once fascinated by her beauty and charmed with her innocence. At two o'clock, the infant son of Lord and Lady Wyndham was brought into the drawing-room, (where, in half an hour afterwards, the ceremony commenced,) receiving the name of William Egbert Augustus, the last in compliment to his godfather, the Earl of Perimont, and the former in memory of the beloved and lamented son of his grandfather. The babe was much extolled for its beauty, and particularly admired and even caressed by Lord Beauverie, who, resigning him to the arms of his lovely mother, exclaimed,— "Sweet little fellow! may every returning year increase your Ladyship's happiness in this darling boy, and add to the blessings of your present felicity! He will one day know his accomplished mother, and, I hope, amply repay the affectionate cares she is now bestowing on him." F. P. 4 c Lady Wyndham curtseyed gracefully to the elegant compliment of Lord Beauverie, and such was the delightful harmony which presided on this day in Berkeley Square, that not a sigh of regret, or a feeling but of genuine happiness would have prevailed in the bosoms of either of the party who were assembled there, but for the thought that the parting hour was yet to come which was to separate them, for a continued length of time, from the society and tender intercourse of each other; and, whenever this thought intruded itself on their minds, a tear-an envious tear would unbidden start in every eye, and the lovely smile which gladdened every cheek and brightened every countenance suddenly made a retreat, like the sunny ray which sometimes steals behind a gloomy (though not a dark or sullen) cloud. CHAPTER XXVII. "Woman! blest partner of our joys and woes "Throbs with each pulse, and beats with every thrill "Undaunted by the tempest, wild and chill, “That pours its restless and disastrous roll "O'er all that blooms below, with sad and hollow howl. 16 Wrings the hot drops of anguish from the brow, "To soothe the soul, to cool the burning brain, "Oh! who so welcome and so prompt as thou? "Alike thy care and constancy confess, "Alike thy pitying hand and fearless friendship bless." MR. TRELAWNEY having now made every necessary arrangement for the immediate departure of himself and family from England, often paid occasional visits on board the ship Fortitude, in which they were to embark for India; and in order to prepare the mind and feelings of his beloved Rosa to habituate herself to the scenes which would so shortly take place, and which would be so entirely novel to any thing she had yet experienced, he proposed to Captain Wilton, who was a most gentlemanly man, that they should one day dine on board the Fortitude, with all his |