on night, when Morgan requested him to pause a moment ere they parted. "Excuse the privilege I take, dear Duke; I am an old man"-and he bent down his face. "I am afraid you are not happy yourself, though you keep all that from me; and this weighs me into sadness as much as my own worries could do. It cuts me to the soul to see you in the mood of loneliness. Will you let me a bit into your mind ?" There was an earnestness in the simple manner of the pleader, which made Lorevaine's lip quiver. He strove to shake off the suddenly recalled sensation of gloom; but, with all his energy, his voice betrayed him. 66 My dear Morgan, I am not as happy, certainly, as you have known me; but there is one subject I cannot enter upon explicitly. To you I would be thoroughly sincere, and not attempt to explain by halves; total silence is preferable, then, under the circumstances. Our natures are, I trust, equally open. I hope you do not blame my apparently unkind reserve.” Morgan sighed from the bottom of his heart, and looked wistfully up. "You are then unhappy-in some love strait, perhaps? Is it Lady Villetta? She is a little variable, they say but we all have faults. I hear a great character of my cousin Ellen's grandchild, Miss De Lastre; she seems to be a wonder among them all." Here Morgan could not proceed; but a beaming look made Lorevaine colour, and say hastily “Oh no! you are entirely mistaken. Miss De Lastre wishes me to remember her simply in friendship-merely as a sister!" "How strange, that Miss De Lastre should desire such a thing as that, now !" Morgan exclaimed. "And what could have led to such a sentiment ?" Lorevaine saw how quickly Morgan had interpreted his attachment, from the very sentence he intended should have blinded him to the idea. Almost smiling in his grief, he begged Morgan not to continue questioning him further. "Some day you shall learn all, every thing-but not now." They were now at the chamber à coucher, and the Duke referred once again to Morgan's immediate concerns, and impressively pronounced the solemn farewell. Morgan proceeded slowly to his own apartment, and pondered over the events of the last few days. CHAPTER XIII. Now when the cheerful light her fears dispelled, DRYDEN. ELLEN was summoned to Lord Darmaya the morning after his acceptance of Lord Vahl's proposal. She found Lady Belnovine in agitation by his side, and Lord Darmaya apparently equally disturbed. They neither of them acknowledged her presence further than pointing to a chair by the table, which Ellen sank into. An overhanging cloud seemed ready to burst over her head. "And so you have chosen to oppose our intentions and plans for your final settlement in life, Miss De Lastre? Now I cannot discover on what ground you lose the brilliant and only chance you can ever have of form ing an alliance so highly illustrious and important. You have no birth or claims of any description to counterbalance or plead for your having any voice in the adjustment of the matter." Ellen declared that she fully coincided with him on some points, for she was perfectly aware that she had no right to aspire to a position beyond her situation and abilities. That she did not love Lord Vahl, and had therefore told him so. "The devil you did!" Lord Darmaya abruptly exclaimed. "So you fancy, Miss De Lastre, that because you have had a domicile in my family, and been acknowledged as my granddaughter, that you are to be sanctioned in assuming the airs and privileges of a lady of real birth and established fashion. You seem to forget your former grade, your village cottage." "Oh no, never!" exclaimed Ellen, as the tears gushed down her cheeks. "I long to return, to be again with Madame de Norman." "And that conceited Mr. Harley — that musty odd volume of dead languages, some of |