ble degrees, no opening was left for reconciliation by the pretext of decided grievance. Whenever they met, which was now but seldom, a mutual indifference seemed to have succeeded to that regard, which had once been so prized by both. As, yet, however, the indifference was but assumed.-Mordaunt felt, that it would be long before reason could extinguish his love for her, who was the world's idol as well as his but every sentiment of wounded affection and indignant pride led him to conceal the passion he could not cure-The more he became conscious of the necessity of self-control, the more did he close up, the real feelings of his heart in an impenetrable armour of cold and studied reserve. On the other hand, Selina's feelings had taken a far different colouring. His having, on their first meeting in town, apparently repulsed her advances to a renewal of their former intimacy, had given her the severest pang of mortification she had ever experienced; but vanity soon came to her assistance, and when she found that he alone appeared insensible to those charms which were so prized by others, she began, not unnaturally to attribute his apparent unkindness to an insensibility she was undecided whe ther to resent or despise. Whenever, therefore, by accident they happened to be in the same society, she rather assumed than corrected the appearance of flirtation and coquetry, which was dissimilar to the artless naïveté of her earlier days, and was least suited to the unbending frigidity of his present deportment. With these sentiments it is not then to be wondered at, that their mutual society should become a source of pain, rather than of pleasure, to both; and Lady Eltondale, watching with secret satisfaction the widening breach, made it still more irreparable, by ostentatiously appearing to court that intercourse, which both now evidently wished to shun.

At the same time Sedley, apparently without design, seemed to rise in Selina's estimation, in the

Mr.

proportion as Augustus fell, and gradually began to insinuate himself into her regard. In Sedley's society Selina felt perfectly unrestrained. With him her manners were always natural: she felt assured, that he was, as he professed to be, sincerely her friend; and she rested with satisfaction on the belief, that he aspired to no higher distinction. Even the vigilance of Lady Eltondale was for once baffled. Sedley's situation in life was exactly in that mean, which least attracted her notice; his paternal estate was sufficient, as she believed, to render even Selina's fortune of no vital importance to him; and judging of Selina by herself, she believed it almost impossible, that a girl so universally admired, as she undoubtedly was, would be content to remain a commoner all her life. Besides, she knew Sedley was Frederick's most intimate friend, and therefore she did not hesitate to make him the confidant of her views regarding Miss Seymour; believing that by doing so she might safely encourage his attendance on her niece, and at the same time make that attendance an additional defence against the designs of others. But the Viscountess had now to learn, that duplicity on one side engenders artifice on the other: Sedley was even more in her son-in-law's confidence, than in her own; and, while she with wily care euutioned him against allowing Selina to suspect her plan, she convinced him, that, in seeking the gratification of his own passion, there was no risk of thwarting the affections either of his friend, or the heiress allotted to him. It was true, from a passage in Frederick's last letter, he was led to believe, that it was his intention to pay his addresses to Miss Seymour on his return to England, and he therefore cautiously suspended his own operations. "At present, (thought he) the girl certainly prefers me to every other man; for now she has quite forgot that perpendicular statue Mordaunt, and it will be difficult enough for him to revive any regard she might once have had for such

a philosophical personage as he is, whilst both Lady Eltondale and I keep guard over her. Then, if she has sense and steadiness to refuse Elton, when he proposes for her estate, for I'll take care she understands he does not care a farthing for herself; why then, notwithstanding my pretty Columbina, I will, without any remorse of conscience, marry her myself, if it was for nothing but to rescue her from that devilish calculator of compound interest, that noble aunt of hersBut if that same crafty duenna, that female Machiavel succeeds, which, after all, is by no means improbable, considering her wickedness and Selina's innocence; why then let them all take the consequence. Frederick will get the old oaks-she'll get his old title, and I, or any other man, may get her love, that pleases." So reasoned Sedley-and thus did this modern Pylades acquit himself of the charge of any breach of friendship, as he thus deliberately prepared

to rival his own Orestes.

66

Far different, and much less successful, were the means adopted by Webberly for carrying his designs into execution. He had become painfully convinced that the paths of fashionable extravagance were not to be trodden with impunity; and as his credit decreased with his banker, his attentions to Miss Seymour were redoubled. Whenever she appeared in public, as at the theatres, or in the Park, he was her constant attendant; and, like the shadow, proved the substance true," as far at least as related to her fortune. But notwithstanding his assiduity, he found it almost impossible to procure access to those more distinguished parties Lady Eltondale and Sedley frequented; and, being as much enlightened by his selfinterest as the Viscountess was deceived by hers, he determined to keep a watchful eye over his ci-devant friend, and heartily repented having ever introduced him at Deane Hall.

While these two competitors were thus, in different ways, striving for the golden prize, Selina was not

less an object of regard to Lord Osselstone.-He, as might naturally be expected, was usually to be met in the same circle in which Lady Eltondale moved: but it was more difficult to account for the perceptible attention he constantly paid to Selina. At first he seemed more than usually pleased with the artlessness and vivacity of her manner; and the recollection of the kindness of his behaviour to her at the moment of her distress, at Lady Eltondale's first party, made her show a sort of confidence in her manners and address towards him, that, had she been more experienced in the ways of the world, his very superiority might perhaps have prevented. But with Lord Osselstone the idea of Mordaunt was inseparably connected; and as the recollection of the one became painful, the pleasure she had derived from the society of the other decreased. She became gradually suspicious of his character, as a greater familiarity with it convinced her it was not easily to be understood; and she was sometimes tempted to wish, either that she was less an object of his Lordship's observation, or that the veil could be entirely withdrawn, which seemed so constantly to shroud all his feelings from her view.

At last the day of Selina's presentation at Court arrived. Never had she looked so lovely-never was she so much admired.—Her heart beat high with exultation, and her eyes sparkled with redoubled animation, as she heard her own praise from every lip. When the drawing-room was over, and she found herself seated in the carriage with Lady Eltondale, she could not, in the vanity of the moment, repress a wish that Mrs. Galton had seen how much she was admired adding with a smile of conscious beauty played on her ruby-lip, "I think if Mr. Mordaunt bad been at Court to-day, even he might have condescended to have acknowledged his country friend." It was the first time Selina had voluntarily named him for many months, and the Viscountess hailed the

auspicious omen. She knew that not to breathe a name on which our thoughts most dwell, is even a more dangerous symptom, than when it is the sole subject of our conversation. The spell with Selina now seemed broken; and Lady Eltondale profited by the opportunity afforded, continuing the conversation in a careless manner, in hopes of accustoming Selina to the deliberate discussion of his negligence towards her. "If (thought she) I can habituate her to talk about him, and to talk calmly, the day is my

own:

Lorsqu'on se fache, on peut aimer encore ;
Lorsqu'on raisonne, on n'aime plus."

CHAPTER XXIV.

The town, the court, is beauty's proper sphere:
That is our Heaven, and we are angels there."

MISS SEYMOUR TO MRS. GALTON.
London, May 25,

My dear, dear Aunt,

YOUR last letter has made me very unhappy. Is it possible that you can really believe I have forgotten you?—I acknowledge that I have been very, very remiss about writing; but indeed my heart has always been right towards you, though perhaps my conduct has not been so; however, I acknowledge my fault in this instance, though Lady Eltondale told me the other day, when I regretted not having answered either of your two last letters, that nobody but me kept a debtor and creditor account of correspondence; and that she