against the edge of the sidewalk, to avoid being crushed by the passing drays, and settled his many-caped benjamin about him; while the footman spread his umbrella, and making a balustrade of his arm for his mistress's assistance, a closely-veiled lady descended and disappeared up the wet and ill-paved avenue.

The green-baize door of Firkins and Co. opened on its silent hinges, and admitted the mysterious visitor, who, enquiring of the nearest clerk if the junior partner was in, was showed to a small inner room containing a desk, two chairs, a coal fire, and a young gentleman. The last article of furniture rose on the lady's entrance, and as she threw off her veil he made a low bow, with the air of a gentleman who is neither surprised nor embarrassed, and pushing aside the door-check, they were left alone.

There was that forced complaisance in the lady's manner on her first entrance, which produced the slightest possible elevation in a very scornful lip owned by the junior partner, but the lady was only forty-five, highborn, and very handsome, and as she looked at the fine specimen of nature's nobility, who met her with a look as proud and yet as gentle as her own, the smoke of Fleet street passed away from her memory; and she became natural and even gracious. The effect upon the junior partner was simply that of removing from his breast the shade of her first impression.

66

"I have brought you," said his visitor, drawing a card from her reticule, an invitation to the duchess of Hautaigle's ball. She sent me half a dozen to fill up for what she calls ' ornamentals'—and I am sure I shall scarce find another who comes so decidedly under her grace's category."

The fair speaker had delivered this pretty speech in the sweetest and bestbred tone of St. James's, looking the while at the toe of the small brodequin which she held up to the fire-perhaps thinking only of drying it. As she concluded her sentence, she turned to her companion for an answer, and was surprised at the impassive politeness of his bow of acknowledgment.

"I regret that I shall not be able to avail myself of your ladyship's kind

66

ness," said the junior partner, in the same well-enunciated tone of courtesy. Then," replied the lady with a smile, "Lord Augustus Fitz-Moi, who looks at himself all dinner-time in a spoon, will be the Apollo of the hour. What a pity such a handsome creature should be so vain! By the way, Mr. Firkins, you live without a lookingglass, I see."

"Your ladyship reminds me that this is merely a place of business. May I ask at once what errand has procured me the honour of a visit on so unpleasant a day?"

A slight flush brightened the cheek and forehead of the beautiful woman, as she compressed her lips, and forced herself to say with affected ease, "the want of five hundred pounds."

The junior partner paused an instant, while the lady tapped with her boot upon the fender in ill-dissembled anxiety, and then, turning to his desk, he filled up the check without remark, presented it, and took his hat to wait on her to her carriage. A gleam of relief and pleasure shot over her countenance as she closed her small jewelled hand over it, followed immediately by a look of embarrassed inquiry into the face of the unquestioning banker.

"I am in your debt already."

66

Thirty thousand pounds, madam!" "And for this you think the securities on the estate of Rockland-"

"Are worth nothing, madam! But it rains. I regret that your ladyship's carriage cannot come to the door. In the old-fashioned days of sedan-chairs, now, the dark courts of Lothbury must have been more attractive. the way, talking of Lothbury, there is Lady Roseberry's fête champêtre next week. If you should chance to have a spare card

By

Twenty, if you like-I am too happy-really, Mr. Firkins—"

"It's on the fifteenth; I shall have the honour of seeing your ladyship there! Good morning! Home, coachman !"'

"Does this man love me?" was Lady Ravelgold's first thought, as she sank back in her returning chariot. Yet no! he was even rude in his haste to be rid of me. And I would willingly have staid, too; for there is some

thing about him of a mark that I like. Ay, and he must have seen it—a lighter encouragement has been interpreted more readily. Five hundred pounds! really, five hundred pounds! And thirty thousand at the back of it! What does he mean? Heavens, if he should be deeper than I thought! If he should wish to involve me first!" And spite of the horror with which the thought was met in the mind of Lady Ravelgold, the blush over her forehead died away into a half smile and a brighter tint in her lips; and as the carriage wound slowly on through the confused press of Fleet street and the Strand, the image of the handsome and haughty young banker shut her eyes from all sounds without, and she was at her own door in Grosvenor square before she had changed position, or wandered for half a moment from the subject of those busy dreams.

The morning of the fifteenth of May seemed to have been appointed by all the flowers as a jubilee of perfume and bloom. The birds had been invited and sang in the summer with a welcome as full-throated as a prima donna singing down the tenor in a duet; the most laggard buds turned out their hearts to the sunshine, and promised leaves on the morrow, and that portion of London that had been invited to Lady Roseberry's fête, thought it a very fine day! That portion which was not, wondered how people would go sweltering about in such a glare for a cold dinner!

At about half-past two, a very elegant dark green cab without a crest, and with a servant in whose slight figure and plain blue livery there was not a fault, whirled out at the gate of the Regent's Park, and took its way up the well-watered road leading to Hampstead. The gentlemen whom it passed or met, turned to admire the performance of the dark grey horse, and the ladies looked after the cab as if they could see the handsome occupant once more through its leather back. Whether by conspiracy among the coachmakers, or by an aristocracy of taste, the degree of elegance in a turn-out attained by the cab just decribed, is usually confined to the acquaintances of Lady ; that list

being understood to enumerate all "the nice young men" of the West end, besides the guardsmen. (The ton of the latter, in all matters that affect the style of the regiment, is looked after by the club and the colonel.) The junior Firkins seemed an exception to this exclusive rule. No "nice man" could come from Lothbury, and he did not visit Lady ; but his horse was faultless, and when he turned into the gate of Rose Eden, the policeman at the porter's lodge, though he did not know him, thought it unnecessary to ask for his name. Away he spattered up the hilly avenue, and giving the reins to his groom at the end of a green arbour leading to the reception-lawn, he walked in and made his bow to Lady Roseberry, who remarked, "How very handsome! Who can he be?" and the junior partner walked on and disappeared down an avenue of laburnums.

Ah! but Rose Eden looked a paradise that day! Hundreds had passed across the closely-shaven lawn, with a bow to the lady-mistress of this fairy abode. Yet the grounds were still private enough for Milton's pair, so lost were they in the green labyrinths of hill and dale. Some had descended through heavily-shaded paths to a fancy dairy, built over a fountain in the bottom of a cool dell; and here, amid her milk-pans of old and costly china, the prettiest maid in the country round pattered about upon a floor of Dutch tiles, and served her visitors with creams and ices; already, as it were, adapted to fashionable comprehension. Some had strayed to the ornamental cottages in the skirts of the flowergarden-poetical abodes, built from a picturesque drawing, with imitation roughness; thatch, lattice window, and low paling, all complete; and inhabited by superannuated dependants of Lord Roseberry, whose only duties were to look like patriarchs, and give tea and new cream-cheese to visitors on fête-days. Some had gone to see the silver and gold pheasants in their wire houses-stately aristocrats of the game tribe, who carry their finely pencilled feathers like "Marmalet Madarus," strutting in hoop and farthingale. Some had gone to the kennels, to see setters and pointers, hounds and ter

riers, lodged like gentlemen, each breed in its own apartment; the puppies, as elsewhere, treated with most attention. Some were in the flower-garden, some in the green-houses, some in the graperies, aviaries, and grottoes; and at the side of a bright sparkling fountain, in the recesses of a fir-grove, with her foot upon its marble lip, and one hand on the shoulder of a small Cupid who archly made a drinking cup of his wing, and caught the bright water as it fell, stood Lady Imogen Ravelgold, the loveliest girl of nineteen that prayed night and morning within the parish of May Fair, listening to very passionate language from the young banker of Lothbury.

A bugle on the lawn rang a recall. From every alley, and by every path, poured in the gay multitude, and the smooth sward looked like a plateau of animated flowers, waked by magic from a broidery on green velvet. Ah! the beautiful demi-toilettes!-so difficult to attain, yet, when obtained, the dress most modest, most captivating, most worthy the divine grace of woman. Those airy hats, sheltering from the sun, yet not enviously concealing a feature or a ringlet that a painter would draw for his exhibition picture! Those summery and shapely robes, covering the person more to show its outline better, and provoke more the worship, which, like all worship, is made more adoring by mystery! Those complexions which but betray their transparency in the sun lips in which the blood is translucent when between you and the light cheeks finer-grained than alabaster, yet as cool in their virgin purity as a tint in the dark corner of a Ruysdael; the human race was at less perfection in Athens in the days of Lais in Egypt in the days of Cleopatra, than that day on the lawn of Rose Eden.

:

Cart-loads of ribbons, of every gay colour, had been laced through the trees in all directions; and amid every variety of foliage, and every shade of green, the tulip-tints shone vivid and brilliant, like an American forest after the first frost. From the left hedge of the lawn, the ground suddenly sunk into a dell, shaped like an amphitheatre with a level platform at its bottom, and all around, above and below, thickened

a shady wood. The music of a delicious band stole up from the recesses of a grove, draped as an orchestra, and green-room on the lower side; and while the audience disposed themselves in the shade of the upper grove, a company of players and dancing-girls commenced their theatricals. Imogen Ravelgold, who was separated by a pine tree only from the junior partner, could scarce tell you, when it was finished, what was the plot of the play. The recall-bugle sounded again, and the band wound away from the lawn, playing a gay march. Followed Lady Roseberry and her suite of gentlemen, followed dames and their daughters, followed all who wished to see the flight of my lord's falcons. By a narrow path and a wicket-gate, the long music-guided train stole out upon an open hill-side, looking down on a verdant and spreading meadow. The band played at a short distance behind the gay groups of spectators, and it was a pretty picture to look down upon the splendidly dressed falconer and his men, holding their fierce birds upon their wrists, in their hoods and jesses, a foreground of old chivalry and romance; while far beyond extended, like a sea over the horizon, the smoke-clad pinnacles of busy and every day London. There are such contrasts for the eyes of the rich!

The scarlet hood was taken from the trustiest falcon, and a dove, confined at first with a string, was thrown up, and brought back, to excite his attention.

As he fixed his eye upon him, the frightened victim was let loose, and the falcon flung off; away skimmed the dove in a low flight over the meadow, and up to the very zenith, in circles of amazing swiftness and power, sped the exulting falcon, apparently forgetful of his prey, and bound for the eye of the sun with his strong wings and his liberty. The falconer's whistle and cry were heard; the dove circled round the edge of the meadow in his wavy flight; and down, with the speed of lightning, shot the falcon, striking his prey dead to the earth before the eye could settle on his form. As the proud bird stood upon his victim, looking around with a lifted crest and fierce eye, Lady Imogen Ravengold heard a voice of which

her heart knew the music, "They who soar highest strike surest: the dove lies in the falcon's bosom."

The afternoon had, meantime, been wearing on, and at six the "breakfast" was announced. The tents beneath which the tables were spread, were in different parts of the grounds, and the guests had made up their own parties. Each sped to his rendezvous, and as the last loiterers disappeared from the lawn, a gentleman in a claret coat and a brown study, found himself stopping to let lady pass, who had obeyed the summons as tardily as himself. In a white chip hat, Hairbault's last, a few lilies of the valley laid among her raven curls beneath, a simple white robe, the chef d'œuvre of Victorine in style and tournure, Lady Ravelgold would have been the belle of the fête, but for her daughter.

"Well emerged from Lothbury!" she said, curtseying, with a slight flush over her features, but immediately taking his arm. "I have lost my party, and meeting you is opportune. Where shall we breakfast?" There was a small tent standing invitingly open on the opposite side of the lawn, and by the fainter rattle of soup spoons from that quarter, it promised to be less crowded than the others. The junior partner would willingly have declined the proffered honour, but he saw at a glance that there was no escape, and submitted with a grace.

"You know very few people here," said his fair creditor, taking the bread from her napkin.

"Your ladyship and one other," "Ah, we shall have dancing by and by, and I must introduce you to my daughter. By the way, have you no name from your mother's side? 'Firkins' sounds so very odd. Give me some prettier word to drink in this champagne."

"What do you think of Tremlet?" "Too effeminate for your severe style of beauty-but it will do. Mr. Tremlet, your health! Will you give me a little of the paté before you? Pray, if it is not indiscreet, how comes that classic profile, and more surprising still, that distinguished look of yours, to have found no gayer destiny than the signing of Firkins and Co.' to

notes of hand? Though I thought you became your den in Lothbury, upon my honour you look more at home here."

And Lady Ravelgold fixed her superb eyes upon the beautiful features of her companion, wondering partly why he did not speak, and partly why she had not observed before, that he was incomparably the handsomest creature she had ever seen.

"I can regret no vocation," he answered after a moment, "which procures me an acquaintance `with your ladyship's family."

"There is an arriére pensée in that formal speech, Mr. Tremlet. You are insincere. I am the only one in my family whom you know, and what pleasure have you taken in my acquaintance? And, now I think of it, there is a mystery about you, which, but for the noble truth written so legibly on your features, I should be afraid to fathom. Why have you suffered me to overdraw my credit so enormously, and without a shadow of a protest?"

When Lady Ravelgold had disburdened her heart of this direct question, she turned half round and looked her companion in the face with an intense interest, which produced upon her own features an expression of earnestness very uncommon upon their pale and impassive lines. She was one of those persons of little thought, who care nothing for causes or consequences, so the present difficulty is removed, or the present hour provided with its wings; but the repeated relief she had received from the young banker, when total ruin would have been the consequence of his refusal, and his marked coldness in his manner to her, had stimulated the utmost curiosity of which she was capable. Her vanity, founded upon her high rank and great renown as a beauty, would have agreed that he might be willing to get her into his power at that price, had he been less agreeable in his own person, or more eager in his manner. But she had wanted money sufficiently to know, that thirty thousand pounds are not a bagatelle, and her brain was busy till she discovered the equivalent he sought for it. Meantime her fear that he would turn out to be a lover, grew rapidly into a fear that he would not.

Lady Ravelgold had been the wife of a dissolute earl, who had died, leaving his estate inextricably involved. With no male heir to the title or property, and no very near relation, the beautiful widow shut her eyes to the difficulties by which she was surrounded, and at the first decent moment after the death of her lord, she had re-entered the gay society of which she had been the bright and particular star, and never dreamed either of diminishing her establishment, or of calculating her possible income. The first heavy draft she had made upon the house of Firkins and Co., her husband's bankers, had been returned with a statement of the Ravelgold debt and credit on their books, by which it appeared that Lord Ravelgold had overdrawn four or five thousand pounds before his death, and that from some legal difficulties, nothing could be realised from the securities given on his estates. This bad news arrived on the morning of a fête to be given by the Russian ambassador, at which her only child, Lady Imogen, was to make her début in society. With the facility of disposition which was peculiar to her, Lady Ravelgold thrust the papers into her drawer, and determining to visit her banker on the following morning, threw the matter entirely from her mind and made preparations for the ball. With the Russian government the house of Firkins and Co. had long carried on very extensive fiscal transactions, and in obedience to instructions from the emperor, regular invitations for the embassy fêtes were sent to the bankers, accepted occasionally by the junior partner only, who was generally supposed to be a natural son of old Firkins. Out of the banking-house he was known as Mr. Tremlet, and it was by this name, which was presumed to be his mother's, that he was casually introduced to Lady Imogen on the night of the fête, while she was separated from her mother in the dancingroom. The consequence was a sudden, deep, ineffaceable passion in the bosom of the young banker, checked and silenced, but never lessened or chilled by the recollection of the obstacle of his birth. The impression of his subdued manner, his worshipping, yet most respectful tones, and the bright soul that breathed through his handsome features,

with his unusual excitement, was, to say the least, favourable upon Lady Imogen; and they parted on the night of the fête, mutually aware of each other's preference.

On the following morning Lady Ravelgold made her proposed visit to the city; and inquiring for Mr. Firkins, was shown in as usual to the junior partner, to whom the colloquial business of the concern had long been entrusted. To her surprise she found no difficulty in obtaining the sum of money which had been refused her on the preceding day-a result which she attributed to her powers of persuasion, or to some new turn in the affairs of the estate; and for two years these visits had been repeated at intervals of three or four months, with the same success, though not with the same delusion as to the cause. She had discovered that the estate was worse than nothing, and that the junior partner cared little to prolong his tetés-àtétes with her, and up to the visit with which this tale opened, she had looked to every succeeding one with increased fear and doubt.

During these two years, Tremlet had seen Lady Imogen occasionally at balls and public places, and every look they exchanged wove more strongly between them the subtle threads of love.

Once or twice she had endeavoured to interest her mother in conversation on the subject, with the intention of making a confidence of her feelings; but Lady Ravelgold, when not anxious, was giddy with her own success, and the unfamiliar name never rested a moment on her ear. With this explanation to render the tale intelligible, "let us," as the French say, "return to our muttons."

Of the conversation between Tremlet and her mother, Lady Imogen was an unobserved and astonished witness. The tent which they had entered was fitted with a buffet in the centre, and a circular table waited on by servants within the ring; and, just concealed by the drapery around the pole, sat Lady Imogen with a party of her friends, discussing very seriously the threatened fashion of tight sleeves. She had half risen, when her mother entered, to offer her a seat by her side, but the sight of Tremlet, who imme