pressed and sharply drawn lip. I have seen,-I affirm it without fear,-many men of sixty look younger, considerably younger, than this care-worn being of six-and-twenty.

"I am sorry," he began, in a tone of voice low, plaintive, and musical, "that Mr. Bohun's engagements precluded his seeing me this evening. He has long been my confidential adviser, and I stand peculiarly in need of his counsel."

I repeated, word for word, the message with which I was charged, and added, that I was in full possession of Bohun's views and determination on the question.

"And were present at Hilda's interview with him this morning?" "Yes; by my principal's express desire."

"The sum my old nurse requires," resumed the Baronet, after an awkward pause, and with visible tremor in his voice and manner, "must, I understand, be forthcoming by Saturday?"

I assented.

، The demand takes me somewhat by surprise ; perhaps, strictly speaking, it should not have been made. But I am anxious to serve my old retainer to the utmost of my ability, if I can do so with honour."

"That party, Sir Philip, cannot surely entertain for one moment any project that could inconvenience you?"

spoke quickly and somewhat sharply, and was startled to see him glance anxiously towards the door, and then noiselessly and stealthily cross the room and plant himself in a recess of the deep bay window. Thither, rightly translating a mute gesture of his hand, I followed him.

I do not say with regard to this stipulated sum-four hundred guineas—that I have it not at command," observed the Baronet ; "such an assertion would be untrue; I believe that amount to be at my banker's: but one moiety I had laid aside for charitable uses, and with the remainder I had decided on discharging certain debtsnever incurred by me-but which I am bent on defraying.'

"Under these circumstances it is impossible that Nurse Ravenspur should wish this advance to be made-at least by you on her behalf. Let me, with your permission, say as much to her in your presence."

،،

No-by no means," said the Baronet, in a nervous, faltering tone. "Nurse is not easily diverted from her purpose, and is far more likely to listen to Mr. Bohun than to yourself,—how I wish he had accompanied you!"

"Allow me, then, to make an appointment for her at our office for mid-day to-morrow; and let my employer undertake the task of dissuading her from this mortgage."

"Dissuading her!" cried Sir Philip, mournfully and incredulously.

"One of two results must take place; either this arrangement must go forward, and Mrs. Ravenspur become the mortgagee; or the advance being negatived by her, we must procure the requisite sum from another party. Which course do you wish me to undertake?"

“ The latter," said the young man, irresolutely.

"Shall I see her? and if so, in your presence, or alone?"

The bell was rung, and answered by the audacious Hilda herself. "Nurse!" said the Baronet, with ill-assumed alacrity, "Mr. Haslam has a communication to make to you. It is advisable that you see him alone in the break fast-room."

"That gentleman is a perfect stranger to me, Sir Philip," returned Mrs. Hilda, intrepidly; "I have never set eyes on him before this morning; whatever he may have to say-I don't know that he can have anything!-had better be said in your presence."

"Don't contest the point," whispered the master, nervously.

I took the hint. "Mr. Bohun desires, Mrs. Ravenspur, that you will be good enough to be at his office at twelve to-morrow; these matters are generally discussed and decided in private by the parties most deeply interested; but, if you wish Sir Philip to be privy to the arrangement, I can have no objection."

Humph! Is that all? Then my answer is soon given. I leave the Court to-morrow for no lawyer under heaven. I expect my nephew and niece on a visit, whom I have not seen these ten years; and here, from sunrise to sunset, I shall remain to welcome and entertain them."

"I'll state as much to Mr. Bohun," said I, gladly rising to take my leave.

Mrs. Hilda's budget was not exhausted.

"And add this," cried she, "by way of postscript, that Sir Philip is quite prepared with a cheque for the four hundred."

The Baronet and I exchanged glances: catching the expression of his eye, I maintained silence, and with a low bow walked slowly towards the door. The Nurse intercepted me, and inquired angrily, "Is it the custom of Mr. Bohun's clerks to treat his clients so rudely? I demand an answer to my question?"

"You had better receive it from Mr. Bohun's own lips at your next interview."

"I bear up under suspense but badly," was Mrs. Ravenspur's response; "and I beg to be relieved from it now."

"Then listen to me, Hilda," said Sir Philip, in a kindly tone, and with a gentle smile, "I head the conspiracy against you on this occasion. Your scheme is quashed by myself. I have negatived the requisite advance,-it is not convenient to me."

"Think twice before you repeat such an assertion," cried the menial, sharply, while her eyes flashed defiance towards her quailing master.

"Another investment," said I, interposing, "shall be speedily offered you, as secure and as eligible as this-"

"Which I don't relinquish," interposed Hilda, with quiet emphasis.

"But, listen, Nurse," resumed the Baronet: "I am really unable-"

"The mortgage," interrupted Hilda, authoritatively motioning her master to be silent; "the mortgage will form a provision for my old age; and, once for all, I insist upon its being completed."

"Want shall never approach you, Hilda, while I live," exclaimed the young man, with unabated kindness of manner, but with visible and increasing emotion; my house shall ever be your home. It shall shelter you in age as well as youth."

"The De Fontenays are short lived," retorted Hilda, coarsely;

your father died at four-and-thirty, and your grandfather at nineand twenty. Consumption is in your blood-it taints your race. I prefer independence;-I have earned it."

Still, and without the slightest admixture of anger, the gentle voice pursued,

"Admitted fully. None recognise more readily than myself your long and faithful services."

With a contemptuous gesture the petted menial turned from the dejected and conciliating speaker, and rejoined,

"Honeyed words cancel no debts: I deserve something more substantial than flattery."

"This to me," cried Sir Philip, with spirit,-" to me, in whose household you have accumulated hundreds! Here I hold my hand. Look to me for no further pecuniary present. In justice, I cannot make it. I am in debt; and ought, ere this, to have heeded the precept, Owe no man anything.""

"You say that, I presume, as a Clergyman?" observed Hilda, with peculiar emphasis.

There was nothing in this question; it was simple enough, but it seemed to wither the party to whom it was addressed. He eyed his persecutor with a look of anguish and apprehension bordering on frensy, and then buried his face in his hands.

The time for interference had, methought, arrived, and I interposed with ill-assumed calmness, "Mrs. Ravenspur, your absence is desirable; be so good as to quit the apartment."

The virago scanned me from head to foot, and then rejoined, with a taunting laugh, "At the Court I receive orders from no one save my master: if Sir Philip bids me quit his presence, I will do so forthwith-and for good."

Sir Philip was silent.

"Tell her you choose to be alone."

Not a word-not a syllable escaped him.

"Wave her from the room.'

Not a finger stirred.

Pained at his incomprehensible cowardice, I rose to withdraw. Grasping my hand, "On no account leave me with her," was the Baronet's scarcely audible whisper,-" anything but that: rid me of her presence: gentle words will do it."

But gentle words I could not command. Speak I did, and bluffly. "It is time, Nurse, that this interview should end. Sir Philip is evidently unwell: violence does but injure your cause. You must be sensible of his forbearance, and your ingratitude. There are few masters who would have endured so much from a dependent as I have witnessed within the last hour."

"Dependent! He lay in my arms when he was an hour old! Dependent! I have nursed him, watched him, succoured him through life. Dependent! I soothed and consoled him when his nearest of kin hated to look upon him, and loathed him. I have made him what he is! Dependent, quotha! Ask him who is THE DEPENDENT he or I? Ask him who is the obliged party, and has been such for years! Ask him if that party is Nurse Ravenspur?" "I must yield," sighed the Baronet faintly.

"Do so now," said I, in the same low whisper, " and you are her slave for life."

"You will suffer smartly for all this exertion by and by, Sir Philip," resumed the Nurse in a semi-dictatorial tone, one in which compassion and command were strangely blended; "you know how these scenes harass and exhaust you: send a verbal message by this stripling to his employer, to the effect that the money shall be forthcoming;-say this, and the affair is at an end."

"I can utter no such assurance," faintly murmured the master; "the amount is not mine to give. It belongs to others. Justice must precede generosity."

"I never heard you say as much in any one of your sermons," observed Hilda Ravenspur, with the same telling and peculiar emphasis; "new doctrine-at least, to me-from your pulpit."

This renewed allusion to his sacred profession seemed to madden the listener. What lacerated his feelings,-what steeped with torture the lightest and most passing reference to his ordination vows, the Baronet best knew. The effect was instantaneous and uncontrollable. His whole frame writhed with agony; and when he withdrew the handkerchief with which he had hidden his quivering features, it was deeply stained with blood.

"Leave me," said he to the heartless woman who gazed upon him coldly and keenly,-" leave me; and I will consider about some alternative."

66

"You will see what can be done?" said she, in a wheedling tone. My mother's debts must remain unpaid, and my mother's monument unbuilt."

"Your mother's debts are not yours, remember," responded Hilda," and as to her tomb, raise what monument you will over her, will she rest? You know her history-will she rest?"

There was something in this last allusion as agonizing as in the former, for Sir Philip shrieked rather than said: "I yield-the money is yours;-but leave me-leave me while my senses yet remain to me."

She cast one searching glance upon her victim, and obeyed. He essayed to speak to me, but failed. Then, in silence, motioned for some drops which stood near him, and which were given him. They appeared to be some sedative; and obeying the movement of his eye, I then mutely withdrew.

But I had not yet seen the last of Mrs. Hilda. That alarming personage, who was still lingering about the passages, I encountered in the Hall. Her jeers were not yet exhausted; and this was her parting volley :

"Present my most humble duty to your MASTER; tell him to proceed with the mortgage with all possible speed; say that I am ready to execute it at any hour; and assure him that I am, till death, his truly devoted and sincerely respectful, humble servant." And with a prolonged and mocking laugh, which echoed and re-echoed in the vaulted hall and lofty corridor, the ruler of De Fontenay Court slowly ascended to her private apartments.

121

ALBERT MURDOCK.

A TRUE ROMANCE.

ATTESTED BY A SURVIVING ACTOR.

BY W. H. MAXWELL, ESQ.

THERE was a time, not twenty years ago, when the land of the West-auctoritate, the defunct Liberator-was no less celebrated for the beauty of its daughters than the chivalry of its sons; when compared with one of these feminine daisy-cutters, a Haymarket danseuse might be objected to as crippled with a corn,-while as to the boys, they were regular broths, out-and-out, and ready to back themselves against anything living in executing the Pater-o-pee,* or preparing a private gentleman for the county infirmary. So far as criminal statistics go, we agree with the departed patriot; but in his opinions touching lines of beauty we hold the Liberator to be heretical altogether,―i. e. if Canova's or Chantrey's ideas respecting the to kalon were not marvellously erroneous. We are personally familiar with the "Far West," and never, with the highest pressure upon the imagination, could we convert a splay-footed gentlewoman, innocent of shoes and stockings, and staggering beneath a creel of turf which would have proved oppressive to a donkey, in transitu from the bog to that clay-constructed abode of peace and purity, called in the vernacular, a cabin,—we never, we repeat, could in her person embody those Phidian proportions which poets delight to dream about and artists to produce. It pains us to dissent from Mr. Thomas Moore, but we must sacrifice our courtesy to conscience. We appertain not to that gang called 'Impressionists,"-a term which, being rendered into English, meaneth a penny-a-liner,-a modest personage, who will touch you off a county at so much a day, and do to order the largest of the United Kingdoms in a fortnight. We give our convictions emphatically, having been born, indoctrinated, and resident for a quarter of a century in the Emerald Isle; and, if necessary, we hold ourselves ready to depone upon corporal oath that there is not a corner of that blessed land with which we are not familiar. With every gradation of Hibernian society we profess an intimate acquaintance. We have slept in that pleasant hostelrie "The Hole-in-the-wall," and we have been located, but always on compunction, in the watch house of Saint Andrew. Furthermore, we have honoured the Castle with our presence on a birthnight ball,-ate our spoleeinet at Donnybrook,-had an optic put in

• This is a pas seul very fashionable in the kingdom of Connaught, but not, as we believe, often danced at Her Majesty's Theatre.

+ A Spolecine is a mutton-cutlet fished upon requisition, and the production of the metallics, from a cauldron sufficiently capacious to cook a dismembered sheep. The subdivision of the animal, before it is submitted to the action of hot water, being so regulated as to meet the numerical demands of the varied applicants who may favour the tent with their patronage, the lady presiding at the pot, and armed with a flesh-fork, inserting the instrument according to order. "A spoleeine for the man in the white hat," might occasionally be heard; or, "Mate, Biddy, jewel! for a single gentleman and his wife,-Stick a tender bit, for they're reg'lar customers."