Kreuznach, I resolved to retire to England. With the assistance of an English merchant, who annually came to purchase the Rhenish wines, I was enabled to let the castle; and at the suggestion of him and his wife, I have remained in England under a feigned name, in consequence of having suffered much annoyance from a needy French count, who persecuted me to become his wife.

"Our first meeting with your son was purely accidental, but when he mentioned his name, I confess my heart throbbed with emotions to which I had long been a stranger, and I cherished hopes, that as he appeared to admire my beloved Frederica, they might one day be united.

"Our long residence in England has enabled us to speak its language like natives, and to this moment Lord Boscobel is ignorant that we are foreigners, or other than we at first announced ourselves."

Lord Brokenhurst could not contain the ecstacy he felt at this confession, and he

frankly owned, that he did not deserve so much happiness and kindness from the hands of his generous Bianca.

That affectionate and forgiving woman expressed her wish that the earl would instantly impart every thing that had now, and formerly, passed between them to his countess, "whom," added she, "I am prepared to love as I do you, with the warmth of a sister."

At length these two long separated friends parted, and the earl hastened home with very different feelings from those with which he had quitted it.

The countess and his son had just returned from their drive; both in equally bad spirits; the former, from seeing the son on whom she doated, a prey to a melancholy she was unable to soothe, and the latter, knowing that he had no alternative but to sacrifice the only friends he had ever made, or eternally offend his father, from whom till now he had never received a harsh word.

Lady Brokenhurst was surprised to see her husband enter her dressing-room in excellent

spirits, so different from the state of mind he was in when he left her in the morning.

He hastened to communicate without reserve all that had passed between Bianca and himself, and did not attempt to conceal his own unworthy desertion of her twenty years before.

Lady Brokenhurst, who had heard faint reports of his attachment to some foreign lady in his youth, (without, however, knowing the extent to which it had gone,) was so struck by his open confession to her, and his account of the warm-hearted forgiveness of Bianca, that no spark of unworthy jealousy entered her mind. So far from it, she offered instantly to call and invite her and her daughter to take up their abode with them at once. Her joy at being able to restore peace to the mind of her gentle and obedient son was unbounded.

It was, however, agreed between the earl and herself, not to say one word at present to their son of the extraordinary turn matters had taken, but that the countess should write to the Baroness Kreuznach, announcing her intention of calling at her lodgings after dinner, and re

questing to be allowed to bring her and her daughter back with her to spend the evening.

The note being despatched, and a favourable answer returned, the earl and countess with their son sat down to dinner.

The two former were scarcely able to conceal their pleasurable emotions, while poor Lord Boscobel did not attempt to hide his melancholy.

His mother retired soon after dinner, leaving the father and son alone.

The earl carelessly said-"Your mother is gone to call on some friends of mine to endeavour to persuade them to pass the evening with us.

"They are foreigners, and we wish to pay them every attention.

"I can assure you, my dear Boscobel, you will find the Baroness Kreuznach and her daughter delightful persons; and I shall hope to be able to persuade you to transfer your attentions to them, who are so much more worthy objects than your strange and obscure acquaintances, the Cooksons."

The viscount only answered by a sigh, and his father kept him in conversation till a summons to the drawing-room put a stop to it.

Lord Boscobel, always shy with women, and now more than ever averse to join the strangers, followed his father with very reluctant steps to the saloon.

He scarcely raised his eyes to the faces of the two ladies, one of whom was seated on the sofa by his mother, the other on a low ottoman at their feet, with a hand in each of theirs.

He had hardly glanced his eyes at the latter, who turned her head at his approach, when an exclamation of astonishment burst from his lips. He turned hastily to his father, whose eyes were riveted on a group so deservedly dear to him.

Bianca raised her head at that moment, when all doubt being banished from the mind of the bewildered young man, he rushed forwards, and throwing himself at the feet of his mother, buried his head in her bosom, while his arms were thrown round the trembling Frederica.