that made her appear more attractive than many handsomer women. She was never out of humour, except when disappointed in some dress or party on which she had set her heart, and then she made herself both disagreeable and absurd.

After I had been with her about three months, happening to take up a newspaper, my eyes fell on the following paragraph.

"It is with great pleasure we announce that the Marquis of St. George is entirely recovered from his late severe illness. His lordship's marriage, therefore, with the Lady Emily Loran, which has been some time on the tapis, will now be celebrated without further delay."

The paper dropped from my hands, and though I had been long expecting this, I cannot describe my feelings on the occasion; those only who have suffered like myself can guess my agony.

After this, I daily looked into the papers to see what I knew must more than ever seal

my doom.

But week after week elapsed without the dreaded announcement meeting

my eyes.

One day, while I was, as usual, hunting over the newspapers, my attention was riveted by the following.

"Dreadful and fatal accident.-It is with sincere regret that we have to record a fatal accident which befel the young Lord Adolphus Decourcy on Thursday week. His lordship was driving out with his mother, the Duchess of Beaulieu, in the Champs Elysée, when one of the horses taking fright, they both set off at a tremendous rate, and just as they arrived at the Barrière de Neuilly, the carriage upset, dashing its inmates to the ground. The duchess received a severe contusion, and it is feared that her grace will lose the sight of one of her eyes, while her son, having pitched on his head upon some stones which lay near, was killed upon the spot. The duchess, who had been residing in the French capital for the last few months on account of the delicate health of Lord

Adolphus, is perfectly inconsolable.

The marriage of his half-brother, the Marquis of St. George, is, in consequence of this dreadful event, again postponed."

I had scarcely recovered from the shock of this sad detail, when the thought of all the artifices practised for the sake of her darling son by the ambitious and cruel duchess, rushed into my mind. For his sake, how many had she made miserable, and what, thought I, is it all come to at last? Her idol destroyed before her very face, her own much-prized beauty mutilated, while she herself has been forbidden ever again to enter the same house with her deeply offended husband.

This event brought before me, in all their freshness, the happy days which I had so blindly spent in her drawing-room, in the library, and in the charming groves of Beaulieu.

I endeavoured, however, to banish such distressing and unprofitable recollections from my mind by attending to my present duties, but I found it a difficult task.

I was now initiated, for the first time, into the secret of defrauding a master and mistress under the name of perquisites.

I had sometimes made purchases for Lady Dryden, at her desire, with directions to take the bills to Duncan, the house-steward, "who," said she, "will pay you, for," she added, laughing, "I never have a guinea in my own pocket."

Accordingly, the first time I happened to go to the housekeeper's room I gave her the bills, asking her to be so good as to present them for payment to Mr. Duncan, when she settled her own accounts with him. She readily complied, first casting her eyes over the little bills. She had no sooner done so than, bursting into a loud laugh, she said, "Why, my dear child, these are the tradesmen's bills, not yours!"

I begged for an explanation, not in the least guessing the cause of her laughter and astonishment.

Indeed you seem so young and innocent," she said, "that it will be but common charity to give you a few hints. You should make

out these bills yourself in your own way; for example, instead of giving Mr. Duncan this bill (which is receipted) for the artificial flowers, and which comes to £3. 6s. 9d., you should write it out thus::

"For Artificial Flowers, &c., &c.,

£9. 6. 3.

For an Album (instead of 18s. 1d.) 1. 18. 0. and so on."

I was struck dumb with amazement, but at length, thinking that she was quizzing me, I told her so.

"Indeed I am doing no such thing," she said. It is the common way of making out bills in noblemen's houses. How do you think I could dress as I do, and place my children in such expensive schools, if it were not for my perquisites? We all do the same, Mr. Duncan at the head of us."

I ventured to ask if this were quite honest.

66

Honest," said she, "to be sure it is. It is only our perquisite !"

With these words she left the room with the

greatest sang froid, giving directions to some