ill, from their incessant attendance upon his sick couch.

In the same hotel with ourselves was a Lady Barrett and her daughter, the former a showylooking person about five-and-forty, the latter exceedingly handsome, and apparently nineteen or twenty years of age. During the earl's last illness, Lady Barrett and her beautiful daughter had shown so much sympathy for the two ladies, that when their father became better, they called to thank them for their kindness.

Being in the same house, and occasionally meeting on the staircases, and the ice having once been broken, the two families began to be more intimate, and at last became quite friendly.

Sometimes Lady Barrett would sit with one of our young ladies, endeavouring to amuse the sick earl, while the other would take Miss Barrett for a drive, which was a great kindness, the dowager not finding it convenient to keep a carriage herself while at Florence.

This sort of interchange of civility went on for some weeks, the earl not being sufficiently

recovered to travel, when it was arranged that his lordship should go out a little every day in the carriage; this he consented to do, sometimes with his daughters, sometimes accompanied only by his physician.

It so happened, that one day the two ladies went to take leave of an English lady, who was on the point of leaving Florence, and remaining later than usual, Lady Barrett and her daughter offered to accompany the invalid lord in his drive. Upon his return with his fair friends, his old servant Hammond observed that he was much agitated; indeed so much so, that he feared his lord would faint before he could support him to his room. We were all afraid that he was going to have another attack, and anxiously waited the return of his daughters, who had not both been absent from his side for many weeks.

At length the carriage drove up, and terrified at the account they received of their beloved father, they hastened to his room, where they found their sympathizing friends, Lady and Miss Barrett, rendering all the assistance in their power.

VOL. III.

H

In about an hour the Lady Caroline's bell rang, which was a signal for the attendance of Mrs. Tomkins and myself to prepare our ladies for dinner. We accordingly hastened to their dressing-room, where, to our dismay, we found Lady Geraldine on the sofa, apparently in a fainting fit, while her sister stood over her, endeavouring to restore her to animation. It was some little time before she came to herself, when a flood of tears came to her relief. I had now time to notice the countenance of Lady Caroline, which was as pale as death, and she trembled violently. I therefore entreated her ladyship to take some water and compose herself, as Lady Geraldine appeared recovering.

"Ay, my dear lady, compose yourself," said Mrs. Tomkins.

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Compose myself!" echoed her lady. "Compose myself, Tomkins! I fancy you will think that no easy matter when you know what has happened."

"What has happened, my darling lady?" inquired the old woman. Is my lord worse?"

Better, I should think," replied Lady

Caroline.

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"He is married!"

"Married!"

screamed Mrs. Tomkins;

mercy on me-to whom? and when?”

"To Lady Barrett," murmured Lady Geraldine, again bursting into tears.

The scene that followed was most distressing; and they were not sufficiently composed to go down to dinner, where, as we afterwards understood, Lady Barrett, now Countess of Aberayron, presided with the most consummate nonchalance, the poor deluded earl looking all the time like a guilty culprit.

It is impossible to describe all the artifices practised by the subtle widow to ensnare the earl, in which she was too successfully aided by her beautiful, but most artful daughter.

These women had placed their eyes upon Lord Aberayron the moment they entered the hotel. Seeing his devotion to his affectionate daughters, it might have been imagined that to persuade him to form a second union would have been impossible; but not so with the determined widow. She began her attack, as all

women do who want to entrap a widower who has a family, by appearing to be devoted to his children. Her praises, her fondness, and her attention to them first won the heart of the earl, who considered her a prodigy of gentleness and virtue. She then took every opportunity, when alone with his lordship, of insinuating how unpleasant, and indeed dangerous, it was for two such lovely creatures as the Ladies Caroline and Geraldine were, to be deprived of female protection. She enumerated many instances in which the want of a mother's fostering care had been attended with serious consequences; and declared, that had she died before her late dear husband, she should on her death-bed have implored him to marry again, that her beloved Charlotte might not have been left without the watchful care of an attached female friend.

These reiterated hints sunk deeply into the mind of the pensive earl, and he began to think seriously of the propriety of giving his daughters the advantage of the protecting care of such an amiable and accomplished person