child had left India before Mrs. Howard could have received her aunt's letter, and in that case she would have the kindness to receive her."

"In that case," said Miss Moreton, repeating my words in a sneering manner, “in that case I shall act as I before intended; I shall decidedly not trouble myself with the care of a young child and her black nurse.”

"Oh! madam," I replied, "you surely would not send the poor little creature from your door!"

"I will trouble you, young woman, not to be impertinent. I know how to manage such matters without being dictated to by my brother's humble dependent."

Then, ringing the bell, she desired the servant to show me out, adding, "Remember, Smith, if any black woman comes here with a child, you have my positive orders not to admit them."

I saw it was useless to say more to so hardhearted and imperious a person, and I therefore hurried out of the house before I recol

lected Mrs. Howard's sister, who had lived all her life with her aunt; and who, though I remembered her only as a most affected and disagreeable young lady, I could not believe would join Miss Moreton in turning her unoffending baby-niece from the door.

I therefore turned back, and giving a gentle ring at the bell, it was answered by a goodnatured-looking housemaid. I begged her to inform me whether the younger lady, Miss Moreton's niece, were within.

"Law, miss, she was married a fortnight ago." To whom?" I asked; "and can you give me her address?"

"She is married to a very young surgeon, and is gone to foreign parts, and missus has been in such a taking about it, and won't let nobody mention her name."

"What shall I do?" I said to myself, looking, I suppose, as I felt, much distressed.

"Can I do anything for you, miss?" said the girl, kindly. "You seem to be in trouble." "You would make me very grateful," I replied, "if you would contrive to inform me if

an elderly black woman with a child should come to this house; and if your mistress should not receive them, I should be further obliged if you would find out where they go to, and let me know immediately."

I then gave her my address, slipping at the same time half a guinea into her hand, and promising to give her another, when she should bring me the desired information. She thanked me very gratefully, assuring me that she would not fail to attend to my wishes.

My mind was much easier now I had gained a friend at Miss Moreton's, as I had been quite terrified at the idea of the poor dear child being turned adrift, (with an ignorant foreigner,) in our great metropolis. I bad resolved to take the earliest opportunity of seeing Mrs. Davies, and bespeaking apartments in her house for the expected strangers.

Three weeks passed over in the usual monotonous manner, and I had not been able to put my plans into execution, when I was summoned down stairs to speak to a stranger. I found in the hall my agent, the housemaid.

She informed me, that a few hours before, the expected child and nurse drove up in a hackney-coach to the door of her mistress, with a great quantity of luggage. That she had positively refused taking them in, and that the coach had driven off with its freight, but not before the girl had ascertained from the coachman where he meant to take his passengers. The man had more compassion for the poor strangers than the unfeeling Miss Moreton, who, irritated beyond measure at the defection of her favourite niece, declared that she would never again admit one into her house. The coachman accordingly advised the bewildered nurse to return to the inn from which they had been brought. This was somewhere in the city, I forget now; but impatient to find them out and place them in safety, I lost no time in explaining to Lady Geraldine the distress I was in on their account, and the deep obligations I had been under in early life to the mother and grandfather of the child.

The gentle Lady Geraldine commended me for the steps I was about to take, and insisted

upon my having the remainder of the day to myself, in order to have time to complete my arrangements for my little protegée. Fearful of losing sight of her and her nurse, I would not stop to prepare Mrs. Davies for their reception, but ordering a hackney-coach, I drove at once to the inn in the city.

It was some time before I could get the fat, busy landlady in the bar to listen to me; and when I did, she said she knew nothing about them. At last she rang the chambermaid's bell, and a dirty, flaunting woman appeared, who answered in a short, pert manner, that there was a nasty black woman upstairs, with a squalling child. I begged she would show me up to them, but she said she was a great deal too busy to wait upon niggers.

Half-a-crown, however, which I put into her hand, made her alter her tone, and she desired me civilly to follow her.

After mounting a lofty flight of.dirty, dark stairs, we arrived at the very top of the house, where, opening the door of a low-roofed, dingy garret, she left me.