Then I was sorry for her. She was not true to look at even; so no wonder she was false in her speech. Little girls of my age are generally utterly unconscious of any feeling that may prompt a woman grown to make use of art. Therefore

I

may

be pardoned thinking of Lady Maria as one very inferior to the rest of the world.

"Does Selina often talk to you of Captain Forest?" asked Lady Maria, after a pause. "Yes, about as much as I do!"

Pray, has she told you of having seen him once, when a girl, at school ?"

"No, ma'am !" I answered, opening wide my eyes at this additional fact, to add to mine and Isabel's imaginary story.

"You must be careful in regarding nothing that she says, remember."

I made no answer, for which I disliked myself. I think I ought to have said "I love Selina dearly."

CHAPTER XVI.

"If thy rich heart is like a palace shattered,

Stand

up, amid the ruins of thy heart,

And with a calm brow front the solemn stars."

A. SMITH.

JUDGING of me, I presume, by herself, Lady Maria began to think I played her false, or, at all events, placed me in the same position that Selina held in her estimation. We were both subjected to a surveillance that irritated Miss Glynne, amused me, but degraded Lady Maria.

I began to feel how true were my uncle's words, that to ignore evil was to deprive it of half its power. Selina felt strongly inclined to do all that Lady Maria suspected she did, though

what that was I could not define, even if she did. On Saturdays, I generally went with Miss Seymour to the different studios of sculptors, for which we had tickets of admission, while Isabel would ride with Selina. My guardian and Lady Maria, as I mentioned before, went to Erith on that day. It was four o'clock when Miss Seymour left me at our door, returning herself to her own home.

I ran up to the schoolroom, full of the happy evening we three should spend together. It was empty; but hearing unusual sounds in Selina's room, which opened into it, I passed directly through.

Stretched on her bed, as if she had been laid there in the rigid contortions of a violent death, lay Selina, but she was not dead: cries strange and horrible came from her mouth.

"Go away! get away!" cried Neale, the only person I could see in the room, and who evidently was struggling to keep Selina's form on the bed. I threw off my bonnet and cloak,

locked the door, and came to Neale, with the same feelings I had so often done to old Anne, when my mother was ill. "What can I get?" I asked.

"God bless the child, get away! Miss Glynne will never forgive me if she knows I let any one in; and she was took so sudden I hadn't time to lock the door. Well, get me that bottle; now the sponge and basin.-Yes, that's right, remove all that hair; if the fit comes on again, she'll tear it all out. That's my good Missy, worth all the Miss Berringtons in the world! What right had she to flout you, my darling, my lamb? God help her, poor pet!-Therethere now, it is your old Neale that loves you more than all the world. Missy, Missy, bide

Terrible was it to see that lovely face distorted by convulsions, the white, slender fingers, so powerful in their agony, tearing at all with which they came in contact.

"There, there! she's coming to! God love

you, little Missy, this won't hold her long, she's better already. Poor darling! dear, sweet lamb! and I thought she had done with these fits for ever, 'tis so long since she had one. Poor illused lady, God reward them that brought you to this! It is all along of talking to Miss Berrington; and my poor young lady has been fretted all this last past week. I had my misgivings when they said they would have a quiet talk, and not ride. Miss Berrington's a grand lady, no doubt, in her own ideas; but put her in my young missus's place, and see if she would have acted any better. Angry, indeed! what need had she to be angry? And as if Miss Glynne couldn't live without her love? Little Missy's worth twenty such!"

All this, and much more, did Neale pour forth as she smoothed and composed Selina's now insensible form itno a state of ease and repose.

"She will sleep now, the dear angel! and it will be thanks to you, Missy, that I have got