it

you

better in three lines than I could in three

volumes ;

For contemplation he, and valour form'd, For softness she, and sweet attractive grace; 'He for God only, she for God in him.”

Delightful!" cried Georgina, and a soft sigh, (certainly not one of pain) stole from her bosom, while she alternately looked at Tremaine and at the river, which was now silvered all over by the

moon.

"I give up Miss Lyttleton !" said Georgina.

"I knew you would," said Tremaine, "for there is not the least affinity between you-nor is your heart more opposite to Mrs. Neville's, than your manners to Miss Lyttleton's."

Shall we say that from this time that good will with which, somehow or another, with all his paradoxes, all his inconsistency, Tremaine had contrived to inspire Georgina, began to take a more soft and serious turn in her breast?—that she felt, although there was much to correct, yet that there was also something much more congenial with herself than at least she had ever yet discovered in any other man ?

The truth of history perhaps requires that we should own this, notwithstanding the certainty that awaits us of the indignation of that whole tribe of

fair ones, who, just emerging into light and life, think, for the most part, they might as well be again immerged in darkness, (or, what is the same thing, return once more to the horrors of school,) as be consigned at twenty to the love of a man of eight and thirty.

Do not, however, let the mistake be incurred, that because there was a great deal of good will, of mutual deference, and mutual complacency, between these parties; because they loved each others company; because Tremaine remembered no one of the spoilt children of the world to be compared to the rosy sweetness, the natural sense, and the natural grace of Georgina; and because Georgina always saw something in Tremaine, which by seeming ready to sacrifice his very prejudices to his wish to please her, won a wish on her part to please him: do not, I say, incur the mistake that the feelings of the parties amounted to love.

Pray what then did they amount to?

To something a great deal better.

And yet with all his years, Tremaine could still "make ballads on his mistress's eyebrow!"-could still think Evelyn Hall the prettiest view from Woodington; nay, I verily believe, could we have ascertained it, that if a glimmer of her night-candle could have been discovered through Georgina's window-shutter, he would never have been able

to retire to rest without opening his own to contemplate it; which, let me tell you, is a very critical symptom.

A pause of some minutes ensued after Tremaine's eulogium on gentleness, and while each of the trio seemed occupied with the lovely scene around them, or listening to the not unsolemn rhythm of the regular trot of the horses, (which broke but did not seem to disturb the silence of the night,) each was engaged with his own thoughts. Tremaine felt that he had enforced a favourite principle the better for having the best practical example of it so close at his side: while that example, who, if ever woman was exempt from vanity, was spotless in that respect, could yet not help reverting every minute to the turn he had given his theory, in applying it by a delicate inference to herself. Let us confess too, (unaccountable as it may appear,) that her memory every now and then, and almost unconsciously, found itself dwelling on those emphatic words and wishes of her protégée Mary, in which that she should be mistress of Woodington, and consequently the inseparable companion of its master, was plainly included.

Whether this arose from any of those quick glancing transitions of thought, which depend upon such secret associations as are not to be traced, and seem therefore more arbitrary ebullitions of fancy, having nothing to do with the heart or whether

they proceeded by the direct and perceptible road from the heart itself into the brain; philosophical as we are, we own ourselves unable to tell; and certainly Georgina herself could not ascertain the true state of the case. All we know is, that during several minutes, while her eyes seemed absorbed by the landscape through which she was passing, her imagination was closed in a reverie, not less novel than pleasing, in which Tremaine bore by far the principal share.

In this reverie, the carriage still rolled on-its conductors seemingly (and strangely in Georgina's mind) unconscious of the interesting scene that absorbed her-till it came to Woodington, where both drivers and horses would not unwillingly have stopt, thinking the Doctor's post-chaise would be in waiting. It however had had no orders to return, and Tremaine commanding his postillions on to Evelyn Hall, they were a little surprised, not only that their so natural expectations were disappointed, but that their master, who could so conveniently and comfortably have slipt into his own bed, (it being now past midnight,) should yet think of going on himself, merely to return alone.

These postillions were certainly not in love!

CHAP. XI.

MR. TREMAINE IMPROVES.

"Lofty and sour to them that loved him not;

"But to those men that sought him, sweet as Summer."
SHAKSPEARE.

We shall not enquire whether Mr. Tremaine had any, or what dreams, when he was quietly deposited at home, after rather a softer farewell of his friends than usual, in which he not only did not disapprove, but absolutely sought the soft pressure of Georgina's hand so easy is it for prejudice, when founded more in spleen than nature, to be overcome. It will be recollected, indeed, that in a short but very important chapter of this work, to fall in love, was enumerated (together with falling in a horse-pond,) as one of the cures for the spleen: and certain it is, that even the incipient symptoms of this delightful remedy (I do not mean the horse-pond,) had begun already to operate upon Tremaine's disease.

What can be so interesting, said a fox-hunter, once to a politician, as a hard-run chase?

What! replied the politician-why, a hard-run division in the House of Commons!