of good-breeding by the most highly finished gentlewomen of the age. All the world gave praise to this excellent aunt, for having added to the cares and anxieties which three daughters of her own occasioned, by undertaking the education of another young female, out of pure kindness to her

sick sister.

As for the education, it was as perfect as the best masters, for personal, and the very best French (or rather Franco-Italian) governess, for mental accomplishments, could make it. The peculiar province of the Duchess was to form the manners, the ton de société, les usages; and in this she was universally acknowledged to shine an unrivalled Queen, whom all endeavoured to please, study, and imitate.

With these advantages, Lady Gertrude could not fail to profit much; and every body was anxious to know, before she was presented, how she would come out. She came out, at once, and in full maturity of fastidiousness, a finished Exclusive.

The Duchess, in fact, was the most refined of women. Refinement was her favourite study-her favourite word. It was what she always recommended, always preached, and always practised; and although to her bitter disappointment, her own daughters were more disposed to imitate their father, whose habits were rather those of a country gentleman than one at the head of the Peerage, she found

consolation in the aptitude of her niece to follow all her precepts, and all her example.

Such was the being, for whom, in her maternal solicitude, the amiable, as well as sensible Lady Bellenden, wished to acquire a friend in Georgina. Such the appearance and manners, which Georgina was requested to love.

Now, though Miss Evelyn had the most perfect natural good-breeding that ever adorned a daughter of nature, and had none of the ungraceful shyness which belongs to rusticity, yet she had certain notions of certain things, which she sometimes found inconveniently serious. On the present occasion, she had been desired by a woman of the first consequence in her circle,-one to whom she always looked up with the sincerest esteem, her own known friend, and at this time her hostess,-to love her daughter, as a friend. This was a word which, to her, always sounded most serious, as well as most sweet; insomuch that she could no more think of trifling with herself in chusing a friend, than if she had been called upon to chuse a husband. In point of fact, she had never had the opportunity of chusing, or even thinking of one or the other; for her father had so engrossed, so filled her mind, and was himself so absolutely devoted to her, that he had hitherto supplied the place of both. Yet she had often thought a friend of her own sex, and about her own age, would

be very delightful as well as very natural; and, in the recesses of her boudoir, or in a lonely walk, she had sometimes yielded to the most natural wish of a sensible heart-the wish for a companion that could partake, with equality of interest, her amusements, her cares, and even her inmost secrets.

When, therefore, Lady Bellenden uttered her impressive wish, it conjured up a train of ideas long pondered and cherished by Georgina, of the deepest interest to her mind, and of the very utmost importance to her happiness. She surveyed Lady Gertrude as a being who might influence her future life,-in whom she was to read, as in a book, all those happy reciprocities of sentiment, which her own pure heart and warm fancy had lately been so pleased to meditate. No wonder, then, that she looked embarrassed with the force of an emotion which no one, and least of all, Lady Gertrude, could understand; and which, indeed, was the very opposite to any by which Lady Gertrude herself felt she could be influenced.

The abord of the two ladies was, therefore, very different; and, it must be owned, with all our partiality to Georgina, that, in the eyes of some of the bye-standers, refinement, in this instance, might seem to have the advantage over simplicity. It was not that there was any intrinsic superiority, even of manner, on the part of Lady Gertrude; it was simply that she was unmoved, while Miss Evelyn seemed

labouring with something which, spite of herself, was restrained. She meant to be a great deal more than civil, yet kindness would not flow; while Lady Gertrude, who did not even intend much civility, felt no kindness at all.

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While their hands were yet together, and Lady Bellenden had scarcely withdrawn her's, Lady Gertrude, with a very short and abrupt courtesy, said in a low voice, and with most fashionable nonchalance, My mother is very good"-and when Georgina said something about her being always so, and that this was not the least instance of it, she replied, adjusting her tucker, "We dressed in such a hurry, I really don't know whether I'm dressed

or not."

The conversation there languished, and would perhaps have died away altogether, had not Georgina, after surveying her new friend rather anxiously, observed, by way of something to say, upon the largeness of the company that was assembled. Lady Gertrude immediately applied to her eye-glass, and after surveying them, exclaimed, "They seem a strange heterogeneous set, as they always are upon these occasions; but I suppose you know them all, Miss Evelyn-in which you have the advantage, for I really am not acquainted with one in the room except Mr. Tremaine,-who is always so excessively fine, there's no knowing whether one knows him or

not. I believe you came with him. They say he is worse than ever."

The glass was then directed exclusively to Tremaine; and one or two gentlemen approaching with their wives and daughters, to salute this daughter of the house, she replied to their civilities with a most freezing, and scarcely perceptible bend of the head, and leaving both them and her new friend, made her way to that part of the room where Tremaine was engaged in conversation with Lord Bellenden.

CHAP. III.

HALF AN HOUR BEFORE DINNER.

"All the men and women merely players."

SHAKSPEARE.

As there was nothing in a young lady joining even a tête-à-tête, of which her father formed one of the parties, Lady Gertrude thus presented herself to Tremaine's notice without the smallest breach of decorum, or even derogation to her dignity; so that she put her arm within her father's with the prettiest air of independence and apathy imaginable, without seeming to notice who was his companion, except