verned by so spare-souled an egotist as the once paramount Martha of Downham Hall. “ The best thing my sister could do with her influence over her husband," said Blanche, interfering only to prevent their visitor from becoming still more pointed, “would be to . withdraw him from that of his parents. So frivolous and so devoted to him, their promptings can scarcely fail to be injurious." “ I'm afraid they're scarcely rich enough to live apart,” replied the Squire. “ The young couple could not command, on their own account, the diamonds, opera-boxes, phaetons, and saddle-horses, they seem to be enjoying." “ Poor Helen!" murmured her father. . London is ringing with her praises as the queen of beauty and fashion!” “Still, in my estimation, poor Helen!" re ! peated Sir George, with a melancholy smile. “She has less chance than I have been lately hoping, of being schooled in certain lessons of which, thanks to my criminal neglect of her more tractable childhood, she stands greatly in need !" Perceiving the drift of his thoughts, his daughter tried to divert them by inquiries concerning the Effervilles. “ Were they an acquisition to the neighbourhood ? Did they do much for the poor ?" “A great acquisition to the neighbourhood!” he replied. “Not because their house is always full of fine people, to whom the country neighbours are shown off as wild beasts to make sport for the Philistines,—as is the case in many a grand mansion ; but . because, when no fine people are there, they're always ready to visit and be visited—as neighbours should. She's a kindly, harmless creature,—that Lady Efferville ;-a lady in her very heart. And he's a gay young spark, right lucky to have fallen into such excellent hands.” “ And as to the poor ?" persisted Blanche. Why, as to the poor, my dear, I fancy Lord Efferville's one of the many who think that the law takes such plaguy good care o' the poor, that the law-makers may stand with their arms crossed, and look on! However, there's good done, willy nilly, by every rich resident family. The small trades are set a working, not only by them, but by their servants.Where the cheese is large, there must be plenty of parings: and I wish, Blanche, my dear, you'd seen how I shocked Mrs. Watts t'other day at Downham Hall, by saying as much to her Grace the Duchess of Warton !”. CHAPTER VI. A bundle of useless and beautiful things- PRAED. The inferences formed by poor Blanche from Lady Efferville's account of her sister, were not quite so comforting as those of Probyn Watts. She could not conceive a woman in the true enjoyment of wedded happiness finding it necessary to seek enjoyment amidst the giddy tumults of fashion ; and was afraid that Helen was only pursuing, as a wife, the same career of seeming and surface, into which, as a girl, she had entered with so much zest. This conjecture was far nearer the truth than Lady Hartingham, if interrogated, would have been willing to allow. Beyond the fact that her beauty was the subject of general panegyric, her London season had been one of incessant vexation. Lord Hartingham's mariage had brought down upon him not only his own creditors, but those of his father ; which last had been led to believe, or had chosen to believe, that his son was to succeed to an independent property on attaining his majority, when he would clear he would clear away the liabilities of Colonel Hartley ; nor were these clamorous duns to be persuaded that the young nobleman who had married a wife, could by any possibility be a minor. Altercations on this head were of daily occurrence; and those who were reluctantly convinced by the dates of peerage and parochial registers, that, notwithstanding his maturity of appearance and habits, Lord Hartingham was to all legal intents an infant, revenged themselves for their disappointment |