will ever make beauties of us,' and she laughed joyously, 'least of all of me!' turning so as to have a full view of her freckled face; 'but one would not disgust people more than needs must; and in this case it would have been very crabbed, when the Bellendens thought they had found such a moorland prize for our Scottish eyes, not to make the use of it they intended.'

"Yes,' said Fenella, hesitating; 'but whether it is too early in the year, or only English heather, or their bad gathering, it was all so short and stumpy, that when Effie told me of the plot I did feel as if they had set me to weave a rope of sand on purpose.'

'Poor Fen!' laughed Bride. 'Well, I'll make my own next time.'

'Yes, but that will be out of your time instead of mine, and just as bad. Indeed, I think I am catching you up as it is,' said Fenella, now able to compare her work with her sister's, and finding herself still one lily leaf behind.

Bride's incredulity had made Fenella doubtful, for she had great faith' in Bride's judgment.

Joanna Harding had her tea-table in her mother's pretty dressing-room. It was too late for her little sisters, who were showing themselves in the drawing-room for a little while, and thence would go to bed, when the world went to dinner; and as to her brothers, no one would have proposed to them the degradation of exclusion from the dinner party.

So there were only the three girls, Joan, Clara, and Fenella, very comfortable and happy together, though their perfect ease was just a little marred by the necessity of holding their heads upright and not tumbling their white dresses. Joan was reading when the other two entered, both` arriving at the same time; and they congratulated her on being so much in advance as to be able to spend her leisure time on anything else.

'Oh yes,' she said, unfolding her work. You see I have done all the wreaths now except the last lily and the buds of the one before it; so now there is only the grounding to come, and that is as quick as it is stupid.' 'You certainly have beaten us all,' said Fenella. 'I wish ours were as forward.'

'But,' said Clara, 'is there not something odd in that stem?"

'Oh dear, I hope not; but I should not wonder, for Charlie and Herbert have been bothering worse than ever to-day.'

'How do you mean?' asked Fenella anxiously.

against me,

Now it was

'Oh, I can hardly tell; but there seemed to be a dead set as if they would do anything rather than leave me to work. to dawdle in the garden-then to have a game at chess-as if any rational person would play chess in the morning-then to go and see the boats come in-then Herbert sits down and draws caricatures, such abominable things, of all us six-as so many Whippety stouries first, with our necks growing on one side, working away at our cushions; and then with our necks grown quite awry, kneeling on one knee presenting them to the Doctor.'

'Oh, what fun!' cried Fenella, 'do let me see them.'

'No, indeed! I made away with them. They were quite wicked, I assure you, for there was Dr. Henderson in full canonicals, and a great cross down the front, holding up two fingers like a bishop in an illumination.'

"That was too bad!' cried the young ladies, but with a sort of amusement, that made Joan proceed with the greater indignation.

'It was all done up like a pre-Raphaelite drawing; we were all as stiff as pokers, but with this great crick in our necks, and each one hand up just in the same position-and oh! so horribly like-especially Bride, towering over all, with her eagle's feather; and Mary Rose looking like a little mouse at the end; and under it, 'Y' Whippety Stouries, offrande y vj Queshyons.'

6 And you did not care for it?' asked Clara.

'No, indeed! I? No, I worked the more to prove I did not; and I tore up the horrid thing and put it into the grate! Who would be hindered by mockery?'

'And,' said Fenella cautiously, 'have you heard anything of a regular scheme among the boys for preventing our work?'

'No, how?' cried Joan. 'I should not wonder. They are quite up to anything-those cousins of mine. But what? It will be some pleasure to conquer them if it is a combination.-Have you heard anything of it?' turning to Clara. Clara shook her head. She began to see an explanation of Freddy's conduct, but she did not wish to betray it. Joan then appealed to Fenella, who, having bound them both over not to confess their knowledge to the young gentlemen, upon Angus's account, disclosed all that she had been able to learn from Effie.

Joan's delight was extreme. There was something highly flattering in being the object of a well concerted plot, and she was by no means disposed to such incredulity as Bride's, but rather to magnify the attacks, and therewith the dignity of her work, which no one, save her mother, thought nearly as important as she considered proper-nay, scarcely her mother herself. She even became reflective, moral, and philosophical, upon the subject.

'You see they talked of spiritual despotism. That's what it is. It exactly agrees with that horrible picture of Herbert's. The world is bitterly jealous of the spiritual influence, because it feels that nothing else so destroys it power. And women being more open to these higher influences then men, and thus becoming emancipated from their bondage and slavery, they become a sort of battle-field, the world and the Church, each endeavouring for their allegiance.'

Clara and Fenella could neither of them help laughing at this tirade. "There is a great deal of truth in it, though,' said Joan, half laughing herself. Really and truly, if I were equally set upon any freak of my own-on botany or geology, say-I might be ten times more tiresome without their minding it in the same way.'

'That is true,' said Fenella; and therefore I have always been told that it is best to make any sort of good work as little obnoxious as possible. 'And I suppose you go on that principle,' said Clara.

'Bride thinks it right,' said Fenella.

'But that is like denying one's faith,' cried Joan.

'I don't know,' said Fenella. 'I think we should be stopped altogether if we made ourselves disagreeable; so we have to take care not to do that.' And your brothers would have nothing to do with the plot, and let you alone?' asked Clara.

'And what have yours done? O Clara, do tell us. Are they in the plot? Have they done anything to you?'

'Not Johnnie,' said Clara; 'and it is absurd to think a little fellow like Freddy could have any such thing in his head.'

'But-oh! has he really been persecuting you?' cried Joan eagerly; then bethinking herself, 'no-I won't ask you if you do not like to tell.'

Little boys are always apt to be tiresome in the holidays, when they have nothing to do,' said Clara; 'besides, everything goes wrong with Susan away; it is much more likely to be that than any formed design.'

Her evident dislike to say any more about her little brother, backed by Fenella's sympathetic attempt to change the conversation, made Joan perceive that it would be kinder to pursue the subject no further, though she was far too proud of being persecuted to understand Clara's wish not to believe that Freddy was concerned in the scheme. Clara had some misgivings in her own mind. She thought it possible that Freddy might have caught up some idle talk of the elder boys, that made him think it fine to make her work the object of his mischief; and she resolved both to guard it with double care, and to question John; but her alarm went no further. And when Lady Bellenden very kindly asked the whole Braithwayte party to join in a grand expedition to an old castle on the next Tuesday, she was delighted to hear her father give full acceptance, at least for her and her brothers, for he himself was obliged to go for a couple of days to the cathedral town on some clerical business. The prospect was all the pleasanter to Clara, both because, however she might moralize with the Roses, it was more agreeable not to be left out of everything; and also she hoped that the anticipation would put Freddy in such good humour, as to keep him out of any intolerable mischief. Indeed, going to Torr Castle had been her keen desire for years past; and many and many a time had she gazed at its photograph, and wondered why no one ever would take her thither! She blushed with pleasure at the invitation, and could hardly repress her enjoyment. Indeed, this whole party was quite a study to Clara. It was the first sight of what she had often heard discussed by her sister and othersthe evening parties of what Mrs. West called the élite; Mrs. Harding's elegance and youthful appearance; Mrs. West's wonderful gorgeousnes of brocade, emeralds, and gold; Lady Euphemia Maclaine's one evening dress-the silver grey poplin, in which she never failed to appear, and

always looked well dressed. Clara was fond of Bride and Fenella, whom she regarded somewhat in the light of rescued brands; but there was a mutual antagonism between the curate world and the semi-Presbyterian house of Glentarn. The Maclaines went to church, and expressed no dissatisfaction, not regarding it as the business of mere strangers, and being no gossips; but they were high-bred and grave, and kept to themselves, and those partizans of Dr. Henderson and his ways, who were more Hendersonian than himself, viewed the tall rigid Scotswoman with a mixture of awe, dislike, and pity for her ignorance, as a sort of heathen. And little Clara, in her unobserved corner, was one of these.

Joan on the other hand was full of excitement, and determined to keep a careful watch, as she said, for symptoms. She had the better opportunity that evening, as she was the only unmusical one of the young ladies, having no voice and so little ear, that on the departure of her governess she had been allowed to drop the attempt to keep up her practice. So she kept a heedful eye upon the assembly round the piano, where the Bellendens, Maclaines, and Camilla, were all singing, to the great satisfaction of the assembly in general, and apparently no less to their own, for they went on so very late, that Captain Harding began to grow anxious at the wearied look that his wife could not help betraying ; and Joan questioned whether it were not malice prepense on the part of the young men, to make everybody get up late in the morning, and so lose their time for their cushions. No one was more grateful to Lady Euphemia, when in her very decided manner she indicated to her daughters that it was quite too late for their father, and insisted that not another song should be attempted.

Fenella, when she thought it over on the way home, could not help feeling somewhat alarmed when she remembered that there had been much said about practising together, and learning each other's mutual stock of glees. She had been carried away by the excitement at the moment; but she foresaw that if half of what was talked of should be carried out, the chance intervals bestowed on the cushions in the day-time would be nothing; and as to the time in the morning, these late hours were making it more difficult to get up early than she had guessed it would be when the time was portioned out. Bride went to help her mother undress, and Fenella was too sleepy by the time she came back to talk to her that night. But when by force of last night's resolution, the young sister awoke as the clock struck six, and by the same resolution, threw herself out of bed, with half closed eyes and stiff weary limbs, she really had not the heart to awaken Bride, who was sleeping so sweetly, with a smile parting her lips. Fenella compromised matters by making a good deal of noise in moving about the room, and presently she saw that Bride's eyes were open, and that she was dreamily and serenely contemplating the aerial waltzes of the flies.

What, Fen!' she exclaimed, with a start; 'you don't mean that you are getting up!'

"Why not? It is half-past six.' Nonsense! It must be four!'

Fenella held up Bride's watch.

'Well, I'll get up in a minute or two.' Fenella went to call Effie and Eva; but on her return, Bride still seemed in the same serene trance, 'Are you very tired?' she asked rather anxiously,

'No-oh no! Only sometimes it is pleasant to think a little.'

For Bride to lie thinking, instead of getting up, was so new an event, that Fenella faced about from the looking-glass, with all her hair on her shoulders, to look at her. ·

'Don't stare so!' said Bride, with a laugh. "Leave me a little peace, and I will begin in a minute.'

The request for peace prevented Fenella from entering on the subject of the conspiracy, but she was very uneasy. It was not till she was full dressed, and had sat down to give a few minutes to her work, that Bride, suddenly bethinking herself, started up with a cry of dismay, and began to dress with more than her usual promptitude. Then Fenella ventured again to mention the conclusion that the little council had arrived at.

"Very like Joan,' laughed the elder sister; it would delight her to think so. But it really is too ridiculous to suppose that any grown up person would meddle with such folly.'

'And yet,' Fenella said, 'all this has been rather hindering.'

'Late hours? Oh, that was my own fault. I must make it up in the course of the day.'

'I don't see how we can, if we are to have all this learning of new music.'

'Anything can be done with a will,' said Bride, rather impatiently; then, almost as if to end the conversation, she added, 'Is it not time you should be hearing Effie's music?"

Fenella gathered up her work, and went-much bewildered, It was the first morning Bride had missed finishing her portion of the cushion before breakfast; and there was more than a day's task in arrears, (To be continued.)

LILLA'S RELATIONS.

CHAPTER XIV,

Ir was in the third story of a corner house in the Faubourg St. Germain, looking out on a square place, that the Vivian party had established themselves. The very hottest of the hottest August days found them cooped up in a little salon, loaded with nick-nacks, and about twelve feet square. Two small rooms opened out of it, at opposite sides; two windows faced each other, making it possible to have a thorough cross VOL. 2, PART 7,