hold. Dissension and mistrust were busy among the gentlemen, and open strife existed between many of the menials. Happy indeed were the establishments at that epoch, in which those of the same blood were not divided by a diversity of opinion.

From these causes Lamoral found his home less happy than it had been, and, but for a new tie, which had sprung up since the hour of his return, between himself and Isabel, his time would have passed dully indeed. This was founded on many causes which he did not take the trouble no analyse. All his friends, even Casembrot, suffered his adventures at Antwerp to drop into oblivion; Isabel, alone, with a woman's ready tact, perceived that, delicately touched upon, the subject was a grateful one. She listened with such warm interest and sweet patience to all the details he chose to narrate-her conversation was so soothing— so tinged on all subjects with her own gentleness, that he constantly sought her presence, and finally found those the only interesting hours of his existence which he spent in her society.

He never reflected on the change in his own mood, that led him to prefer quiet converse under the shady trees of the splendid palace-gardens to the more invigorating and racy amusements befitting his age; nor did he perceive that the chief charm of these conversations lay in the subject that almost imperceptibly glided into them.

He described Margaret van Meeren's attractions-their meetings-the garden where those meetings took place-until a less patient auditor might have fairly pleaded having heard enough; but her sympathy towards this unknown and low-born damsel was unaccountably great; and though she warned at times, her warnings were so gently spoken that they were scarcely heard, far less heeded, by her brother.

Most men prefer depositing the secret of their attachment, and talk over their feelings on that subject more willingly with persons of the opposite sex than with those of their own: whether love, being one of the refinements of our nature, seems to us more likely to be understood by those whose nature is more refined, or whether it be that they treat such matters with a lighter, happier touch, it is difficult to decide; but it is certain that Lamoral was fast obeying this impulse, unknown to himself, in the many conferences he held with his sister.

At last the Count of Egmont, in conformity with the custom of that day, which prescribed strict retirement to the Čatholics during the fetes of the Virgin, and sent most of the nobles into convents, or to their castles, to perform their devotions, broke up his establishment in town; but even when they had exchanged the labyrinth of their Brussels gardens for the plains of the Beemster of Purmerende, Lamoral and Isabel continued to speak of the burgher's daughter in sight of the lofty towers, from which the proud banner of Egmont floated in the wind.

THE TABLES TURNED.

BY MRS. EDWARD THOMAS.

CHAPTER I.

So wise, so grave, of so perplex'd a tongue,
And loud withal, that could not wag, nor scarce
Lie still without a fee.-BEN JONSON'S Volpone.

"I REALLY begin to entertain serious apprehensions respecting the solvency of my tenant at No. 5, in the terrace, Fred," observed Mr. Morris, gravely, to his son, as he laid down an almanack which he had been studying very intently for some moments. "A fortnight has nearly elapsed since Lady-day," he resumed," and the Michaelmas rent is not yet paid. This will never do, for although my favourite principle is, to live and let live,' still it must not be in such an exparte manner as this, or I shall soon be reduced to sue in formâ pauperis for a roof to shelter my own family."

6

"That I have long foreseen," replied Frederick; "the truth is, father, you are much too lenient in such affairs, and consequently, like all goodnatured people, get terribly imposed upon. If you do not take care, you will become a pitiable exemplification of the very striking old adage, that fools build houses, and wise men live in them. Who are the people at No. 5? Had you a good reference with them? Who paid the deposit? And how long have they rented the house?"

"I cannot pretend to respond categorically to your interrogations, Fred; as, imprimis, I do not know who they are, nor, in fact, whether the family consists of more than the lady herself, who was represented to me by Dawson, the surgeon, who paid the deposit for her, as the widow of an officer of the highest respectability and most unblemished reputation, but of rather limited circumstances. She has been in possession of the house now fifteen months."

"And paid but for three! What a way of doing business! You will lose your rent to a certainty, if you do not threaten her instanter with summary proceedings. Write her a tickler at once, father, and protest that you will distrain forthwith if the rent be not paid immediately. She'll turn out an arrant swindler, depend on it. The police-courts are literally inundated with such cases. One cannot take up a daily paper without seeing at least half a dozen charges against these immaculate officers' widows-these ladies of the most irreproachable character-these hapless victims of oppression-these innocent beings, invariably more sinned against than sinning,' for the grossest acts of fraud and dishonest practices. Write, therefore, in time, father, or you'll be done-you'll be done, without a doubt."

"So I begin to suspect myself, but still, Fred, these officers' widows are exceedingly delicate subjects to interfere with, they being for the most part gentlewomen, both by birth and education, and generally so depressed and overwhelmed by the struggles into which the deaths of their husbands involve them, that if a man only civilly demands that which is justly due to him, they consider themselves as the most injured

of human beings, wring their hands like tragedy queens, and throw themselves on his mercy."

"Mercy, forsooth! That's all very well, father, as a figure of speech in a special pleader, a sort of light vehicle on grasshopper springs, to introduce apt and touching quotations from the poets, to show that Coke and Blackstone have not rendered him totally indifferent to the classics; but a man to do his duty, both to himself and others, must be influenced by justice alone-strict, impartial, unswerving justice; mercy must not be in the bond. Punish a first offence with the utmost rigour of the law, and you will in time make the situation of public executioner a perfect sinecure. Mercy is the grand mistake of our legislature-the offendiculum (stumbling-block) of forensic success. Besides, where is the man who would be imposed upon by such artifice, who had a decent share of common sense? I should only be the more exasperated, the more obdurate, the more determined from it-such trickery is so horridly superficial."

"Ah! if I had had your wisdom when young, Fred, I should have been a much richer man than I am; but I was very often led away by a foolish generosity-a warmth of impulse most destructive to self-interest. I could not find it in my heart to distress the feelings of a reduced lady. There is something so touchingly sacred in the very abjectness, which still retains a glitter of former prosperity, that a man must be callous indeed to be insensible to its silent yet affecting appeal. Besides, she too usually has a most potent and pathetic auxiliary to awaken one's dormant compassion, in the shape of a lovely daughter or niece

"With radiant hair, and soft, imploring eyes--"

"Yes, and a voice whose melody penetrates to the inmost recesses of the soul, to echo for ever after in its dearest dreams."

"Ha! ha! ha! Excuse my mirth, but you are really too romantic. You should have been a poet, father. Why, I consider those languishing young ladies as a particeps criminis-as the guiltiest coadjutors in the robbery. I should as soon think of releasing a pickpocket whom I detected in flagranti delicto, as allowing one of those syrens to delude me out of one penny which was my right. See the difference of our views and sentiments."

"I do, and must confess that I am utterly amazed at the stoicism of the young men of the present day. Their modus operandi seems to be prudence before feeling with a vengeance. This is certainly the age of selfish utilitarianism. Why, formerly, youthful hearts used to be green and fragrant in the verdure and perfume of love, quickened and vivified by the fertilising tears of afflicted innocence and beauty. Now they appear but as a shrivelled scroll, on which is written, with an iron pen, Money!' I candidly own that mine was instantly subdued at the sight of a lovely girl when in sorrow; and I even knew some men who, from their wealth and station, might have aspired to more distinguished alliances, who actually married such poor dowerless things."

"What! and not only forfeited the old debts, but, by so doing, probably entailed fresh difficulties on themselves? How monstrously absurd!"

"I was guilty of such absurdity. guiled me to such an act of folly. beauties, Fred."

Your poor dear dead mother be-
She was one of those portionless

"Ah! I heard you made an imprudent union, father; but, idolising my mother when living, and reverencing her memory beyond all expression, I never presumed to broach the subject. Still, was it not a little inconsiderate in you-for I suppose you had to make a tremendous pecuniary sacrifice one way or other?"

"Yes, I had, for I gave up an heiress, whom I detested, to marry a beggar, whom I adored; but I have yet to learn repentance for it."

"Then why are you eternally dinning into my ears the advantage of looking out for a fortune, protesting it is the sine quâ non of happiness in the connubial state?"

"For many reasons. You are naturally more fond of money than I was, live in a more refined and luxurious period, set more store by external grandeur and ostentatious display-in fact, are more worldlyminded and cautious. I fell in love before I could avail myself of reflection, or I might have acted differently, but never so wisely for my own felicity."

"Perhaps not. However, I am not so susceptible; and if I were, I fancy I need not fear any calls being made on my sensibility from the inmates of No. 5, as no such fair unfortunate is known to dwell there; or even if such temptation was thrown in my way, I think I could resist the frail allurement. So you had better send the style of letter I suggested. I will brave all the consequences, and put the rent into your pocket, without a demurrer being offered by the officer's widow in the form of anything half so staggering to one's philosophy as a daughter or niece in tears."

"Just wait and give me your assistance, Fred, in the composition of the epistle; for, with all your astute powers of reasoning, I have still a doubt whether it is not wrong to oppress the widow. However, I must have my rent, you know.".

"Of course. Where is the oppression, pray? Have you not shown the most extraordinary patience in the affair? And if the lady herselt does not admit that, it will convict her at once of the desire to cheat you, nem. con., say I."

Mr. Morris, thus urged by his sapient and far-seeing son, seated himself at his desk to write as urgently and imperatively as he could force his kind and yielding nature to do, while Frederick stood loiteringly by him, carelessly cutting up the loose pens which lay scattered about on the office-table.

Mr. Morris was not only the owner of the identical No. 5, but also of the whole of the houses in Grove-terrace, Pimlico, as well as of several larger ones in the neighbourhood; for he had been a prosperous man—a very prosperous man-despite his juvenile liberality and improvident marriage; all which wealth was ultimately destined for his only son, together with a first-rate solicitor's long-established concern.

Frederick, the son in question, was, at this time, just three-andtwenty; and was, what young ladies pronounce in the moments of their most undisguised revelations to each other, "a perfect love," their mammas, "a most eligible young man,"-his intimate male associates, "a deuced handsome fellow"-and his father, in his deep and frequently-indulged cogitations, when the star of paternal pride was in the ascendant, the probable Lord Chancellor of England, by some propitious evolution

of the wheel of fortune, although he might never live to witness his elevation to the woolsack; convinced that he had more law in the digitus auricularis (little finger), so brilliant in a diamond of the first water, than he had in his entire caput.

"Well, Fred, will this do?" said the old gentleman, looking up from his desk, and wiping something very like a tear off his spectacles, preparatory to reading the letter he had now completed:

"MADAM,—Although ever inclined to the side of mercy, bearing in mind that one day I shall stand awfully in need of it, still I lament to say that more than once I have been a serious sufferer from my placability; and I cannot but apprehend that, in your own case, I shall be far from finding an amiable or encouraging exception. I must, therefore, insist—that is, humbly entreat-that the year's rent, now due to me, be paid either to-morrow or the day following, or I shall be necessitated, foreign as it is to my feelings, to proceed according to law, by putting an execution into the house, and recover, as much as I can, by the sale of your goods and chattels.

666

"Trusting that this request will neither distress nor inconvenience you, I beg to have the honour of remaining, madam, your most obedient, and very humble servant, "FREDERICK MORRIS, Senior.

"To Mrs. Bouverie, 5, Grove-terrace.'

"I am sadly afraid it is too severe. Poor thing! who knows what mental suffering she may not have endured from being so much in arrears already? Is it not too severe, Fred?"

"Not a bit; it is not severe enough, in my opinion, nor is the style exactly to my taste; it is too deferential, too diffuse; it wants dignity, it wants brevity, father; it is neither sufficiently terse, nor sufficiently strong, if I must speak candidly. It's all very well, in drawing up a deed for which you are paid without the charge being taxed, to multiply the one idea until it is worn threadbare, and dilute it through sheet after sheet, ad infinitum; but, in writing on your own account, I consider you cannot be too precise and explicit; it should never be currente calamo (with a running pen). Now, in that note, there are fifty opportunities afforded a designing woman to evade the demand. Why mention your own feelings, or study hers? Why not simply threaten a distress? Just add in a P.S., by way of qualifying that weakness, your determination of putting the threatened execution into immediate operation. That will convince

her you are really in earnest."

"No! I will not add another word; it must go as it is, or not at all. I know I shall not sleep to-night for writing as harshly as I have done. You have yet to learn how rankling is the thorn the hand of oppression plants in the pillow of the unjust man."

"Ah, father! no wonder you have been so often victimised! I wish you would let me have the management of all such affairs for the future. You would soon perceive I should have no scruples in obtaining my own."

"Here, Dick, run to No. 5, Grove-terrace, and leave this note; there is no answer required. No excuse for you to idle on the way, mind!" "I never do, sir," said Dick, taking the note, with an ominous frown. "I must give him credit for that, Fred."