duty to endeavour to conceal the sentiments with which he had inspired her, "impute my having done so not to design, but to the confusion into which surprise has thrown me."

"May I then flatter, myself," cried lord Gwytherin, as he raised her from the ground, "that you really do not hate me; or rather," added he, hesitatingly, "may I hope that you will endeavour not to do so? That, when time has proved the sincerity of my affection for you, as well as repentance for the conduct which gave you pain, you will give me a place in your regard? Had I sooner known my relationship to you, I should sooner have endeavoured to render myself worthy of that regard, and should also have avoided many errors and in. discretions, which I can never cease to regret."

"Mention them no more, my lord, I conjure you," cried Jacintha, inexpressibly shocked, as she well knew to what he alluded. "For mercy's sake," she exclaimed, with a wildness of look which alarmed him, "never again recur to what is past! But tell me," she added, "to what strange cause is it owing, that you were kept so long in ignorance of my connexion to you?”

"To do so," said lord Gwytherin, "to relate the variety of circumstances which conspired to keep me in ignorance, not only of your affinity to me, but of your very existence, would require more time than either of us can command at present."

"Good God !....my very existence!" repeated Jacintha. "I am all amazement at what I hear, and shall know no peace till I am acquainted with the mysterious circumstances you have alluded to. My mother too...she...............”

Who she is," said lord Gwytherin, " you shall......"

He was interrupted by Jacintha.

"Who she is," repeated she, and grasped his arm...." She lives then...I have a mother!"

"Who she is," resumed lord Gwytherin, with a calmness which, had Jacintha been sufficiently composed to have observed it, would have surprised her, "you shall hear; as well as every particular of our unfortunate story, whenever you can give me an opportunity of conversing with you in private."

"In private," said Jacintha, “must it be now in private!"

"It must," replied lord Gwytherin ; " 'tis dangerous for us to be seen together."

Jacintha started, and cast an apprehensive glance around.

“I think, cried she, "you spoke as if Mrs. Decourcy knew of our relationship."

"I did," replied he; "she is acquainted with it."

"And she only?" asked Jacintha.

"Yes; and with her the knowledge of it must rest. Fame, honour, happiness....nay, life itself, depend on its being kept a profound secret."

Jacintha lifted her hands in astonishment. "Oh that you could now," she cried, "gratify my ardent curiosity!"

"Tis impossible," said he; "but sure you could soon contrive to give me an opportunity of speaking to you."

"I know not how I can do so," replied Jacintha, for I am watched...I am....." She paused, for she could not bring herself to say she was suspected; "could you not, therefore, write?" she added.

"Impossible ;...a letter could never fully explain the circumstances you wish to learn. Besides, if it could, I should be too much agitated in retracing those circumstances, to be able to write." Jacintha considered for a moment.

even

"This evening, perhaps," said she, " I....." "Hush!" cried lord Gwytherin, in a low voice; "did you not hear a rustling amongst the trees?" Jacintha, without attempting to listen, motioned for him to leave her; terrified almost to death, at the idea of his being seen with her by Woodville.

He instantly obeyed her motion, and had scarcely disappeared, when she beheld Woodville approaching.

She endeavoured to calm her perturbation, and walked towards him as fast as her trembling limbs could carry her.

"Have you been long out?" asked Woodville, as he met her.

"Not very long," she replied, and tried to shun his eyes as she spoke, from a conviction that her countenance was a faithful index of her mind.

Woodville was too quick, however, in his observations not to perceive at once the disorder of her looks, and, in an accent of surprise, exclaimed. "Good heaven! what is the matter? You look pale and frightened! Has any thing happened to alarm you ?"

"No, nothing," said Jacintha, still more agitated, from finding he had noticed her agitation. She then endeavoured to change the discourse, by asking whether he had had a pleasant ride.

Woodville mused for some minutes before he answered her, and then, in a cold and careless manner, said....

"Yes, a very pleasant one."

Jacintha asked a few other trifling questions, which he continued to answer with the same air of indifference, and on entering the house they separated; she being wounded to the soul by his behaviour, which evidently implied a revival of his unjust suspicions concerning her. That time, however, would prove their unjustness, and fully eradicate them, she could not doubt; and from this idea, felt the pain they at present gave her much diminished.

ла

CHAP. XIV.

"With how secure a brow and specious form
"He gilds the secret villain! Sure that face
"Was meant for honesty; but Heav'n mismatch'd it,
"And furnish'd Treason out with Nature's pomp,
"To make its work more easy.

"See how he sets his countenance for deceit,
"And promises a lie before he speaks !"

SAID OF DOLABELLA BY ANTHONY.

A FEAR of agitating Mrs. Decourcy, by too suddenly revealing her knowledge of a secret which it was evident she never wished to learn, checked the impulse which would otherwise have carried Jacintha immediately to her, for the purpose of doing so; and she retired to her chamber, in order to try and compose her spirits ere she appeared at dinner: but to succeed in this attempt was at present impossible. What she had so recently heard, as well as what she still expected to hear, kept her mind in a state of agitation, which rendered all her efforts to regain composure unavailing. Nor could she divest herself of the horror which had seized her the moment she learned she was the daughter of lord Gwytherin; and so far from increasing her happiness, she was convinced the late discovery would considerably lessen it, since it could not fail of being a lasting source of anguish to her, to know a parent, to whom her