he gave his few remaining hours to his assignation with Blouzelinda, instead of dancing attendance at Evelyn Hall, and as to the letters, after an abortive attempt to read them, to guard against accidents, he threw them in the fire. He then, in conformity, to his plan on joining his master, persisted in asseverating that no answer, further than compliments, was returned. This, as we have seen, was critical to the fate of Tremaine, to the health of Georgina, and the happiness of all. For we have hinted how Tremaine had shaped his application. He had indeed made Georgina the arbitress of his conduct. He had told her that he would either continue within the pale and protection of his happiness, as he called the precinct of Evelyn Hall, where he would do his utmost, with the assistance of her farther, to work out those opinions on which his all of happiness depended, but which even such a reward should never make him forfeit his sincerity, in professing without conviction; or he would leave the neighbourhood and even the kingdom itself, if she preferred it, or thought it would conduce most to the recovery of her own serenity, which he grieved, he said to think he had invaded. Only, added he, with perhaps a too cautious and prophetic fear for his own nerves, "if the last is your decision, and you really wish me not to see you more, do not harrow me or yourself with reasons. Your silence alone I shall too well comprehend, and no answer will be the most decisive one I can receive." The consequences of all this are known, and it forms only one more, though a very special proof of 'What great events from trivial causes spring.' CHAPTER VII. THE LOIRE. "At pleasure here we lie, near Orleans." SHAKSPEARE, ON Evelyn's return to the fishing-house, it required infinitely less penetration than belonged to Georgina, to perceive that there was some interest in the Chateau de St. Jules, which her father, in general.so confiding, was careful to conceal from her. But that he should propose staying longer; set all his wits and servants to work in making the house, both inside and out, more comfortable for his invalid, and even resolve to take a journey or two himself to Orleans, to make purchases for that purpose; all this did not surprise her. It fell in very well with the little taste for adventure we have commemorated; and she was so delighted herself with her window overhanging the stream, if only to sit quiet and listen to the leaping of the trout, in a hot morning, that their staying there seemed the most natural thing in the world. A very few articles from a menuisier of Orleans, brought, by water to the very door of the fishing-house, made her feel quite at home, and she was so soothed by the whole pastoral scene, that she had no wish to move. Still she could not account for her father's frequent long absences, during the two or three mornings that afterwards ran on, and always, as he said, at the chateau, or at Orleans itself. It was in vain he explained that it was no longer quite the empty house he at first thought it, that he had found a library, and pictures, and loved the style of it more and more. Her own wish to visit it was always opposed on the ground that she was too weak to mount the hill; a reason, alas! but too well founded, but on that very account, a reason also for Evelyn's not leaving her so much alone. Lisette's prattle, though by no means exhausted, was no longer so amusing; and Georgina at length confessed that though she was content with the fishing-house, she was too envious of the chateau to remain contented, and proposed to move. Never was good father so puzzled to allay curiosity, or parry questions from a daughter he loved. He objected to all fraud, even that, not over piously, called pious. Yet, if ever it could be justified, it was surely here. The greatest, the deepest interest, in fact, occupied him, and to gain a little, a very little time before he could resolve whether he should carry Tremaine to his daughter, seemed of the very utmost consequence to his heart's best in terest. It may be supposed that his joy on meeting his friend was not so absorbing as not to be mixed with anxiety about the great point. In fact, it was uppermost with him, and mingled itself, though tacitly, with every feeling that guided him, and every word he uttered. To restore Tremaine and Georgina to one another's presence, yet still forbid their minds from mixing, seemed not only cruel, but, in the highest degree, dangerous. On the first day, therefore, he did all he could to evade Tremaine's ardent wish to wait upon Georgina; and the state of her health furnished him with but too good a reason to prevail. On the second, having resolved to go to Orleans to provide for their various little wants, he insisted upon his friend's doing the honours of the city, with which he was well acquainted. Behold them, then, embarked in one of the country boats, with a lattice sail, laden with crockery and wine jars, and gliding along that sparkling river, winding in beautiful reaches above three miles through the fertile plain up to the very city; luxuriant meadows on each side filled with people; the, little hills rising suddenly and crowned with pretty villas belonging to the bons bourgeois of the town, with now and then a Chateau de Seigneur, like Mount St. Jules; the opening streets and churches as you approach the mouldering but picturesque walls; all this, together with the equable, cheerful motion of the boat, the bells of the horses, and songs of the conductors in the towing path, would have made Evelyn, and Tremaine too, as happy as sense could have made them, but for their secret thought, and inward melancholy. "Confess this is a beautiful scene," cried Evelyn, "and worth all that riches can procure, although we pay but a piece de vingt quatre sous for it." "I do indeed," said Tremaine, "and I confess also that though I hate impertinent people as much as ever, I am now as much alive as perhaps you would have me, to the simpler scenes ;-nay, and in my solitude, I have at length learned to extract amusement, if not profit, from a boor. Perhaps too," and he hesitated-nay, even a blush, though not of pride, tinged his sallow cheek as he said it"this is not all I have to confess." Evelyn looked at him with friendly anxiety, to examine in his countenance if more was there than had met the ear; it is certain that the interest which lay uppermost with him, was all excited. Thinking he understood him, he exclaimed, "With what delight shall I hail those venerable piles we are approaching, if they have restored my friend to us, such in all points as Heaven intended him to be!"? This was all the allusion he ventured to make to the one great subject of his thoughts. He saw by the manner in which this was taken, that he was understood. It was all he could then expect; and, indeed, their arrival at the busy wharf where they were to land, prevented more. CHAPTER VIII. THE CLOISTERS. "At pleasure here we lie, near Orleans." SHAKSPEARE. 16 Ан! que c'est une superbe ville qu' Orleans!" This is the exclamation of every Frenchman as he approaches it; and the epithet is for once not undeserved. Orleans rises from the water in a little semi-circular hill, with a bridge below of sixteen arches, and a terrace hanging above! Its University, fondée par Philippe le Bel; its forty towers, and forty-eight Canonries, of which twelve are dignitaries; above all, its ancient grandeur as a church, and all its legends !-Does it not do the warm heart good to see a place like this preserved from Attila by the prayers of a Bishop, and from the English by the sword of a holy maid? Evelyn thought of none of these things, when he first landed with Tremaine ; but, with a mind full of another subject, walked straight to the menuisier's, where they both busied themselves about Georgina's comforts. Afterwards, indeed, they visited the cathedral, and having filled themselves with much ancient lore, the short but impressive annals of the dead, they walked an old cloister that abutted upon the Bishop's garden, and seemed abandoned to them. and silence by all the world, save now and then |