tagong Lodge, which, in point of fact, was in the possession of the police-officers, who, having suffered the ladies to go, had remained there for the night, in the hope—utterly vain it must be confessed-that they might gain some tidings of the object of their search: all that, however, was at an end. The soi-disant captain had vanished entirely; and therefore Nubley, now that Tom's funeral was over, took the precaution of appointing the upholsterer, undertaker, &c. &c., of Blissfold, to meet him at the Lodge, in order to put somebody in charge of the premises, and to make out a general inventory of the furniture and effects; not so much with the view of ascertaining what he actually possessed, as to establish the fact of what he had lost, and thus the dear little absent man, to whom, on account of his strange abstracted manner, I had given very little credit for business-like habits, or even an ordinary share of intellectuality, proved himself exactly the reverse of my brother, his late partner, Cuthbert, and while he maintained his original purpose of starting for Bath at noon with his fair charge, I found him before breakfast arranging and settling all his own business in a matter in which, as I heard from Harriet, he never would have been involved, if it had not been that Mrs. Nubley declared Captain Thompson one of the most charming persons in the world, he having made her believe that his father was the greatest possible friend of one of her aunts, and expressed his delight at having been so fortunate as to fall in accidentally with a lady of whom he had heard his dear relation speak in such extraordinary high terms.

Nubley, however, bore all his mishaps without murmuring, for this reason:-if he had permitted himself to complain, it would have been a practical admission that he had yielded to the suggestions of his wife; a course of proceeding which not only in what he said aloud, but what he thought aloud, he uniformly deprecated. Having, however, at some particular moment of extreme good-nature submitted his own opinions to her judgment, he thought the best thing he could do was neither to proclaim himself defeated, nor reproach her with being the cause of his loss. So, up he got, and out he went; and when he came back to the breakfast-room, he informed me that the police had withdrawn themselves-that he had obtained quiet possession of the house-and that beyond the loss of rent, wine, and "sundry unregarded trifles," he thought he should not suffer more than the cost of cleaning the premises, and, perhaps, new-papering one or two of the rooms; and all the evils and mischiefs resulting from the misconduct of the Thompsons he balanced somewhat satisfactorily for him

self by observing "that an empty house was much better than a bad tenant;" it being evident to me, as I have already stated, that his calmness and philosophy upon the occasion were mainly attributable to the excitement of his feelings upon other points more nearly connected with myself and my interests; and the first distinct clear order which he gave to his servant when he entered the hall, was delivered in these words:"The horses are to be here at one o'clock, Thomas-not a minute later!"

Kate heard this mandate, and made a face which she did not think I saw, but which seemed in its expression to indicate

"Then you may go by yourself, you.old monster."

It was all in vain, for it was perfectly evident that Nubley's mind was made up, and that what Mrs. Nubley called his obstinacy in small matters, but which became on more important points really firmness, was not to be shaken either by the flippancy of Sniggs or the pertness of Miss Falwasser. In fact, Miss Falwasser appeared perfectly aware of the extent of her influence over the old gentleman, and therefore contented herself by exhibiting her dissatisfaction by signs and tokens, which, however, in most instances, she took especial care should not be seen by the person whose contravention of her wishes had excited them.

Youth is in general so candid, so ingenuous, and so little skilled in what are called the "ways of the world," that I could scarcely believe the evidence of my senses while watching the proceedings of this mere child. Four-and-twenty hours before Nubley's announcement of his determination to take her with him to Bath, she had treated him, and his observations and remarks, not only with neglect, but contempt: she regarded him as a silly old man, about whom nobody cared, and seemed to enjoy the cheateries of the Thompson faction as a vastly good joke played off upon a simpleton; while Mrs. Nubley, who had in vain endeavoured to prepossess the youthful beauty in her favour, was an object of her undisguised ridicule; but from the moment that Nubley, in giving his reasons for enforcing her return with him, had stated the nature and character of his influence over Cuthbert, and she had heard him, whom she had previously despised, censuring, and declaring his determination to alter the conduct of "Pappy," whose will she naturally looked upon as law, and whose decrees she held to be as immutable as the laws of what Mr. Lazenby would have called "the Maids and Parsons," she seemed entirely to change her line of behaviour towards him;

and although she appeared sulky and cross, and although his mandates certainly caused the mummeries which I have just noticed, still her antics were played off with the greatest care that he should not detect them, and what was at first an obstinate determination to resist the journey, sank into a reluctant consent to do what dear Pappy's dear old friend thought best.

The time wore on, and I perceived a certain whispering in progress between Miss Kitty and her maid, who had been to the "shop" to make some purchases, and I overheard, accidentally, Kitty, in reply to something her aide had said, exclaim in a louder tone than perhaps she was aware of, "No answer!-What! was he at home, and no answer?" A mùmbling noise succeeded this burst, and I was left in doubt whether the young lady's last appeal had been vainly made to the doctor or the dancing-master, for I had had my suspicions with regard to a new attack upon the latter, in spite of Kate's avowed denunciation of him-to use her own elegant phraseology as a spooney.

When the carriage drew up to the door, and Nubley, after a brief but animated conversation, all tending to confirm me not only in the sincerity, but the value of his exertions in my behalf, and I saw him and Miss Falwasser, with her beautiful countenance suffused with tears, driven from the gates, I felt a relief much like what a "general dealer," as the term goes, must experience when he beholds the departure of a barrel of gunpowder from his premises which do not afford any secure and suitable magazine for its reception, to which I had likened the sweet combustible young lady when she first arrived at Ashmead; and, as I went up-stairs and met Harriet on the landing-place, watching the progress of the departing travellers, I could not help exclaiming, although Jane was by "Well, thank our stars she is gone!"

Harriet gave me a look, and so did Jane. Harriet's was to warn me that Jane was present, and Jane's was to announce to me that she cordially assented to my congratulations.

It is not worth while to record the various little circumstances and anecdotes by which Jane, when she felt herself quite safe from the persecutions of her elder sister, corroborated all our suspicions, and substantiated all our apprehensions with regard to the systematic exercise of Mrs. Brandyball's influence over Cuthbert during the brief period of his having actually been in her custody, for I could consider it little else, nor regard him in any other light than an invalid placed under the charge of an ill-principled nurse. It seemed, however, that the school was to be abandoned altogether. Kitty had hinted

1

as much, or rather she had put the case hypothetically; but, in point of fact, this relinquishment had been already so far carried into effect, that the blue board upon which " Montpelier Seminary for Young Ladies" had heretofore glittered in golden letters, had been removed, and that the name of Mrs. Brandyball alone appeared upon the gate. This and one or two other particulars, which Jane readily and even anxiously imparted to us, satisfied both Harriet and myself, that even if Nubley should be in time to avert the calamity which threatened us, there was not a moment to spare.

It may naturally be supposed that the period of the old gentleman's absence was one of no small anxiety to us; nor were we permitted to enjoy our suspense with the calmness which might have moderated its acuteness. It must be recollected that, during the expedition of our kind emissary, we had to cheer, soothe, and entertain his lady, who, having recovered in a certain degree from her late indisposition, appeared to have received a new power of tormenting, from the temporary repose she had experienced. Anxiety about her spouse, and her nervous solicitude about various favourite articles of furniture at Chittagong, imprecations upon the heads of all the Thompsons, criminations of the police for not apprehending the whole "gang" of them, and sending them all to Botany Bay without conviction or even trial, formed the general theme of her conversation, to which we were obliged to be constantly assenting, and in which she contrived to indulge at the rate and in the tone of a cock parrot in the highest possible health and spirits.

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Lauk, my dear, Mr. Nubley is such a man-he! he he! -to think of going to let Chittagong to a family of cheats, without ever inquiring about what they were, or who they were. Ah, well! Men are the worst bargainers in the world; the pretty faces of those saucy misses did it, I have no doubt, I am sure I ought not to say so-dear me, no-he! he! he! -Mr. Nubley is as kind a husband as any in England, only he is led away. I am sure I hope nothing will happen to him, poor dear!-no overturn or break down; and then, my dear Mrs. Gurney, that beautiful rosewood work-table, with the ormolu edging and the crimson bag, all spotted and dotted, and` the dinner-table all white with the heat of the dishes. Lauk, Mr. Gurney-he! he! he!-you are such a man, I declare, if you ar'nt laughing at me."

I most positively denied the fact, because it was not so, but I believe in vain, for our guest was one of those who, like

Scrub in the play, fancied that every body who laughed, was laughing at her.

Still we managed remarkably well. Harriet and she visited Chittagong; and Harriet, with her whole heart and mind at Montpelier, endeavoured to appear interested in the objects which interested her friend and companion in her first excursion after her confinement; and to be sure, the mischief the wretched people had done was enough to have provoked a much less irascible person than Mrs. Nubley.

The third day would bring us intelligence from Bath. "Lauk, my dear, do you think Mr. N. will write? He! he! he!—he is such a man!" screamed Mrs. Nubley.

“Yes,” said I “I am sure he will-he will not only be anxious to give you tidings of himself, but to send me news of Cuthbert."

"Ah!" said his lady, "that is, if he does not forget it."

He did not forget it, for Mrs. Nubley received on the third morning a letter of which I knew not the purport, and I the following one, the contents of which were by no means satisfactory. I confess, however, that I was infinitely less surprised than distressed at the intelligence they conveyed. Here we have it :

"DEAR GILBERT,

"White Hart, Bath,

18-.

"I reached Montpelier about an hour later than I proposed, and did not get there till between eight and nine. My young companion appeared at first sulky, then sleepy, and then sick, and said she must travel outside; this don't you see?—was a puzzler; there was only room for two in the rumble. If I had her maid in-don't you see-that would have been odd and if I sent her into the rumble with her maid, I must have had my man inside-this worried me. I explained the difficulty, and so at last she agreed to stay where she was, if I had one of the glasses down-which, in course, I had, and have thereupon got an uncommonly bad toothache.

"We went on very agreeable--the young lady and I-for we did not say much; only now and then she began to grieve for Tommy, and cry about him a little. I told her it was very natural she should regret his loss, although I thought to myself by your account of him he could be no great loss to any body-only in course, that did not escape me, any more than what I felt concerning her general conduct, and that of the old Jezebel at Montpelier. We stopped at Warminster, and had a broiled fowl and mushroom-sauce, together with potatoes