"You forget," replied I, "that, knowing our passion for the country, and that we had abjured the world, he did not like to ask us, because he knew he should be refused." "I am not so sure he would have been refused, Helen; or, as to having abjured the world--No, no; we are not such fools as to do that--are we, my dearest girl?" "We are bound by no vows, certainly; and, as soon as retirement is become irksome to you, we can go to London." "Did I say that retirement was grown irksome? Oh, fie! such an idea never entered my thoughts: besides, as this fine ball is over, what should we go to London for?" "There may be other fine balls, and fine parties, you know." "True; but really, Helen, I begin to believe you wish to go to London." "If you do, I do certainly." "I!--Not I indeed. Ah, Helen! I suspect you are not ingenuous with me; and you do wish to go." I only smiled: but I soon found that the book did not get forward, that the newspapers were anxiously expected, and that my Spanish master sometimes forgot his task in the indulgence of reverie; and I debated within myself, whether it would not be for our interest and our domestic comfort, to propose to go to London, in order to conceal from him as long as I could that I was not sufficient for his happiness; and that he would live and die a man of the world. I was the more ready to do this, because I wished that my mother should not see my empire was on the decline. Why did I so wish? I hoped it was because I was desirous to spare her any anxiety for my peace; but I fear it also was because I did not like that she should have cause to suspect her choice for me was likely to have proved a better one than my own. (I believe I have observed before, how strong my conviction is, that there is scarcely such a thing in nature as a single motive of action.) I therefore, in the presence of my mother, hinted a wish to go to London for six weeks. She started, and looked suspiciously at Pendarves; while he, with an odd mixture of surprise, joy, and mortification in his countenance, exclaimed-- "Do I hear right, Helen? Are you, after all you have declared, desirous of going to London?" "I am: 'Variety is charming,' says the proverb; and here you know it is _toujours perdrix_!" "Well, there, madam," said Pendarves, turning to my mother, "you will now, I hope, believe what I assured you of some time ago, that Helen had a passion for London?" "_C'est selon_," replied my mother, "to use a French phrase, in answer to Helen's," and darting, as she spoke, a penetrating glance at me. "I assure you," replied I, "that my wish to go to London originates with myself, as I believe that this journey to the metropolis is the wisest, as well as the most agreeable thing I could desire." My mother sighed; and a "Well, my child, I have no reason to doubt your word," broke languidly from her lips, while she suddenly rose and left the room. "And are you really in earnest, Helen?" said Pendarves.