do," interrupted the zealous parent, "what else should I delude to? And if you did receive Jack's pistol, Miss Seymour, why didn't ye condescend to answer his operation yourself?" "I thought, my dear madam, Lady Eltondale could express my regrets much better than I could." "Aye! Aye! Lady Eltondale, that's it--I'll tell ye vat, Miss Seymour--that 'ere Lady Eltondale vill make a cat's paw of you, if ye don't mind. As to my Jacky, he doesn't care for your refusal a brass farthing--but ye may go farther, and fare worse--he's healthy and wealthy, as the saying is; and he's not a man for a girl to throw over her shoulder--ye mayn't meet such a carowzel as his, every day in the veek.--But now I'll tell ye vat, once for all--ye see me and mine be a-going to Ireland; and it may so be, that ve may never see each other no more.--Now, ye see, I always respected your old father, and so out of compliment to him, I'll just give you a piece of my mind; and that is, that that Lady Eltondale, with all her valk-softly airs, has some kind of a sign upon you, depend upon it, or she'd never take all the trouble she does about ye, for it's not in her nature to do it for mere affection to you or your father either; and that 'ere sheep-faced Mr. Sedley, with all his aperient indifference, and no shambles (_nonchalance_), as they call it; he's playing the puck with you too, I can see that, fast enough; and so, now, as I have given you varning, and wented my mind a little, I'll just shake hands with you, for old acquaintance sake." The reconciliation was scarcely effected, before Lady Eltondale returned for Selina, who most joyfully escaped from her _soi-disant_ friend. She casually mentioned the rencontre to the Viscountess, but did not mention the hints she had received; thus showing to her instructress her first essay in the practice of her own lessons in the art of dissimulation. By nature Selina's disposition was candid, even to a fault. For she was not only willing to confide all her actions, all her thoughts, to those she loved; but so necessary did she feel it to her happiness to be able to repose all her feelings, and even the responsibility of her conduct, on the bosom of another, that she would have preferred having an indifferent friend to being deprived of a confidant. But her intercourse with Lady Eltondale had already, in some degree, seared her best feelings. She had already, even then, acquired that general anxiety to please, which appertains more to vanity than to benevolence, and which never fails, in time, to wither the finer sensibilities of the soul. The natural superiority of her talents enabled her, to discover the true character of those she associated with. But even her penetration was dangerous to her purity. She saw hypocrisy was the means, and self-interest the end, pursued by all: even the stronger passions were brought under their control: and in being convinced, that in the crowd