used to be? What have you to regret? You ought rather to be grateful that you have been rescued from such a marriage, and that it cannot be said that the dissolution of the acquaintance arose from your own caprice. I think that the young woman did not manifest a very great sense of propriety when she so readily adopted the profession of a public singer. And what would the world say, should the report ever get abroad, that my son was desirous of marrying a public singer? I gave the young woman all the good advice I possibly could; but I fear it will be of no use to her. There were such very strong manifestations of her partiality for that profligate young man, Lord Spoonbill, that I am not at all surprised at what I hear from Mr Pringle. Now all that I can say is, that if after this you can retain any regard for Miss Primrose, you do not shew yourself a man of sense and prudence." Here Mr Darnley paused, not because he was out of breath, for he spoke very slowly and deliberately, but because he thought that he had said enough to induce his son to relinquish the thought of Penelope, and to make himself mightily happy under his disappointment. But it certainly is very provoking, after living three years or more in expectation of receiving the hand and heart of a lovely, amiable, and intelligent young lady, to find at last that all this bright anticipation is come to nought. It had been painful to Robert Darnley that several of his later communications had been unanswered; but he would not suffer that circumstance alone to weigh with him, considering it possible that the fault was in the irregular transmission of letters. When he came back to England and heard that Miss Primrose was in London with the Earl of Smatterton's family, it appeared obvious enough that she had considered the correspondence as having ceased. But still it was not clear to the young man's entire satisfaction that this had been a voluntary act on the part of Penelope. It was possible that his letters might not have reached their destination, and that Miss Primrose might be regarding him as the faithless one. Such was his spirit, that he would not rest under the imputation of such conduct, and he resolved to take the earliest opportunity of coming to an explanation. When, however, in addition to all that he had heard from his own family of the partiality manifested by Penelope for Lord Spoonbill, he heard also the tale told by Zephaniah Pringle, he wavered and hesitated. It was not probable, he thought, that such rumours could be totally unfounded, and it comported but too well with what Mr Darnley had already said.