“Oh, yes, generous, kind, good Isabella! You are only too good, too kind, and make me feel so inferior to you.” “But, Fanny, we must make haste and go into the country. How soon can we go? I wish we could set out to-morrow; I long to begin my new career; I am so afraid of growing worldly again in London,—I mean worldly in my inclinations; my actions I can control, and my vow is sacred. But how shall I set about opening the subject to my husband? He was really angry to-day.” “What so easy, dearest Isabella? Go at once to him, and say you saw he was annoyed, and that you are sorry he was so, and that, rather than annoy him, you are ready to go whenever he wishes.” “He will think a very sudden change has come over me: however, I will try.” That evening Fanny pleaded a headache, and went to bed. She was totally unfitted for society, and could not have ventured into Lord Delaford’s presence; so that, when he came in, he found Isabella alone. For the first time he wished for company; he felt a _tête-à-tête_ with his wife awkward and unpleasant. He was displeased and disappointed: it was evident to him he was not loved as he loved, and he was not yet worked up to the point of accomplishing by authority, what he fain would have accomplished by affection: his manner was cold and abstracted. Isabella perceived that Fanny’s advice was not given before it was needed. After a silence of some minutes, during which she had twisted a note into every variety of form of which a note is capable, and he had turned over the leaves of a very old Review, in which there was not one entertaining article, she resolved to break the ice at once. Shaking back her long locks, she looked up in his face, and, holding out her hand to him, she said— “I want to make friends, Henry.” Then, smiling with a frankness of manner, which, when combined with any thing of emotion, was in her almost irresistible—“I don’t want to lose your affections by being obstinate and wilful, and I am ready to go into the country whenever you please.” “Are you in earnest, Isabella, or am I dreaming?” “I am in real good earnest, and you had better take me in earnest, for fear my good resolutions should evaporate. I do really wish to go into the country, and to be very good;—as good as Fanny.” “But can you be happy with only me?” “Why, I mean to try;” and she gave him a glance, such as a pretty woman can give when she feels she has regained her power, but means to use it in the most agreeable manner. “Then I am the happiest of men!” said, and thought, Lord Delaford. Reconciliations, joy and peace of mind, are totally uninteresting; therefore, the sooner the present story is brought to a close the better. Lord and Lady Delaford went almost immediately to Fordborough Castle—Fanny returned to her father. She experienced real pleasure in finding herself again at home, and in ministering to the comforts of her kind parent.