"She was returning," she said, "from Sir William Temple's dinner-party, when her coachman, whom she supposed was intoxicated, drove furiously, and the carriage coming in contact with the curb-stone at the corner of the street, overturned, was dashed with violence against the pavement, and broken to pieces." This account was corroborated by her footmen, who had miraculously escaped unhurt. Lady Hamlet then expressed her thanks at having received such prompt and kind assistance, and Doctor Meynell having pronounced it as his opinion, that if she remained quiet for a few days, she would find no disagreeable effects result from the accident, and that she might with safety be removed to her own house, Lord Albert's carriage was ordered to convey her thither. "I am happy, indeed, to think it is thus," said Lord Albert; "and that I have been of the least use is most gratifying to me." This adventure, related in a few words, occupied an hour or more in its actual occurrence; and Lord Albert had had leisure to remark the symmetry of form and feature for which Lady Hamlet Vernon had been so long celebrated. He might have beheld Lady Hamlet for ever, rouged and dressed in public, and have passed her by unnoticed; but when he beheld her pale, dishevelled, in pain, and dependent on him at the moment for relief, he thought her exquisitely fair, and there entered a degree of romantic illusion in this accident which roused his fancy, while her sufferings touched the friendly feelings of his nature. As he assisted her to her carriage, they passed through the room where he had been sitting previous to her arrival; the candles were still burning, and his papers lay in confusion around, the writing-box was open, in the lid of which was the portrait of Lady Adeline. Lady Hamlet Vernon pausing, complained of a momentary feeling of faintness, and threw herself on a chair close to the writing-table; her eyes in an instant were rivetted on the picture, and at the same moment Lord Albert's hand closed it from her view. There was nothing that demanded secrecy in his possessing Lady Adeline's picture. His engagement to his cousin was generally known, and his having her portrait, therefore, was no offence against propriety; but every body who has loved will understand the feeling, that the sacredness of their heart's affections is broken in upon, if an indifferent or casual eye rest upon a treasure of the kind. Lady Hamlet Vernon spoke not, but her looks testified what they had seen; while he remained confused, and seemed glad when she proposed moving again to the carriage. "I am afraid," she said, her voice trembling as she spoke, "I am afraid my accident has been the occasion of breaking in upon your retirement, and disturbing you out of a most delightful reverie. I shall regret this the more if it makes you hate me altogether--but the fault was not mine."