All that Mr. Sidney had now to depend on was the generosity of his constituents; and these, for the most part, came forward with greater promptitude and liberality than might have been hoped for. All indeed seemed to compassionate the father, whilst they heaped reproaches and maledictions on the son. Many advised our retiring into the country, but neither Mr. nor Mrs. Sidney could endure the thought of leaving London, and we therefore engaged a very small lodging in that quarter of the metropolis which answers to the

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no man's land" of a ship, (a sort of neutral ground) being neither fashionable nor yet unfashionable, neither the city nor yet the west end, nor yet again what some have been pleased to designate the terra incognita of Bloomsbury and its vicinity; here did Mr. Sidney and his family first experience the stern truths and leaden realities of life, and heavily did they weigh on my cousin Charles's spirit. Servants were dismissed, all extraneous expences curtailed, plate, furniture, horses, &c., were of course given up to the creditors, and I began seriously to consider where I might find an asylum for my declining years, as I felt I might now be regarded by my cousins in the light of an incumbrance; I therefore seized the first opportunity, when Mr. and Mrs. Sidney were alone, to impart to them my resolution; but no

sooner had I broached the subject, than Mr. Sidney interrupted me, and said, in his sternest manner, although the import of his words was very kind :

"Remember this cousin Dorothy; whilst I have a roof over my head, and a crust of bread to eat, you shall be sheltered by the one, and share the other. Yon have been a faithful friend to me and mine in the days of our prosperity, and a grievous wrong would it be if we should cast you off in the time of adversity.”

And Mrs. Sidney looking up from her embroidery frame, assured me in her warmest manner, that I should entail on them no additional expense, as in the event of my leaving, they should be forced to keep another servant.

Not many months after the failure, Margaret became the wife of Mr. Middleton. There was a delicacy and disinterestedness in his coming forward at such a period, which ought, and perhaps did, influence her in his favour; but I don't quite know,— I sometimes fear she accepted him from the sole notive of raising herself above what she was pleased to term a humiliating state of dependance. Certainly she could have had little respect for one whom she had been in the constant habit of designating dull as a November morning, and tedious as a Prussian law-suit. The disparity between them in years was

great; but that of temper, inclinations, and pursuits, was far greater and often made me tremble for their future happiness. Mrs. Sidney did not participate in my anxiety; she only regretted, that owing to their recent misfortunes she could assemble no gay retinue of servants and carriages, or brilliant concourse of admiring friends, to celebrate her daughter's nuptials.

There is one other person of whom I must say a few words before I lay down n my pen for awhile. Marables, although of the "antique world," was scarcely one of those who, "sweat for duty, not for meed;" she had been always something "between an hinderance and a help;" but since the bankruptcy, the former quality had preponderated to such a degree, that, on Margaret's marriage, Mrs. Sidney gladly acceded to Marables' proposition "of taking up her residence with dear Mrs. Middleton, for the remainder of her days." She is with her at this present time, and I often think, exercises rather an undue influence over her actions. Alas, for the woman who permits herself to be governed by her maid!

CHAPTER VI.

"La monotonie dans la retraite tranquilise l'ame; la monotonie dans le grand monde fatigue l'esprit."-MADAME de Stael.

"Why did I marry?"

PROVOKED HUSBAND.

"HEUREUX le peuple dans l'histoire ennuie." If there be truth in this aphorism, it certainly would have been very difficult to find a happier family than ourselves during the six years which followed the bankruptcy, for any thing more "ennuyant" than our history during this same period would prove, is, I think, impossible to imagine. Our life was indeed monotonous in the extreme, one day being the echo of another; yet to Viola there was something inexpressibly soothing and tranquillizing in this unvarying routine, when compared with the forced excitement and joyless dissipation of the years. that had preceded it. Happy she could scarcely be called, for in her father's gloomy and hopeless depression, in her mother's nervous irrita

bility, in the dread uncertainty too under which she laboured as to her elder brother's welfare, nay more, his existence, when years rolled away without bringing any tidings of the fugitive;-in all this there was much to sadden her; at first, indeed, we had trembled for Mr. Sidney's reason, as, unmindful of all around him, he would sit for hours brooding over some visionary scheme; and then starting abruptly from his chair, would ask wildly for his hat and stick, and declare that he must be off for the city, for that Brookes and the iron chest would be waiting for him.' (It was strange that during these temporary aberrations he should never have alluded to either James or Hoskins.) In moments such as these, Mrs. Sidney, who, like the astute French monarch, drew a broad line of demarcation between falsehood and finesse, would endeavour to tranquillize her husband's mind by the assurance, that it was a public holyday, and consequently, there would be no business transacted by the house; but this stratagem, after a short while, failed to deceive, and when, on consulting his pocket-book, Mr. Sidney would detect the imposition that had been practised on him, his paroxysms of rage and desperation were fearful to behold. Viola then resolved on pursuing a totally different line of conduct; and placing herself one day next to her father, she entered into a detailed statement of the