But Ormsby still motioned his sister-in-law to follow him into the next apartment, and they left Matilda alone; who, though from not knowing who the Lady was, did not comprehend the whole extent of the dilemma; yet, upon reading Mrs. Laceby's open note, which Ormsby had left upon the table, perceived that there was some strange mistake, which could only end in mortification to her.

She was not left long in suspense; for the gentle Arabella soon rushed again into the room, evidently in a state of great indignation, screaming out"Should be careful with whom she associates!Indeed, she should have thought of that before she went off with you. I shouldn't do her so much harm as you have I take it. I am an honest woman, and have a situation in society. I should like to know who would suffer most by the old saying of— Birds of a feather flock together.' I was your brother's lawful wife; and if I had any children, they would have cut you out. But what will your brats be, if you have any?"

I'd have you to recollect, that

Lord Ormsby interrupted this tirade, by leading her gently, but firmly, to the door, and calling Lady Ormsby's carriage.

"Well," said she, as she left the room, "you shall repent this-you, and your lady who stands crying there. I won't bemean myself to call her what she is."

Bitterly did Matilda feel this, the first of those mortifications to which, even in a worldly point of view, her unhappy situation constantly exposed her.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

In vain did Ormsby endeavour to efface the humiliating impressions which were left on the sensitive mind of Matilda by the interview which has just been described.

"How can you allow yourself, my dearest Matilda" said he, "to be so much moved by the vulgar ebullitions of that odious creature? That one like her should be blind to the obvious distinction between a single, almost pardonable error, and habitual vice, is not to be wondered at; nor is it surprising, that she should endeavour to reduce you to her own degraded level. Her violent temper it was to be expected would explode, when reminded of that difference between you and her, which either her deprayed feelings prevented her from perceiving herself, or her impudence induced her to expect would not be apparent to others."

Strange instruments," answered Matilda, shaking her head, "are sometimes made use of to

open our unwilling eyes to our real situation, and to remove the veil with which passion for a time has obscured our powers of self-estimation. O, Ormsby," added she with emotion, "all that that odious woman conveyed in her own disgusting language, is but too, too true."

"Why will you say this?" said Ormsby, half provoked: "when she presumed to draw a comparison between her own infamous self, (who was at one time as low and as base as the unhappy wretches who starve in the streets,) and a delicate and refined creature like you, who have only sought a refuge from intolerable oppression, under the protection of him to whom you had plighted your first faith, from whom you had been separated by unworthy artifice, and to whom you will soon be united by indissoluble ties."

"Would that day were come," said Matilda. "To all the painful publicity attendant on the divorce would I willingly submit, if by a patient endurance of shame I might purchase an escape from sin. For though, dearest Augustus, whilst those bright eyes beaming with love are before me, I own my guilty pleasure is great; yet in the few moments of reflection your devoted kindness leaves me, bitter is the remorse with which I feel, that it is a life of sin that we are leading. She said but too trulythat woman. Her present situation is more respect

able than mine."

1

"I cannot bear to hear you countenance such an absurdity," said Ormsby, a little pettishly. "How can you couple respect and her? You little know how shamefully she abused my poor brother's confidence; and I dare say, if it was worth inquiring about, that we should find her present course of life as infamous."

"May be so,” replied Matilda; "if she abuses the advantages with which she has been unworthily invested, her reproach is the greater. But can you not, without being offended, make allowances for bitter regret on my part, at being obliged to own to myself that I am reduced to a situation in which her proffered acquaintance cannot be considered as an insult?"

"Offended with you I can never be," said Ormsby, at once softened. "If there was any irritation in my manner, it was only at your obstinately refusing to do justice to yourself. Look cheerful again, and you at once restore my serenity."

"Indeed, efforts to appear cheerful are never wanting on my part," Matilda replied; "for I cannot but be sensible of the great sacrifices you have made for me, and the claim which that gives you to every exertion of mine, to repay you with as much domestic comfort as a poor guilty creature, on whom the canker remorse is constantly preying, has it in her power to impart.",

Ormsby knew not what to say. He took two or

three hasty turns about the room, and then stood for a moment on the balcony, not knowing whether he should easiest sooth and comfort her by contending the point farther, or by admitting the justice of her self-reproaches.

Oh,

At last, taking his hand kindly, whilst she struggled to repress her tears, she continued-" Forgive me if I distress you ;-but one thing that woman said which sunk deep into my heart. My shame will not end with my own wretched existence. Augustus-I cannot bear to think that I live but to entail infamy on innocence-that a few short months will produce a living stigma to perpetuate reproach. Let me then, whilst I can, revel with all a mother's fondness in those instinctive caresses which I may receive in the ignorance of infancy; for the first dawn of intelligence must teach my child to blush for her who gave it birth."

This was a subject which could not but make much impression on Ormsby. He was not without family pride; on the contrary, though it was never offensive or obtrusive, he possessed it in a degree almost amounting to a weakness. He had often paced up and down the long gallery at Ormsby Castle, and taken a strange pleasure in studying all the noble daubs with which it was lined, and in summing up all the illustrious links by which, without a single flaw, the ancient barony had been handed down through successive centuries. He had been