break, he has decided that we shall all set out immediately for London. He has sent for four post-horses, which will take us to Exeter to dinner.

We are then to go to the play;

and on the next morning continue our journey to town. I think it will be a nice little change," Mrs. Beresford continued, Junie still remaining silent; "and I want sadly to match Shakespeare's hair. The wools at Breemouth are not worth having. Our stay is to be short, therefore if you please I will tell Hester to put up but few of your clothes. That will soon be done; and my things never take long in packing. I shall only take the Hawk with me. I am sure black-grounding is the only work one can do in London."

247

CHAPTER IX.

"There be few, O child of sensibility, who deserve to have thy confidence ;

Yet weep not; for there are some, and such some live

for thee."

M. F. TUPPER.

CONSIDERING existing circumstances, this sudden journey was the best thing which Mavesyn could have devised. It proved also how ready were his resources and prompt his actions; thus corroborating his sister's opinion of the peculiar powers of his mind.

She was by no means sorry that their next meeting should be in all the bustle of an impromptu departure. And when he handed herself and Mrs. Beresford into the carriage, and announced his intention of going in the seat behind, she felt still more relieved by the leisure this gave her of recovering something like calmness and equanimity.

Much as she would have desired an interview with Colonel St. Colmo, she knew that even had she remained at The Cedars, that, for the present, would have been difficult to arrange; particularly under the tacit agreement existing between herself and Mavesyn that she should not act clandestinely.

She feared that St. Colmo had met with insult from her brother; and the fear sent a blush of indignation to her pale cheek, and a throb of sorrow to her heart, that for her sake he should have to undergo such a

trial; but again was she soothed by the hope that for that self-same cause he would not suffer it to rankle, but ascribe it to the untutored feelings and manners of one whose every action told of the lack of care and discipline which his wild life had involved. And then there gradually arose a look-out for brighter days; and although she had no means of holding communication with him for the present, or even of giving him one assurance that he might trust to her faith through all the opposition which her affection might have to undergo, still there was a happy confidence in her feelings as regarded him, which seemed to promise that, although there could not be the consolation of a meeting or even a letter, he would know by intuition all that a meeting or letter could have told him.

With a heart thus lightened by her patient and hopeful reflections, Junie met her brother

with placidity. He too was cool and unconcerned, and no mention was made of their last interview.

Arrived in London, Junie entered with cheerfulness and interest into those pleasures which Mavesyn arranged for her. These chiefly consisted in visiting the few theatres then open, and some of the principal lions usually exhibited to novices. For although Junie had passed the two years intervening between her father's death and her coming of age in London, it was in one of those establishments where a "select number" of young ladies are received, and where a more than conventual seclusion was maintained. In consequence she had seen nothing of the metropolis; and as the "select number" of young ladies had consisted but of one, an orphan like herself, but sickly and dull, she had heard nothing about it. It was, then, as a