 the gaieties of life, its rational comforts were restored to her relish. Her society, tho' limited, was elegant, and judiciously chosen; and her solitary residence at length began to wear the aspect of a peaceful retirement, which the sad stroke of Madame de St. Hillaire's death, added to the dying request of her grandfather, would probably alone have prevailed with Lady Aubrey ever to have quitted.
Lord Aubrey, sinding the infirmities of age overtake him with a hasty pace, the beginning of this year sent an earnest

intreaty to his grand daughter to grant him the satisfaction of beholding once more the last and only supporter of his family and dignities. She hesitated not to obey, however painfully her return to England must awaken every source of anguish, and arrived in London about the end of January, just in time to receive his last injunctions, the old Lord having survived this affecting meeting only a few days.
Lady Aubrey now found herself possessed of the accumulated wealth of a long line of noble and opulent ancestry. Independent of those estates which from entail were annexed to the title, her grandfather had left her considerable property; and he requested that a due regard to an ancient and honourable family, of which she was the head and ornament, might prevail with her to spend her days in the old family castle; where her predecessors had lived time immemorial,

adored by their vassals, respected by their friends, and the pride and blessing of the country around.
In addition to these particulars, Lady Meredith mentioned to Mr. Howard, that though from several circumstances which on recollection strike her remembrance, she conjectures her amiable niece wished her to be made acquainted with the singular event of her rencontre with this famiy, never could she summon courage and calmness sufficient for entering on the painful subject till yesterday evening, when the violence of her emotions rendering her aunt at once suspicious and inquisitive, drew the formidable secret from her bosom.
Tho' tenderly attached to my niece, said Lady Meredith, the only surviving child of a deceased sister whom I almost idolized, I have not had the happiness, till her late return from abroad, of enjoying much of her company. She has

spent great part of her life on the continent, where it was only in my power to visit her once for a few months; and it is only of late, that strict intimacy and affection have taken place which always indeed subsisted, but in a less powerful degree, between us. Length of absence, and difference of years, have however precluded that unreserved confidence, which, except at the open
