was the late Lord Linrose's son all the while? well that is the drollest affair I have heard this age.
I dare say Madam, cried I, there may be some mistake in this, else we should have been sooner informed. How comes the son of Lady Linrose to appear under a borrowed name?

O as to that point, said Lady Farnford, in this country nothing is more common. Mr. Roatsley assumed his present name because it was accompanied by the inheritance of an estate in Ireland, left him by an uncle of his mother's, who died a few months ago.
How shall I convey to you, Sophia, an idea of the variety of emotions that agitated my heart at this moment. Oh! it is wholly impossible! This intelligence, so unexpected, so extraordinary, and oh! shall I add, so mortifying, (for a mixture of humiliation rendered my feelings at this moment still more intolerable, actually drew tears from my eyes:—tears, the source of which I could not absolutely define, but which, to my companions, appeared merely the natural effects of uncertainty and vexation.
Oh! Sophia! how long have we remained in ignorance with regard to a point so infinitely interesting. But I now

find that this inheritance, and consequently this change of name, took place immediately before our arrival in England. Indeed, on investigating the matter, Mr. Howard has discovered that Mr. Roatsley's return was occasioned by that event. Mr. Howard therefore, in his enquiries relative to our family, heard often of a Mr. Dudley, but was informed he was abroad with his brother and Lord Belmont, and never received the slightest hint to lead him to conclude that our agreeable fellow traveller, Mr. Roatsley, was in fact the second son of the late Lord Linrose, whose character, even from the lips of Mrs. Weldon, does so much honour to his family. Indeed, had these enquiries been made of late, no doubt we must have been immediately acquainted with the truth; but the society in which he ranges is totally distinct from that in which chance has placed us, and you may recollect it was directly on our

arrival that Mr. Howard exerted himself to satisfy our anxious desire of being informed of every circumstance concerning our relations. At that time Mr, Roatsley was himself but just arrived at his mother's country seat. His return was not generally known; and as we have not been once in any private company with him, excepting one half hour in our own lodgings, no opportunity for