confessed that should he even again return to her, no dependance could be placed in a character which did not possess stability; and to a disposition like her's, if after marriage he neglected her, she should be a most wretched and miserable creature. Yet such was her infatuation, that she would much rather have been his wife, in the most indigent circumstances, than united to any other person in the greatest affluence. She wished, yet dreaded to meet him; and the day previous to her leaving town, as she was coming out of a music-shop in the Strand, she saw him with his elder brother. They did not even bow; and for the first time in her life, Hubertine felt angry with Charles Fitzosborn. This was a decided insult in her opinion; and if the Baron de St. Aubert had made his appearance at that moment, in her present state of mind, she would most willingly have become his bride.

CHAP. III.

Ah! why, my heart, thus nurse a flame,
Which reason should remove?
Why dwells remembrance on a name
I dare no longer love?

Yet, ah! the bands affection wove
Were twin'd with every thought;

While hope to guard the blossom strove,
Her fostering sunshine brought.

PRATT.

HUBERTINE did not depart for Wiltshire in the best spirits in the world, for Charles Fitzosborn, not taking any notice of her, had wounded her pride. She was received with great affection by Mr. and Mrs. Banter, and every day they were engaged to formal dinner parties, which, with other visiting, took up the

greater part of their time. They also attended Salisbury races, so that during the first month of Hubertine being in the country they were constantly engaged.

The Baron de St. Aubert was a regular correspondent; she allowed he had great merit, and was deserving of her undivided affection: his mother treated her with the greatest respect, and declared that to see her son united to Hubertine was the wish nearest her heart. She was convinced that the family she was about to enter would do every thing which depended on them, to contribute to her comfort and happiness; and she preferred residing in France to remaining in England. The Baron de St. Aubert was very handsome, and had received a liberal education. Both her English and Foreign relatives approved of the match, and preparations were making for its completion. Had Hubertine never known Fitzosborn, the Baron de St. Aubert would assuredly have been the object of her choice; his beha

viour to her was generous and delicate, and she was sure that she should have no reason to repent of any engagement which she entered into with him; but, strange as it must appear, having seen Charles Fitzosborn, although he treated her with neglect, and not even with common civility, it had brought past scenes so forcibly to her recollection, that she feared, in giving her hand to the Baron, she should not make him happy, whilst she would herself be perfectly miserable, as she was now convinced that neither absence or neglect could obliterate from her memory the recollection of Fitzosborn.

She was in this agitated state of mind when two letters were presented to her, the one from Charles Fitzosborn, the other from his father. They were precisely on the same subject; that if she would give up all claims to Fitzosborn, and promise never in future to receive any addresses from him, that his father would

take him into partnership. Hubertine's spirit now indeed rose; this was a cruel insult; had she not been twice rejected, (the last time no reason assigned for such treatment) and now to wound her feelings by such a request, appeared to her a refinement on cruelty. She immediately replied to Mr. Fitzosborn, inclosing his own and son's letter, and expressing herself in such language as must convince him he had nothing to fear from any attachment that his son had or might have for her. To Charles Fitzosborn she gave no answer; her pride, and the situation she stood in with the Baron St. Aubert, forbade her painting the agony of her feelings to him; for, although he had rendered her for ever miserable, she could not bring herself to write any thing which might give him pain. Her relations were averse to her taking notice of either of the letters, but for her to treat the father of Fitzosborn with disrespect was impossible. Every thing was now at an