come, I should almost have wished that I had never brought him back to Broomhill.

In the meantime Goody--dear, faithful Goody came down and made her home in a little gothic cottage that had once been a game-keeper's lodge, situated on a pleasant green knoll, just where the woods bordered on the western boundary of the park. To furnish this little maisonette for her, to stock her presses with linen, her cupboards with crockery, and her poultry-yard with cocks and hens, afforded me many hours of unmixed pleasure. Possessed of all these luxuries, she thought herself a rich woman; and though it was almost winter when she came, looked upon Broomhill as little short of earth.

an

Eden upon

8

CHAPTER II.

THE FAMILY DIAMONDS.

"BARBARINA mia," said Hugh, as we were sitting together one evening after dinner, "I forgot to tell you that the Bayhams are going to give a great ball."

"Who told you so ?"

"Lord Bayham, himself; I met him as I was coming home."

"Oh, dear me! shall we be obliged to go?" "Most undoubtedly; since it is to be given chiefly in honour of ourselves.”

"I am so tired of society," said I, with a sigh.

6

"I am not tired' of it-I loathe it," grumbled Hugh, dealing a savage kick at the log upon the fire, and sending a shower of sparks, like a miniature firework, careering up the chimney.

"If we could only live here, Hugh, as we lived abroad!"

He shrugged his shoulders gloomily.

"We might if we liked, you know," I pursued, laying my hand coaxingly upon his. "We were bound to return the people's calls, and we have done so; but we are not bound to accept their invitations, or cultivate their acquaintance, unless we please."

"Bah! what else can we do? What else is there for us to do in a place like this?"

"More than life itself would be long enough to do satisfactorily, depend on it. In the first place, you have books; in the second, you have art..."

"My dear girl," said he, impatiently, "books and pictures are all very well in their way; but to an English country life they can add very little real enjoyment."

"You desired no other pleasures when we were in Italy."

"In Italy the case was different.

In Rome we

had all the art of the world. At Albano we had natural scenery. In both we had the climate of Paradise."

"But.. 99

"But, my darling, this is a subject which we see so differently, that it is useless to argue upon it. And now about this ball at Ashley Park. It is to take

place in about a month from the present timethat is to say, a week before Christmas; and as it will be her first appearance in a large assembly, I am anxious that my little wife should make a good appearance."

"I want no more new dresses, Hugh," I exclaimed. "I have more now than I shall ever

"What an amazing Barbarina it is!" laughed he, unlocking a quaint old carved bureau in a recess beside the fire-place, and taking thence a large red morocco case. "The lady of Burleigh herself could scarcely have regarded the haberdasher and dress-maker with a more pious horror. Mais, rassure-toi, chérie. It was not of your dress that I was thinking, but of these."

He touched the spring, and disclosed what looked like a constellation of diamonds.

"Oh, husband, how beautiful!"

"They were my mother's, and my father's mother's," said Hugh, somewhat sadly; "and some of the stones, I believe, have been in the family even longer. They are yours now, my darling." "They are magnificent; but-but fancy me in all these diamonds !"

"Why not?"

"I should feel ashamed-my grandeur would

overwhelm me. How well Hilda would become them !"

"Not better than thyself, carissima. But they are old-fashioned, and must be reset before my little woman wears them."

"Indeed, no! they will do beautifully as they are."

"Indeed, yes. Look at this aigrette. How would you like to go to Lord Bayham's ball with an aigrette perched upon your head, like an ornament on a twelfth cake? Then here are ear-rings. You have never worn ear-rings in your life; and do you think I could endure to see my wifie's ears barbarously stilettoed, as if she were a Choctaw squaw? No, no-the aigrette and ear-rings will make a charming little tiara for her brow; and the necklace shall assume a more modern pattern; and the brooch what shall we do with the brooch? Have it reset as a brooch, or turn it into a bracelet ?"

...

"Turn it into a bracelet, by all means, with a miniature of yourself in the midst."

"Bon. I should not have trusted anyone but myself to take the jewels up to town, and I can see about the miniature at the same time. I think I will go to-morrow by the early train."

"And come back by the last?"

"Humph! I don't know how to promise that,