Wellford and Hannah now accompanied Mrs. Shivers down stairs, but Maria insisted on drinking tea with Rosina, and by her cheerful kindness, rendered this almost the pleasantest hour of a pleasant day. With the moment of leave-taking, Rosina's uneasiness and constraint of manner returned; she remained above stairs till the carriage was actually at the door, and then descended, encumbered by a furred cloak of Mrs. Shivers's, which she had been compelled to wear in addition to her own wraps. Lewis approached her with affectionate solicitude in his looks, and Mr. Pakenham, advancing at the same moment, accosted her with "I shall wish the wherry had been sunk before we thought of encumbering its unlucky planks, Miss Rosina, if you suffer in consequence of your accident. My lamentations are perfectly disinterested, you must be aware, for of course it was highly gratifying to us to behold you rising like Venus from the sea; and as to Mr. Pennington, he was a hero and Leander, both under one."

Rosina dreaded meeting his satiric eye; and after bidding farewell to Mrs. Shivers and Maria, who reminded her of her promised visit, she hastily curtseyed to Mr. Pakenham, and took Lewis's offered arm. Charles accompanied them to the carriage door, and could not help indulging, to the last, in his dear wit.' "You had pleasant weather for your bathing, you will grant," said he, laughing, as they crossed the hall. "In future, whenever you meet with a tallow-chandler advertising his short dips,' I dare say you will think of the Pleasance. I should like to have been in Pennington's shoes at one time. However, he is in mine, at present, which amounts to the same thing."

"Not quite," said Lewis, stealing a look at Rosina's glowing cheek, and pressing her hand fervently. She hastily withdrew it and entered the carriage. Mr. Pakenham bowed, and she thought irony lurked in his smile. So effectually does an hour of pain damp a day of pleasure, that Rosina took scarcely any part in the animated conversation of her mother and sister on the events of the day, and spent the greater part of the ride in ruminating on the mischances of the afternoon. She had scarcely said or done any thing that she did not now wish altered. She fancied she heard Mr. Pakenham describing the catastrophe of the water-party with as much zest as the calamity of the unfortunate Mrs. Wigmore; she feared that to Mrs. Shivers she must have appeared heedless and weak; to Mr. Russell, affected; and to Lewis, ungrateful. Pondering on these topics, she scarcely felt the feverish throb

bing of her head or the ague chills that ran through her frame. Her night, however, was sleepless; and, on the following morning, she found herself labouring under so severe a cold as to prevent her from rising.

CHAPTER XVII.

EFFECTS OF COLD BATHING.

"RUSSELL!" said Lewis Pennington, drawing a deep breath that sounded excessively like a sigh, as they walked home from Mrs. Shivers's, "I certainly am in love!"

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That is a remarkable discovery!" returned Mr. Russell, laughing. "Truly, it places you nearly on a level with Newton and Mungo Park! The object of your visit to Summerfield is answered then, I suppose; for in my poor judgment, you came ready primed and loaded, and only required a touch to go off."

"Do not laugh at me," said Lewis, still al sospiroso, “for I am very serious."

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Well, I will be serious too," returned his friend, "and say that I think your love-affairs are in a very flourishiug train. Nothing could be more lucky than your rescue of Rosina, today; and to-morrow, I dare say you will have a violent cold, which will work upon her compassion."

"She is more likely to take cold than I am, I fear," said Lewis.

"Oh, do not despair," rejoined his companion, "I perceive a very promising huskiness in your voice already."

"As to my rescue, as you term it," pursued Lewis, "the risk to myself was so slight that it would be ridiculous to plume myself upon it; and I fear it made no very strong impression on her whom I most wish to please."

"Nay," interrupted Mr. Russell, "if Rosina is untouched by the service you have rendered her, her heart must be as hard as the nether millstone. But I think differently of her. What a blush glowed on her cheek when we reached the bank !"

Lewis smiled, though the darkness prevented Mr. Russell

VOL. I.-M.

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from seeing the momentary illumination of his countenance. All might be well enough," exclaimed he abruptly, “if it were not for that confounded fellow, Huntley!"

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I manœuvred to walk with Rosina to-day," said Mr. Russell, "in order to give her a little lecture on her behaviour of Saturday night; but somehow the subject stuck in my throat, and, like the man in the old song, 'never a word could

I say!'

"I am glad of it," said Lewis, "for I would not owe any change in her manner to interference. No, let her feel and judge for herself; though I wish to heaven we were fairly rid of that sly, malicious, double-faced, insinuating"

"My dear Lewis," interrupted Mr. Russell, "I cannot hear poor Huntley thus abused. It is not his fault that a lively, thoughtless girl should be dazzled by his wit, genius, and varied power of pleasing."

"Mr. Russell," said Lewis gravely, "it is fine to preach moderation to another; but wait till your own time comeswait till he supplants yourself, and then see what becomes of your patience! Perhaps the trial may not be so very far off." "I am at a loss to understand you," said Mr. Russell. "Supplant me? In what manner? What do you mean?" Lewis laughed expressively, and replied, "We lovers, Mr. Russell, are quick-sighted."

"I had thought till now," rejoined his friend, "that Love was blind."

"Yes, to the faults of his mistress," said Lewis, still laughing, "but lovers, like free-masons, have a wonderful knack of finding out each other."

They walked on in silence; till Mr. Russell resumed, with But, Pennington, I wish you would tell me what you alluded to just now-Supplant me!-What could you be thinking of ?"

"Aha! that rankles, does it?" said Lewis. "My meaning was full plain, I think."

Obscure enough for a dull fellow like me to miss it," said Mr. Russell, rather uneasily. Where I have advanced no

pretensions, I do not see how I can well be supplanted." "Is not my cousin Hannah," inquired Lewis with a smile, "almost as charming as her sister?”

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"Ahem!" responded Mr. Russell,- And is not a buff jerkin a most sweet robe of durance?""

"Very good, Russell! I take!" laughed Lewis. "You are very sly and very silent, and I am just the reverse of both;

but take heed, I advise you-fair and softly do not always win the day."

Lewis found a letter from Marianne awaiting him at the vicarage. At the head of the sheet was written in Dr. Pennington's large, firm hand—

'Dear Son,

'What are you doing at Summerfield? '

"I believe," said Lewis, as he read this laconic inquiry to his friend," my truest answer would be

'Dear Father,

Playing the fool!'”

"Do you think, Lewis, your father would be perfectly satisfied at your engaging yourself to Rosina Wellford."

"I don't know," said Lewis gloomily. "Yes, I think he would. He is not mercenary. Once, when I used to flirt a good deal with a Miss Edgar, an heiress, he said, 'I would rather be pleased with my daughter-in-law's disposition than her fortune.'

"If you have any doubts, Lewis, now is the time for acting with decision, and tearing yourself from Rosina while her affections are apparently her own. I have not spoken so plainly before, because you never treated me with sufficient confidence to excuse my doing so. You will attribute my straight-forwardness to the right motive, for I need hardly say, that the loss of such a guest as you are, will be excessively regretted by me, come when it may."

"I must not linger here much longer," sighed Lewis, twisting Marianne's letter into a thousand shapes; "September has come, and I am just where I was in August, only some fathoms deeper in love."

Here the dialogue ended.

Rosina awoke on Tuesday morning, to a consciousness of all the miseries of a severe cold. Among her most praiseworthy habits was that of rising early, like Dryden's Emilia, "to sport and trip along in cool of day;" and even indisposition could not incline her to feel a day spent in bed in any other light than that of a penance. Her mind was quite on the alert; and the sound of voices in the parlour beneath, soon after breakfast, increased her mortification at being kept in dormitorial confinement.

What has kept you so long?" cried she, rather impa

tiently, as her sister re-entered her bed-room. hear voices down stairs?"

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"Did not I

Yes, Mr. Huntley called; and I had to tell him of your indisposition as an excuse for our not sitting to him to-day." "It was very kind of you," said Rosina, "to sacrifice yourself for me."

"Sacrifice myself," repeated Hannah, laughing. "That is certainly rather a strong expression. I do not feel it to be any sacrifice."

I am afraid I should, in your place," said Rosina.

"I shall enjoy myself much more," said Hannah, “ sitting by your bed-side and talking over all that happened yesterday, than in sitting for my likeness to Mr. Huntley. Dear Lewis Pennington! I shall love him as long as I live. How heroically he behaved!"

So he did, certainly," said Rosina,-" and yet the water was not very deep."

"That was not Lewis's fault," returned Hannah, gaily, "and it was quite deep enough to drown you, if he had not sprung to your assistance. No body else in the boat would have acted with such promptitude; unless indeed, Mr. Russell-"

Oh, Hannah! no man would stand by and see a woman drown! especially in the presence of ladies-"

"Well, perhaps not," replied Hannah, "but there are different ways of setting about a thing.. Mr. Pakenham would have stopped to fold up his coat and waist-coat."

"My dear, you cannot conceive what a dread I have of that man! did not he frighten you exceedingly?"

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Not in the least," said Hannah.

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His wit amused me, and I felt myself far too insignificant a person to attract his ill-nature. No gentleman would dare to ridicule a lady to her face; and as to what he might say of me in my absence, I shall probably never see him again, therefore it does not give me the slightest concern."

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How tranquil you are!" said Rosina, with a sigh. wish I had half as much philosophy."

'I

"The worst he could say of us," pursued Hannah, would be that we were country girls without wit or fashion, and where would be the mighty harm in that ?"

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They say," resumed Rosina, after a pause, "that there is but one step between the sublime and the ridiculous. Now, in a romance, it seems very grand for a lady to fall into a river, and for a gentleman to bring her out again; but when