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A few minutes afterwards, when Lord De Cressy was chafing beneath the necessity of hearing and replying to Mrs. Irvine's remarks, while his thoughts were far astray, he was informed that Miss Mortimer and the young ladies had gone home some time ago.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Who made the heart, 'tis He alone

Decidedly can try us;

He knows each chord

its various tone,

Each spring, its various bias.
Then at the balance let's be mute,
We never can adjust it;

What's done we partly may compute,
But know not what's resisted.

ROBERT BURNS.

"MAMMA," said Janet, intercepting Mrs. Irvine, on her way upstairs to take off her bonnet, "mamma, I have something to say to you."

"Well, my dear," said Mrs. Irvine, who was not disposed to welcome the communication, "there is nothing disagreeable in the school-room, I hope. Everything seemed to be going on so smoothly."

"I like Miss Mortimer very much indeed," said Janet, colouring.

"I am delighted to hear it, my love; and I hope that Helen will soon be of the same opinion. She does not appear to be so partial to her."

"Helen might change her mind, if she knew all that I know."

"Well, Janet," said her mother, smiling, "you are mysterious in your remarks. Try to unfold this weighty matter more expeditiously, for Lord De Cressy is waiting alone in the drawing-room."

"It is about Lord De Cressy, mamma, that I wanted to speak. Do you know that he was acquainted with Miss Mortimer before he came here?"

"I did not know it," said Mrs. Irvine, looking disconcerted for a moment, but quickly recovering her complacency. "It is unlikely, however, that a slight acquaintance with Miss Mortimer should have made any impression on Lord De Cressy. He may have passed two days in the same house, have shaken hands, and exchanged greetings, without knowing her by sight."

"He knows her by sight well enough, mamma, and he is quite ready to talk to her when we are not by. They met on the sea-shore yesterday, and it was because Miss Mortimer did not wish to see him alone, that she asked me to go with her to the chapel."

With every inclination to make light of the matter, Mrs. Irvine was now obliged to take it up more seriously but she said, with rather an incredulous smile, "It seems more probable that the reluctance was on Lord De Cressy's side. But I suppose that you got your information from Miss Mortimer."

"Yes," said Janet, colouring with eagerness, "and so I am quite sure that it is true. She is very unhappy, mamma so unhappy that I did not like to ask her many questions; but she said that she would tell you anything that you wanted to know."

"Well, my dear," rejoined Mrs. Irvine, in a tone of annoyance, "I must see her, I suppose. It is very unpleasant, and I never will be attracted by youth and beauty again. If I had engaged the first person I saw, instead of being prejudiced by her thin lips and hightoned voice, this sort of thing would not have happened. Go and tell Miss Mortimer to come here."

Kathleen obeyed the summons with such self-possession as she could assume, the beauty of which Mrs. Irvine had spoken now sadly clouded by anxiety and suffering. But that lady was only sensible of being herself aggrieved in the matter, and she said, stiffly - "Sit down, Miss Mortimer. Janet tells me that you have something to say to me."

The permission to speak did not help Kathleen's faltering lips to find utterance, and, after a pause, Mrs. Irvine was constrained to begin the subject herself.

"I understood that you desired Janet to tell me that you were formerly acquainted with Lord De Cressy." "Yes," Kathleen answered; "I thought it right that you should know."

"Undoubtedly, Miss Mortimer; but I wish that you had taken the more direct mode of telling me yourself, for a mystery of this sort has always a dangerous attraction to a girl of Janet's age. I am willing to hope, however, that there is no mystery in the case, only a slight misunderstanding. In Lady Harriet's family, as I remember she informed me herself, your position necessarily differed from that which you occupy here; and though you may be disappointed at not meeting those whom you have formerly known on the same terms, I fear that this is unavoidable."

"I do not wish," said Kathleen, faintly, "to see Lord De Cressy at all, if I can help it."

Mrs. Irvine looked perplexed, and impatient of the perplexity - "Be so good as to explain what you wish,

Miss Mortimer; these half disclosures are so very unsatisfactory."

Kathleen covered her face with her hands, and answered, in broken accents, "I do not know; only I told Lord De Cressy that I did not want to see him again, and I am afraid he will not believe me. He wished to keep our acquaintance secret, and I told him that it must not be."

"And may I ask," said Mrs. Irvine, "if the acquaintance was acknowledged when you were living with Lady Harriet?"

"Oh yes; he is Lady Harriet's nephew."

This answer tended to give Mrs. Irvine a clearer perception of the truth. "Oh, indeed. Perhaps that was Lady Harriet's reason for parting with you?"

"It was the reason why I resolved to go," said Kathleen; and Mrs. Irvine did not accept the reply for more than an affirmative answer to her question.

"Well," she said, after a moment's thought, "I have not time to talk over the affair now; and besides, I must consult Mr. Irvine about it. You ought to have told me all this at the time; however, there is no use saying so now. I presume that you will not object to have your dinner upstairs, and I will give orders accordingly." For on Sundays the whole family dined together at four o'clock.

Kathleen returned to the school-room, and strove to sustain her failing heart by the consciousness of having acted rightly. But it did not avail; and when Janet came in, after wandering restlessly through the house, rather than return to the drawing-room to encounter Lord De Cressy, she found that she had given way to a fit

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