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at a proper time and place, the charitable bent of their dispositions.

A pause, not exceeding ten minutes, followed the laugh in which Adolphus had so heartily joined, not much he fancied to the satisfaction of Edmund Austincourt, or the blunt unsophisticated manners of their postillion; who perceiving the painful condition to which he had reduced his poor beasts, at the end of the journey more strongly expressed his displeasure by the angry glance he threw at the elder Austincourt, than a whole volume of words could have done, had he spoke for a thousand years. Nor could Adolphus so suddenly account for his uttering the exclamation of "The lord be praised there is one good heart in the family"—as he patted his horses heads when they quitted the chaise, pocketing half a crown which Edmund had slyly deposited within his hands.

Adolphus's riotous propensity to mirth was now silenced, and he checked the rude remark he was just going to make on his cousin's taciturnity." Edmund Austincourt is a generous creature," thought he," and my cousin Frederic is thought again; and that mymi

the son of my uucle," he

uncle is, the brother of

The sweet name of mother stopt ere the word was half pronounced; and, for the first time in his life, Adolphus recollected that he and his cousins were very differently situated: they had a mother, nay, a father too, by whom they would soon be welcomed and embraced; but Adolphus had none and he felt a trickling tear making a very rapid progress over his cheek, when at this moment, he thought of Sir Mildred." But I have an uncle," repeated Adolphus,

"a worthy and affectionate uncle ;"-And he brushed away the unbidden tear with a corner of his blue and white pocket handkerchief.

CHAPTER 11.

The haughty and inflexible brow of lady Austincourt, who reclined on an elegant ottoman, and was sipping the perfume of Indian tea, that breathed its incense from the most magnificent china, relaxed much of its accustomed severity on the entrance of Adolphus and his cousins to the drawing room; where the family had only just assembled to their usual dejunée. Which family consisted of the lady of the mansion; her eldest daughter Georgina, moulded, as it seemed from infancy, for a modern fine lady, and finished by the hand of art to move, a bright luminary in the fashionable walk of notoriety; while her younger sister Maryanne, whose claim to wit and good humour was confessedly nothing more than a rudé unmeaning laugh, a vacant stare, and a perpetual volubility expressed by an infinite deal of nothings, and a pert giggle, displayed on the most trifling occasions, sat beside her, in all the triumph of conscious pride. In addition to this family circle was a miss Grandison, a distant relative of lady Austincourt's and

Sir Mildred, who sat next the fire, in deep conversation with a gentleman whom Adolphus had never before seen at the Priory, and who had all the appearance of a foreigner of some distinction.

The improved graces of Frederic, who was the favorite of lady Austincourt, delighted her; and she even addressed Adolphus with a degree of complacency which was by no means usual with her, observing to her daughters, "that he was a head taller grown since she had last beheld him." To which Miss Austincourt replied with disagreeable tartness," that ill weeds grew apace ;" and this being thought a piece of delicate wit by the pert Maryanne, she introduced her favorite giggle. How long it would have lasted was ́uncertain, had not Sir Mildred been some interruption to their mirth by saying " If you call this a joke, let me inform you Miss Austincourt, it is not a proper one, nor by any means appropriate; that your cousin Adolphus is unquestionably grown admits no doubts, but that he is an ill weed I deny"-" Stale proverbs and musty sayings are highly ridiculous," observed Miss Grandison," and though I am an Old Maid, I completely cut them, as they are generally the forerunners of some malicious observation." She threw a side glance at the Miss Austincourts when she made this remark, which they seemed sufficiently to understánd, as it put an end to the subject.

Camilla Grandison, of all the old maids that were ever seen, was the most sprightly, good humoured, and agreeable; she was between fifty and sixty, and in despight of fashion, would positively adhere to her former mode of dressing in her younger days; and preferred her own hair, which was perfectly silver,

and which she wore combed over a neat roll, to any decorations of art or fashion. The rest of her dress was correspondent with this peculiar whim; and though the Miss Austincourts had at the first sight of Miss Grandison indulged the exercise of their extraordinary mirth in the most unbecoming manner, they had suddenly become converts to her way of thinking; in which they had been carefully instructed by their sagacious and prudent mama.

Miss Grandison had no earthly relative save lady Austincourt, and that from a most distant connexion; and Miss Grandison inherited a clear estate of two thousand a year. Lady Austincourt therefore, had paid her court to her from a child : after her marriage with Sir Mildred she became more assiduous than ever to establish a permanent intimacy; she succeeded in persuading her to accept of an invitation to the Priory twice in the year; and Miss Grandison had now arrived from her seat in Wales, and was on one of her visits to lady Austincourt at this period, when Adolphus had nearly completed his fifteenth year. He was the junior of his cousins by two years, that is, Frederic and Edmund, for never could the age of the young ladies be precisely known; but as Adolphus surmised, Miss Austincourt, from her womanly appearance, must have reached her twentieth year; and the full-grown Maryanne, who exceeded her sister in a robust consitution, could not have seen less than eighteen summers. But it was one essential point with lady Austincourt to keep the age of her daughters a profound secret." "Tis no matter,” cried her ladyship, "how old my boys are, but my girls muşt be always young ;"-and as the Miss Austincourts

constantly wore frocks, and to use a fashionable phrase, had not yet come out," they were thought young indeed. Lady Austincourt was a shewy woman, that is, in bulk and size; but her features, and the expression of her countenance, would have done well to have come under the denomination of the "frigid zone;" for no smile ever mantled there, till warmed by the solar beam of self interest. Georgina, who greatly resembled her in person, and in this self-same quality of disposition, she set apart to reign a little queen in the great world; while Maryanne, whose brawny face she thought pretty, and whose hoyden manners were perfectly enchanting, she designed to catch the unwary squire, or opulent city banker. For Frederic she had views of a different sort, which shall hereafter be told; and for Edmund, who was confessedly his father's favorite, and who inherited more good sense and beauty than she wished him to have, she cared little at all about; because he was too handsome for a boy; and too humble in his notions ever to become of consequence to the family of the Austincourts. When an infant, as she dandled him on her knee, his extreme loveliness was a source of her keen regret and secret murmurings; and Miss Grandison being on a visit at the priory soon after he was born, and having descanted on the uncommon beauty of the child, whom she called divinely handsome, the discontented mother expressed herself in the most ungracious terms.

Instantly lady Austincourt resigned little Edmund to his nursery, to which he was condemned for the space of one twelvemonth! at which Miss Grandison seriously expressed her disapprobation; and one day, when the cloth was removed after dinner, and the

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