u
loved me."

"May your children be to you what mine have ever been to me, my
Emmeline; I can wish you no greater blessing," replied Mrs. Hamilton,
in a tone of deep emotion, and twining Emmeline's arm in hers, they
joined Mrs. Greville and Miss Harcourt, who were standing together near
the pianoforte, where Edith Seymour, the latter's younger niece, a
pleasing girl of seventeen, was good-naturedly playing the music of the
various dances which Lord Lyle and Herbert Myrvin were calling in rapid
succession. In another part of the room Alfred Greville and Laura
Seymour were engaged in such earnest conversation, that Lord Delmont
indulged in more than one joke at their expense, of which, however, they
were perfectly unconscious; and this had occurred so often, that many of
Mrs. Greville's friends entertained the hope of seeing the happiness now
so softly and calmly imprinted on her expressive features, very shortly
heightened by the union of her now truly estimable son with an amiable
and accomplished young woman, fitted in all respects to supply the place
of the daughter she had lost.

And what had these seven years done for the Countess of Delmont, who had
completely won the delighted kiss and smiles of Minnie Myrvin, by
joining in all her frolics, and finally accepting Allan's blushing
invitation, and joining the waltz with him, to the admiration of all the
children. The girlish vivacity of Lilla Grahame had not deserted Lady
Dolmont; conjugal and maternal love had indeed softened and subdued a
nature, which in early years had been perhaps too petulant; had
heightened yet chastened sensibility. Never was happiness more visibly
impressed or more keenly felt than by the youthful Countess. Her
husband, in his extreme fondness, had so fostered her at times almost
childish glee, that he might have unfitted her for her duties, had not
the mild counsels, the example of his sister, Miss Fortescue, turned
aside the threatening danger, and to all the fascination of early
childhood Lady Delmont united the more solid and enduring qualities of
pious, well-regulated womanhood.

"I wonder Charles is not jealous," observed Mrs. Percy Hamilton,
playfully, after admiring to Lord Delmont his wife's peculiar grace in
waltzing. "Allan seems to have claimed her attention entirely."

"Charles has something better to do," replied his father, laughing, as
the little Lord Manvers flew by him, with his arm twined round his
cousin Gertrude in