ly.

'You are silent, girl?' her father resumed; 'I thought you would be
delighted with the intelligence. Will you not be glad to exchange
this miserable hovel for a handsomely-furnished house? And you shall
have masters to instruct you in dancing, singing, and music; for I
expect that you will now have an opportunity of getting settled in
the rank of life in which you were born.'

Still Amy replied not.

'Well, you are the strangest girl I ever met with,' Beaufort pursued,
in tones indicative of rising wrath; 'but I see how it is. I have
suspected as much for some time. You would rather marry a beggarly
clerk. I can tell you, however, that Herbert Lyddiard is no husband
for you, and I positively forbid you to hold any further intercourse
with him or his mother.'

'Oh, father,' cried Amy in the agony of her feelings, now finding
utterance, 'can you require me to be so base as thus to treat a
friend who has been to me like a mother?'

'I have no personal objection to the woman, nor to her son either,
had I not reason to believe that he aspires to an alliance with you,'
he rejoined; adding: 'Now hear what I say, girl; I start for London
to-morrow, and shall send for you in a few days, during which time I
shall get a house prepared for your reception. Here are the means to
provide suitable apparel for the position we shall resume in society;
and I expect that you hold yourself in readiness to depart at an hour's
warning.'

Amy dared not oppose her father's commands, and took the offered
purse in silence.

As might be expected, the knowledge of Miss Beaufort's intended
departure drew from Herbert Lyddiard a full confession of his
long-cherished love; and Amy could not deny that it was reciprocal,
though she thought it right to make known to him the cruel
prohibition her father had enjoined. The mother strove to console the
young couple, by representing that it was probable that some change
might take place which would induce Mr Beaufort to withdraw his
opposition to their union, and counselled Amy for the present to
yield implicit obedience to her father's commands. 'You are yet very
young, my dear children,' she said, 'and that directing Providence
which has hitherto smiled upon your early attachment, will not, I
trust, see fit to sever you.'

The dreaded summons came within a week, Beaufort not thinking it safe
for her to remain longer than necessity obliged in the neighbourhood
of her humble lover's residence