ly fall into the river, for the sensation caused by Rupert's
rescuing her would quite have absorbed all the interest in Fido's
melancholy fate.'

'Thank you, Anne,' said Rupert; 'I am sure I only wonder she was not
submerged. I never could have guessed any fair lady could be so heavy.
I am sure I feel the claw she gave my arm at this moment.'

'How very ungallant!' said Anne.

'Still,' said Rupert, 'without appearing as the preserver of the fair
Harriet from a watery grave, I think I have interest enough with Mrs.
Hazleby to be able to break the fatal news to her, and calm her first
agonies of grief and wrath.'

'You, Rupert?' said Anne.

'Myself, Anne,' replied Rupert; 'you have no notion what friends Mrs.
Hazleby and I have become. We had a tete-a-tete of an hour and a half
this morning.'

'What could you find to talk about?' said Anne.

'First,' said Rupert, 'she asked about my grouse shooting; where I
went, and with whom, and whether I had seen any of the Campbells of
Inchlitherock. Of course we embarked in a genealogy of the whole
Campbell race; then came a description of the beauties of
Inchlitherock. Next I was favoured with her private history; how she,
being one of thirteen, was forced, at eighteen, to leave the lovely
spot, and embark with her brother for India.'

'On speculation,' said Elizabeth.

'And finally, how she came to marry the Major.'

'O Rupert, that is too much; you must have invented it!' cried Anne.

'Indeed I did not, Anne,' said Rupert; 'it is a fact that she lived
somewhere in the Mofussil with her brother, and there she encountered
the Major. You, young ladies, may imagine how she fascinated him, and
how finally her brother seems to have bullied the Major into marrying
her.'

'Poor man!' said Elizabeth, 'I always wondered how he chanced to fall
into her clutches. But did you hear no more?'

'No more of her personal history,' said Rupert; 'she kindly employed
the rest of her time in giving me wise counsels.'

'Oh! pray let us have the benefit of them,' said Anne, who had by this
time pretty well forgotten her prudence.

'There were many regrets that I was not in the army,' said Rupert, 'and
many pieces of advice which would have been very useful if I had, but
which I am afraid were thrown away upon me, ending with wise
reflections upon the importance of a wise choice of a wife, especially
for a young man of family, exposed to danger from designing young
ladies, with