by this post to Miss Dacre, believe me, dear George, your truly
affectionate uncle,

'FITZ-POMPEY.

'P.S.--Lord Marylebone is very unpopular, quite a brute. We all miss
you.'

It is not to be supposed that this letter conveyed the first intimation
to the Duke of St. James of the most interesting event of which it
spoke. On the contrary, he had long been aware of the whole affair; but
we have been too much engaged with his own conduct to find time to let
the reader into the secret, which, like all secrets, it is to be hoped
was no secret. Next to gaining the affections of May Dacre, it was
impossible for any event to occur more delightful to our hero than
the present. His heart had often misgiven him when he had thought of
Caroline. Now she was happy, and not only happy, but connected with
him for life, just as he wished. Arundel Dacre, too, of all men he most
wished to like, and indeed most liked. One feeling alone had prevented
them from being bosom friends, and that feeling had long triumphantly
vanished.

May had been almost from the beginning the _confidante_ of her cousin.
In vain, however, had she beseeched him to entrust all to her father.
Although he now repented his past feelings he could not be induced to
change; and not till he had entered Parliament and succeeded and gained
a name, which would reflect honour on the family with which he wished to
identify himself, would he impart to his uncle the secret of his heart,
and gain that support without which his great object could never have
been achieved. The Duke of St. James, by returning him to Parliament,
had been the unconscious cause of all his happiness, and ardently did
he pray that his generous friend might succeed in what he was well aware
was his secret aspiration, and that his beloved cousin might yield her
hand to the only man whom Arundel Dacre considered worthy of her.

CHAPTER XIII.

_Joy's Beginning_

ANOTHER week brought another letter from the Earl of Fitz-pompey.

The Earl of Fitz-pompey to the Duke of St. James. [Read this alone.]

'My dear George,

'I beg you will not be alarmed by the above memorandum, which I thought
it but prudent to prefix. A very disagreeable affair has just taken
place, and to a degree exceedingly alarming; but it might have turned
out much more distressing, and, on the whole, we may all congratulate
ourselves at the result. Not to keep you in fearful suspense, I beg to
recall your recollection