m seeing him this morning."

"How so? Has he been here?"

"Twice already, my Lady; and threatens another visit He says that he has
something very important to communicate, and his pockets were stuffed
with papers."

"Oh, dear me! how I dread him and his parchments! Those terrible details
by which people discover how little is bequeathed to them, and how
securely it is tied up against every possibility of enjoying it. I 'd
rather be a negro slave on a coffee plantation than a widow with what is
called a 'high-principled trustee' over my fortune."

"There he comes again, my Lady; see how fast he is galloping up the
avenue."

"Why will that pony never stumble? Amiable and worthy folk break their
necks every day of the week,--fathers of families and unbeneficed
clergymen. Assurance companies should certainly deal lightly with crusty
old bachelors and disagreeable people, for they bear charmed lives."

"Am I to admit him, my Lady?" asked the maid, moving towards the door.

"Yes--no--I really cannot--but perhaps I must. It is only putting off
the evil day. Yes, Lisa, let him come in; but mind that you tell him I
am very poorly--that I have had a wretched night, and am quite unfit
for any unpleasant news, or, indeed, for anything like what he calls
business. Oh dear! oh dear! the very thought of parchment will make me
hate sheep to the last hour of my life; and I have come to detest the
very sight of my own name, from signing 'Hester Onslow' so often."

It must be said, there was at least no hypocrisy in her Ladyship's
lamentations; if the cause of them was not all-sufficient, the effects
were to the full what she averred, and she was, or believed herself to
be, the most miserable of women. Sir Stafford's will had bequeathed
to her his Irish property, on the condition of her residing upon it at
least six months every two years, a clause whose cruelty she--with
or without reason we know not--attributed to the suggestion of Dr.
Grounsell. To secure eighteen months of unlimited liberty, she was
undergoing her captivity in what, it must be acknowledged, was a spirit
the reverse of that the testator intended. So far from taking any
interest in the country, its people, or its prospects, she only saw
in it a dreary imprisonment, saddened by bad weather, bad spirits, and
solitude. Nor were her griefs all causeless. Her position was greatly
fallen from the possession of a fortune almost without bounds to the
changeful vicissit