with fondness on his feelings! I
thought I was securing the peaceful happiness of my child! What can we
trust to in this world! It is too dreadful to dwell upon! It must have
been an interposition of Providence that Venetia escaped.'

'Dear little Venetia,' exclaimed the good Bishop; 'for I believe I
shall call her little Venetia to the day of my death. How well she
looks to-night! Her aunt is, I think, very fond of her! See!'

'Yes, it pleases me,' said Lady Annabel; but I do wish my sister was
not such an admirer of Lord Cadurcis' poems. You cannot conceive how
uneasy it makes me. I am quite annoyed that he was asked here to-day.
Why ask him?'

'Oh! there is no harm,' said Masham; 'you must forget the past. By all
accounts, Cadurcis is not a marrying man. Indeed, as I understood,
marriage with him is at present quite out of the question. And as for
Venetia, she rejected him before, and she will, if necessary, reject
him again. He has been a brother to her, and after that he can be no
more. Girls never fall in love with those with whom they are bred up.'

'I hope, I believe there is no occasion for apprehension,' replied
Lady Annabel; 'indeed, it has scarcely entered my head. The very
charms he once admired in Venetia can have no sway over him, as
I should think, now. I should believe him as little capable of
appreciating Venetia now, as he was when last at Cherbury, of
anticipating the change in his own character.'

'You mean opinions, my dear lady, for characters never change. Believe
me, Cadurcis is radically the same as in old days. Circumstances have
only developed his latent predisposition.'

'Not changed, my dear lord! what, that innocent, sweet-tempered,
docile child--'

'Hush! here he comes.'

The Earl and his guests entered the room; a circle was formed round
Lady Annabel; some evening visitors arrived; there was singing. It had
not been the intention of Lord Cadurcis to return to the drawing-room
after his rebuff by Lady Annabel; he had meditated making his peace at
Monteagle House; but when the moment of his projected departure had
arrived, he could not resist the temptation of again seeing Venetia.
He entered the room last, and some moments after his companions. Lady
Annabel, who watched the general entrance, concluded he had gone, and
her attention was now fully engaged. Lord Cadurcis remained at the
end of the room alone, apparently abstracted, and looking far from
amiable; but his eye, in real