stion and anxiety of
mind were for the time forgotten, and she fell asleep.

The penetration of servants, in tracing, at fashionable parties,
the emotions of love through all its various garbs and disguises,
constitutes a principal and not the least disagreeable portion of their
duty. The history of Lady Emily's attachment to Ensign Roberts, though a
profound secret to the world, in the opinion of the parties themselves,
and only hoped for and suspected by each, was nevertheless perfectly
well known by a good number of the quality below stairs. The
circumstance, at all events, as detailed by Alley, was one which in this
instance justified their sagacity. Roberts and she had met, precisely as
Alley said, three or four times at Lady Gourlay's and the Dean's, where
their several attractions were, in fact, the theme of some observation.
Those long, conscious glances, however, which, on the subject of
love are such traitors to the heart, by disclosing its most secret
operations, had sufficiently well told them the state of everything
within that mysterious little garrison, and the natural result was that
Lady Emily seldom thought of any one or anything but Ensign Roberts and
the aforesaid glances, nor Mr. Roberts of anything but hers; for it so
happened, that, with the peculiar oversight in so many things by which
the passion is characterized, Lady Emily forgot that she had herself
been glancing at the ensign, or she could never have observed and
interpreted his looks. With a similar neglect of his own offences, in
the same way must we charge Mr. Roberts, who in his imagination saw
nothing but the blushing glances of this fair patrician.

Time went on, however, and Lucy, so far from recovering, was nearly
one-half of the week confined to her bed, or her apartment. Sometimes,
by way of varying the scene, and, if possible, enlivening her spirits,
she had forced herself to go down to the drawing-room, and occasionally
to take an airing in the carriage. A fortnight had elapsed, and yet
neither Norton nor his fellow-traveler had returned from France. Neither
had Mr. Birney; and our friend the stranger had failed to get any
possible intelligence of unfortunate Fenton, whom he now believed
to have perished, either by foul practices or the influence of some
intoxicating debauch. Thanks to Dandy Dulcimer, however, as well as to
Alley Mahon, he was not without information concerning Lucy's state of
health; and, unfortunately, all tha