"

"It is; so are all these," said Brandon, with the same voice of
preternatural and strained composure. "They have come back to me after
an absence of nearly twenty-five years; they are the letters she
wrote to me in the days of our courtship" (here Brandon laughed
scornfully),--"she carried them away with her, you know when; and (a
pretty clod of consistency is woman!) she kept them, it seems, to her
dying day."

The subject in discussion, whatever it might be, appeared a sore one to
Mauleverer; he turned uneasily on his chair, and said at length,--

"Well, poor creature! these are painful remembrances, since it turned
out so unhappily; but it was not our fault, dear Brandon. We were men
of the world; we knew the value of--of women, and treated them
accordingly!"

"Right! right! right!" cried Brandon, vehemently, laughing in a wild and
loud disdain, the intense force of which it would be in vain to attempt
expressing. "Right! and, faith, my lord, I repine not, nor repent."

"So, so, that's well!" said Mauleverer, still not at his ease, and
hastening to change the conversation. "But, my dear Brandon, I have
strange news for you! You remember that fellow Clifford, who had the
insolence to address himself to your adorable niece? I told you I
suspected that long friend of his of having made my acquaintance
somewhat unpleasantly, and I therefore doubted of Clifford himself.
Well, my dear friend, this Clifford is--whom do you think?--no other
than Mr. Lovett of Newgate celebrity!"

"You do not say so!" rejoined Brandon, apathetically, as he slowly
gathered his papers together and deposited them in a drawer.

"Indeed it is true; and what is more, Brandon, this fellow is one of the
very identical highwaymen who robbed me on my road from Bath. No doubt
he did me the same kind office on my road to Mauleverer Park."

"Possibly," said Brandon, who appeared absorbed in a revery.

"Ay!" answered Mauleverer, piqued at this indifference. "But do you not
see the consequences to your niece?"

"My niece!" repeated Brandon, rousing himself.

"Certainly. I grieve to say it, my dear friend,--but she was young, very
young, when at Bath. She suffered this fellow to address her too openly.
Nay,--for I will be frank,--she was suspected of being in love with
him!"

"She was in love with him," said Brandon, dryly, and fixing the
malignant coldness of his eye upon the suitor. "And, for aught I know,"
added he, "she is so at this mo