my absence was, that as I had
promised to give a grand masquerade in a fortnight, the evading this
expense would nearly enable me to discharge the debt which sat so heavy
on my conscience.

"'I received a note from him as soon as he came home. With his usual
complaisance he complied with my request. With his usual nonchalance, he
neither troubled me with reproaches, nor comforted me with approbation.

"'As he knew that Lady Jane usually rose about the hour he came home
from St. James's street, he obligingly went to her at once. I had not
been in bed. He came to my dressing-room, and informed me that his aunt
had consented at the first word. I expressed my gratitude to them both,
saying that I was ready to set out that very day.'

"'You must wait till to-morrow,' said he. 'There is no accounting for
the oddities of some people. Lady Jane told me she could not possibly
travel on a Sunday. I wondered where was the impossibility. Sunday, I
assured her, was the only day for traveling in comfort, as the road was
not obstructed by wagons and carts. She replied, with a gravity which
made me laugh, 'That she should be ashamed to think that a person of her
rank and education should be indebted, for her being able to trample
with more convenience on a divine law, to the piety of the vulgar who
durst not violate it.' Did you ever hear any thing so whimsical,
Matilda?' I said nothing, but my heart smote me. Never will I repeat
this offense.

"'On the Monday we set out. I had kept close the preceding day, under
pretense of illness. This I also assigned as an excuse in the cards sent
to my invited guests, pleading the necessity of going into the country
for change of air. Shall I own I dreaded being shut up in a barouche,
and still more in the lonely castle, with Lady Jane? I looked for
nothing every moment but 'the thorns and briars of reproof.' But I soon
found that the woman whom I thought was a Methodist, was a most
entertaining companion. Instead of austerity in her looks and reproach
in her language, I found nothing but kindness and affection, vivacity
and elegance. While she soothed my sorrows, she strengthened my better
purposes. Her conversation gradually revived in my mind tastes and
principles which had been early sown in it, but which the world seemed
completely to have eradicated.

"'In the neighborhood of the castle, Lady Jane carried me to visit the
abodes of poverty and sickness. I envied her large but discrimina