he change, and settle down contentedly in his new
capacity; but yet something more than this seems to be at the bottom of
his discontent. Since a confidential conversation, held over their wine
between him and Charles Mardyn, his manner had been unusually captious.
Mardyn had, after submitting some time, taken umbrage at a marked insult,
and set off for London. On Lady Alice, in especial, her husband spent his
fits of ill-humor. With Clara he was more than ever friendly; her position
was now the most enviable in that house. But she strove to alleviate her
stepmother's discomforts by every attention a daughter could be supposed
to show, and these proofs of amiable feeling seemed to touch Sir John, and
as the alienation between him and his wife increased, to cement an
attachment between Clara and her father.

Lady Alice had lately imparted to her husband a secret that might be
supposed calculated to fill him with joyous expectations, and raise hopes
of an heir to his vast possessions; but the communication had been
received in sullen silence, and seemed almost to increase his savage
sternness--treatment which stung Lady Alice to the quick; and when she
retired to her room, and wept long and bitterly over this unkind reception
of news she had hoped would have restored his fondness, in those tears
mingled a feeling of hate and loathing to the author of her grief. Long
and dreary did the next four months appear to the beautiful Lady of
Daventry, who, accustomed to the flattery and adulation of the London
world, could ill-endure the seclusion and harsh treatment of the Hall.

At the end of that time, Charles Mardyn again made his appearance; the
welcome he received from Sir John was hardly courteous. Clara's manner,
too, seemed constrained; but his presence appeared to remove a weight from
Lady Alice's mind, and restore her a portion of her former spirits. From
the moment of Mardyn's arrival, Sir John Daventry's manner changed to his
wife: he abandoned the use of sarcastic language, and avoided all occasion
of dispute with her, but assumed an icy calmness of demeanor, the more
dangerous, because the more clear-sighted. He now confided his doubts to
Clara; he had heard from Mardyn that his wife had, before her marriage,
professed an attachment to him. In this, though jestingly alluded to,
there was much to work on a jealous and exacting husband. The contrast in
age, in manner, and appearance, was too marked, not to allow of the