discovered by his conversation that he was a peer who promised little
towards rendering the house of incurables more convalescent than it was
before his admission. Chatterton mentioned him as a distant connexion of
his mother; a gentleman who had lately returned from filling an official
situation in the East Indies, to take his seat among the lords by the
death of his brother. He was a bachelor, and reputed rich, much of his
wealth being personal property, acquired by himself abroad. The dutiful
son might have added, if respect and feeling had not kept him silent, that
his offers of settling a large jointure upon his elder sister had been
accepted, and that the following week was to make her the bride of the
emaciated debauchee who now sat by her side. He might also have said, that
when the proposition was made to himself and Grace, both had shrunk from
the alliance with disgust: and that both had united in humble though vain
remonstrances to their mother, against the sacrifice, and in petitions to
their sister, that she would not be accessary to her own misery. There was
no pecuniary sacrifice they would not make to her, to avert such a
connexion; but all was fruitless--Kate was resolved to be a viscountess,
and her mother was equally determined that she should be rich.

Chapter XXX.

A day elapsed between the departure of Denbigh and the reappearance of
Emily amongst her friends. An indifferent observer would have thought her
much graver and less animated than usual. A loss of the rich color which
ordinarily glowed on her healthful cheek might be noticed; but the placid
sweetness and graceful composure which regulated her former conduct
pervaded all she did or uttered. Not so with Jane: her pride had suffered
more than her feelings--her imagination had been more deceived than her
judgment--and although too well bred and soft by nature to become rude or
captious, she was changed from a communicative, to a reserved; from a
confiding, to a suspicious companion. Her parents noticed this alteration
with an uneasiness that was somewhat embittered by the consciousness of a
neglect of some of those duties that experience now seemed to indicate,
could never be forgotten with impunity.

Francis and Clara had arrived from their northern tour, so happy in each
other, and so contented with their lot, that it required some little
exercise of fortitude in both Lady Moseley and her daughters, to expel
unpleasant recollec