on soon saw that she had no grounds for pitying Lady Laura. The
colonel was a polished, elegant man, of evident good sense and knowledge
of the world, and apparently devoted to his wife. He was called George
frequently by all his relatives, and he, not unfrequently, used the same
term himself in speaking to the earl. Something was said of a much admired
bust, and the doors of a large library were opened to view it. Emily was
running over the backs of a case of books, until her eye rested on one;
and half smiling and blushing she turned to Pendennyss, who watched every
movement, as she said, playfully,

"Pity me, my lord, and lend me this volume."

"What is it you read?" he asked, as he bowed his cheerful assent.

But Emily hid the book in her handkerchief. Pendennyss noticing an
unwillingness, though an extremely playful one, to let him into the
secret, examined the case, and perceiving her motive, smiled, as he took
down another volume and said--

"I am not an Irish, but an English peer, Emily. You have the wrong
volume."

Emily laughed, with deeper blushes, when she found her wishes detected,
while the earl, opening the volume he held--the first of Debrett's
Peerage--pointed with his finger to the article concerning his own family,
and said to Mrs. Wilson, who had joined them at the instant--

"To-morrow, dear madam, I shall beg your attention to a melancholy tale,
and which may, in some slight degree, extenuate the offence I was guilty
of in assuming, or rather in maintaining an accidental disguise."

As he ended, he went to the others, to draw off their attention, while
Emily and her aunt examined the paragraph. It was as follows:

"George Denbigh--Earl of Pendennyss--and Baron Lumley, of Lumley Castle---
Baron Pendennyss--Beaumaris, and Fitzwalter, born----, of----, in the year
of----; a bachelor." The list of earls and nobles occupied several pages,
but the closing article was as follows:

"George, the 21st earl, succeeded his mother Marian, late Countess of
Pendennyss, in her own right, being born of her marriage with George
Denbigh, Esq., a cousin-german to Frederick, the 9th Duke of Derwent."

"Heir apparent. The titles being to heirs general, will descend to his
lordship's sister, Lady Marian Denbigh, should the present earl die
without lawful issue."

As much of the explanation of the mystery of our tales, involved in the
foregoing paragraphs, we may be allowed to relate in our own language,
what