longs to
this only child. Colonel Somers has long been dead; the widow died a
few years ago. Jane was then educated in the house of another
guardian, a cousin of Colonel Somers, who lived near Bath; and, on his
lately being sent to India on a high command, she was claimed by this
Manchester hobgoblin, and torn from all her old friends."

"Yourself among the rest?"

"Just so--and now you know the whole story."

In which respect, as we conclude, the reader is by this time on a par
with Lord Teysham, we quit the conclave at Fushie Bridge, and proceed
to the more splendid apartments in Douglas's Hotel.

In the little drawing-room that looks to St Andrew Square, the evening
seemed to have passed stupidly enough. Aunt Alice, after yawning till
tea time, and scolding the greater part of that excellent time-killer,
had at last, at about nine o'clock, betaken herself to her bedroom, to
bring down the _Scottish Chiefs_--a book of manners and statistics
from which all her notions of the Scottish nation of an early period
were derived. _Waverley_, and the other northern stories of the
enchanter, supplied her with all her modern information; and not very
bad sources they would have been, if Miss Alice had been able to
understand the language in which they were written. But our noble
vernacular was to her a more impenetrable mystery than any revealed at
Eleusis, and it was, perhaps, on this account that she entertained so
decided a preference for the performance of Miss Porter.

Jane Somers, whom we have hitherto represented as either listless or
sleeping, was sitting busily engaged in the somewhat unusual
occupation of thinking. And, as her thoughts were wandering about
Lansdowne, and a vast apartment, nobly lighted and filled with the
sounds of revelry by night, we need not be surprised if they
occasionally made a detour to the stables of Fushie Bridge, and the
sight that met her there. While musing deeply on these very
interesting subjects, our friend Copus entered the room and said--

"Please, mum, one of the vaiters here knows all about them there
places as master talks so much on; p'raps Miss Alice would like to
hear about 'em?"

"I will tell my aunt, William," said the young lady, and returned to
her former musings.

Copus retired and shut the door.

A low voice at her ear as she again rested her head upon the arm of
the sofa, whispered "Jane!"

On looking up she saw a tall man dressed in the usual waiter's
costu