d Borodaile insisted upon watching and tending
one of whose sufferings she said and believed she was the unhappy though
innocent cause: and whenever more urgent means of removal were hinted at
La Meronville flew to the chamber of her beloved, apostrophized him in
a strain worthy of one of D'Arlincourt's heroines, and in short was so
unreasonably outrageous that the doctors, trembling for the safety of
their patient, obtained from Talbot a forced and reluctant acquiescence
in the settlement she had obtained.

Ah! what a terrible creature a Frenchwoman is, when, instead of
coquetting with a caprice, she insists upon conceiving a grande passion.
Little, however, did Clarence, despite his vexation when he learned
of the bienveillance of La Meronville, foresee the whole extent of the
consequences it would entail upon him: still less did Talbot, who in his
seclusion knew not the celebrity of the handsome adventuress, calculate
upon the notoriety of her motions or the ill effect her ostentatious
attachment would have upon Clarence's prosperity as a lover to Lady
Flora. In order to explain these consequences the more fully, let us,
for the present, leave our hero to the care of the surgeon, his friends,
and his would-be mistress; and while he is more rapidly recovering than
the doctors either hoped or presaged, let us renew our acquaintance with
a certain fair correspondent.

LETTER FROM THE LADY FLORA ARDENNE TO MISS ELEANOR TREVANION.

My Dearest Eleanor,--I have been very ill, or you would sooner have
received an answer to your kind,-too kind and consoling letter. Indeed
I have only just left my bed: they say that I have been delirious, and I
believe it; for you cannot conceive what terrible dreams I have had. But
these are all over now, and everyone is so kind to me,--my poor mother
above all! It is a pleasant thing to be ill when we have those who love
us to watch our recovery.

I have only been in bed a few days; yet it seems to me as if a long
portion of my existence were past,--as if I had stepped into a new era.
You remember that my last letter attempted to express my feelings at
Mamma's speech about Clarence, and at my seeing him so suddenly. Now,
dearest, I cannot but look on that day, on these sensations, as on a
distant dream. Every one is so kind to me, Mamma caresses and soothes me
so fondly, that I fancy I must have been under some illusion. I am sure
they could not seriously have meant to forbid his addr