ground, festoon borders; and that the
mouldings of the shutters have been gilded. Gilt shutters! that looks
ominous of an ostentatious and party-giving tenant. Then carts full
of furniture have stopped at the door; carpets, tables, chairs, beds,
wardrobes,--all seemingly new, and in no inelegant taste,--have been
disgorged into the hall. It has been noticed, too, that every day a lady
of slight figure and genteel habiliments has come, seemingly to inspect
progress; evidently the new tenant. Sometimes she comes alone; sometimes
with a dark-eyed, handsome lad, probably her son. Who can she be? what
is she? what is her name? her history? has she a right to settle in
Gloucester Place, Portman Square? The detective police of London is
not peculiarly vigilant; but its defects are supplied by the voluntary
efforts of unmarried ladies. The new comer was a widow; her husband had
been in the army; of good family; but a _mauvais sujet_; she had been
left in straitened circumstances with an only son. It was supposed that
she had unexpectedly come into a fortune, on the strength of which
she had removed from Pimlico into Gloucester Place. At length, the
preparations completed, one Monday afternoon the widow, accompanied
by her son, came to settle. The next day a footman, in genteel livery
(brown and orange), appeared at the door. Then, for the rest of the
week, the baker and butcher called regularly. On the following Sunday,
the lady and her son appeared at church.

No reader will be at a loss to discover in the new tenant of
No.--Gloucester Place the widowed mother of Lionel Haughton. The letter
for that lady which Darrell had entrusted to his young cousin had, in
complimentary and cordial language, claimed the right to provide for her
comfortable and honourable subsistence; and announced that henceforth
L800 a year would be placed quarterly to her account at Mr. Darrell's
banker, and that an additional sum of L1200 was already there deposited
in her name, in order to enable her to furnish any residence to which
she might be inclined to remove. Mrs. Haughton therewith had removed to
Gloucester Place.

She is seated by the window in her front drawing-room, surveying with
proud though grateful heart the elegances by which she is surrounded.
A very winning countenance: lively eyes, that in themselves may be
over-quick and petulant; but their expression is chastened by a gentle
kindly mouth. And over the whole face, the attitude, the