pe that your niece may receive
him with altered views.

Pray believe me to be, my dear Madam,
Yours sincerely,

ROSALINE ALBURY.

Ayala read the letter twice over before her aunt returned to her,
and, as she read it, felt something of a feeling of renewed kindness
come upon her in reference to the writer of it;--not that she was
in the least changed in her own resolution, but that she liked Lady
Albury for wishing to change her. The reasons given, however, were
altogether impotent with her. Colonel Stubbs had the means of keeping
a wife! If that were a reason then also ought she to marry her
cousin, Tom Tringle. Colonel Stubbs was good and true; but so also
very probably was Tom Tringle. She would not compare the two men. She
knew that her cousin Tom was altogether distasteful to her, while she
took delight in the companionship of the Colonel. But the reasons
for marrying one were to her thinking as strong as for marrying the
other. There could be only one valid excuse for marriage,--that of
adoring the man;--and she was quite sure that she did not adore
Colonel Jonathan Stubbs. Lady Albury had said in her letter, that a
girl would be sure to love a man who treated her well after marriage;
but that would not suffice for her. Were she to marry at all, it
would be necessary that she should love the man before her marriage.

"Have you read the letter, my dear?" said Mrs. Dosett, as she entered
the room and closed the door carefully behind her. She spoke almost
in a whisper, and seemed to be altogether changed by the magnitude of
the occasion.

"Yes, Aunt Margaret, I have read it."

"I suppose it is true?"

"True! It is true in part."

"You did meet this Colonel Stubbs?"

"Oh, yes; I met him."

"And you had met him before?"

"Yes, Aunt Margaret. He used to come to Brook Street. He is the
Marchesa's nephew."

"Did he--" This question Aunt Margaret asked in a very low whisper,
and her most solemn voice. "Did he make love to you in Brook Street?"

"No," said Ayala, sharply.

"Not at all?"

"Not at all. I never thought of such a thing. I never dreamed of such
a thing when he began talking to me out in the woods at Stalham on
Saturday."

"Had you been--been on friendly terms with him?"

"Very friendly terms. We were quite friends, and used to talk about
all manner of things. I was very fond of him, and never afraid of
anything that he said to me. He was Nina's cousin and seemed almost
to b