CHAPTER III.

On a trouvé plus de difficulté qu'on ne croyait.

INSTEAD of indulging in gentle morning slumbers, after the vast fatigues and somewhat voluminous transactions of the former day, Mrs Fife was up, dressed, and, after a very early, and rather a hasty breakfast, was advanced two and a half miles upon the great little road leading to St Andrews. She had laid a toil to come at the true character and dispositions of her late eccentric guests, who, as we have seen, had suddenly escaped her clutches, and at the very moment, too, when she supposed herself most secure of their company. The parties had disentangled themselves also in such a manner as served only to increase the fever of excitation which they had proved the innocent, though

primary means of occasioning; and for this fault were they now to have the benefit of a chase, which was, to all appearance, likely to drive them over to Holland.

It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that Mrs Fife, urged on by so many fomenting occasions of excitement, should, like another Elizabeth of Siberia, set out in search of a termination to her difficulties; or that, bent on affairs of importance, she should despise the dewy efforts of the drizzly dawn, when satisfied as to the good condition of her close carriage.

But, nevertheless, even amidst the greatest undertakings, how many little insignificant and unimportant sentiments and wishes break in upon the due performance of the grand transaction? Have not the most arduous, persevering and energetic, been suddenly seized, like Mrs Gregory, with the toothache, with a headache, with a desire to experience, in the way of their vocation, some little petty personal comfort or gratification; which, it is to be hoped, may rather assist than disturb the wished-for completion of their intentions? Mrs Fife, while

seated in quiet, and, of course to her, by no means agreeable contemplation, of the pitterpatter of her two well fed nags,—in the cold, too, of a very raw, slashy morning,-espied the well-known sheltered plantations of the venerable Mrs Ogilvie, whose grand-niece was an occasional visitor at the Hall; and, when a calm fit occurred, was a very great favourite. This young lady possessed considerable personal attractions, and a disposition which had the rare perfection of being free from all mean or malicious sensations. Miss Leslie had a natural character of benevolence about her, which sought to excuse, if it could not justify the ill conduct of others; and a timidity of disposition, that neither found fault with ingratitude, nor the sometimes contemptuous insolence of pre-supposed superiority. Her connexions-like those of the rest of the world, if we were ever told the truth-were made up of both high and low; of rich and of poor; of people of talent; of people whose ignorance was to be blushed for; and of persons famous for neither one thing nor another. Her fortune, as her aunt was merely a liferentrix, amounted,

like that of a great many other young ladies who are said to "have money," to just two thousand six hundred pounds. Her accomplish

ments, too, like those of most very accomplished young persons, consisted in being able to draw very badly; dance very well; sing so so; and play on the piano and harp merely correctly and in time-to read French; and to write a pretty letter.

Mrs Fife, with all the suspicious activity of mind of a bustling woman of the world, had taken it for granted, that to pay court to whosoever might preside at the Hall, must form a principal motive in the politics of a young person so precisely situated as Miss Leslie; and had, accordingly, more than once endeavoured to prove the existence of such a system in that young lady's behaviour, by many lavish attentions, and by as many undeserved neglects.

Miss Leslie, however, had still continued neither to expect the one, nor to resent (as was intended) the other. She had never made any objections to Mrs Fife's gratifying herself as she pleased; and was, therefore, never disappointed

by any unexpected discontinuance of her favours. In the end, she had taught Mrs Fife herself an example of charity, gentleness, and good-will; and had now established herself in that lady's otherwise vacillating favour, in a manner that was not again to be disturbed. Mrs Fife, whom we left dabbling along upon a splashy road, was therefore but too happy to suspend her mad-like expedition, to pass an hour or two with so young and amiable a friend.

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My dear Mrs Fife, I am so happy to see you !" exclaimed Miss Leslie with delight, and taking both Mrs Fife's hands in hers. " How could you think of leaving your paradise, and, in this wet day too, to visit such a bye-corner as this ?"

"On my way to the Shams, my dear," returned Mrs Fife, rather brusquely, enclosing herself within the outstretched arms of a large easy chair.

"Then you must have some refreshment, my dear Ma'am," observed Miss Leslie, turning away to conceal a sudden and rather painful feeling of self-reprobation, for having so rashly