This little girl should certainly not be suffered to come into the toils of such a fiend as the begum seemed to be. If she sought her ruin, she might, perhaps, find some other means of effecting it, all-powerful as she

was.

Her emissaries in Delhi, the resident said, must have informed her of the residence of Muhboob Jan; but probably the little girl, as well as her father, are wholly ignorant that any such inquiries have been made about her. It is the fact, that by secret information, and a system of paying and employing spies, such people satisfy their curiosity; and where there are no such vehicles of intelligence as newspapers, and where, indeed, there is no press-or people to read what would be published, supposing there was one-the rich are obliged to resort to procuring all their information in this way, and their extreme vacancy of mind makes any sort of gossip or tale-bearing acceptable to them. Women, in all ranks of life, delight in hearing or in telling some new thing; like the ancient Athenians, all women are more or less given to this, their peculiar passion, which, next to their love of dress, is their most prevalent one; much more is it so in a country like this, where they are wholly uneducated and necessarily unemployed, than with those in a more temperate climate, where they have some sort of education, and, at all events, are given an occupation. Also, the spite, malice, envy, and bad feeling which are felt by the sex to one another are wholly uncontrolled either by the salutary elements of mental culture and accomplishments or religious and moral instruction, besides that they are quite precluded from mental improvement from their not being allowed to travel, or visit any place or scene which is at all calculated to give either instruction or amusement. Then said the doctor :

"It seems to me that they are beings of a different order here from those at home; in fact, so far as regards their minds, they are scarcely better than animals."

"Well," said Mr. Johnson, " they are worse than creatures without reason in one respect; for where the animal passions are given complete sway, the evil qualities are sure to predominate over the good ones.'

When they joined Mrs. Johnson up-stairs, they did not think that there was any use in vexing her by telling her the account of the wretched purpose which the begum had expressed to Dr. Mainchance, but she began as usual to praise the little favourite, of whom she every day became fonder. The doctor, on his part, began to feel much interest in the person who had unaccountably occupied so much of the attention of so many different people. It is always the case that the hearsay accountthe fame which fashionable parlance calls the prestige-of a person, whether male or female, has a great effect upon every one, wise or unwise, who by chance should afterwards be thrown into contact with him or her, so much so as make it impossible that any after-experience can wholly remove it. He thought in his heart that a being who could arouse such an interest in Mrs. Johnson's mind, and win so far on her affection, despite the well-known difficulty which exists in making one woman loved by another, must be a person possessed of rare qualifications.

When the doctor had left the begum, she felt enraged at having so far been foiled in her wishes to engage him to do what she wanted. She determined, however, if it was possible, to effect the destruction of the little girl who had so wonderfully escaped from her. Soon after her return to Sept.-VOL. CXLI. NO. DLXI.

H

her palace, after the short excursion she had made on the river, she had been informed of the circumstances regarding her meeting with her father, and their onward journey to Delhi in the kafila with Khurreem Buksh. But the resources which lay open to her, supplied as she was with boundless wealth, and having such numbers at her command unprincipled and merely creatures submissive to her sovereign will, were many and various, and in such a country she found herself at no loss to recur to other means of ridding herself of her enemy, although she would have much preferred the secret mode of procuring her death by means of getting a doctor to administer some deadly poison. But now that she saw it was totally impossible to induce the English doctor to listen to any such suggestion, she resolved, if she could, to hire some bandits to seize upon Muhboob Jan, and to take the first opportunity of Khurreem Buksh's absence from home along with her father to effect an entrance into his zinana, and possess themselves of the person of his daughter, either dead or alive. With the implacable malevolence of a person who has been balked in doing an injury, and who knows that the person injured will to their latest day be unable to forget the treatment which they have received, she cherished the undying determination of following up her diabolical wishes towards the poor little innocent victim. She in her palace, which was regal in state, every day received numerous visitors, mostly persons dependent upon her, and some who, in the way of complimentary visiting, came to pay her their respects. The early morning of each day such a levee of hangers-on came in crowds, that her gates, like the famed

Ingentem foribus domus alta superbis,

Manè salutantum totis vomet ædibus undam;

so she was at no loss in finding persons who at her bidding could secure the attendance of any person that she wished to speak to. She, in fact, exercised a sway over her own followers which reminded one more of the accounts given in history of Messalina and Zenobia, and certainly no modern heroine of late date, except we reckon Miss Gwilt as such, looked upon murder with so little compunction. She got one of her chokeydaurs of the Boorea caste, who are familiar with all the thieves and depredators in the country, to carry a message to Ukhbar Khan, who still lived in the same jungle abode near Agra that he inhabited when he took Muhboob Jan prisoner. He had latterly, since the cession of the country to the British, been going down much in the world, and many of his followers had forsaken him. He had not the money to keep up the force which he formerly had, and the vigilance of the English police system, so different from that exercised by the Mahrattas, had been fatal to his successes lately. So, when the chokeydaur came with a message to him from the lady of rank who required his services, he knew perfectly that it was for some deed of violence that he should be wanted; but such was his need now, that he rather rejoiced at having such an opening for bettering his fortunes. The time that the begum said that he should come to speak to her was at five in the morning. After she had given orders to the chokeydaur, the latter mounted a dromedary, one of the fleetest that she had in her establishment, which was well able to go seventy miles a day, and late that night he arrived at Ukhbar's residence.

THE ARLINGTONS:

SKETCHES FROM MODERN LIFE.

BY A LOOKER-ON.

PART THE SECOND.

I.

PLATONICS.

THE next day dawned on the pleased and the displeased in the family circle of the Arlingtons of Eaton-square; but, alas! who knows what a day may bring forth!

Richard presented himself with some misgivings at the house of his liege lady, and having unfolded to her his promised act of fraternal good nature, and asked her, as in duty bound, if she would not join the party, he heard, with some dismay, her reply delivered in a tone of determination which showed there could be no hope of her acquiescence in his project.

"Mr. Arlington, I am surprised that you should think for a moment that I would go all the way to Devonshire for a stupid ball, patronised by a parcel of junior naval lieutenants, midshipmen, and marine officers, with a sprinkling of old admirals who have long been laid on the shelf." "You are mistaken, Mrs. Larpent," Richard ventured to say. "All the élite of the naval and military people in Pymouth, and the county people in its neighbourhood, will be there. It is to be a very good ball. And the next evening the admiral gives a ball on board the flag-ship, which is to be a brilliant affair."

"My dear Arlington, you speak with so much unction of these Plymouth gaieties, that one might be tempted to think you had some attraction down there-some dark-eyed Devonshire beauty, whom you wished to take the opportunity of meeting. Is this the case, Dicky? Come, confess!"

"Tormentor! you know very well that I have no attractions out of Belgravia. I vow to you that I do not know a single lady in Devonshire under fifty, except my aunt's two stupid nieces, Rose and Susan Danby, and I am sure I would not go the length of my toe to see either of them."

Very well; then it won't break your heart to give up these Plymouth festivities, and I can't give you leave of absence, for I want you in

town."

Why?" asked Richard, rather sharply.

"Because, you refractory creature, I want you to escort me the very evening of the Plymouth hop to private theatricals at the Bijou Theatre first, and afterwards to a fancy ball at Willis's Rooms. My cousin, Lady Clarissa, has promised me three tickets for the theatre and the ball after it, which is to be very select. I can't go without an escort, and you must undertake that duty."

"Who is to have the third ticket ?" he asked.

"Little Sarah Grantley. She is the essence of stupidity, as you know, and never sees or hears anything; therefore a very convenient companion."

"Your offer is very tempting, Mrs. Larpent, but I fear I must decline it. I don't mind my sisters' annoyance, but my mother's indignation is a more serious matter. She often helps me out of scrapes, and replenishes my purse when it is empty.”

"And therefore you must be tied to her apron-strings, and, like Little Jack Horner,

Who sat in a corner,

Eating his Christmas pie,

be ready to exclaim, 'What a good boy am I!' I declare you must be taking a leaf out of my worthy spouse's books, who is always prosing and preaching about his duties."

“Why not make him do his duty, and accompany you and Miss Grantley to the Bijou Theatre and Willis's Rooms ?"

“What a savage humour you are in to-day, Richard Arlington! I declare I don't know you. But I see how it is; there is no faith to be put in any of your deceitful sex. I wish I had never seen you. I wish I had never learned to care for you. I wish I had been left alone in my misery, without any . . any friend to listen to my sorrows and sympathise with me."

Mrs. Larpent checked, apparently with some difficulty, a rising or forced sob, and her eyelids winked as if she were trying to keep back a tear. Richard's heart was not steel, and, as the poet says, "steel will bend." His heart was softened in a minute, and, forgetting the twentypound note, he told the suffering lady that she might dispose of him as she liked.

"Then you will give up the Plymouth ball, and go with me to the private theatricals and Willis's Rooms?" she eagerly asked.

"If you wish it.”

"If I wish it. Oh, Arlington! had you persisted in refusing to accompany me, I would have sent back the tickets to my cousin; there would have been no pleasure in going without you."

She held out her hand to him; he kissed it; then, putting his arm lightly round her waist, he kissed her cheek. The salutation was scarcely over, when a double knock was heard, and a servant threw open the drawing-room door, announcing a visitor. Richard glided into the back drawing-room, and hid himself behind the door until the unwelcome visitor had entered the front room; he then ran quickly down-stairs and made his escape, unseen by the prying eyes of the lady who had just

entered.

After he left the presence of his Armida, unpleasant thoughts jarred upon his mind. There would be a quarrel with his mother, who did not like contradiction any more than Mrs. Larpent. He could not tell her that he was acting under compulsion; he must leave her to think him very capricious and disobliging; and how, when he was breaking his promise to her, could he expect her to keep her promise to him? "The deuce take Mrs. Larpent!" he exclaimed internally. "But no, not her, poor thing! but the deuce take the stupid private theatricals, and the fancy ball. One fancy ball in the course of the year-the Cale

donian-is quite enough for me, and I shall be minus about forty pounds. It was a dear kiss! What black looks I shall get when I go to Eaton! and what a fool Larpent is to leave his wife so much to me! If ever I marry, I shall take good care not to follow his example."

square

Richard paraded up and down Eaton-place and some of the adjacent streets before he could muster courage to knock at his father's door; at last he took heart of grace, and rushed in, almost upsetting the servant who opened the door to him.

He had a stormy interview with his mother, who was the more angry because he could give no good reason for changing his mind. Of course he could not commit Mrs. Larpent; and perhaps it struck him at that moment that his and her intimacy, though not clogged by positive guilt, could not be absolutely innocent, when he did not dare to confide to his mother that Mrs. Larpent had put her veto on his going to Plymouth. That veto was not so easily set aside, unluckily for Richard, as the vetoes promulgated by President Johnson at Washington.

Richard was sneaking out in a state of great chagrin, when he determined to make one effort more for the "tin," and informed his mother that, at Major Chapman's dinner the previous day, he had met a very rich man, who, Chapman told him, was extremely anxious to marry, but he had lived long abroad, and had very few acquaintances in London, and no one to introduce him into society. "Jenkins of ours," added Richard, "gave this millionnaire his card, and said he would be happy to see him at his mother's house. You know she is a widow with two unmarried daughters, and they give little soirées. I'll go after him, and bring him here, if you like, mother."

"Yes, do, Richard," said Mrs. Arlington, who, like a drowning person, caught at straws. "Introduce him here that is to say, if you think he is comme il faut, and that there is nothing against him."

"He is gentlemanly-looking, and has good manners. Chapman says he met him at Rome, that his father was a man of fortune, and he was an only son."

The cloud cleared off from Mrs. Arlington's brow, and before Richard left her boudoir she presented him with fifteen pounds. Ungrateful Richard thanked her, but not very cordially. Why had she not given him twenty pounds? He sighed to think of the twenty-five pounds which he had lost.

Richard absented himself for two whole days from his father's house, hoping that, in that time, his sisters' vexation would wear out. But when he came on the Thursday he was very coldly received. Aurelia left the room the moment he entered, though she had not quite finished her luncheon. His favourite, Eleanor, generally so good humoured and chatty, only bowed her head to him, and pushed the cold pigeon-pie towards him without saying a word. His mother and Fanny were out; Maria read the Athenæum, as if she were quite absorbed in its contents, and then made a remark to Cornelia about some sacred music that was to be performed at Exeter Hall; while Letitia, the only one who seemed inclined to speak to him, entertained him by hitting at Mrs. Larpent, and sneering at himself for being so submissive to that lady.

"I verily believe, Richard," she said, "if Mrs. Larpent, in her pretty caprice, ordered you to turn rope-dancer and exhibit on the stage, you