him, said you wished he had accepted it. Had he done so, the truth must at once have become known to him, even had he been ignorant of it before."

"Oh that he had but come!" interrupted Jacintha, clasping her hands in anguish. "A look-a smile-a tear-and all would have been forgiven. All? So trivial a fault!-so harmless, so natural a concealment, to blight one's prospects for life? Oh, it is too, too hard!" And, with a fresh burst of passionate grief, she started up and quitted the room.

Marian and I looked at one another in

sorrow.

"It is a bitter disappointment," said I, "and the worst of it is that it has been her own fault. How differently you behaved with regard to Mr. Francis Duncan! Oh, Marian! let this be a lesson to you-nay, to us both! to us all!-never to be insincere, even in matters apparently trivial."

Marian sighed deeply. She did not need the monition, for she was candour itself.

When we reassembled at breakfast, Jacintha's eyes were red, and she hardly spoke. She remained inconsolable all day. She could not even make up her mind to call on her friend, Mrs. Forsyth. She wrote a long letter to Laura, I conclude, in her own room, and posted it herself. All the evening she was silent and unsociable. The next day she was excessively cross: inveighed much against Mrs. Meade, said testy things to Marian and me, and was harsh to the servants. I was very glad that Marian was engaged to spend the evening with the Wards, though Jacintha told her she lowered herself by doing so, and disgraced her connexions. The idea of Marian being a disgrace to any one!

The dear girl took it very meekly. She knew exactly to what to attribute it, and made

Mrs. Forsyth was less a favourite than of old probably she had taken up some newer favourite to be the attraction to her select parties. Jacintha was only asked to two of them, and each time to meet people whom she knew were in Mrs. Forsyth's second-best set; moreover, she took it into her head that she was asked for the sake of her voice, and that Mrs. Forsyth assumed a higher tone to her than formerly. She returned displeased with her treatment, and declared that she would refuse Mrs. Forsyth's next invitation. But another invitation never came: which did not improve Jacintha's temper or spirits.

In short, our Christmas holidays were clouded. Jacintha cared very little for what gaiety came in her way, and yet complained of monotony with irritation. Marian took what offered in the way of recreation, but her resources were within herself, and she could

always be quietly happy, if free from anxiety concerning those she loved. That was not quite the case now; for her efforts to enliven Jacintha fell flat, though she did not on that account abandon them.

CHAPTER XII.

Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast,
Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa round,
And while the bubbling and loud-hissing urn
Throws up a steamy column, and the cups
That cheer but not inebriate, wait on each,
So let us welcome peaceful Winter in.

COWPER: The Task.

ACINTHA was buried in the depths of

JAC

a luxurious easy-chair-buried also in gloomy thought; Marian was intently manufacturing some wonderful creation of her own; while I, pen in hand, and with certain businesslike files and tradesmen's books around me, was immersed in profound calculations.

"How much," said I at length, leaning back and drawing a deep breath, "how much