honestly, I cannot trust Lady Hester under such mere nominal protection as you are likely to afford her, during the long voyage which it has been intended she should presently take with you. I have received certain letters by which I am informed that my presence is required very speedily in England, and it is my determination to take Lady Hester back with me to the peaceful home of her ancestors; there, I confidently hope, she will regain that peace which her unhappy marriage has, during the last two years, entirely banished from her bosom."

"My Lord-my Lord-you are mistaken in meupon my soul you are!" cried the choleric Colonel. "I am not the tame fool take me for! you You will not rob me of my wife so easily as you imagine!" He suddenly raised his voice almost to a shout-" She is mine! and by ——, I will have her!"

The Governor interfered to soothe the Colonel, who was distantly related to him. Mrs. Markham endeavoured to persuade Lady Hester to withdraw to her chamber, but the Earl detained her.

"A few minutes longer, madam, my daughter must remain," said he; "it is necessary for my purposes that she distinctly state her wish regarding Colonel Cleveland before him, the Governor, and yourself, which done, she may instantly retire, and make herself perfectly easy as to the result of the affair."

"Her wish-yes-let Hester state her wish before me," said the Colonel, his irritation for the moment becoming mixed with softer feelings. "Let her tell me to my face, if she can have the heart to do it, that she is determined to separate from me for ever.”

Lady Hester was very pale as she slowly raised her

eyes, full of keen reproach, to the Colonel's face, and at the same time arose from her chair. That glance was aided by the proud and severe expression of her lip, and the Colonel instantly felt that he had nothing to hope from her.

"The Colonel has violated every vow he made to me at the altar," said she, in low but distinct tones. 66 "I am quite convinced he has not the smallest worthy regard for me, and, in consequence, I am determined upon a separation."

When these decisive words had been spoken, the Colonel stood like one turned to stone. The Governor was alarmed by the madness of his stare, and endeavoured to draw him back to the couch, but he shook off his relative with fierceness, and, foaming at the mouth, rushed after Lady Hester, who, accompanied by Mrs. Markham, was going up stairs to her chamber. When Lady Hester heard him coming she stood still, leaning against the baluster; and Mrs. Markham thought, and afterwards said, "That she never, in painting or in poetry, had seen or imagined a figure so expressive as Hester's was at that minute, of unwavering, stern resolution." It was almost terrible to behold her; she was quite calm; her features were rigid, whitened with the intensity of her feelings to an unnatural fairness. The Colonel seized her arm.

66

Hester," said he, and regardless of the probability that servants were near, he kneeled down on one of the stairs at her feet. "Hester!—my wife!-hear me ! Will you give me up for ever? Will you not try me a little longer? Will you not permit me one chance more of winning back your lost affections? O, Hester! call

back your former words! Tell me tell me we shall not separate! Tell me you will not utterly throw me from you! Have mercy-have pity on me!"

"Colonel," said Lady Hester, "rise. There have been times when your entreaties would have moved me. Now, they cannot. I am marble to all that you can say. Your dissipation-your licentiousness--have been without bounds. Ah! shall I repeat to you what I learned to-day, that your very paramours, Colonel, have made my unspotted name a subject for their ridicule in your hearing? After that, will you venture to call me your wife! No, Colonel," said she, turning abruptly away, "my mind is made up.”

She was moving forward to a landing-place, when the Colonel, with hoarse voice and raging look, rather hissed than spoke these menacing words, shaking his extended arm toward her, and becoming convulsed from head to foot

"Be it so be it so-proud, unyielding woman! But mark me-by heaven and earth, the hour that separates us, shall prove the hour of death to you or I!"

"No more of this kind of language, I do beseech you, Colonel," said the Governor, at the foot of the stairs.

"My dear madam," cried the Earl, waving his hand impatiently to Mrs. Markham, "do urge Lady Hester forward to her room. Hester, leave all to me; rest quietly to-night. Depend on it, my love, since I have been induced at last to take the affair in hand I will conduet it to a proper conclusion. Good night-good night."

The Colonel rushed out of the house bareheaded, and

the Earl, after lying down a few hours on the couch, sent for the two principal solicitors of the town, to whom he had previously spoken, and remained closeted with them. for two hours. The Governor dispatched his servants out in every direction to search for the Colonel, but he was not to be found, until, at eight o'clock in the morning, he returned into the house as abruptly as he had left it. His appearance and actions were those of a person completely deranged; he sent for his goods from the steam packet in which he was to have sailed, and laying them out in the court-yard began to break and destroy them without mercy. Mrs. Markham was quite melted by the terrible distress of mind he was enduring, and almost turned a pleader for him with Lady Hester.

"I expected this, dear madam," said Lady Hester, "I expected that your kind nature would give way when you saw him raging with disappointment. I respect your feelings-I know how to value them-but say not another word to move me from my resolve. I am impenetrable. Unjust treatment has steeled me. It would be well if husbands would take warning from his example, and beware how they trifle with the hearts they possess. Gentle and tender as women are when treated well, there is a sleeping fury, Mrs. Markham, in the gentlest, which, if man rouse up, it is to his own ruin." Whether this was the only moral to be drawn from the affair remains to be seen.

Mrs Markham could say no more, but contented herself with giving each person within her reach as much comfort as she could. She sent for a surgeon, fearing the Colonel was quite out of his senses, and then hurried down, followed by her own maid, to the yard where

the latter was. He had in his hands a costly dressingcase, and workbox belonging to Lady Hester, which he was dashing together with such violence that the beautifully furnished interiors, consisting of silver and gold-mounted glass, and tortoise-shell utensils, fell in shattered fragments to the ground.

"My dear Colonel, what are you doing!" exclaimed Mrs. Markham, with tears in her eyes, employing the nost soothing kindness of manner. "Give me those boxes, my dear sir, and let me speak a quiet word or two with you."

He turned upon her a furious stare, and the maid who was with Mrs. Markham, ran back affrighted. Not so did Mrs. Markham; full of the "milk of human kindness," the sight of misery like his, armed her with

courage.

"I have made chocolate for you, Colonel," said she your own room; if you will go there you shall be quite alone as long as you choose."

in

"What do you want with me!" he exclaimed, still eyeing her with the ferocity of a wild beast."

"To comfort you," she replied.

"Comfort! what the

right have you to comfort me? Woman! you had better stand out of my way A thousand fiends have got possession of me, and if they tempt me, I might do something terrible!"

you

"My dear sir, I know you will not harm me. I know that must see a friend in me. You do, I am sure. You are satisfied that I greatly feel for you. I want, dear sir, to draw you into the house, out of sight of the servants, who you perceive are all looking at you frightened and astonished. Give me those boxes, and let me