refuses a most honourable offer, without even consulting the person principally concerned.  Caroline, my dearest friend, do not permit your noble spirit to be thus bowed down.  Whatever alternative Lord Alphingham may propose becomes lawful, when you are thus cruelly persecuted.  Many secret marriages are happier, very much happier, than those for which the consent of parents have been obtained.  They think only of ambition, interest; how can we expect them to enter into the warmth of youthful feelings?  Do not be frightened at my words, but give them a calm, just deliberation.  You have permitted your love for him to be discovered; it becomes your duty to prove it still more clearly.”

Such were the principal contents of Annie’s letter, more than sufficient to confirm Caroline’s already half-adopted resolution, and convince her wavering judgment that obedience to her parents was now no longer a duty; their unjust harshness had alienated her from them, and she must stand forth and act alone.  Conscience loudly called on her to desist; that she was deserting the plain path, and entering the labyrinth of deceit, but the words of Annie were before her.  Again and again they were read, till every word became engraved within her, and the spirit they breathed thickened the film before her eyes, and deafened her ear to every loudly-whispered reproach.  Yet in silence and solitude that still small voice, conscience, arose and left its pang, although on the instant banished.

A few days passed, and the conduct of the Viscount to Caroline continued the same as it had been the first night.  Publicly distant, secretly and silently beseeching, with an eloquence few could have resisted.  There was a grand fete and dejeuner at Airslie, which was pronounced by the connoisseurs in such things to be the most recherche of the season.  But few, comparatively speaking, were the guests, though some had ventured to travel twenty miles for the purpose; yet all was elegant.  The day was lovely, and with the bright sunshine and cloudless sky, added new charms to this fairy land; for so, by the tasteful arrangement of gorgeous tents, sparkling fountains, exotic shrubs, and flowers of every form and shade, the coup d’oeil might have been termed.  Musicians were stationed in various parts of the grounds.  The dance was enjoyed with spirit on the greensward, when the heat of the sun had subsided into the advancing twilight, and the picturesque groups, the chaste and elegant costumes scattered about, intermixed with the beauties of inanimate nature, added life and spirit to the picture.