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'And now I have so to say to you' Mr Broune as he thus spoke to Lady Carbury rose up to his feet and then sat down again There was an air of perturbation about him which was veryresult of which she thought that she understood 'The susceptible old goose is going to do soreeable' It was thus that she spoke to herself of the scene that she saas prepared for her, but she did not foresee accurately the shape in which the susceptibility of the 'old goose' would declare itself 'Lady Carbury,' said Mr Broune, standing up a second ti as we used to be'

'No, indeed;--and therefore it is that we can afford to ourselves the luxury of being friends Nothing but age enables men and woreat iress It was evidently intended to imply that he at least had reached a time of life at which any allusion to love would be absurd And yet, as a fact, he was nearer fifty than sixty, was young of his age, could walk his four or five miles pleasantly, could ride his cob in the park with as free an air as any h four or five hours of the night with an easy steadiness which nothing but sound health could produce Mr Broune, thinking of himself and his own circumstances, could see no reason why he should not be in love 'I hope we know each other intimately at any rate,' he said somewhat lamely

'Oh, yes;--and it is for that reason that I have co woman I should not have dared to ask you'

'I don't see that I don't quite understand that But it has nothing to do with my present purpose When I said that ere neither of us so young as we once were, I uttered as a stupid platitude,--a foolish truis

'Or would have been, only that I intended soot hiet out of it 'I was going on to say that I hoped ere not too old to--love'

Foolish old darling! What did hesuch an ass of hi otten It may serve to explain the condition of Lady Carbury's mind at the time if it be stated that she did not even at thisBreakfast Table' intended to ht she knew, thatup sensational scenes The falseness of the thing, and the injury which may come of it, did not shock her at all Had she known that the editor professed to be in love with some lady in the next street, she would have been quite ready to enlist the lady in the next street athen her own influence with Mr Broune For herself such make-believe of an improper passion would be inconvenient, and therefore to be avoided But that any man, placed as Mr Broune was in the world,--blessed with poith a large incohout all the world around him, courted, fêted, feared and almost worshipped,--that he should desire to share her fortunes, her les, her poverty and her obscurity, was not within the scope of her ie in it, of which she did not believe any man to be capable,--and which to her would be the ht so badly of enerally, and of Mr Broune and herself as a man and a woman individually, that she was unable to conceive the possibility of such a sacrifice 'Mr Broune,' she said, 'I did not think that you would take advantage of the confidence I have placed in you to annoy me in this way'