Page 11 (1/1)

All his Paphian mother fear; Empress! all thy sway revere! EURIPEDES (Anstice)

The parlour where the supper was laid was oak panelled, but painted white Like a little island in the vast polished slippery floor lay a square h to accoh-backed chairs There was a tent-stitch rug before the Dutch-tiled fireplace, and on the walls hung two fraraceful Duke of Marlborough; the other, the sene On the spotless white cloth was spread a frugalof milk, another of water, and a bottle of cowslip wine; for the habits of the faality and health alike obliged Major Delavie to observe a careful regins, and had afterwards entered the Austrian arht in the Turkish war, until he had been disabled before Belgrade by a terrible wound, of which he still felt the effects Returning hohter of a Jacobite exile, he had beco the family estate for his cousin the heiress, Lady Belamour, who allowed him to live rent-free in this ruinous old Manor-house, the cradle of the family

This was all that Harriet and Aurelia knew The latter had been born at the Manor, and young girls, if not brought extremely forward, were treated like children; but Elizabeth, the eldest of the family, who could remember Vienna, was so much the companion and confidante of her father, that she was more on the level of a mother than a sister to her juniors

"Then you think Aurelia's beau was really Sir Amyas Belamour," said Harriet, as they sat down to supper

"So it appears," said Betty, gravely

"Do you think he will coive the world to see hi for better acquaintance," softly put in Aurelia

"Oh, did he so?" cried Harriet "For demure as you are, Miss Aura, I fancy you looked a little above the diamond shoe-buckles!"

"Fie, Harriet!" exclaiht to come and pay his respects to my father"

"Have you ever seen my Lady?" asked Aurelia

"That have I, Miss Aurelia," interposed Corporal Palmer, "and a rare piece of beauty she would be, if one could forget the saying 'handsome is as handsome does'"