found him,
with Mr. Sandford, and Mr. Rushbrook. After she had sat about half an
hour, conversing with them all, though but very little with the latter,
Lord Elmwood was called out of the room upon some business; presently
after, Sandford; and now, by no means pleased with the companion with
whom she was left, she rose, and was going likewise, when Rushbrook
fixed his speaking eyes upon her, and cried,

"Miss Woodley, will you pardon me what I am going to say?"

"Certainly, Sir. You can, I am sure, say nothing but what I must
forgive." But she made this reply with a distance and a reserve, very
unlike the usual manners of Miss Woodley.

He looked at her earnestly and cried, "Ah! Miss Woodley, you don't
behave so kindly to me as you used to do!"

"I do not understand you, Sir," she replied very gravely; "Times are
changed, Mr. Rushbrook, since you were last here--you were then but a
child."

"Yet I love all those persons now, that I loved then," replied he; "and
so I shall for ever."

"But you mistake, Mr. Rushbrook; I was not even then so very much the
object of your affections--there were other ladies you loved better.
Perhaps you don't remember Lady Elmwood?"

"Don't I," cried he, "Oh!" (clasping his hands and lifting up his eyes
to heaven) "shall I ever forget her?"

That moment Lord Elmwood opened the door; the conversation of course
that moment ended; but confusion, at the sudden surprise, was on the
face of both parties--he saw it, and looked at each of them by turns,
with a sternness that made poor Miss Woodley ready to faint; while
Rushbrook, with the most natural and happy laugh that ever was affected,
cried, "No, don't tell my Lord, pray Miss Woodley." She was more
confused than before, and Lord Elmwood turning to him, asked what the
subject was. By this time he had invented one, and, continuing his
laugh, said, "Miss Woodley, my Lord, will to this day protest that she
saw my apparition when I was a boy; and she says it is a sign I shall
die young, and is really much affected at it."

Lord Elmwood turned away before this ridiculous speech was concluded;
yet so well had it been acted, that he did not for an instant doubt its
truth.

Miss Woodley felt herself greatly relieved; and yet so little is it in
the power of those we dislike to do any thing to please us, that from
this very circumstance, she formed a more unfavourable opinion of Mr.
Rushbrook than she had done before. She saw in this little