and in the direst pangs of want, no hunger had
been keen enough to induce him to part with it. Now, one morning, the
ribbon that suspended the locket gave way, and his eye resting on the
names inscribed on the gold, he thought, in his own vague sense of
right, imperfect as it was, that his compact with his father obliged
him to have the names erased. He took it to a jeweller in Piccadilly for
that purpose, and gave the requisite order, not taking notice of a lady
in the farther part of the shop. The locket was still on the counter
after Vivian had left, when the lady, coming forward, observed it, and
saw the names on the surface. She had been struck by the peculiar tone
of the voice, which she had heard before; and that very day Mr. Gower
received a note from Lady Ellinor Trevanion, requesting to see him. Much
wondering, he went. Presenting him with the locket, she said smiling,
"There is only one gentleman in the world who calls himself De Caxton,
unless it be his son. Ah! I see now why you wished to conceal yourself
from my friend Pisistratus. But how is this? Can you have any difference
with your father? Confide in me, or it is my duty to write to him."

Even Vivian's powers of dissimulation abandoned him, thus taken by
surprise. He saw no alternative but to trust Lady Ellinor with his
secret, and implore her to respect it. And then he spoke bitterly of his
father's dislike to him, and his own resolution to prove the injustice
of that dislike by the position he would himself establish in the world.
At present his father believed him dead, and perhaps was not ill-pleased
to think so. He would not dispel that belief till he could redeem any
boyish errors, and force his family to be proud to acknowledge him.

Though Lady Ellinor was slow to believe that Roland could dislike his
son, she could yet readily believe that he was harsh and choleric, with
a soldier's high notions of discipline; the young man's story moved her,
his determination pleased her own high spirit. Always with a touch of
romance in her, and always sympathizing with each desire of ambition,
she entered into Vivian's aspirations with an alacrity that surprised
himself. She was charmed with the idea of ministering to the son's
fortunes, and ultimately reconciling him to the father,--through her
own agency; it would atone for any fault of which Roland could accuse
herself in the old time.

She undertook to impart the secret to Trevanion, for she would ha