ust himself at this moment with Miss Nugent.

There was to be a concert this night at Lady Clonbrony's, at which Mrs.
and Miss Broadhurst were, of course, expected. That they might not
be quite unprepared for the event of her son's going to Ireland, Lady
Clonbrony wrote a note to Mrs. Broadhurst, begging her to come half an
hour earlier than the time mentioned in the cards, 'that she might talk
over something PARTICULAR that had just occurred.'

What passed at this cabinet council, as it seems to have had no
immediate influence on affairs, we need not record. Suffice it to
observe, that a great deal was said, and nothing done. Miss Broadhurst,
however, was not a young lady who could be easily deceived, even where
her passions were concerned. The moment her mother told her of Lord
Colambre's intended departure, she saw the whole truth. She had a
strong mind--was capable of drawing aside, at once, the curtain of
self-delusion, and looking steadily at the skeleton of truth--she had
a generous, perhaps because a strong mind; for, surrounded, as she had
been from her childhood, by every means of self-indulgence which wealth
and flattery could bestow, she had discovered early, what few persons
in her situation discover till late in life, that selfish gratifications
may render us incapable of other happiness, but can never, of
themselves, make us happy. Despising flatterers, she had determined to
make herself friends to make them in the only possible way--by deserving
them. Her father made his immense fortune by the power and habit of
constant, bold, and just calculation. The power and habit which she had
learned from him she applied on a far larger scale; with him, it was
confined to speculations for the acquisition of money; with her,
it extended to the attainment of happiness. He was calculating and
mercenary: she was estimative and generous.

Miss Nugent was dressing for the concert, or, rather, was sitting
half-dressed before her glass, reflecting, when Miss Broadhurst came
into her room. Miss Nugent immediately sent her maid out of the room.

'Grace,' said Miss Broadhurst, looking at Grace with an air of open,
deliberate composure, 'you and I are thinking of the same thing--of the
same person.'

'Yes, of Lord Colambre,' said Miss Nugent, ingenuously and sorrowfully.

'Then I can put your mind at ease, at once, my dear friend, by assuring
you that I shall think of him no more. That I have thought of him, I do
not de