ringing creature she was, save for the 'sister' she taught me to
know and love, even before I saw her."

A wonderful revelation here burst on Aurelia, the at least half-married
woman, and she fled precipitately, smiling to herself in ecstasy, behind
her great fan.

Betty, never dreaming of the drift of the words, so utterly out of the
reach of love did she suppose herself, replied, composedly, "Our Aurelia
is a dear good girl, and I am thankful that through all her trials she
has so proved herself. I am glad she has been a comfort to you, sir.
She---"

"And will not you complete the cure, and render the benefit lasting?"
said Mr. Belamour, who had never let go the hand she had given him in
gratitude, and now gave it a pressure that conveyed, for the first time,
his meaning.

"Oh!" she cried, trying to take it away, "your kindness and gratitude
are leading you too far, sir. A hideous old fright like me, instead of a
lovely young thing like her! It is an absurdity."

"Stay, Miss Delavie. Remember that your Aurelia's roses and lilies were
utterly wasted on me; I never thought whether she was beautiful save
when others raved about her. I never saw her till yesterday; but the
voice, the goodness, the amiability, in fact all that I did truly esteem
and prize in her I had already found matured and mellowed together
with that beauty of countenance which is independent of mere skin-deep
complexion and feature. You know my history, and how far I am from
being able to offer you a fresh untouched young heart, such as my nephew
brings to the fair Aurelia; but the devotion of my life will be yours if
you will accept it."

"Sir, I cannot listen to you. You are very good, but I can never leave
my father. Oh, let me go away!"

CHAPTER XXXVII. MAKING THE BEST OF IT.

At last the Queen said, "Girl, I bid thee rise,
For now thou hast found favour in mine eyes,
And I repent me of the misery
That in this place thou hast endured me,
Altho' because of it the Joy indeed
Shall now be mine, that pleasure is thy meed."
MORRIS.

Those were evil times, and the court examples were most corrupting,
so that a splendid and imperious woman like Urania, Lady Belamour, had
found little aid from public opinion when left to herself by the absence
of her second husband. Selfish, unscrupulous, and pleasure-loving she
was by nature, but during Sir Jovian Belamour's life