s of London? Sir Miles
had friends who would honestly inform him of the result. She did but
suggest this; she was too ready to leave all to her dear guardian's
acuteness and experience.

Melted by her docility, and in high approval of the prudence which
betokened a more rational judgment than he himself had evinced, the
good old man clasped her to his breast and shed tears as he praised and
thanked her. She had decided, as she always did, for the best; Heaven
forbid that she should be wasted on an incorrigible man of pleasure!
"And," said the frank-hearted gentleman, unable long to keep any thought
concealed,--"and to think that I could have wronged you for a moment, my
own noble child; that I could have been dolt enough to suppose that
the good looks of that boy Mainwaring might have caused you to forget
what--But you change colour!"--for, with all her dissimulation, Lucretia
loved too ardently not to shrink at that name thus suddenly pronounced.
"Oh," continued the baronet, drawing her still nearer towards him, while
with one hand he put back her face, that he might read its expression
the more closely,--"oh, if it had been so,--if it be so, I will pity,
not blame you, for my neglect was the fault: pity you, for I have known
a similar struggle; admire you in pity, for you have the spirit of your
ancestors, and you will conquer the weakness. Speak! have I touched on
the truth? Speak without fear, child,--you have no mother; but in age a
man sometimes gets a mother's heart."

Startled and alarmed as the lark when the step nears its nest, Lucretia
summoned all the dark wile of her nature to mislead the intruder. "No,
uncle, no; I am not so unworthy. You misconceived my emotion."

"Ah, you know that he has had the presumption to love you,--the
puppy!--and you feel the compassion you women always feel for such
offenders? Is that it?"

Rapidly Lucretia considered if it would be wise to leave that impression
on his mind. On one hand, it might account for a moment's agitation; and
if Mainwaring were detected hovering near the domain, in the exchange of
their correspondence, it might appear but the idle, if hopeless, romance
of youth, which haunts the mere home of its object,--but no; on
the other hand, it left his banishment absolute and confirmed. Her
resolution was taken with a promptitude that made her pause not
perceptible.

"No, my dear uncle," she said, so cheerfully that it removed all doubt
from the mind of her