ng that interested in Lord
Vargrave's fluent ease. When he attempted sentiment, the vein was hard
and hollow; he was only at home on worldly topics. Caroline's spirits
were, as usual in society, high, but her laugh seemed forced, and her
eye absent.

The next day, after breakfast, Lord Vargrave walked alone to Burleigh.
As he crossed the copse that bordered the park, a large Persian
greyhound sprang towards him, barking loudly; and, lifting his eyes, he
perceived the form of a man walking slowly along one of the paths that
intersected the wood. He recognized Maltravers. They had not till then
encountered since their meeting a few weeks before Florence's death; and
a pang of conscience came across the schemer's cold heart. Years rolled
away from the past; he recalled the young, generous, ardent man, whom,
ere the character or career of either had been developed, he had called
his friend. He remembered their wild adventures and gay follies, in
climes where they had been all in all to each other; and the beardless
boy, whose heart and purse were ever open to him, and to whose very
errors of youth and inexperienced passion he, the elder and the wiser,
had led and tempted, rose before him in contrast to the grave and
melancholy air of the battled and solitary man, who now slowly
approached him,--the man whose proud career he had served to thwart,
whose heart his schemes had prematurely soured, whose best years had
been consumed in exile,--a sacrifice to the grave which a selfish and
dishonourable villany had prepared! Cesarini, the inmate of a mad-house,
Florence in her shroud,--such were the visions the sight of Maltravers
conjured up. And to the soul which the unwonted and momentary remorse
awakened, a boding voice whispered, "And thinkest thou that thy schemes
shall prosper, and thy aspirations succeed?" For the first time in
his life, perhaps, the unimaginative Vargrave felt the mystery of a
presentiment of warning and of evil.

The two men met, and with an emotion which seemed that of honest and
real feeling, Lumley silently held out his hand, and half turned away
his head.

"Lord Vargrave!" said Maltravers, with an equal agitation, "it is long
since we have encountered."

"Long,--very long," answered Lumley, striving hard to regain his
self-possession; "years have changed us both; but I trust it has still
left in you, as it has in me, the remembrance of our old friendship."

Maltravers was silent, and Lord Vargra