e encountered by self-praises of his cunning. What would her "pluck"
say to his "cowardice," was a terrible query.

CHAPTER XXXVI. A COUNTRY VISIT

Let us now return to the Hermitage, and the quiet lives of those who
dwelt there. Truly, to the traveller gazing down from some lofty point
of the Glengariff road upon that lowly cottage deep buried in its beech
wood, and only showing rare glimpses of its trellised walls, nothing
could better convey the idea of estrangement from the world and its
ambitions. From the little bay, where the long low waves swept in
measured cadence on the sands, to the purple-clad mountains behind, the
scene was eminently calm and peaceful. The spot was precisely one to
suggest the wisdom of that choice which prefers tranquil obscurity to
the struggle and conflict of the great world. What a happy existence
would you say was theirs, who could drop down the stream of a life
surrounded with objects of such beauty, free to indulge each rising
fancy, and safe from all the collisions of mankind!--how would one be
disposed to envy the unbroken peacefulness that no ambitions ruffled, no
rude disappointments disturbed! And yet such speculations as these are
ever faulty, and wherever the human heart throbs, there will be found
its passions, its hopes and fears. Beneath that quiet roof there dwelt
all the elements that make the battle of life; and high aspirings and
ignoble wishes, and love and fear, and jealousy, and wealth-seeking
lived there, as though the spot were amidst the thundering crash of
crowded streets and the din of passing thousands!

Sybella Kellett had been domesticated there about two months,
and between Lady Augusta and herself there had grown a sort of
intimacy,--short, indeed, of friendship, but in which each recognized
good qualities in the other.

Had Miss Kellett been older, less good-looking, less grace-ful in
manner, or generally less attractive, it is just possible that--we say
it with all doubt and deference--Lady Augusta might have been equally
disposed to feel satisfied. She suspected "Mr. Dunn must have somewhat
mistaken the object of her note," or "overlooked the requirements they
sought for." Personal attractions were not amongst the essentials she
had mentioned. "My Lord," too, was amazed at his recommending a
"mere girl,"--she couldn't be more than "twenty,"--and, consequently,
"totally deficient in the class of knowledge he desired."

Two months,--no very long