engagement and a clandestine correspondence. Be just to him;
be just to your Henrietta! Return, I beseech you on my knees; return
instantly to Ducie; reveal everything. He will be kind and gracious; he
will be our best friend; in his hand and bosom we shall find solace and
support. God bless you, Ferdinand! All will yet go well, mine own, own
love. I smile amid my tears when I think that we shall so soon meet. Oh!
what misery can there be in this world if we may but share it together?

Thy fond, thy faithful, thy devoted

Henrietta.

CHAPTER III.

_Containing the Arrival at Ducie of a Distinguished Guest_.

IT WAS about three weeks after Ferdinand Armine had quitted Ducie that
Mr. Temple entered the breakfast-room one morning, with an open note in
his hand, and told Henrietta to prepare for visitors, as her old friend,
Lady Bellair, had written to apprise him of her intention to rest the
night at Ducie, on her way to the North.

'She brings with her also the most charming woman in the world,' added
Mr. Temple, with a smile.

'I have little doubt Lady Bellair deems her companion so at present,'
said Miss Temple, 'whoever she may be; but, at any rate, I shall be glad
to see her ladyship, who is certainly one of the most amusing women in
the world.'

This announcement of the speedy arrival of Lady Bellair made some bustle
in the household of Ducie Bower; for her ladyship was in every respect a
memorable character, and the butler who had remembered her visits to Mr.
Temple before his residence at Ducie, very much interested the
curiosity of his fellow-servants by his intimations of her ladyship's
eccentricities.

'You will have to take care of the parrot, Mary,' said the butler;
'and you, Susan, must look after the page. We shall all be well
cross-examined as to the state of the establishment; and so I advise you
to be prepared. Her ladyship is a rum one, and that's the truth.'

In due course of time, a handsome travelling chariot, emblazoned with a
viscount's coronet, and carrying on the seat behind a portly man-servant
and a lady's maid, arrived at Ducie. They immediately descended, and
assisted the assembled household of the Bower to disembark the contents
of the chariot; but Mr. Temple and his daughter were too well acquainted
with Lady Bellair's character to appear at this critical moment.
First came forth a stately dame, of ample proportions and exceedingly
magnificent attire, being dressed in t