off again, for you just look as white as a sheet, and as frightful as when you were first knocked down. Dear me, what shall I get you ?"

Something indeed seemed necessary; for the thought of all I had said in my delirium being known, not only to Margaret, but to Bertha herself, filled me with agony; I felt my wound severely, and was very sick.

Luckily Sandford was just arrived from York, and came in at the moment. He saw my distress, and asked Margaret the cause of it, who declared she did not know, for she had only been having the most innocentest conversation possible, just to amuse me, as I seemed rather low. When, however, having sent Margaret out of the room, he heard the particulars, he was not surprised, but told me not to alarm myself, for that Miss Hastings was much too sensible a creature, as well as too just, to take any thing amiss from a man not himself.

"To be sure," said he, "if she did, you are in a bad way, for you have a great deal more to answer for than what Margaret told you."

He then informed me of all I had said to himself about Bertha; "And, by the way," said he, "it is well, perhaps, that Mr. Hastings is not Dionysius, who, you know, put a man to death for dreaming that he had killed him, because it denoted a foregone conclusion. Here, however, if your heart is as safe as your head, as I hope it is, you have nothing to fear."

Though he said this playfully, and to recover me from the mental excitement occasioned by Margaret's garrulity, I felt seriously alarmed at the thought

that Bertha had been made conscious of her power over me, even in delirium. Sandford saw it, and bent all his efforts to do away the effect, but rather too emphatically, as I thought, dwelling upon the impossibility of Bertha's taking it ill, and her conviction of the total impossibility of my thinking of the thing itself. He succeeded, however, in calming me, and left me, saying, I was going on well.

Thus, said I to myself, everybody concurs in holding, that to think, feel, and act as I do, is madness; and the best I can expect is, that Bertha, from forming the same judgment, will acquit me of presumption, and still allow me to be her friend; which will be felicity enough. The thought soothed.

CHAPTER IV.

I BID FAREWELL TO ALL HOPES OF BERTHA, AND LEAVE FOLJAMBE PARK FOR EVER.

The crown and comfort of my life, your favour,

I do give lost.

SHAKSPEARE.-Winter's Tale.

Although

The air of paradise did fan the house,
And angels offic'd all, I will be gone,

That pitiful rumour may report my flight,

To consolate thine ear.

All's Well that Ends Well.

It was two days more before I was able, or rather willing, to quit my room; for though my wound was healing fast, my strength recruited, and I had no more delirium, my vanity, or (as vanity has been characterised) my desire to make myself agreeable, could not bear the thought of appearing before Bertha with my head bound up, to hide the patches still necessary for my cure.

Both Mr. Hastings and Bertha congratulated me cordially enough on my reappearance among them; yet, as my fears whispered me, they were not quite so cordial as they had been. There was a constraint, a

thoughtfulness, in the demeanour of both, which I did not like. Was this owing to the tales told by the delirium? I was afraid to answer.

The same constraint seemed to pursue them the rest of the day, which, as Mr. Hastings was naturally reserved, did not in him surprise me; and for Bertha herself, though of so very frank a nature, much allowance was to be made, from the mournful circumstances that surrounded her. Still one would have thought that, as I had been invited with the express view of contributing comfort to the family under those circumstances, I might have been admitted to a fuller companionship than was now awarded me. The saloon where we had generally sat was avoided, and Bertha, if not closeted with her father, passed the whole morning, and even the evening, in her own room; so that, except at meals, there seemed an absolute interdiction of intercourse.

This continued all the next day, when a still more marked incident proved the change I had noticed. Observing my young friend cloaked at the halldoor, preparing for a walk, and offering to attend her, she protested so strongly against my wish, on the score of my weakened state, although I felt quite myself, that I saw this could only proceed from design, and I instantly desisted. That day I saw her no more, except at dinner and tea, when the conversation, contrary to its wont, was altogether uninteresting.

Alarmed and mortified, I had recourse to my usual counsellor, Granville, who told me. news which

prompted serious reflection. It seems that my unfortunate wanderings were known to Mr. Hastings as well as to Bertha. O! these chambermaids! Mrs. Margaret could not retain such a remarkable secret, but told it to Mr. Marvel, Mr. Hastings' butler, and he to Mr. Hastings himself, thinking it a mere amusing anecdote of a gentleman out of his mind. The minutia, indeed, were not stated, but merely how the young gentleman had run on about Miss Bertha; and when Mr. Hastings, with some displeasure, checked his servant, whom, not liking the subject, he accused of an exaggerated account, Mr. Marvel, in defence of his own and Mrs. Margaret's integrity, said it all passed before the doctor, who knew all the particulars.

Greatly annoyed, Mr. Hastings immediately assailed Sandford for the facts, who very frankly gave them, treating the whole affair as of no consequence, and as a common occurrence in deliriums, for which a patient was no more answerable than for a dream.

Mr. Hastings hoped it might be so, but the particular phrases, as well as ideas, struck him. In relating this afterwards to Granville, he did not conceal the fears which the incident had prompted, pitying and speaking well of me, but no more.

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By this," said Granville, "it should seem that his humility is on the wane, and his pride resuming the ascendant."

My suspicions, as to a change of manner both in father and daughter, were thus confirmed, and I was not the happier for it. My pride, however, saved me. I was resolved that, even if the supposed discovery