every mamma and daughter who come within ear or eyeshot. His love for Mary Granard has taken him quite by surprise, and he is still reluctant and suspicious of so novel a feeling. Once let his attention be drawn to Lady Anne's manœuvres, and once let him suppose that Mary is a party to them, and the game is in our own hands."
"But how," asked Miss Aubrey, anxiously, "is this to be effected?"
"I have already settled the whole plan," and Lady Rotheles proceeded to detail her ingenious and heartless scheme.
"Poor Mary!" was the involuntary exclamation of her rival. Lady Rotheles looked first amazed, and then scornful.
"Pray," said she, "keep any thing like sentiment for Allerton. I am not the least afraid that you will have too much. But one thing I beg to observe—I shall expect active co-operation on your part. You are clever enough if you exert yourself, and that is what people usually do when it is for themselves."
"But," continued Henrietta, "though Lord Allerton's affection may be diverted from Mary Granard, I do not understand why it should turn towards me."
"Because," replied her aunt, "he will need an object, and you are the only other girl in the house. A young man in love passes his time very pleasantly—rouse him from the dream, and, for a while, he does not know what to do with himself. He wants an
