was really waiting an opportunity for entering with Mr. Penrhyn. "Hold yourself prepared for a great, indeed, an alarming change in Lady Anne, my dear Isabella; she is a shadow of her former self, but by no means a change from it. Go forward with your brother; I will be near to protect you, if she scolds."
Isabella was seized with as genuine a sensation of girlish fear as if she had never left the paternal dwelling, yet she had also an ardent desire to see her mamma, and a sincere pity for her complaints, be they what they might; and between these various emotions of the mind her countenance was lighted into positive beauty; she was grown not only taller but fuller, and her contour, which was perfect, was aided by a bearing expressive of self-possession, the grace of which was rather heightened than compromised by the earnest, yet timid expression of her features. Lady Anne absolutely started with pleased surprise as she threw her thin arms around her and exclaimed—"Well! I never expected to see my little brown girl grown into so fine a woman; but what a pity it is to receive you thus en déshabille! Dress must become you much, Isabella."
"Pity to receive us at all to-night," said Mrs. Glentworth, who could not utter another syllable for the suffocating sensation in her throat; and the
