demanded the indignant father, roused from his usual lethargy by the importance of the occasion; "Clara shall go to a boarding-school tomorrow, and her nurse shall be dismissed. My child shall not be taught to utter treason."
"Dear me! Mr. Montagu," replied the wife, "what a serious matter you make of a little harmless gossip!"
"Gossip do you call it?" repeated her husband; "it is such gossip as might cost me my head, and you your fortune, if it were to reach unfriendly ears."
An awkward pause followed this speech, which no one seemed inclined to break, till Clara exclaimed, "Dear me! what a pretty horse my cousin Edmund rides!"
"I think that's a prettier that comes after him," said Father Murphy.
"What, that one with his head hanging down and his mane sweeping the ground ?" asked Mrs. Montagu.
"Yes.—And it's a very handsome young man also that walks by the side of him," replied Father Murphy.
"His hands are chained as if he were a pri-
