a tear on his friend's shoulders, whispering, with a tremulous voice, "All would he well now, if she were here." Charlie, who understood the remark, exclaimed triumphantly (at the same time stepping over to his wife, and removing her veil), "Behold her George! I have brought her back again! She was not drowned, as was supposed, but was for years a captive in the power of savages, from whom I rescued her, and for which she has rewarded me with her hand, and you now see Charlie Stuart and Bella McKay man and wife."
The latter portion of this sentence fell with a heavy shock on the ears of the half-stupified Lord Lundy. His former hatred and animosity towards his now successful rival returned with tenfold force, but which was arrested by the affectionate meeting of George and his long-lost sister. Not an eye in that room was free from tears, oven the callous debauchees were obliged to turn their heads, and hide their emotion.
Lord Lundy could not bear to hear the glowing terms in which Bella eulogized her husband's bravery when rescuing her, and see the sweet looks with which she acknowledged Charlie's devotion. The enraged spendthrift picked up his hat, exclaiming in a rage, "I thought Charlie Stuart knew his place better than to place a foot on an estate from which he had been so ignominiously expelled, and from which he would be horsewhipped, were it not for the connexion he has so surreptitiously formed."
On hearing this Charlie, in a delightfully cool and defiant manner, walked across to where Lord Lundy stood, when, standing erect, and fixing his eye firmly upon him, said, "I beg your pardon, my Lord, but I will just inform you that, so far from the proprietor of this estate inflicting any such punishment upon me, he would rather apply it to your Lordship." At this moment he handed a sealed packet to Lord Lundy, and added, "In place of your horsewhipping me off your estate, I have now to request that you will quit my estate at your earliest convenience."
At these words his Lordship turned pale, broke the seal of the package, when the first lines that met his
