matters not; but oh, I will not cause them further suffering.  I will no longer wring the heart of my gentle mother, who has so often prayed for her erring child.  Too late, perhaps, I have determined, but the wife of Lord Alphingham I will never be; but his character is still dear to me, and I entreat your Grace not to withdraw your favour from him.  He alone is not to blame, I also am culpable, for I acknowledge the encouragement I have given him.  My character for integrity is gone, but his is still unstained.”

“Fear not for him, my favour he has never had; but my honour is too dear to me for such an affair as this to pass my lips.  Let him continue the courted, the spoiled, the flattered child of fashion he has ever been.  I regard him not.  Let him run his course rejoicing, it matters not to me.”  She rang the bell as she spoke, and slowly and silently paced the room till Allison obeyed the summons.  “Desire James to put four swift horses to the chariot.  Important business calls me instantly to London; bid him use dispatch, every moment is precious.”

Allison departed, and the Duchess continued pacing the apartment till she returned, announcing the carriage as ready.  A very few minutes sufficed for their personal preparations, for the Duchess to give peremptory orders to her trusty Allison to keep her departure a profound secret, as she should return before her guests were stirring the next morning, and herself account for Miss Hamilton’s sudden return home.  Few words were sufficient for Allison, who was in all respects well fitted for the situation she held near a person of the Duchess of Rothbury’s character; and the carriage rolled rapidly from Airslie.

Not another word passed between the travelling companions.  In feverish agitation on the part of Caroline, in cold, unbending sternness on that of the Duchess, their journey passed.  To the imagination of the former, the roll of the carriage-wheels was the sound of pursuing horses; in every turn of the road her fevered fancy beheld the figure of Lord Alphingham:  at one time glaring on her in reproachful bitterness, at another, in mockery, derision, satire; and when she closed her eyes, those visions still tormented, nor did they depart till she felt her mother’s arm around her, her gentle voice pronounce her name.

True to her determination, the Duchess left London as early as six the following day, and, as usual, was the first within the breakfast-room, and little could her friends imagine that since they had left her the preceding evening she had made a journey to London and back.  Caroline’s indisposition, which had been evident for several days, although she had not complained till the day before, easily accounted for her return home, although the exact time of her doing so was known to none save her Grace herself; and even if surprise had been created, it would speedily have passed away in the whirl of amusements which surrounded them.  But the courted, the admired, the fascinating