said, that she was willing to conform to his direċtions.

"If I must quarrel with any thing," said Sackville, with one of his most engaging smiles, "it shall be with the obedient tone of that answer. It was rather like an address to a guardian. However, if you wish me once more to be somewhat authoritative before I lay down my office, I will exercise a little gentle tyranny upon you, and request that you will partake of society as freely as if we were not engaged, and that you will not allow me to be any restraint upon your actions. No: I will not be thanked by you-it is the world at large that is my debtor-and they, indeed, have need to thank me for not depriving them of you, who are so great an ornament and acquisition wherever you appear. To come to particularsI hope I may accompany you to the Rodborough's ball on Wednesday. It will give me pleasure to see you go into society the same as before: I love to have you seen and admired, and to be myself the witness of it; and that is a pleasure which I hope you are too kind to deny me."

Agnes professed, with truth, to feel very little inclination for society, and under present circumstances would willingly have declined the ball at Westcourt; but as he seemed to wish that she should not forego it, she had no other course than to comply. His object in pressing this point was twofold: first, to render his engagement generally known and acknowledged; and secondly, to give to his own conduct an air of liberality, and to avoid the appearance of timidity and concealment.

After the previous discussion, Sackville, wishing to wean her mind from all harassing thoughts, leà her insensibly into cheerful conversation upon subjects less immediately connected with their union. Her confidence and tranquillity were gradually restored; and this interview, the purport of which

was so cruelly afflicting, and which, at its commencement, had been attended with such a painful excess of agitation, ended at length with a composure on the part of Agnes, which, when she retired to muse over the past in solitude, she felt to he almost unaccountable.

CHAPTER XX.

I like not fair terms and a villain's mind.

Merchant of Venice.

We must now return to fill up a slight chasm in the history of the proceedings of Sackville, and relate what passed between the time of his quitting Lacy Park on the preceding day, and his appearance at the dinner-table at Dodswell.

After quitting the Lacys, he proceeded to a small neighbouring town, and stopped at a house situated in the outskirts, at which resided the person already introduced to our readers, by the name of Richard Allen. This person was one whom it was difficult to designate very briefly. He called himself a land surveyor, in addition to which, and the occasional occupation of a valuer of tithes, he was agent to one or two estates, acted sometimes as an auctioneer, farmed, speculated in building, and made money in more ways than his neighbours were generally acquainted with. He had begun life inauspiciously, as clerk in a bank which failed. He afterwards obtained the more lucrative situation of justice's clerk, in a populous district, where, in the course of a dozen years, he picked up some law and a good deal of money. He was supposed to be in good circumstances, and, as his wealth had flowed from various sources, nobody knew exactly how, was generally pronounced to be "a bit of a rogue."

On this point, nobody was much mistaken; and if the world erred, it was only with respect to the

quantum of his knavery, which was rated, except by one person, very much below the truth. Nobody, however, wished to think more severely of him than was necessary, for he was a useful person, and had a civil, cheerful, popular manner, which equally recommended him to high and low; and however his neighbours might mentally consign him to eventual perdition, they would, at the same time, internally confess that they could "better spare a better man.

Allen had not the sullen scowl, or designing sneer of your open villains, who carry a caution in their faces to counteract their schemes. He was a little, busy, brisk, obliging man; all gaiety, civility, and seeming candour, who had his ready laugh and joke for every one, who was the frequent referee in petty disputes, the boon companion of the neighbouring farmers, the leading wag in their convivial meetings, and who could sing a comic song at a benefit club feast, better than any man in the Hundred.

It was at the door of this person that Sackville alighted, on the day above-mentioned, and was ushered, by the bowing, smiling master of the mansion, into a small back-room, furnished with a clerk's desk, various dusty lackered boxes, deeds, plans, and advertisements of sales. There was a good deal of eager attention on the part of Allen, through which an observant eye might perhaps have detected some indications of secret uneasiness, -"I am quite glad you are come, Mr. Sackville," said he, bustling meanwhile about the room, and putting things out of his visiter's way, "for I knew you would be wanting to see me-and I was thinking of going over to you and I have made out the valuation-and

"Very good," interrupted Sackville-"I will look at that some other time-I am come to speak to you upon other business now,”

Allen bowed and looked grave: there was something in Sackville's tone that jarred unpleasantly on his ear; and he began to be officiously active in taking charge of his hat and whip, and apologizing for the disordered state of the apartment.

"Are we secure from being overheard?" said Sackville. "I ask for your sake as well as mine." Allen assured him that they were.

"Very well," pursued the former, "then now to business. Have you got me the list of Mr. Morton's debts?"

"I have, Sir," said Allen, and gave him a paper. “Are these all?”

"All, I believe, Sir. We have not been able to discover any other bond debts; and the mortgages specified over the leaf, comprise all the landed property that he is known to have. I myself,

am creditor for all the sums lent on bond that are marked with red ink, and am mortgagee of the Draycot Magna, and Shawley farms, and also the Dodswell domain."

"You have not allowed my name to appear?" "No, Sir, no-I have kept all close-I believe you will find that I have done every thing quite correct according to your directions."

"I am satisfied," said Sackville: "you have acquitted yourself extremely well; and now I have other plans in which I shall look for your assistance."

"You may command me, Sir," said Allen.

"Yes," replied Sackville, in a peculiar tone, "I know I may-I will now tell you shortly what I I want you to do—I wish Mr. Morton to be made to understand that I am his principal creditor, having made myself such, in order to save him from being pressed by you, when you were much in want of money yourself; and that I accordingly received from you an assignment of some of his bond debts and mortgages, on giving you my own bond to their