200 THE PANELLED HOUSE.

| enlisting Colonel Armyn upon her side, she made
up her mind that he should know nothing about
it, She had already seen how Escott’s behaviour
distressed him; she would not give him more
distress by telling him of Flora’s conduct. The
discovery she had made yesterday should be kept
|a secret in her own heart. Poor Nest did not feel
at all heroic as she made this resolve; she felt
very humble and good for nothing, for it seemed
to her that it must be her fault that her love had
no power to hold Edward, when once he was
hers.

She came downstairs, her attire exquisitely neat
as usual, but without a vestige of colour in her
face. She could not eat, although she pretended
to do so; she was taken up with suspense in
awaiting Flora’s visit. When the door-bell at last
rang, she went downstairs herself and admitted
her visitor. She conducted her into a little room
which had been used as a schoolroom, where they
could be alone. As they passed into it, Nest saw
herself and Flora reflected in the mirror over the
chimney-piece ; herself white, scared, effaced-look-
ing: Flora tall, magnificent, radiant with pink
and white skin, and glowing hair. A sudden pang
shot through her that it was no wonder that
Edward thought nothing of her beside Flora.

She sat down without saying a word, and her
heart beat fast. Flora sat down too, and made
little remarks, apropos to nothing, which showed
that she was as ill at ease as Nest. At last Nest
said, hoarsely, “I thought you came to speak to
me about ae

“Yes ; I did,” said Flora. “Tell me what you
thought yesterday when you saw us together. I
know you must have thought it strange.”

“T could only think one thing,” said Nest quietly,
“‘when I heard him say what he did.”

‘And I suppose you have told all your people,”
said Flora, with a mixture of triumph and uneasi-
ness in her voice.

“No; I have told no one,” said Nest.

“Haven’t you?” Flora’s face showed an intense
relief. ‘Oh, Nest, how kind of you!”

“There was no kindness,” said Nest, coldly.

Flora’s manner altered at once. She stood up
and said, “I beg your pardon, Nest. I know you
have a right to be angry; but I came to ask if
you would be kind to us, and not tell. You will
make Edward miserable for life if you insist on
his keeping his engagement to you—he will if you
insist, he teld me so; but he will be unhappy all
his life, and so shall I.”

Nest said nothing.

“Indeed he did not mean to treat you ill. But
you know he had not seen me when he was en-
gaged to you: and I care so very much for him,”
said Flora, with a faltering voice ; “so does he

for me. And if you tell, and papa hears of it, he
will be so angry. I know we have treated you
very badly; but if you will only forgive, and
return good for evil, we shall be thankful to you
all our lives,”

Still Nest said nothing, but hid her face in her
hands. Jt was quite plain that Flora little knew
the bitterness which her own words conveyed,
The assumption that her love was every thing to
Edward, and Nest’s nothing, brought before poor
Nest the position of affairs more vividly than her

thoughts had hitherto been able to picture it.

“Oh, Nest!” said Flora, frightened by her
continual silence, ‘‘ please, please, listen tome. If
you tell, and papa hears of it, I won’t stay—I will
run away and hide. You don’t know what it is
when he is angry. And then it will spoil every
thing, and Edward will be miserable, and so shall
I. We do care for each other so much, we could
not part now.” And Flora positively knelt on the
floor by the side of Nest’s chair. She, with her
superficial, though stormy feelings, had little idea
of the slow torture she was causing to Nest.

“TI won’t tell,” said Nest in a half suffocated
voice. “If you give me Edward’s address at
Erconbury I will write to him. Oh, Flora, how
could you take him away from me ?”

“ He liked me best,” said Flora. ‘I could not
help it. And it was the first time any one ever
had liked me. You go about, you get plenty of
chances, Nest. I live shut up here, and never get
one. And when we found out that we did like
each other, what were we to do?”

“I don’t know,” said Nest wearily, “I only
know that I would sooner have died than haye
come between two people who loved one another.
Now, Flora, I have promised ; please let me go.
I can’t bear it any longer. Ah, the address.”

“He is at the King’s Head,” said Flora, following
Nest out of the room. Nest went upstairs, bolted
her door, and threw herself on the bed, where she lay
in a half-exhausted stupor for some time. Then
she got up, and wrote her last letter to Edward.

“Dear Epwarp,—I set you free. I wish you
could have come forward yourself, instead of
leaving me to find it out by accident like this : but
it is all over now. J shall not say any thing to
any one about it, you need not fear me. I cannot
say that it has not made me very unhappy, for I
trusted you so implicitly,—perhaps you did not
know how much. I hope Flora will make you a
good wife. :

“Nest CorpDELIA WILLIAMs.”

Then Nest took her few little treasures—a
turquoise ring, a little gold étui, and a photograph
of Edward ; tied them up together in a packet,
with trembling fingers, directed them and_ her
letter, went inte the drawing-room, and asked Evan,

ee