Aurora Floyd

e and satisfaction. It seemed as if some heavy burden had been taken away, a

oms - pretty, cheerful chambers, with bow-windows that looked across the well-kept stable-yard into lo

cated at the eastern angle; for it was the hospitable custom of the old banker to summon his kinsfolk about him ea

it was pronounced by all who observed the change that the air of East Cliff, and the aut

me beautiful, noisy, boisterous water-fall, for ever dancing, rushing, sparkling, scintillating, and utterly defying you to do anything but admire it. Talbot Bulstrode, having once abandoned himself to the spell of the siren, made no farther struggle, but fairly fell into the pitfalls of her eyes, and was entangled in the meshy net-work of her blue-black hair. The greater the tension of the bowstring, the stron

oreover, that Miss Floyd was a banker's daughter, beautiful and fascinating, with big black eyes, and fifty thousand pounds for her dowry. Lady Raleigh Bulstrode answered her son's letter upon a quarter of a quire of note-paper, filled with fearful motherly prayers and suggestions; anxious hopes that he had chosen wisely; questionings as to the opinions and relig

imes a day in quest of the English papers. He dined drearily at Véfour's, the Trois Frères, and the Café de Paris. His big voice was heard at every expensive dining-place in Paris, ordering "Toos killyar de mellyour: vous savez;" but he sent the daintiest dishes away untasted, and would sit for a quarter of an hour counting the toothpicks in the tiny blue vases, and thinking of Aurora. He rode dismally in the Bois de Boulogne, and sat shivering in cafés chantants, listening to songs that always seemed set to the same melody. He haunted the circuses, and was wellnigh in love with a fair manége rider, who had black eyes, and reminded him

ng people were all cousins to Aurora Floyd, and loved the banker's daughter with a childish worship, which mild Lucy could never inspire. It was pleasant to Talbot Bulstrode to see that, wherever his future wife trod, love and admiration waited upon her footste

No more copies of Bell's Life littered the ladies' morning-room at Felden; and when Andrew Floyd asked Aurora to ride to meet with him, his cousin refused the offer, which would once have been so welcome. Instead of following the Croydon hounds, Miss Floyd was content to drive Talbot and Lucy in a basket carriage through the frost-bespangled country-side. Lucy was always the companion and confidante of the lovers; it was hard for her to hear their happy talk of the bright future

d boluses; and no one for a moment imagined that anything could possibly be amiss with a young lady who lived in a luxurious house, went shopping in a carriage and pair, and had more pocket-money than she cared to spend. But the lily maid

ose journals go mad for love unrequited? Did the LADY WITH THE LAMP cherish any foolish passion in those days and nights of ceaseless toil, in those long watches of patient devotion far away in the East? Do the curates of over-crowded parishes, the chaplains of jails and convict-ships, the great medical attendants in the wards of hospitals - do the

f; and when people told her of her pale face, and the family doctor wondered at the failure of his quinine mixture, perhaps she nourished a vague hope that before the s

being worthy of that affection, as won the Cornish lady's regard for her future daughter. It was difficult to associate the impetuous girl with that letter, and Lady Bulstrode made an image of the writer t

d letter to her lover. "She is very proud, is she not - proud of your ancient descent. My father c

ed her with a

gree of such a man as Archibald Floyd - a man whom the proudest aristocrat in England might be glad to call his father-

ould I have ever cared about horse-racing, and read sport

s question rather of

ery and snug suites of apartments, each of them large enough to accommodate a small family? What need had one solitary old man of that retinue of servants, the costly stud in the stables, the new-fangled vehicles in the coach-houses, the hot-house flowers, the pines, and grapes, and peaches, cultivated by three Scottish gardeners? What need had he of these things? He lived principally in the study, in which he had once had a stormy interview with his only child; the study in w

ceed to the baronetcy and Bulstrode Castle, and be required to live upon his estate. In the meantime the ex-Hussar was to go into Parliament

s sealed, and that she would have to quit those pleasant pastures after the wedding-day; but Aurora speedily set the mind of the ensign's widow at rest by telling

gns, old brown sherry, French brandy, and gunpowder tea. Whether the daughter was dying of consumption, or the father laid up with the rheumatics, or the husband in a raging fever, or the youngest boy recovering from a fall into a copper of boiling water, the above-named remedies seemed alike necessary, and were far more popular than the chicken-broths and cooling fever-drinks, prepared by the Felden cook. It pleased Talbot to see his betrothed dispensing good things to the eager recipients of her bou

e visits that an adventure befell the little party

kes of snow drifted across the hard road, and hung here and there upon the leafless hedges, and there was that inky blackness in the sky which presages a heavy fall. The woman at the lodge ran

comforter, after the fashion of his kind; and the band of his low-crowned felt hat was ornamented with a short clay pipe, colored of a respectable blackness. A dingy white dog, with a brass collar, bow legs, a short nose, bloodsho

al who had accosted Miss Floyd in

whip, and the spirited animals had dashed past the man, and through the gates of Felden, when he sprang forward

ehicle, heedless of his stiff leg,

d, lifting his cane; "how dar

ak to her, that's why. L

s cane and inflicted such a chastisement upon the snub nose of th

t scoundrel, and I'

s all very well for young swells such as you, as has your dawgs, and guns, and 'untin'; but the winter's tryin' to a poor man's temper when he's industri

young

yd - the

om her seat and flung the reins to Lucy; she was looking toward the two men

man's collar, and we

his person, Au

es

our old pension

lbot. His manner is rough, but he means no

rom the carriage, and joined the man beneath the bare

upon her as she approached, and was driven away by a fierce growl

ed ceremoniously at a tuft of sandyish

without all this here row, Miss F

ed at him i

re?" she said; "why cou

a might n't have put his hand upon my letter, and there'd have been a pretty to do; though I dessay, as for that, if I was to go up to the house, a

on," she said; "not that I fear anything you can say, but I will not have him annoyed - I will not have him tormented. He has borne enough, and suffer

the gesture. He had half a mind to leave the carriage and join Aurora and her petitioner; but

ot a world it is for ups and downs! If it had been the summer season, I'd have had no needs to worrit you; but what's the good of standin' at the top of Regent street such weather as this with tarrier pups and such likes? Old ladies has no eyes for dawgs in the winter; and even

ver hope to have, could blot out the business that you trade upon, I'd ope

ough, miss, eh?" said Mr. Matthew Harrison, plucking a dry twig

ard as they spoke, and were by this time

as in a fever of r

nsioner of your cous

is face. I don't think

at 'ere Life, you would n't have kn

rte-monnaie from her pocket, and Mr. Harrison was furtively

bout any of the par

uld I care to

wanted to know any more, I could n't tell you, for them few lines in the paper is all I could ever get hol

king between leaves of crimson silk. He had no very acute sense of color; but I am sure that he thought gold and crimson made a pleasing contrast, as he looked at the yellow coin in Miss Floyd's porte-monnaie. She poured the sovereigns into her own gloved pal

not afraid of you; and that if I consent to assist you, it is because I will not have my father annoyed. Let me have the address of some place where a letter may always find you - you can put it into an envelope and direct it to me here - and f

n that dark face that forbade any hope of conciliation. She was turning from him, followed by the mastiff

a dim uncertainty in his bloodshot eyes; then, as conviction stole upon the brute mind, he burst into a joyous bark, fri

s," said the man, deprecatingly;

rn up every inch of ground in Felden Woods at t

id, "poor Boxer! so

o knowin' the faithful

uld like to have you. Woul

shook

d a mute spaniel, or a Russian setter, or a Hile of Skye, I'd get him for you and welcome, and ask you nothin' for my trouble; but t

"I know how faithful he is. Send me the

between his legs, until the party had gone by. Miss Floyd stole a glance at her lover's face, and saw that Captain Bulstrode's countenance wore its darkest expression. The officer kept sulk

"one word before

ison, dog-fancier and rat-catcher, had not yet died out of those dark orbs. Talbot Bulstrode opened the door of a long chamber under the pic

roudly as Marie Antoinette going to face

y-chair by one of the two great firepl

de said, leaning over a prie-dieu chair, and playing nervou

which

ion in some; from Aurora it was

lson's name; the passion which might have made a dastard of the bravest of the three hundred at Thermopyl?, or the six hundred at Balaklava. He loved her, this unhappy young man, and he began to stammer, and hesitate, and apologize, shivering under the angry light in her wonderful eyes. "Believe me, Aurora, that I would not f

see, if I stopped to question their deserts, they might die of starvation while I was making my inquiries; so perhaps it's better to throw away

but he could not very well take objection to it; besides, it was lea

an, Aurora,

g-fan

t shu

" he murmured; "but what, in Heaven's

harles Dickens and the modern humorists, who is going to hold forth at Croydon; they all want the same thing - money! If I tell the curate that my principles are evangelical, and that I can't pray sincerely if there are candlesticks on the altar, he is not the less glad of my hundred pounds. If I inform the lady of fashion that I have peculiar opinions about the orphans of lucifer-match sellers, and cherish a theory of my own against the education of

- does the man belong

N

did you come

changing countenance - looked as if she were mentally debating some point. Then, rising suddenly,

ve a five pound note to any person who may ask me for it, I expect full license to

ror

achful tone struck

believe that I know too well the value of your love