effect her ostentatious attachment would have upon Clarence's
prosperity as a lover to Lady Flora. In order to explain these
consequences the more fully, let us, for the present, leave our hero
to the care of the surgeon, his friends, and his would-be mistress;
and while he is more rapidly recovering than the doctors either hoped
or presaged, let us renew our acquaintance with a certain fair
correspondent.

LETTER FROM THE LADY FLORA ARDENNE TO MISS ELEANOR TREVANION.

My Dearest Eleanor,--I have been very ill, or you would sooner have
received an answer to your kind,-too kind and consoling letter.
Indeed I have only just left my bed: they say that I have been
delirious, and I believe it; for you cannot conceive what terrible
dreams I have had. But these are all over now, and everyone is so
kind to me,--my poor mother above all! It is a pleasant thing to be
ill when we have those who love us to watch our recovery.

I have only been in bed a few days; yet it seems to me as if a long
portion of my existence were past,--as if I had stepped into a new
era. You remember that my last letter attempted to express my
feelings at Mamma's speech about Clarence, and at my seeing him so
suddenly. Now, dearest, I cannot but look on that day, on these
sensations, as on a distant dream. Every one is so kind to me, Mamma
caresses and soothes me so fondly, that I fancy I must have been under
some illusion. I am sure they could not seriously have meant to
forbid his addresses. No, no: I feel that all will yet be well,--so
well, that even you, who are of so contented a temper, will own that
if you were not Eleanor you would be Flora.