irresistible!"

"Forgive you, oh! Miss Vernon; what an uncalled for request; it is I that should pray for forgiveness for my presumption; I deserved a great deal more severity, and while I must compliment you for your inimitable acting, thank you for your forbearance and the delightful hour I passed in your society."

"Oh! I had the game in my own hands; it was you who played your part well."

"We are, then, quite reconciled I hope," said I.

"Perfectly," she replied, "but how did grandpapa find you out?"

Vernon explained; "I spoke warmly of the happy days I spent with him in Ireland."

"Dear Dungar!" said Miss Vernon softly, with her eyes bent down; she sat silent for a few moments, then, looking up with something that glistened like a tear, she looked at me steadily, and said, "Then I do remember Captain Egerton; he let me win the race on my pony Midge."

"The same," said Colonel Vernon. "Indeed, I am very glad to see you at the Priory," she continued, in her peculiarly frank manner, so cordial and so well bred; "and you are staying here for a few days?"

"Yes," replied the Colonel, "and will dine with us to-day, will you not Egerton?"

I accepted most readily, scarcely believing that my oft reviled luck was about to make me so ample a return for past disagreeables as to place me at once on a footing of intimacy with the much-admired incognita, now incognita no more!