found, and then reading a letter which she held in her hand. As soon as Ethel came in, she took her hand, and, without speaking, led her to the closet adjoining.
"I have," said she, "most important intelligence to communicate."
Her listener turned pale: could it be possible that Mr. Trevanion had come to London?
Mrs. Churchill, however, continued, without noticing her agitation:—"I have this morning received an answer from her Grace of Buckingham. She appoints to-day for a private interview. The daughter of a king duly appreciates my humble services to her house."
"My dear madam!" exclaimed Ethel, "do you think it will be quite prudent, under your present circumstances, to visit a person, whose Jacobite predilections are so well known as those of the Duchess of Buckingham?"
"I am not aware," returned her grandmother, drawing up herself to her full height, "what act you have ever observed in my whole life, that authorises you to suppose I
