opposition, to allow her to retire to rest.

And so ended Emma's enjoyments of the ball at Osborne Castle; it had certainly been productive of little pleasure, and had cost her a handsome dress; yet upon the whole she found herself regretting less the actual injury inflicted on her than the unrealized pleasure which her imagination had promised.

She was convinced, on reflection, that this dissatisfaction must spring from some fault in her own mind; had her feelings been under proper regulation, she would have entered with contentment or satisfaction into the amusement before her, instead of worrying and wearying her spirit in wishes for what was withheld. Her partiality for Mr. Howard was the origin of all this; and if this incipient partiality already produced her so much discontent and evil feeling, it became her to check it at once, and vigorously, lest she should find herself deprived of her peace of mind, before she was aware that she had gone astray.

The conjoined effects of excitement of mind, and unusual dissipation tended naturally to produce a restless and sleepless night, and finding early the next morning that her head would be the better for fresh air, she resolved to try and find her way out of doors before the breakfast which would probably be at a very late hour.

The wintry sun-beams were sparkling on the hoar frost, and glancing red upon the naked boughs of the trees around, as she quitted the porch; the air was brisk and enlivening—the sky free from clouds—and promising herself a pleasant ramble, she walked into the park. The path she chose lay along the side of beautiful hanging wood of beech, and she pursued it in profound solitude for some time, hearing no other sound than the echo of her own footsteps on the hard ringing gravel; but after walking a considerable distance, it struck her that there was a sound of other feet in her vicinity which seemed to be keeping parallel with herself, but farther in the wood. Supposing it might be some labourer or gamekeeper, she paused to listen, and allow them to pass on; but the steps likewise ceased when she did, and that so immediately as to make her doubt if it were not fancy altogether.

Again resuming her walk, she immediately heard the accompanying sound, and this time being convinced it was no delusion, she tried to see through the wood, and ascertain who was thus her silent companion, but the shrubs and underwood were too thick to allow her to see anything.

Not quite liking to be thus 

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