three first."

"Yes," said Elizabeth, "one can read that, 'my dear Mr. Howard,' but the rest appears as if the writer had dipped a stick in an ink bottle, and scribbled over the paper at random—you do not mean to say, you have read it, Mr. Howard?"

"I made out its meaning," said he, looking up from a writing-table, at a little distance, "and I am answering it at this moment."

"Well, you must be much more clever than I am," said Elizabeth, simply, "they are all hieroglyphics to me."

"It is a note from Lady Osborne," said Mrs. Willis, "I know her signature; but I am not sure that I could decipher more."

"Lady Osborne!" cried Elizabeth, looking at it again, but this time with great respect, "do peeresses write in that way."

"Not all, I trust, for the credit of the peerage," replied Mr. Howard, "or, at least, for the comfort of their correspondents."

"It is certainly a great misapplication of abilities," observed Emma, coolly, "for I am sure it must cost a person more trouble to produce such a scrawl than it would to write three legible letters."

"I have no doubt it has cost her ladyship some trouble, and I am certain it has put her to needless expense," said he, "for on one occasion, her steward sent an express to London to enquire the meaning of a note he had received which was intended to announce her return home: they passed the man on the road, and consequently the housekeeper was taken by surprise; how angry she was at the blunder!"

"Well but, Edward, what is the subjects of your present billet-doux, or is it a secret that you are answering in such a hurry?"

billet-doux

"It is only to invite me to the castle to-night, to make up their card-table, which I have refused," said he, as he gave his note to the servant and seated himself again.

"Ah, how glad I am," cried his sister, "such a night, to ask you out, though only across the park! The Miss Watson's company affords a sufficient apology even to Lady Osborne, I should think."

"It is a sufficient one to myself," said Mr. Howard, "Lady Osborne may be unable to calculate accurately what I gain by the refusal—but I know that I secure a pleasant party, and escape a dreadful walk, to say nothing of the tedium of the card-table 

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