3T6 THE MASTER OF THE HOUNDS. 



" Oh, yes, dear William, I hope I can.'* 



"Then our suspicions are verified, and the impostor who 

 assumed your name is in custody." 



" Thank Heaven, dear William ! " she cried, falling into his 

 arms and bursting into tears; "then I have not been a usurper 

 of another's rights." 



" No, my love ; Lord Henry has unravelled the iniquitous 

 plot got up by that villain. Mangle, and is now having some 

 dinner below, whilst I ran up to tell you that you are the 

 heiress still." 



Lady Malcolm, Mrs. Gordon, and Constance now crowded 

 round Beau champ, kissing Blanche, and expressing their rap- 

 turous delight at the recovery of her fortune, whilst he was 

 giving a more detailed account of Lord Henry's clever trick in 

 catching the lawyer. Leaving the ladies to the enjoyment of 

 mutual felicitations, Beauchamp descended to the dining-room, 

 where Lord Henry, having quickly dispatched his dinner, was 

 discussing with Malcolm, over their claret, the proceedings to 

 be taken on the morrow; and it being finally arranged that 

 Malcolm and Beauchamp should meet him the next day at 

 Forrester's house, at twelve o'clock, Lord Henry soon after took 

 his leave, saying he had engaged to attend the Duchess of 

 B 's grand re-union that evening. 



CHAPTER XLYI. 



Being fully enlisted on the Douglas side, Lord Henry aston- 

 ished his friend Danby and others with his adventures of the 

 day, and speaking in high terms of the Earl of Annandale and 

 Beauchamp, said, " Father and son are both trumps, and have 

 invited me to stay with them at Bampton the whole of next 

 hunting season, and given me carte hlanclie to shoot over their 

 property in the north, with quarters at the Castle whenever I 

 like to go there." 



" Deuced liberal, indeed," replied Sir John Martingale ; " I 

 wish you would introduce me, Bayntun, to Beauchamp." 



" What ! to try whether you could be more successful with 

 Lady Beauchamp than you have been with Miss Douglas 1 No, 

 indeed, my boy ; your flirtations with young married women 

 are too notorious already, and Beauchamp is very particular in 



