Their affectionate mother shared all their grief;she remembered what she had herself endured on a similar occasion, five-and-twenty years ago.

“Oh,yes!―if one could but go to Brighton!But papa is so disagreeable.”

But the gloom of Lydia's prospect was shortly cleared away;for she received an invitation from Mrs. Forster, the wife of the colonel of the regiment, to accompany her to Brighton. This invaluable friend was a very young woman, and very lately married.A resemblance in good humour and good spirits had recommended her and Lydia to each other,and out of their three months' acquaintance they had been intimate two.

“I am sure,”said she,“I cried for two days together when Colonel Miller's regiment went away. I thought I should have broken my heart.”