The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-30 00:00:00

THE MUTUAL MISTAKE.

" Tell me, pray tell me what it is that you have to com-
municate—your manner almost terrifies me," said Silvester
Langdale, as Lord Montalban continued to pace the room.
" Langdale," exclaimed Lord Montalban, stopping sud-
denly in the centre of the room, and speaking with an agi-
tation which drove the blood from his cheeks, "Langdale,
very shortly there will be a claim made in respect ct a bill
that has been discounted."

If Lord Montalban had presented some deadly weapon at
the breast of Silvester Langdale, he could not have exhi-
bited more horror in his countenance than he did at this
cowmmunication. He clung to the table for support, and
with a scarcely audible voice he said--
" I know it."

" Yon know it ?" exc!airaed Lord Montalban in a tone of
astonishment.

" I do, indeed."
" Why—why, how could you know it ?" asked Lord
Montalban, almost scared by the feeling of astonishment
which the declaration created.

How could I know it? I do not understand you input-
ting such a question to me." ,
" Langdale, I have all my life been the victim of mis•
placed confidence, but I never felt that fate which seems to
hang over me until now."
" Say not so—say not so," said Silvester Langdale in a
tone of bitter anguish.

" I see how you feel it, Langdale—the disclosure I knew
could have no other result, but believe me that you cannot
feel more acutely than I do myself."
" I feel assured of that, indeed I do, and it is that assur-
ance that adds poignancy to what I may truly designate
my anguish."

" Do not, Langdale, I pray you, speak in that strain, for
it cuts me to the very heart to hear it," said ford Mont-
alban in a tone that indeed carried conviction with it.
" Strange that he should exhibit such a tearing under
such circumstances," thought Silvestor Langdale, " but
ho is Augusta's father, and that must be the reason of his
forbearance."

" I have reproached myself -" Lord Montalban
commenced.

" Nay do not do that—pray do not do that, or you will
add to the intensity of my sorrow," said Silvester Lang-
dale, interrupting his father-in-law.

After a longer discussion of the tame incomprehen-
sible character, they separate without coming to an
understanding.
And so were they thus mutually deceived. How little
did they dream that each had deceived the other, and that
the damning proofs of mutual deception were in the hands
of Marl Baskerville to rise up yet as a combined vengeance
for a wrong I

The story winds up with one of those double
tragedies to which we are becoming almost hardened.
It is the easiest way possible to finish off a tale, and
the third volume closes, like a Christmas pantomime,
with the blue lights and the smell of gunpowdeT•

Zoe's Brand. By the Author of "Recommended
1 to Mercy." 3 Vols. Chapman and Hall.
The opening scene of the first volume of this work
introduces to us three fair school-girl friends at the
pensionntit of Madame Duchatel, in the Rue Grange,
at Paris. One of these damsels is Pauline de
Rouvray, a young damsel of Brittany, and another
is her favourite friend, the lovely Zoe Gordon. Zoe,
endearingly surnamed Cherie,
is the daughter of a
Southern planter, and has been sent to Paris for
her education. We have just become acquainted
with our fascinating heroine,
and listened to her
excellent eulogiums on life and liberty,when a change
comes over the spirit of her dream.
she Her father ar-
rives in Paris, and
--s is summoned to accompany
him back to New Orleans. In happy
ignorance Zoe
sets foot on American soil. Fairer and more beauti-
ful than any of her Parisian schoolmates, endowed
with precious gifts of intellect and education,
a lady in her manners and her bearing,
a true and tender woman in her pure and
loving heart, poor Z)r, bears, unconsciously, a
" brand" upon her brow. A drop of blood from
"the race of the Pariahs" mingles with the purer
currents in her veins. Zoe is the daughter' of a
Quadroon, who, although she bears the name of
Mrs Gordon, cannot be legally the wife of a white
man. Zoe and her mother, Quadroon and Octoroon,
are slaves, and liable, in the event of the death or
bankruptcy of their Owner, to
pa®s with his other
chattels into the hatch of the highest bidder I Such
is the "situation" of the story,
and it is one full of
interest, although already, in some respects, familiar
to ns in the popular history of the
i, Quadroon" and
the melodrama of the ``Octoroon." The antipathy
of the white to the coloured race, more especially in
the free States, is very strongly
exemplified in these
pages. While Mr Gordon is conducting his
daughter on her homeward journey, he endea-
vours to keep her as much as
possible in the
back-ground, But while staying at an hotel in
New York poor Zoe, all unconscious of her" brand,"
finds her way to the table d'hole)
when the following
scene ensues

BLACK 4.ND WHITE.
To describe Mr Gordon'E state of mind as he hurried to
the dinner saloon would be impossible. To say that he
had no feeling of compassion for the girl whose percep-
tion of her actual position IL society was likely soon to be
nsoaturruadlleylykianliv.ahkeeanretiel,woaur,lid
hisb young daughter's raree untrue, for be was
personal gifts had reused in his heart feelings both of
atLetion and parental pride. It was that very pride, how-
ever, which made him at that anxious moment somewhat
obliyiotts to Zoe's claims pri, his compassion, And thee, be