CHAPTER XXXIV.

THE MEETING.

"WHO is it? who is it?" exclaimed little Alice, as Constance felt a pair of hands gently, but suddenly, passed over her eyes. "Now guess whose hands those are!" continued Alice, dancing around her sister in an ecstasy of delight.

Constance had been reading a new and entertaining book, which completely absorbed her thoughts. The evening came on unperceived, except from the influence of the approaching twilight. She had risen from her chair, and stood near a window to catch the last rays of the declining day, with her face averted from the door through which the person who had thus surprised her, had entered.

"Who is it?" repeated Alice with childish eagerness and glee.

"Reginald," said Constance in a low voice, and with some hesitation, for this freedom, slight as it was, did not exactly accord with his usually deferential manner towards her. Yet the hands were those of a man, and who else could it be?

"Reginald indeed!" said a well-known voice

above her head, while a clear, ringing, merry laugh followed the words, "and that is Reginald too, I suppose!" added Vivian, as Constance felt two soft arms twined round her waist, and two velvet lips pressed to hers.

The hands were withdrawn from her eyes, and Vivian and Evelyn stood before her.

"Why, what an ingenious plan I fell upon for finding out all the family secrets!" exclaimed Vivian, while Constance threw her arms around his neck and alternately embraced her brother and her lovely sister with tears of joy. "I could not have learned more in a year than that one simple word has revealed to Allow me," he continued with a bow of mock gravity, "to felicitate you, mademoiselle, on the prospect of speedily renouncing that insignificant title."

me.

"Ah, Constance!" said Evelyn, "do you remember our discussions at Avonmore? You are now, I am happy to perceive, convinced that Reginald is not a myth, as you once affirmed, and pretended to believe."

"But I am not yet convinced that he is not a mythical personage," said Vivian, "for though I had just now rather a startling proof that Constance believes he lives and breathes, you must remember that I have never yet seen him."

"Then permit him to offer some practical demonstration on that long disputed point," said Reginald, who at that moment entered the room, and had caught the last words. "A cordial shake of the hand," he continued, as he affectionately took the hands of Vivian and Evelyn, who as warmly reciprocated his

kindly greeting, "will suffice at once to dispel all such mysterious suspicions."

"But how marvellously well you look!" exclaimed Evelyn. "I anticipated the appearance of little less than a ghost, if not a myth, after the terrible accounts that reached us of your adventure during the revolution of the trois journées. I am astonished to see you even more than yourself. I fancied that we should find you reclining in an arm-chair, pale and languid, with a lady, who shall be nameless, seated at your side, reading some interesting romance, or perhaps soothing you with her bird-like voice in song."

"You draw a charming picture," replied Reginald laughing, "though it is one that to a certain extent has been already realized. It has been often said that our misfortunes sometimes prove our greatest blessings in disguise."

He glanced toward Constance, who, blushing and embarrassed at the complete revelation to her brother of the good understanding between herself and Reginald, by the simple circumstance attending their first meeting, had taken refuge behind Evelyn, with her arm around her sister's waist, and her hand still fondly clasped in hers.

"Nay, little Alice must be responsible for all the mischief in which I have been engaged ever since we arrived," said Vivian, as he took the happy child in his arms, and seated her on his knee. "While Evelyn and I were engaged in exchanging greetings and welcomes with my father and mother, she devised this very original surprise for our dear little sister."

"A propôs of surprises and disguises," said Evelyn,

addressing herself to Reginald, "we heard some singular reports during our recent sojourn in Florence, concerning a lady particularly conversant in these arts. I think this lady must have been a special friend of yours," added Evelyn laughing, while it was now Reginald's turn to blush; and he did blush most undeniably.

His manifest confusion only increased the merriment of Evelyn.

“Ah, now I am sure the gossiping world was not far wrong in the suspicions entertained about you and this accomplished young lady. You have just come in time to hear the prettiest little romance imaginable," she continued, as Mr. and Mrs. Melville at that moment joined the gay party; and they all rose to offer the most comfortable corners to the seniors of the family group.

"The gossiping circle we met with at Florence," pursued Evelyn, "told a strange tale of a fair young damsel, though she was old enough to have more discretion than she manifested, as she could not be less than twenty-four. She had taken it into her head to captivate a young gentleman of about her own age, but apparently far more discreet than herself. Possessing boundless wealth, much cleverness, and brilliant accomplishments, she thought it only necessary to give the youth a hint of the fancy she had taken for him. To her surprise, he remained profoundly insensible to her charms. He left this city and went to Florence, leaving the damsel in suspense, if not in despair. But recovering from the first shock of his flight she speedily found some pretext for paying a

visit to the fair city of flowers, where the young gentleman had preceded her. The false friend, who accompanied her on this singular errand, wearied out with the insufferable caprices and tyranny of Miss Almeria Belmont, betrayed her"

"Pardon me," interposed Reginald earnestly, and forgetting the suspicions attached to himself, as the hero of Evelyn's romance, in his eagerness to do justice wherever he perceived the existence of what he considered a wrong. "This description hardly does justice to Miss Belmont. She has some good qualities, though they are often concealed beneath those of vanity and selfishness which she has been taught to look upon as virtues."

Evelyn had permitted him to enter on his defence of Almeria without interruption, and then replied very demurely, "I am sure we shall be all much edified by the explanation you can, doubtless, so kindly and satisfactorily make of the conduct of a young lady who, if the gossips speak truth, is somewhat in want of a champion. But I am happy to conclude my romance by informing you that she has found one. By way of contradiction to the rumors which met her every where, or in a sudden fit of caprice or pique, Miss Belmont bestowed her hand on a German banker, the Baron Von Griffe, who has recently acquired his title by his wealth. He is said to have twice as many millions as her father, and is several years older than that worthy personage.

"Almeria Belmont is then married?" inquired Mrs. Melville.