The unexpected turn which had been taken by her noble relative's regard was appalling. Teresina shuddered such a union could never be.

The keen glance of the Marchese saw more in that maiden confusion than Teresina had expressed. "I am not surprised," he said, with the calm and dignified kindness which resulted from a long acquaintance with human feelings, and a benevolent conviction of the allowance to be made for them-" I am not surprised, that the proposal of a union between elements so opposite as youth and age should, at the first view, be somewhat startling; but let me not alarm you, if I say that I perceive other objections in that shrinking expression, perhaps, more powerful even than the disparity of years. I do not inquire the secrets of a heart where all is purity, and where it is needless to inflict the pain of distressing confessions. It is enough for me to know that your affections have not been slumbering, and, indeed, with a disposition like your's, I can hardly be surprised at such a circumstance: but I grieve for its existence. The obscurity of the life

which you have passed has rendered it imposs sible that you can have made any acquaintance suitable to your birth, or, indeed, beyond the humble society of which, to my shame, you have so long formed a part. A marriage that is not noble must never be the fate of Teresina."

Teresina sank beneath the agony of her feelings and hid her face at his feet.

"My fair young kinswoman," he continued, with a struggle between commiseration and pride, "will see the necessity of sacrificing any plebeian partiality, when the honour of our house obliges me to use my influence that no unworthy connexion shall be sanctioned by the church. In addition to this, let me recommend the consideration, Teresina, that I am an old man, and little likely to be a burthen upon my large. estates beyond the endurance of your patience, and that at my death there is no heir to dispute your right to them. You will still, in all human probability, be in the bloom of youth and beauty, and may have a long life before you to dispense happiness as you please, and breathe an atmo sphere of blessings. Do not give me your

answer yet you are not in a state to reflect. I will leave you to compose yourself, and renew our conversation to-morrow."

Long after he had departed, Teresina remained gazing on the splendours of the pictured wall and fretted ceiling of that stately apartment in anguish and stupefaction. The words which had struck most fearfully upon her heart were those which denied to her hopes the sanction of the church. Frederic had no nobility but his mind. He was lost to her for ever.

The mind of Teresina, however, was not so supinely at the mercy of her affections but that, after they had been relieved of their first wild burst of misery, it could settle down to a firm survey of her position. The simple being of a few months since, who never thought, because there was nothing in her life which called for it, was now driven to weigh the relative importance of events which were to direct her fate, and was to form a judgment which would have been embarrassing to others of her years, whatever might have been their superior advantages. She was offered a connexion against which her nature would have rebelled, even had her heart

not been pre-occupied. She was offered wealth, which her long habits of self-denial had rendered superfluous. The temptations of society, so dazzling to young minds generally, were to her's no temptations at all, for it had been formed in solitude, and was fixed on contemplations far different. To what end, therefore, was she to accede to the wishes of the Marchese, even though her marriage with Frederic were rendered impossible? There was an end, nevertheless, of paramount importance to be answered, which was the conversion of this impossibility into a matter most feasible. She had heard it said that the estates of the Marchese had, in common with a few others, the virtue of conferring nobility on their possessor. The train of thought which followed upon this recollection may be imagined. The Marchese had given his word that they should be her's, and, by transferring them to Frederic, she placed him beyond the threat which had dismayed her.

Before the interview of the next day, she had satisfied herself of the correctness of her information. She was pale and frozen as any beautiful creation in the marble around her;

but she kept in mind that the sacrifice for which she was prepared was for Frederic, and felt that she could unshrinkingly have awaited the stroke of death.

Tier

It was not long ere the gems of genius and taste, and the gorgeous devices of wealth, that were squandered through that enchanted palace, gleamed with the glow of festive lights that seemed to outnumber the stars. From quaint balustrade and vaulting statue, the breeze of the early autumn was cooled by fantastic wreaths from fountains of magic source. over tier of myrtle terraces displayed the proud concourse of Rome's loveliest and loftiest born; and the waving bed of odours that melted downward into the dark blue city bore with it the sweetest sounds of joy and melody. There were homage, praise, congratulation-all words for soothing, flattering, and forgetfulness; there were earth's choicest treasures for the adornment of beauty, and heaven's fairest favours to disarm comparison. Alas! and what were all these to the envied of that night - -the aching, the bewildered, the Marchesa Teresina? In the confusion of her throbbing brain there