more remote. The city, with its domes and columns of a thousand tales-the blood-stained battle-field, the huge and melancholy Campagna the Tiber, with its unknown treasures and the distant mountains, from Soracte to the sea, with their cities of unknown origin→→→→ all brought their deep associations to aid entrancing odours and the triumphs of genius in disposing the mind to a keener perception of beauty, and the heart to a more intense feeling for it. Teresina, in her simple, sober-coloured drapery, with her downcast stateliness and maiden occupation, seemed the chosen model for a Psyche-the very spirit that had inspired a Phidias.

>> Commencements like these generally lead to something more important. Accidents were not wanting to bring them to the exchange of an occasional word. Afterwards, Frederic began a small copy of the Naïad on the fountain, and Teresina was requested to draw near and bestow her timid approbation. In such a scene, with those deep blue sunny skies above, those golden meteors gliding through the bright waters at their feet, the rainbow shedding its

many-coloured glory from the spray that danced above their heads—with no subject of converse but the grace of an exquisite chisel, the lines of beauty, the tender traits of sentiment; it was no great stretch of fancy in such a pair to dream themselves in realms beyond the reach of sorrow; no surprising lapse of memory, if they forgot for the time the cold calculations of a world to which both were so little indebted.

The timid and the modest are, perhaps, the most ready to receive perilous impressions; for it is rarely that such characters are not the result of warm affections. The meetings between Teresina and Frederic were no longer caused by accident. She knew the moment of his release from labour, and, whether by the blaze of the bright spring morning, or the shades of its dewy sunset, her form was amongst the statues, her feeling beneath the cypress. She asked not if this was love no matter what it was. She never could be anything to Frederic. The thought of hanging á disastrous load on his arduous path to fame never once occurred to her. She never could be anything to any one else, for who could be worth the reservation of

her heart, where her merit was to be measured by Fortune? It was enough to find that life had, at last, a source of interest, a solitary sensation of bliss. It harmed none, and could not injure herself; for what happiness did she risk!

The feelings of Frederic were not so devoid of plan, though that plan was mainly sup: ported by chimeras. His only chance of possessing Teresina was by a rise in reputation, which should atone for his want of birth; and the enthusiasm of his passion and his profession already foresaw such miraculous events as had never before occurred, excepting in the brain of a German lover. Alas! love has been called a stimulant to exertion; but, perhaps, it is more frequently an impediment. The mind of Frederic was occupied by one object solely, and that was the attainment of his end, and not the means. His toil grew wearisome, his hour of bliss was anticipated, and his reputation, instead of advancing, was likely to decline. A few weeks made him sensible of the necessity for some desperate exertion, or for the resignation of the hopes which had now become part of his existence. Whilst it was in his power

to forget at any moment the pains of life with a being whose purity seemed placed on earth by accident, and who did not attempt to conceal that she had no thought beyond him, the temptation was not to be resisted. His energies could only be rightly applied by depriving himself of it altogether. His art must be pursued elsewhere.

At the time he had come to this conclusion, a sculptor of eminence was about to change the scene of his labours during the summer months to the comparatively cool retreat of Carrara. Frederic's resolution was put to the test by an invitation to assist him. His views might be answered beyond his expectation. He might be removed to the very mine from which he was to work out his fame. He gave his answer with a struggle, and the same evening saw him once more a wanderer beneath a few bright planets, and amongst the snowy gleams and graceful shadows of all that art could reach of beauty and divinity.

"Frederic," said a voice, soft, clear, and celestial, as though it had proceeded from one of those fabled inhabitants of the sky; "I did

not expect you to-night, but am here because I would be where you have been.”

"Alas! Teresina, and such, for I know not how long a time, is all the intercourse that will subsist between us. It is the will of Fortune that we part. I see the star-light trembling in your eyes, when I would look to you for courage. We never yet have spoken of the feeling by which our hearts are united, for in your guileless countenance I have fancied that I read the secret more clearly than your tongue could tell it. These bonds are love-wild, enthusiastic, unchangeable, as our natures. It has made our happiness; it depends upon ourselves whether it is to make our misery, I depart in search of fame and fortune. It may not be vanity, if I declare to you (for what I breathe in your ear is no more than thinking aloud) that I feel within me the qualities to secure them. Then, when we meet again, we shall bless the pains of this parting hour as having led to joys which now we dare not dream of."

Teresina's experience in the world was merely infantine, and to rise from obscurity