quiet was as dreadful to her as to a patriot. She moved from place to place, from person to person. To one lady she spoke of her children-hinted that the measles were very much about-and mentioned an infallible remedy for the toothache. The blonde of one lady threw her into raptures-the beret of another. She endeavored to animate one of her more juvenile friends by mentioning a conquest she had made the evening before, which conquest Mrs. Trefusis made herself for the necessities of the moment. All in vain, the drawing room seemed, as some one says of the mountain tops, dedicated to immortal Silence."

An able general is never without a resource, and Mrs. Trefusis opened the piano; and the could nots and would nots, and colds and hoarsenesses, made for a few moments a very respectable dialogue, which ended with Emily's sitting down to the instrument; and Emily did sing most exquisitely. She had that clear, birdlike voice which is divided between sadness and sweetness, whose pathos of mere sound fills the heart/with that vague melancholy which defies analysis; and her articulation was as perfect as her expression. Some one said of her singing, that it was the music of the nightingale, gifted with human words and human feelings.

A shadow fell on the book from which she was singing; and at the close she turned round to receive the painful politeness of Mr. Macneil. Heaven help me from the soi disant flattery of those who compliment as if it were a duty, not a pleasure; who make a speech as if they expected you to make a curtsy at the conclusion; and while giving you what they politely inform you is your due, yet nevertheless expect you to be grateful for it. Mr. Macneil was one of this class-a Columbus of compliments, who held that your merits were new discoveries of his own, and you were to be surprised as well as pleased.

But individual excellence was too unworthy a theme long to engross Mr. Macneil; and, from Miss Arundel's singing, he proceeded to singing in general, which, he observed, was a very pretty amusement-asked in she had heard Lalande-avowed that, for his part, Italian music was all he thought worth listening to which, considering Emily had just finished an English ballad, was a delicate compliment indeed; and walked off, nothing doubtful of hers, in all the fulness of selfsatisfaction.

A Miss Martin was now entreated to favor the company. She was an heiress, therefore a beauty, and in both these qualities considered she ought to be simple and timid. The first of these was effected by a crop curled in the neck a l'enfant; and the second by being twice as long as any body else in crossing a room- -there were so many little hesitations; by looking down sedulously (old Mr. Lushington once said to her, "I hope you find the carpet entertaining!"); by a little nervous laugh, and such interesting ignorance. Her mother, moreover, was always saying, Really, my sweet Matilda is so timid, it is quite terrible." Three armies might have been brought to combat with half the encouragement it took to bring the timid Matilda to the harp. One gentleman was entreated to stand before, another behind-to say nothing of the side couples-as the fair musician could not bear to be looked at while she played dear mamma's favorite air. Dear mamma” was an enormous edifice of white satin and diamonds, which one laments over, as one does over a misapplied peerage, that ever some people should possess them.

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It is very provoking to have all one's associations, whether from history or fairy land, destroyed. A countess ought to be young and beautiful-a dutchess stately and splendid-your earl gallant and graceful-your baron one touch more martial, as if he had five hundred belted vassals waiting at his call; and as for diamonds, they ought to be kept as sacred as a German's thirtysix quarterings, to which nothing ignoble might approach. Happy were the beauties of Henry or Richard, when fur, jewels, satins, were especial to their order, and the harsh, dull, dry laws themselves arrayed their defence and terrors against the meaner herd, who but imitate to destroy, and copy to profane.

Mrs. Martin seemed as if just glittering from a diamond shower bath, or rather, as if, when interred (we cannot call it dressed) in her satin and blonde, her attendant had caught up her jewel box, and thrown its contents at random over her. In truth, it was just such a barley sugar temple look as well suited the daughter of a sugar baker. Her father had been a millionaire.

It is the fashion in the present day, from the peer to the prince, to affect the private gentleman. Good, if they mean in the end to abolish all hereditary distinctions; but wrong, if they mean still to preserve those "noble memo

ries of their ancestors." We do now too much undervalue the influence of the imagination, which so much exalts the outward show by which it is caught. We forget there is no sense so difficult to awaken as common sense. Kings risked their crowns when they left off wearing them; thrones were lost before, to some bold rival who fought his way sword in hand; but Charles was the first monarch dethroned by opinion. The belief in the right divine, or "that divinity which doth hedge a king," disappeared with their gold crown and sceptre.

"You are not going yet, Charles?" said the hostess to her handsome nephew. "It is so early. Whither are you going?"

"To bed. I am sitting for my picture, and must sleep for a complexion."

"And you, Mrs. Lorraine?"

"Oh, I have five other parties to go to."

"Well," said Mrs. Trefusis-a little vexed that hers was breaking up so soon; and Philosophy, Illnature, and Truth, are the three black graces, born of Disappointment

"I always feel inclined to address you inveterate party goers with the man's speech at his wife's funeral: Ah, why, my dearest neighbors, make a trouble of a pleasure?"

She was not far wrong, Perhaps pleasure is, like vir tue, but a name, still pleasure might be a little pleasanter; for surely there can be no great enjoyment in stepping from carriage to drawing room, and from drawing room to carriage-turning friends into acquaintances from the mere fact of meeting them so seldom, and annihilating conversation-for the flowers of wit must, indeed, be forced ones that spring up in five minutes. However, there is many a wise saw to justify these modern instances. Sages bid us to look to the future--and we go to parties today for the sake of tomorrow saying we were there. The imaginative gods of the Grecians are dethroned-the warlike deities of the Scandinavians feared no longer; but we have set up a new set of idols in their place, and we call them Appearances.

IT is not of much use making up your mind very positively, for it is a thousand chances whether you ever do exactly what you intended. The Mandevilles had resolved to pass through London as quickly as possible; but once there, unavoidable business prolonged their stay. This, to Emily, at least, was very delightful-for the morning following her dining with Mrs. Trefusis, Edward Lorraine came to breakfast. One great peculiarity in a woman's attachment is, its entire concentration in the present. Whatever she was engaged in, if Edward was present, was the most delightful thing in the world. And, moreover, it was very satisfactory to hear him reiterate his intention of joining them in Italy. Besides, this wilderness of brick was still all novelty and amusement to one who knew so little of it.

Among the many universal propensities in human nature, the love of sightseeing is about as universal as any. Now, sightseeing gratifies us in different ways. First, there is the pleasure of novelty; secondly, either that of admiration or faultfinding-the latter a very animated enjoyment. London against the world for spectacles; and yet it is a curious fact, that those who live among sights are those who go the least to see them. A genuine Londoner is the most incurious animal in nature. Divide your acquaintVOL. II.-3

ance into two parts; the one set will never have seen Westminster Abbey-the other will be equally ignorant of St. Paul's. (That which is always within our reach is always the last thing we take; and the chances are, that what we can do every day, we never do at all.)

Emily, who came up with all the curiosity of the country, would have liked to have seen much more than she did; but young ladies are like the pieces of looking glass let into chiffonniers and doorways-only meant to reflect the actions of others.

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'Very well," said Lady Mandeville, in answer, one day, to a wish she was expressing; "when we are at Rome we will study architecture-there you may explore the Colosseum; but to go on a course of amusing and instructive rambles' through London !—pray leave that to the good little books you read in your childhood."

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Emily was silenced. One evening, however, Mr. Morland, who was one of the governors of the British Institution, proposed their going to see the gallery lighted up. Lady Mandeville agreed; and Emily was all smiles-a little brightened, perhaps, because Lorraine was to join their party.

The effect on entrance is very striking: a crowd, where the majority are females, with gay colored dresses, and their heads unbonneted, always gives the idea of festival; figures animated with motion, and faces with expression, are in such strong contrast to the beautiful but moveless creations on the wall. At first all is pleasant confusion— all catches, and nothing fixes, the eye and the exclamation is as general as the gaze; but, as in all other cases, general admiration soon became individual-and Emily was very ready to pause in delight before Lorraine's favorite pictures. Whether their selection might have pleased Mr. Morland, who was a connoisseur, admits of questionfor the taste of the young is very much matter of feeling. "Is not this little picture a proof of the truth of my assertion the other morning, that a glance out of a window was enough to annihilate a cavalier's peace of mind for a twelve month ?"

It was 66 a lovely female face of seventeen"-the beauty of a coquette rather than that of a heroine-a coquette, though, of Nature's making. She leant on the casement, some gathered flowers in her hand, speaking well for the