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"Cæsar will direct you

to him in a low voice in Spanish, -and you will take care of my mother," she said to Lorraine, with rather more earnestness of manner than seemed necessary.

The old negro led the way, and, with a most ostentatious care, cleared the path, which wound very like a labyrinth, till it opened on a small space no one could have found without a guide. Entirely surrounded by ilex and oak trees, it was like an island of sunshine; the soft thick grass only broken by plots of many colored flowers. in the midst of each was a wooden stand, on which was a straw beehive-every one of those Cortez of the insect world were out upon their golden search, and the murmur of their wings was like an echo to the falling fountain in the midst. The basin had once been carved like a lotus leaf. the edges were now rough and broken, but the water fell clear and sweet as ever.

His companion delightedly pointed out the flowers and the bees: and, whether it was the contagion of her gladness, the open air, or the sunshine, his spirits awoke from the depression of his morning melancholy. Her peculiarly sweet laugh rose like music; and he gradually began to draw a parallel between the mother and the daughter. In spite of the interest excited by Beatrice, the conclusion was in favor of the parent. "The one," thought he to himself, "is gloomy and desponding-rash, too-think of last night's adventure. Donna Margaretta, on the contrary, reconciles herself to the alteration of her fortunes, by a gentle contentedness, engaging her mind and centering her wishes on healthful employment and innocent amusements, in the best spirit of feminine philosophy.

He walked round the garden with her, till they came to an immense ilex tree at one end. It had its lower branches fashioned into a sort of bower, and a rude latticework supported the growth of several luxuriant creeping plants. There were two or three seats covered with matting; and on one of these, at the foot of the ilex, Donna Margaretta took her place. "It is not so pretty as our English gardens-have you a garden at home?" Edward was obliged to confess his inattention hitherto to horticultural pursuits. "I was much happier in England-now, do n't you tell Beatrice, for she takes his part-but Don Henriquez is very unkind to leave me as he does. I have not seen him such a long while."

Confidential communications are usually embarrassing; and Edward began to think, "What shall I say?" His companion did not give him much time to consider, before she continued-"I have very little to remind me of England; but I have some of its flowers-I like them better than all the others :" and, putting a drooping bough aside, she showed some daisies, of which she gathered a few. At first she seemed as if about to give them to him, when suddenly her eyes filled with tears, and she passionately exclaimed, "Not these-I cannot give away these. They are English flowers-you will get plenty in your own country; you will go back there I shall see England no

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Edward, both surprised and touched, endeavored to soothe her; she did not appear even to hear what he said. She let the flowers drop, and clasping her knees with joined hands, rocked backwards and forwards, half singing, half repeating the words, "no more," while the tears fell like a child's down her face, without an effort on her part to stop them. Gradually the sounds became inarticulate, the heavy glittering lash rested on the cheek, her head made a natural pillow of the ilex' trunk, and Lorraine saw evidently that she was sleeping. To withdraw as quietly as possible seemed his best plan; when the entrance of Beatrice induced him to hesitate.

Signing to him for silence, she bent over her mother for a moment, drew a branch closer to exclude the sun from her face; and, with step so light that even to Lorraine's ear it was inaudible, she left the arbor, beckoning him to follow. "I feared this," said she, her dark eyes filling with tears, whose softness was but momentary, so instantly were they checked. My poor mother!—God forbid you should ever know what she has suffered!Think what must have been the wretchedness that has left her a child in mind."

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The truth flashed on Edward. Desolate then, indeed, was the situation of the young creature before him. It is very difficult to express sympathy to one who evidently shrinks from such expression. They walked on in silence till they came to where the negro was at work.

"I cannot leave my mother; when she wakes, she would be so alarmed to find herself alone, and her sleep is as transient as it is uncertain; but the country round is well worth a stranger's attention, Cæsar is an excellent

guide as to roads. The picturesque I must leave to yourself. I shall hope at dinner to hear you say that our valley is as beautiful as we ourselves think it."

Edward asked a few topographical questions, and set forth without the old man, who seemed infinitely to prefer finishing his attendance on his carnations.

The finest prospect would have been thrown away on our young traveller: all he wished was solitude and his own thoughts. A nook was soon found; he threw himself on the soft grass beneath a large myrtle tree, and pondered over the events of the last four and twenty hours; at the same time, after an approved English fashion, picking off the leaves from every bough within his reach. One reflection made him strip a poor branch very quickly-it was the thought that, under all circumstances, he ought not to remain at Don Henriquez's house. Still, his family were evidently so situated that a friend might be of use. What could have induced Beatrice to assume a disguise so foreign to what seemed her feelings and manners? If he could find out the difficulty, might he not offer assistance? Desolate and deserted as both she and her unfortunate mother appeared to be, every kind and good sentiment prompted an effort to serve them. The result of his deliberations was to stay, a little while, at all events. He might convince them of his sincere wish to render any aid in his power. Advice alone to one so friendless as Beatrice might be invaluable. So, picking the last leaf of myrtle he could reach, he determined to remain. Inclination never wants an excuse-and, if one won't do, there are a dozen others soon found.

CHAPTER XII.

"Elle étoit belle, et de plus la seule héritière ! "Ce fut sur cela que je formai le projet de mon élablissement." Histoire de Fleur d'Epine.

LIKE the cards which form a child's plaything palace, our pleasures are nicely balanced one upon the other. The pleasure of change is opposed by that of habit; and if we love best that to which we are accustomed, we like best that which is new. Enjoyment is measured by the character of the individual. Lord Mandeville was sorry to leave Rome, because he had grown used to it. Lady Mandeville was delighted to leave it, because she had grown tired of it. Emily, actuated by that restlessness of hope which peculiarly belongs to hope that is solely imaginative, was rather relieved by, than pleased with, change. The map. of her world was colored by her affections, and it had but two divisions, absence and presence. She knew that Edward Lorraine was on the Continent, and she allowed her mind to dwell on the vague, vain fancy of meeting him.

It was winter, with a promise of spring, when they arrived at Naples. A few days saw them settled in a villa on the sea coast, at some distance from the city. Emily, who loved flowers with all the passion of the poetry that haunted them, gathered with delight the clustering roses which formed a miniature wood near the house, and wore the beauty of June in the days of February. Lord Mandeville reproached her with being run away with by novelty, and said contrast gave them a double charm in England. "The blossom is a thousand times fairer when we have seen the leaf fall and the bough bare."

Still, the situation of their villa was most lovely; it was quite secluded, in a little vale filled with orange trees, now putting forth the soft green of their leaves, and the delicate white tracery of their coming buds. The grove was varied by a plantation of rose trees, a few pinasters, and a multitude of winding paths. It was evident that nature had been

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left for years to her own vagrant luxuriance. A colonnade ran completely round the villa, which on one side only was open to the sea, whose sounds were never silent, and whose waves were never still. A space, lightly shadowed by a few scattered orange trees, sloped towards a terrace, which looked directly down upon the shore. The eye might wander over the blue expanse, broken by the skimming sails, which distance and sunshine turn to snow, like the white wings of the sea birds, till sky and sea seem to meet, false alike in their seeming fairness and seeming union;—the sails, in reality, being but coarse and discolored canvass, and the distance between sea and sky still immeasurable. On the left, the waters stretched far away on the right, a slight bend in the coast was the boundary of the view. Thickly covered with pine and dwarf oaks to the very summit, the shore arose to a great height, and shut out the city of Naples. On the top shone the white walls of the convent of St. Valerie; and on a fair evening, when the wind set towards the villa, the vesper hymns came in faint music over the sea.

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The time which passes pleasantly passes lightly; days are remembered by their cares more than by their content; and the few succeeding weeks wrote their events as men, says the Arabic proverb, do benefits-on water. Mandeville was daily more desirous of returning to England, and resolved to be there by March at the latest. Lady Mandeville began to calculate on the effect her protegee, Miss Arundel, was to produce-and the result in her mind was a very brilliant one. To do her talents justice, Emily had improved very much since her residence under her care. Though too timid and too sensitive in her temper ever to obtain entire selfcommand, she had acquired more selfpossession-a portion of which is indispensably necessary to a gracefulness of manner. Encouraged and called forth, her natural powers began to be more evident in conversation; and her accomplishments, her exquisite dancing, and her touching voice, were no longer painful both to herself and her friends, from the excess of fear which attended their exercise. A little praise is good for a very shy temper-it teaches it to rely on the kindness of others. And last, not least, she was grown very much handsomer; the classic perfection of her profile, the symmetry of her figure, were more beautiful in their perfect development.

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