hair to fall about her ears like a tragedy queen, occasionally laid her right hand upon her heart, very often looked up to heaven with an expression of vacant melancholy, became vehemently attached to the moon, and was seldom unprovided with a deep and most love-fraught sigh. Never had she been so happy as when assuming these appearances of woe. It was so delightful to have something to interest one in the country -to have encountered a real adventure; to possess a lover concealed in a woodhouse-and one, moreover, whose life was in her power! And then the importance she derived from being the depositary of a profound, impenetrable, death-involving secret, was in itself no small charm; though she felt it would be still more delicious, if some one could know how fortunate she was, what a mighty mystery was confided to her, how furiously she was beloved, how devotedly she returned the passion! sides, all' heroines, whether of romance or tragedy, had a confidant, who shared their joys and sorrows, and, what was of more consequence, assisted them in their projects. Her

Be

secret, too, was really uneasy in her own bosom; it seemed to burn within her: she was dying to reveal it; it was perpetually fluttering upon the tip of her tongue, as if waiting for an opportunity to fly away from her. She fidgeted about Helen, looked significantly and sheepishly by turns, began a sentence, and suddenly stopped short as if afraid of committing herself; carefully shut the doors before she would open her lips upon the most indifferent subject, and dallied, and coquetted, and played off a thousand ridiculous and affected airs with the mystery in her possession.

Her sister was the only person who could consistently fill the vacant point of confident, but Helen, she thought, was so prim, so starch and precise, and formal and fussy, and hated adventures, and talked so sapiently about propriety, and all that sort of thing, that she really did not believe she could ever bring herself to make the communication. However, all these dissuasions yielded to the still greater annoyance of not being disburthened of her secret, and after various resolutions to that

effect, and as many failings of the heart, she sate herself down one morning beside her sister, who was painting a landscape, and endeavoured to prepare herself for the important avowal, as well as to awaken attention in her auditress by a most ominous heigho!

Helen had already observed that there was something labouring in Adeline's mind, but as she had reason to believe her deficient in real feeling, although with abundant susceptibility to any frivolous and evanescent impression, she attributed it to some sentimental woe with which she had been infected by her French romances, and determining to wait with patience till the mountain should be delivered of its mouse, she pursued her employment without noticing the lugubrious sigh aforesaid.

"Dis donc, ma sœur," said Adeline after another sigh—“ crois-tu que l'on puisse aimer—” Nay, prythee," interposed Helen, "if you

66

are going to talk of love, let us speak plain English, or I shall cry with Shakspeare's Mercatio-" Bon jour-there's a French salutation

for

your French slop, and so take my leave."

“Shakspeare, my dear Helen! he was a sauvage, a barbare. How can you quote from a man who is only endurable upon our stage when altered and improved by Tate, Davenant, Crowne, or Ravenscroft? We had no genuine taste till the Restoration brought it over to us from France. I was going to inquire whether you still disbelieved in the possibility of love at first sight."

Helen declared her conviction that any dig. nified love must be the deliberate offspring of the head and heart, and could not be thus instantaneously born of the eyes. to vie

"N'allez pas si grand train,” cried Adeline, and then having played for some time with her fan, and counted the sticks, and slightly blushed, and cast a glance at herself in the mirror as she bridled up her head, and shook back her curls, she continued, "You may have never been placed in such a situation, Helen, but for myself I can attest from my own experience, that a woman may find it impossible—that is to say, that she may fall in love at first sight."

"So then, the wonder is out at last," ex

claimed Helen, "and pray, if it is no longer a secret, may I ask the name of this redoubtable Amadis, who has conquered your heart by a single coup d'ail? Some Cavalier, I presume, whom you have discovered upon his palfrey from the window of the summer-house, at which you are so delighted to plant yourself." in

“Tu ne t'y prends pas mal,—not badly guessed;" said Adeline, waiting to be more particularly cross-questioned before she proceeded in her confession.

"I have never any wish to be made the depositary of a secret," said Helen; "if this, therefore, is nothing more than a girlish admiration of some unknown Romeo, I had rather not receive it. If it is a matter of any serious import, in which my advice or assistance can bene

fit

you, they are both willingly at your service."

"It is, it is!" exclaimed Adeline in a passionate tone, and clasping her hands as she spoke; "something in which the happiness of my own existence, and the life of a fellow-creature are concerned."

"Nay then, my dear Adeline,” said Helen,