appear to be so much to your taste Mr. Grey. "Thank Heaven-no." I heard him say, while a look of profound disgust stole over his face; he said no more, but prepared, in some haste, for our quitting the box. In the crush room, Lady Ravensden soon found a host of friends, and while she occupied herself in talking to them, Mr. Grey led me to a seat. After an awkward pause of a few minutes, he remarked in a careless tone. "The gay life you are now leading, must form a striking contrast to your quietude at D'Arville Castle." "Yes," I answered, "it is very different." "And which do you prefer?" he asked. "A comparison can hardly be instituted between them," was my answer; "the brilliant scenes of London gaiety are vastly amusing, and I like them all extremely; but D'Arville has its attractions also." "Indeed," said Mr. Grey, turning to me with some surprise, "and pray Miss Brand what may they be? I thought that, except in autumn, it offered nothing in the shape of society, save an occasional dinner to the parson, the doctor and the lawyer-a school teadrinking party, or a heavy pic-nic." O, it's not the society," I said, "that I was alluding to-it is the place itself which is so lovely-it is full of romantic beautycastle, woods, village, and neighbourhood, and you must remember the little church? who could forget anything so very, very beautiful!" I spoke enthusiastically, for I was thinking of our rambles there, us two together-and how changed everything was now, and my heart flew back to that happy time, with a fond, yearning recollection. No answering feeling, however, seemed awakened in the breast of my companion; he merely said: "You think so?" "Do not you ?" I asked. "Yes," he replied, in a somewhat hesitating manner, "it is a fine place, very; but, I should be very sorry to make any very great sacrifice to possess it; there are other things more desirable of possession in this world than a stately residence." "O, of course; but-" I did not know how to proceed, and knowing that he was waiting in silent attention for my response, confused me; before I could reply, he had risen, and was addressing Lady Lucy Doveton -the bright Aurora, who had so flashed upon me in my morning dreams. "You're a very naughty man," she cried, "mamma says you are, for not coming to arrange about the books you promised to lend us." I did not hear his answer, Lady Ravensden coming up at the moment. How light and shadow had alternately flitted across my heart that day! When my head pressed my pillow that night, it seemed days, weeks, instead of hours, since I had last rested there. "Think'st thou existence doth depend on time? CHAPTER V. Julia. They do not love, that do not show their love. Lucetta. O! they love least, that let men know their love. TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA. Or all the amusements in vogue, whereby men in these modern days contrive to cheat old Time of the heavy tax he imposes upon the idle and the stupid, an out-door fête seems one of the most rational, because the most natural of recreations. Many who would shun the illuminated ballroom, and fly in horror from the pestilential odours of a gas-lighted theatre, find pleasure in an entertainment given beneath the unclouded canopy of heaven; frivolity they condemn in longer such in another. fancying that the one place, is no There seems something poetical in tripping to a lively measure, on the greensward-it has a classical halo round it, which the finest assembly rooms, or handsomest drawing-rooms have not. A banquet, too, spread in the shadow of a fine old tree, is almost patriarchal, -the simplicity of the thing is touching, and reminds one of the déjeuners à la fourchette of revered antiquity; the strictest young dandy of the church, yields under such circumstances to the fascinations of champagne, bright eyes, and a good band; even though he had preached on the previous Sunday and meant to do the same on the next, against all worldy vanities. A beverage from which our lips would shrink, if offered in a common mug, acquires a more tempting odour far, if presented in sparkling crystal, or in a cool silver chalice; and thus it is with pleasure-the draught is the same; but its acceptance, or rejection by some, depends upon the form, whether simple or otherwise, in which it presents itself. The climate of our cloud-loving isle, being rarely favourable for dancers on the dewy lawn, and breakfasts 'neath the linden |