the whirl and panoramic motion that passed before him-the soft warmth of the pure air -the perfume wafted from gardens at hand -the soft strains of distant music-the rays of the declining sun tinging all objects with a crimson hue-the varied sensations of the day-the very languor of his frame, wearied with walking;-all combined to thrill his soul with a delightful but dangerous excite

ment.

The roll of wheels grew less frequent, and idlers began to stray homewards. For some moments the youth, bewildered and dazzled by his thronging fancies, lost the view of external objects. He reclined against a pillar, with his eyes fixed to the ground, and his face expressive of rapt emotion. His reverie was rudely and most unromantically disturbed. Struck by the shoulder of a horse, he was hurled some paces forward into the road, and must have been run over had not the coachman, with some trouble, reined in his spirited horses. The man had been drinking, and was highly enraged that a passenger should have the presumption to get in the way of his horses, and stand a chance of being trampled on. When the startled youth partially recovered himself, he was

assailed with a volley of abusive words from the coach-box. Confused, yet angered, he raised his hand threateningly. The coachman answered with his whip, and struck him some sharp cuts about the shoulders.

There was good blood in the scholar's veins. Irritated by the pain and insult, he threw himself on the horses, grasped their curbs firmly, and with the force of vehement passion drove them backwards. The coachman shook his reins, and plied his whip vigorously; the horses reared and plunged, now making a spring forward, and now urged back on their haunches. The struggle was desperate. Had the 'youth been less firm or brave, he must inevitably have been hurled to the ground. As he stood with every muscle in his frame strained to its utmost energy with his uplifted hands firmly grasping the bits of the plunging steeds with right leg advanced and bent at the knee, and the left stretched to rigidity, and spurning the earth, as he sustained the strain of the fiery animals-his head bare, and his beautiful hair shook from his face with his struggle, and lightly caught by the passing wind-his attitude of power and defiance were such as a sculptor might have

chosen for a youthful Apollo. Back in spite of the coachman's efforts went the chariot, the pole swayed to one side, and another moment would have overturned the equipage against a pillar of the gate. The saw the danger, and paused—

young man

"Rascal!" he cried, in a passionate voice, "come down instantly, or by Heaven you shall take the consequences!"

A faint scream was heard from the interior of the carriage, and at the same instant a lady leant forth from the window, and addressed her coachman

"How dare you, sir!" she exclaimed, with energy, "have the audacity to assault this gentleman? Get down, I command you, instantly! Help, help! my sister is unwell!"

The manner of the scholar was changed by the lady's action and words. He relaxed his hold, but stayed at the horses' heads to soothe and quiet them, and sought to hide his face, which was now crimsoned with shame. Two policemen came to the spot, the carriage was brought into a proper position, the coachman was humbled, and some spectators ran to the chariot door; but the fainting girl had already recovered herself.

The first moment of the confusion over,

a constable's hand was laid on the youth's collar, but he was saved from further indignity by the lady who had before interposed. "My coachman is alone to blame," she

said.

"He will give you his name. Here is my address," and she slipped her card into the officer's hand. "That gentleman," and she smiled as she indicated him with a bend of her head, "is perfectly blameless. I saw the whole affair."

The lady's sweet and serious manner made a deeper impression than her words. She had passed the first blush of girlish beauty, and was ripening into the maturity of early womanhood. Her blooming face, lit up with a rich flush of colour, had a look of confirmed health, which, however, took nothing from the delicacy of her features. Her luxuriant dark hair hung in tresses under her bonnet, and seemed elegantly to frame a countenance, which might else have been thought too full for feminine loveliness. The nose, small and slightly elevated, gave a piquant expression to her countenance, which truly indicated the liveliness of her spirit. Her hazel eyes sparkled with vivacity and expression; and her features, of the greatest flexibility in displaying emotion, changed from a look of

indignant anger to a sentiment almost of tenderness and admiration, as she glanced from her delinquent coachman to the bashful and blushing scholar. In her eagerness she had exposed her face freely to the crowd; her bonnet was partly pushed from her head, and her cashmere had fallen from her shoulders, giving to view her finely-rounded neck, pure and polished as the inside of a sea-shell, and as delicately tinged with colour.

What it has taken some time to describe

was hardly the work of an instant in performance. The coachman, impatient to be gone, touched his horses with the whip directly the road was clear; the motion threw back the lady, who had again leant forward to speak, into the interior of the carriage. The horses bounded forwards, their driver feigning that he was unable to control them, and the carriage rapidly turned a corner; but the youth, who eagerly gazed after it, caught the farewell wave of a small gloved hand at the instant that it was whirled from his sight. This slight action, though so far removed from him that his eye scarcely caught it, thrilled his frame like an electric shock, and sent the blood in quicker motion through every vein of his body.