some splendid match, should punish Julian for his supineness and security. As long as Ellen did not fall in love with the French count, she was glad to see her welcome the attentions of any one; it made her hope that the impression she suspected was not indelible, and took from her the anxious and délaisseé appearance, which, as a matchmaker, she knew to be, of all others, the most unfavourable to a demoiselle à marier.

The count was become Ellen's shadow; but apprised by the affair of the verses that forwardness would as yet avail him nothing, he adopted a melancholy reserve of manner, and, though ever at hand, was so quiet and unobtrusive that she might as reasonably have quarrelled with her shadow as with him. To rescue her, when occasion offered, from a disagreeable partner, a shallow, coxcombical, or dull neighbour, to anticipate her slightest wish, and watch and wait to offer her every little gallant service and attention, now seemed to be the chosen delight, the sole ambition of the genius, the poet, the élégant.

He could have devised no plan more likely to make him welcome to Ellen; his graceful melancholy awoke her sympathy, his timely services her gratitude, and his poetical eloquence contrasted finely with the poor impertinences and vapid prosings of the generality of fashionables.

He marked, with a triumph he had tact enough to conceal, that Ellen welcomed him more warmly to their opera box than she did any other habitué there-that at dinner-parties she looked almost naturally for his arm, and, if any very insufferable bore approached to ask her to dance, her eyes were immediately turned towards him as towards a rescue.

If the parties were divided, he generally contrived to be included in that which Ellen formed, and disdained the gayest fête of the season to go with Ellen, Mr. Lindsay, Annie, and Mr. Grunter to the play, or to some out of the way party, where duty, not pleasure, called them, or even to sit at home to hear Grunter read Rollin's History, or meet a Scotch tea-party of Miss Tibby's. He was

thus thrown much in the way of poor Annie, and Annie had seen nothing in all London, in her opinion, to compare with Alphonse.

As for Julian, what with clubs, horses, bets, &c. his time was almost engrossed. He still sought Augusta in gay parties and at the opera, and meant to make love to her when he had time; but he was now constantly with a light set who laughed at marriage, except as a means of making a fortune, who assured him he would lose caste as a married man, who flattered him into a belief that no woman could say him nay, when he did propose, and then introduced him to their own sistersfinished coquettes, whose snares would probably have caught him, but that, though his head was turned, his heart was still true to Augusta. His father had, however, requested, nay insisted, while he gave him the means of rivalling the most dashing men about town, that he should await the end of the season' before he finally pledged himself to any woman for life. He, therefore, easily reconciled himself to a delay which he fancied

would prove the truth of Augusta's attachment, and revelled to the utmost in what he considered as the winding up of his bachelor

career.

For some days, De Villeneuve had been hardly seen at the Lindsays, and Ellen began sadly to miss him. Not that she loved, or ever thought of him as a lover; he had never pretended any thing like love for her, nor could she encourage it, if he did-but as in society, however exclusive, mind is the rarest attribute a companion can boast, and at the same time the most delightful, Ellen began to feel the dull crowd grow duller, and to wonder why he came not.

The fact was, Zelie's début approached. She could not, would not, bear Alphonse's absence at such a time, and he had much to do. The excitement about the new singer was intense; the opera goers talked of nothing but “La Zelie,” the papers overflowed with prophecies of the most brilliant début in the annals of the opera. It was whispered that "La Zelie" was young, beautiful, and with

a voice uniting all the charms of a Catalani's, a Malibran's, and a Grisi's; of a noble family, some said, and devoting herself to raise its fortunes of irreproachable character, added others, and so reserved that she had refused to be introduced to Prince Gthe Duke of B, and all the titled dilettanti whom curiosity had induced to crave that honour.

Even Augusta's heart beat high at the thought of seeing one whom she suspected to have been the object of Julian's visits to Worthing, and Ellen blushed at the deep interest she found herself taking in all that concerned the young débutante, and the many questions she detected herself addressing to De Villeneuve about her face, form, manners, and even dress. His perfect unconcern of manner, and careless coldness of opinion about her probable success, prevented any suspicion that La Zelie was an object of any importance to him, much less of that tender protecting interest, due to a sister.