duce my friend the Count De Villeneuve, and if I have been a little too urgent with Ellen, it is because he is at Paris'the glass of fashion, and the mould of form,' and I wanted to prove to him that there are women worth looking at even in England."

"Leave it to us to prove that," said Miss Tibby, drawing herself up, "and dinna you prove that there's na mon worth speaking to, when once he's been out o' England."

At this moment in came Annie, fresh from the hands of Le Gracieux, her fine auburn hair gracefully braided round her handsome Scotch face. She had compressed her Hebe form into a Parisian dress Augusta had given her. The metamorphosis was complete, and to the cursory glance the wild Scotch lassie was the handsome Parisian élégante.

CHAPTER IX.

When pensive, it seemed as if that very grace,
That charm of all others, was born in her face;
And when angry, for e'en in the tranquillest climes
Slight breezes will ruffle the flowers sometimes,
That short passing anger but seemed to awaken
New beauties, like flowers that are sweetest when shaken.
Lalla Rookh.

Bon jour, belle Zelie!" said Julian, entering a drawing-room in the Marine Hotel at Worthing, where a young and foreign-looking girl lay on a sofa near the window-a soft September breeze blowing freshly from the sea, and a bright September sun sending through the crimson curtains a glow like that of health on the clear olive complexion of the young sufferer. "How are you this morning?" he added, kindly taking her hand; "still feverish, I fear-I came to lure away

your brother for this evening, but I fancy you are not well enough to be left alone."

"If he can bear to leave me, I can bear to be left, Monsieur Jules," replied Zelie, while her colour rose and tears filled her eyes.

"No, no, I will not propose it," replied Julian, struck by her emotion.

Zelie smiled her thanks, but at that moment Alphonse De Villeneuve himself entered from an inner room. He was attired in a flowered satin dressing-gown, antique slippers curved upwards at the toes, his long black hair was surmounted by an Apollo cap, and his beard and moustachios might have belonged for length and thickness to an itinerant vender of "old clo'," but for the care evidently bestowed upon their gloss and perfume.

"You will not propose to take me," he said; "then I must propose to go-Zelie and I have had a little quarrel," he added, smiling, "and nothing secures pardon between those who love, like a brief absence. Repentance is the offspring of solitude, and I am sure, when I am gone, she will whisper something to Zelie's heart."

Alphonse spoke in French; Zelie burst into tears, and replied, "I have repented, Alphonse; do not leave me alone in this drear place, with nothing to look at but the sea, one wave supplanting another, all monotonous and selfish as mankind-I am not well, oh! do not leave me."

Julian walked to the window, fearful of seeming indiscreet in listening to this dispute between the brother and sister. Alphonse drew near the sofa, and whispered something to Zelie. He then joined Julian, and said, "Zelie is reconciled to my going, she even wishes it. I will get ready. Come!"

"I hope you are not angry with me?" said Julian, speaking in a low tone to Zelie, while the French exquisite went to exchange his elegant undress for a toilette distinguée.

66

No," said Zelie, also in a low tone, “I am too miserable to be angry."

"You are nervous and low-spirited from past illness."

"It is not the past, it is the future affects me."

"And why? the future can bring you nothing but success, triumph, glory!"

"The future can bring me nothing I value -except, yes, success will enable me to serve Alphonse "

"And your brother loves you so, and wealth, and fame, and universal admiration will follow your début; the young and lovely Zelie will warm our cold islanders into enthusiasm, coronets will be flung at your feet. Ah! it is a proud thing for a woman, by the mere power of her beauty and magic of her genius, to make for herself a destiny brighter than that of queen; for the power we win is dearer than that we inherit."

As he spoke, a gleam of ambition and enthusiasm lighted Zelie's large wild eyes. "Come, I will repay you for your prophecy," she said, and seizing her guitar she poured her rich and wondrous voice into an Italian air, the excitement of the moment lending such inspiration to her talent that Julian actually trembled with admiration, and Alphonse came to the door yet engaged in adjusting his