spring weather outside, and that all those precious gifts of beauty, grace, and gentleness, warmed by a generous soul within, were impatient to blossom forth and reveal their charm to a world she could not yet have known.

Intent on these thoughts, I remember wishing with all my heart that when her life which was evidently now rushing fast to its flood, had reached the point where her destiny would have (French fashion) to be decided for her by others, it might be so ordained above that so gentle, modest, and comely a creature might be reserved for an existence of tranquil happiness such as suited the angel form with which I considered her already favoured.

Presently, and to my utter consternation, the little Venus passing close to me, and looking not in the least timid or abashed, whispered into my ear that she wished to speak to me.

"Monsieur, j'ai à vous parler; and as I heard the words the blood rushed to my cheeks, and even to the roots of my hair, for I was fairly dumfoundered.

That a French girl, a lady, and evidently a high-born one, should, without exhibiting the slightest sign of bashfulness, have deliberately requested a total stranger to come and speak to her, was more than I could compass; while I felt within me the pedestal tottering upon which a minute before I had exalted this goddess, and all the time I was dreading that the idol might fall and be dashed to pieces.

The vision had been so beautiful was the reality to disperse it entirely?

The awakening, however, was sudden enough to justify the blush that suffused my countenance; but while a tempest of conflicting feelings reigned within me, the light

intoxicating perfume of violets, which accompanied her as a breath of her own personality, filled my senses, and the commanding tones of her request acted as a spell on my movements, so that involuntarily I found myself following her.

All of a sudden it occurred to me that after all I might be mistaken that her beckoning was addressed to some one else, and that by doing what I believed to be her bidding, I might wound the pride of this gentle and beautiful creature.

I was even about to turn back, when she, as if guessing my thoughts, looked round, and seeing me, smiled so prettily that it gave me courage, while it effectually put an end to any desire to retreat.

When she got to the end of the shop, she requested her governess to get her something else she had forgotten, and then calling me by my name, said in such silvery accents as a mouth like hers could alone produce—

"How kind of you to come to me at my request, and how silly you must think me! but I know you very well, though I am too young for you to know me, and I want so very much to have a serious talk with you. You are going tonight to the Duchesse de la Rochemontant, I know, and I am going too. It is my first ball, and if you will let me dance the cotillon with you, you will do me a great favour, because then we can have so much more time to speak than during any other dance. But I am so selfish," seeing I was about to answer her," I only think of my own pleasure, and entirely forget that you may already have promised this dance to some one else; I hope not, however."

"Mademoiselle, I can assure

you that the prospect of a cotillon with you is one which I look to with such delight that you need have no scruple in the matter," I replied.

How kind of you!" she answered. "I was sure you would not say no; " and then offering me her hand as a queen might be tow it to an humble subject, I felt like the subject, as if in duty bound to kiss it reverentially; but the fâtissier's shop was scarcely a place to exhibit my devotion, and I made a great and successful effort to resist the impulse.

Her governess having by this time returned, she smiled once more, and with as pretty an inclination of her lovely head as could well knock into confusion the few remaining clear sen es I possessed, my newly found divinity departed, leaving me hopelessly in love with a mere child whose name I did not even know.

The idea that I could not even give my idol a name served the purpose of restoring somewhat my scattered intellect, and I hastened after her to discover, if possible, by the arms on her carriage, or the livery of her servants, or any other means, what great name she might bear, convinced as I was that no other than an illustrious name could suit her matchless beauty.

I was in such a hurry that I heard several exclamations on my way to the street entrance, accompanying the up etting of one or two ice-cups, and probably half-adozen cakes, as I dashed rather than walked to the door.

Ah, le maladroit! quel homme affairé! mon Dieu, qu'est ce qu'il lui prend!" in variously highpitched tones, followed me unheeded to the exit, where I arrived in time to hear Mademoiselle-what the deuce was her name?-call out to her coachman to drive to la

Comtesse de Chantalis—a lady I well knew,—and wonder once more at the extraordinary aplomb of this young girl, scarcely out of her teens, who, by dexterously throwing out this address, as it were, to me, seemed to guess what was uppermost in my thoughts, and to give me the means of realising my wishes.

More stupidly smitten than ever, I recalled to mind the momentary fear I had entertained that the reality would, after all, oblige me to dethrone my first fancy; and I now blamed myself for having even so far done her wrong as to suppose that a whisper in the ear of a man she did not know was even unusual.

Of course, I reasoned, what she had done was quite natural, while her subsequent explanation showed that she was equally in the right. She knew me, if I did not know her; and was it not right of her, knowing me and what she wanted to see me about, to tell me that she wished to speak to me? Not knowing her, nor the motives which impelled her, I might have been justified in my surprise; but such surprise did not say much in favour of my knowledge of character, for it clearly proved I could not discriminate between honest blue eyes and other eyes—that is, between a straightforward purpose and a cunning one; and the result of this cogitation was, that I considered myself wholly unworthy of being made the confidant of this dear little girl, though resolved that nothing in the world would prevent my being that confidant, if possible.

"Quatre francs, Monsieur," said a voice at my side.

What? "Nous avons vingt sous de pâtés et dix de madère: trente sous; plus deux francs cinquante de brisage: somme, quatre

francs." I was speechless; but seeing the imperturbable countenance of the serving-girl, whose sole business in life was to collect sous and distribute cakes, it was evident that argument would have been of no use; and after all, if the refreshments did come to four francs,

was not my love-oh dear, how I wished I knew her name!-worth the extravagant expenditure?

I paid like a man and left the shop, directing my steps I knew not where, but, of course, in the direction of la Comtesse de Chantalis.

In due time I reached the Hotel Chantalis, in the Boulevard Malesherbes, and as I approached the house, an elegant victoria, driven by two splendid small bay horses, dashed under the porch to deposit upon the marble landing a fashionably dressed and handsome woman, who was no other than my friend the Countess herself.

Seeing me coming in at the porch, just as the concierge was about to close its doors, she waved her glove and beckoned me to her.

"You have come in the nick of time," she said, "for I was just about to give orders that no one should be let in. I am dead tired; and as I have to dine out, and to go to the opera before the ball this evening, I want to rest an hour if I can."

"Then I at once retire.'

"No, do not do that, for I want to tell you I have a niece who makes her debut this evening. and I shall like to hear what you think of her. She has only left the convent des Oiseaux" a year, and where she gets her beauty from I cannot tell, for her mother comes from the worthiest but ugliest stock in all France; and as to my dear brother-well. Richard de Breteuille is not precisely a handsome man."

I was just able here to cut in an artful compliment in the shape of an oath, that the niece must have inherited her aunt's beauty. How

this could be I did not quite make out, but it appeared to satisfy my friend, who laughed and said, "Toujours galant; quoiqu'il en soit elle est ravissante ma nièce; and you will see that Diane de Breteuille does honour to her family."

I had gained my object. Diane was the name of the fairy who had bewitched me, and I had henceforth but one wish-viz., to reach the hour of 11 P.M., when I could decently proceed in quest of Mademoiselle de Breteuille at the Duchess's ball.

"Don't forget that you have to rest, Countess," I said-" or rather let me remember that you have to do so, and ask your leave to pay you my homage another time."

"Well, yes, let me see-tomorrow. No, to-morrow is all filled up, but come the day after it is my day."

"Your day is like a reception at the Tuileries-one sees everybody but the hostess."

"You do not care to dine en famille, with Raymond and myself pour tout potage?"

"Nothing I should like better."

"Well, then, come to-morrow, and maybe I can meanwhile induce my brother Richard and his wife and daughter to come too."

"That would be charming," I exclaimed, with a vivacity of expression and such a gleam of delight in my eyes, that the Comtesse stared at me with a puzzled look,

which I was not slow to dismiss, lest my indiscreet joy might mar the prospect of bliss she had just held before me.

"You are astonished at my enchantment," I said; "but you would not be if you knew how gracious I think it of you to allow a poor forlorn stranger in this big Paris to be admitted in the bosom of your family. The French are so exclusive in this respect, that I take it as a great compliment whenever they do me such an honour as you have just bestowed."

Accustomed as poiite Frenchwomen are to well-turned phrases, still this little speech was not enough to explain the burst of radiancy which illumined my countenance a moment before; and the Countess must have thought so, as giving me her hand, she said with a knowing smile, "Au revoir; vous me direz un jour le secret de cette subite animation."

We parted, and a burning heat consumed my cheeks and ears, such as one often feels after a silly act or a foolish speech; but there was no help for it, and no doubt the evening's proceedings would set matters right; while I thought, with some comfort to myself, I had preserved intact the secret of my meeting with the Countess's niece.

Evening came at last, and as the French proverb has it, "Tout vient à point à qui sait attendre," though, in my experience, I have often found that, however patiently anything has been expected, its arrival, when accomplished, is generally found to have been solely delayed by the patience of the expectation.

Help good fortune by every effort is rather the guiding motto I most fancy, and indeed I have seldom found that a little earthly helping has not materially deter

mined a providential stroke of luck.

Convinced that a girl's first ball, adorned as it was by a previous flavour of romance, was likely to bring the girl herself at an earlier hour than otherwise to the scene of her coming exploits, I made no scruple of being unfashionable, and arriving, if not exactly in time to light the candles, at least very soon after they were lit.

Early as I did arrive, however, it was not before a crowd of people had already congregated in the magnificent salons of the Duchesse's hotel in the Rue de Grenelle, and as I made my way through lines of liveried servants, and up the gorgeous staircase, with its Gobelin tapestry and Baccarat crystal chandeliers, every one I met seemed to have conspired with one another to ask me the same question-“ Avezvous vu la nouvelle débutante?"

Why should they ask me the question, was what I wondered at, feeling a kind of guilty apprehension that my acquaintance with her, made as it had been in so curious a manner, had probably been noticed, and consequently reported.

I carefully hid all knowledge, however, behind such searching remarks as "On l'a dit fort jolie; j'en entends beaucoup de bien; elle doit être charmante; sa tante m'en a parlé."

As no one answered these platitudes by some hint that I ought to know better than most, I was satisfied that all was as it should be, and I hurried on.

Presently the drawing-room was reached, and having made my bow to the Duchesse, I discovered a knot of young men discussing together, who, on seeing me, made signs that I should quickly join them.

When I reached the groupwhich was not easy, as the crowd

in this particular room was uncomfortably great-they began a series of gesticulations, and from each came pouring the most fervent encomiums about a new beauty who had just a moment before passed with her mother into the ball-room, and particulars of whom they wanted to know from all their acquaintances.

As I happened to be stanchly devoted to dancing, I of course knew as well who were the best dancers among the girls out, as I did among the married women, which is perhaps the reason why I was so eagerly appealed to.

"Je viens d'avoir une vision, cher ami," said le Vicomte de Moncalpin, a young man of large expectations and little brains.

"Va te promener, une vision; dis donc bien une réalité, Adalbert;" and then turning to me, le Comte de Livelalongue mysteriously patted me on the shoulder, and whispered "une beauté !"

"Un brin de Vénus," said a cadet from St Cyr.

"Une divinité en robe de bal," remarked a young scion of a noble house, then preparing for "le Baccalauréat."

"La connais tu ?" asked le Vicomte.

"How can I know her merely by such a description?" said I "a vision, a reality, a morsel of Venus, and a ball-clad divinity. I ask you, how is a man to say whether he knows one woman answering to all these descriptions at once? Tell me her name."

"Mademoiselle de Breteuille at least I think so," said the Count with the long name, "for she followed Madame de Breteuille."

"I know it is," replied the St Cyrien, "for I saw Amédée de Durnois make his bow to her, and he told me her name."

As soon as I entered the ballroom, I perceived Mademoiselle: Diane, surrounded by a host of young men anxious to be the first to trot out the belle of the room. and of the evening, and be honoured by her acceptance.

She sat, as is usual in France, on a form opposite her mother's, who, I perceived, was a short wiry. person of delicate complexion and well-bred features, but without a trace of good looks about her. Indeed, without being plain, she was so strikingly wanting in colour and attractiveness, that I could, not help marvelling how the brilliant star opposite could in any way be related to her, and where. she had inherited that wonderful lustre which illuminated her coun

tenance.

The novelty to her of the entertainment, the pleasure she seemed to experience, the anticipation of. a triumphant evening, and the promise of it already made certain. by the number of asprants to the honour of her partnership in the dance, all served to heighten her colour, give brilliancy to her eyes, and life to those inward emotions. of pure enjoyment which it is the privilege of girlhood to exhibit with peculiar freshness.

She was so simply and so prettily dressed, besides-all white, and flowers in her hair; but the dress was the work of the best. maker, and the flowers were nat