are very lovely, and the baron watched night retreating with feelings of much softness. The moon imprinted her last kiss on the bosom of the ocean; her chaste lips wearied of embracing, she re-enters the haven of her rest. The lambent stars, too, had retired, though a few dreamy ones lingered yet, until they tardily sought their place in Retreating night tells a

Phoebe's train. Retreating

tale the tale of waning existence :

an

other night has sped, another day has dawned, the routine of Nature never pauses -never changes-no vacillating spirit marks its course. And we of human clay-we are like the phenomena of night and day. In minor feelings we change: we, like the skies above, have our showers, our tempests, and our vivid rainbows of hope; our sky is sometimes gaudy and bright, sometimes tempestuous and lowering: we have our dreamy, lingering stars of love, and our

:

nights of darkness, when no light dawns upon our affections; we have our rainy floods of sorrow and our cheering beams of consolation thus, between man and the heavens above, there is a kindred link; and day and night are symbolic of life and death. Whether the night be dark or star-gemmed, it will wane into day; the sun, though sometimes dim, is, nevertheless, the orb of light; and death, though it come late, will come at last.

CHAPTER IX.

Dans le sentier d'amour se trouve
D'angoisses le torrent fatal,

Ton amitié charme le mal

Qu'à surmonter ses flots j'éprouve ;
Et lorsqu'à tes yeux je me meurs,
De ton pouvoir, merveille étrange!
Un seul de tes doux regards change
En plaisirs toutes mes douleurs.

Odes d'Hafiz, by Sir W. Jones.

The dewdrops were yet spangling the greensward, they were hanging in listlessness, like parting tears on beauty's cheek, the groves resounded with the waking lays of birds, when Anna di Lucia was joined by the baron, who insisted upon her accompanying him in one of

those long early rambles, in which in younger days she had always delighted.

There is something in very beautiful scenery which repels the power of speech, -words seem to intrude when the senses are charmed by Nature's behest. A gentle breeze stirred aside the waving grass, disclosing tints of emerald and blue, as each tiny flower, uncovered for a moment, rested again on its pillow of softest green. Multitudes of gay birds perched on the branches of the trees, pluming their richly-speckled wings. Around were ravines of many coloured sands, whilst here and there tufts of verdure relieved the bareness of the soil; it required only the hand of busy man to cultivate those wild mountainous districts, but fortunately Nature's wild was left untouched.

After walking for some time, and talking only upon indifferent subjects, the baron

perceiving that Anna appeared fatigued, drew her towards a sheltered spot of verdure, and the young girl determined to listen patiently to whatever might be the subject of the baron's discourse, and she guessed rightly what it would be.

"Oh, Anna, beloved one, how it pains me to vex thee!" he cried; "would that I could curb the love I feel for thee! would that it were in man's power to love deeply and passionately, and then to bid the heart forget! You must decide my fate quickly, Anna, for the fever of love is consuming me, maddening thoughts are searing my brain. I have prayed for strength to for get, until drops, large drops of sorrow have stood upon my brow, and now you must seal my destiny; if you refuse my offer of unchangeable love, my death rests at your door."

"Never, never; you surely do not mean