Mother's health was infirm at this time, and nothing had proved so beneficial in similar cases, as the climate of the south of France. Accordingly, father sold out his property and business, and made his arrangements for a trip to Europe. Aunt Trevenor approved of the plan; and made it feasible by taking charge of Elvira, and retaining me who had already become part of her household. I would have gone as mamma's maid, rather than have missed the sights of the Old World; but the family pride would not admit of this.

Aunt Trevenor's rheumatism improved when Spring inaugurated warmer days; and she was able to take us out driving, and interested herself in our amusements, more than I ever thought she was capable of doing. It was a study to watch her face as we drove through the town, in the suburbs of which stood her estate, as her keen eyes took in the expressions of admiration bestowed on the fair girl beside her. I used to look at Elvira myself, and wonder if all that beauty was real; if it would not vanish from our eyes, as some light cloud we had watched at sun-setting. But not more real and tangible was her beauty than the pride-the old Trevenor pride-which might not have been my sister's, had they given her any other name. Was it her fault that it had been fostered since her birth; that wealth and station had been held up as prizes for beauty to win? Having come into possession of the one, the others were a natural consequence. So she honored her teachers by believing. I was always on the look out for some fine bit of scenery, for which the country was remarkable, and the notes of admiration fell unheeded on my ear; not so however the tramp of a coming steed, which I felt sure, by a sort of spiritual magnetism, was bringing good or evil to

cavalier follow. We were two unsophisticated girls, Vira and I, and knew nothing of society, and the idea of being thrown into the company of such a splendid-looking man as Gilbert Trevenor, quite took away our breaths, and sent a thrill of pleasure to our hearts.

How we did enjoy the days that succeeded this interruption of our usual quiet! After the first excitement of his return had passed over-for he had been in distant lands for many years-Aunt Trevenor kindly gave him into our keeping, and retired to her wonted seclusion.

There was something exquisitely enjoyable about those walks and drives, which we three took in company-something so strangely at variance with our accustomed routine of daily life-that Elvira and I were fairly intoxicated by it. Neither of us realized the danger we were in. If Aunt Trevenor cared, why did she not warn us?

Elvira's sweet face seemed to take on a new beauty; and I could see Gilbert's heart in his eyes, as he sat watching her when she spoke, or looked pensively away into the far future. For she had dreams.

We had but little opportunity to confide in each other; and in fact there was little desire on my sister's part, as she had inherited all the peculiarities of the Trevenors, and secretiveness was not the least of them. Gilbert was as kind and attentive to me as to Elvira, when we were together: but one evening I had a revelation.

I had been busy all day writing up accounts for my aunt, who had yielded that duty to me, since her infirmities prevented her attending to them, and at night I was too weary to sleep. The whole multiplication table seemed to have entered into a conspiracy to rob me of my slumbers, and the figures had joined in a demon dance, and were flying hither and yon, resisting every attempt to bring them to order. There was a method in their madness most aggravating; and in a terrible effort to drive them out of my thoughts, I aroused to the consciousness of the sound of a human voice. It was

low, and delicately modulated-my sister's voice, beyond a doubt. Only she and I slept on that side of the house.

I stepped softly to the window, and listened. Too well also I recognized the tones of the deep bass voice, as every word smote my heart like a barbed arrow; and I sank on the floor, lost to everything but a sense of my own misery. Why had I not discovered this before! Why had the days gone by, in such a bewildering blaze of beauty, as to leave me unconscious of my position, and in danger of complete shipwreck! Never before had I realized the power of beauty, and while I strove to overcome my bitter feelings of disappointment, the cry of agony would burst through every prayer. Unloved and unlovely! Could a greater curse fall upon any human being!

But in the silence and solitude of my own room, I buried whatever hopes had budded in the beauty of that summer.

I sat with Aunt Trevenor all the next day, and resisted all her appeals to join Gilbert and Elvira. I used every plea that a woman ever invented when her inclination was against submission, and tried to appear unconscious, although I felt the keen eyes of my aunt piercing through the very joints of my armor. I even took my meals with her, an arrangement she evidently enjoyed, since it was continued from that day forth. But I was paid for every sacrifice; for I loved my sister, and the brightness of her face was such, that a glory seemed to cover it; and when I considered how incapacitated she was for anything else, I thought it was God's will that she should be forever shrined in the tenderest depths of a strong and loving heart.

Still there was the restlessness of uncertainty in my heart; and those early autumn days were a fitting type of the desolation that waited on the steps of Time.

Of course my aunt could not fail to discern how matters stood; and one morning she broached the subject in her quick, significant way:-"Elizabeth, it ought not to be! I was a fool! You should have told me!"

"I? Aunt Trevenor."

"Yes, you. There is something wrong. I feel it. But you shall be righted, Elizabeth."

In what way, I wondered, for if Aunt Elvira knew anything of woman's pride and she did, I was certain-she could not imagine I would accept the hand of any man whose heart was another's. Gilbert was her only nephew, and it was an understood thing that he was to be her heir, and I thought how well my handsome sister would adorn the stately dwelling, when its stern, cold mistress had passed away.

Strong natures break suddenly; and with scarcely a moment's warning, Aunt Trevenor was seized with a violent illness, and expired in my arms before the physician arrived. Short, sharp, and decisive! Such had been the character of her life, and thus suddenly it ended. She looked up in my face, with more love in her eyes than I had ever supposed lodged in her heart, and whispering, "I never promised," drew herself closer to my breast, and was gone.

My senses were so benumbed by the blow, that I have only a faint recollection of what transpired up to the reading of the will, in which I took very little interest, except on Elvira's account. But I was unprepared for the denouement, which proved me to be heiress of Trevenor!— Gilbert and Elvira, conjointly with my mother, being left with legacies sufficient to keep them above want for the remainder of their natural lives.

Gilbert was the first to congratulate me, and astonish me by an unlooked for display of disinterested generosity.

Before matters were fairly adjusted, word came that the steamer which was bringing my dear parents home, had foundered at sea; and in this greater sorrow, I forgot the lesser grief.

I own to a feeling of delight when the disposition of my aunt's wealth was made known; for I determined that a generous heart should pay the debt of a homely face, and the plans I had formed on a sure foundation, as I thought, had proved to be castles in the air.

Trevenor must be my home henceforth;

but Elvira should be no less a sharer in its beauty and bounty. Gilbert ceased to be a guest, when I became hostess; but removed himself to comfortable quarters in the neighborhood, and we saw him daily. Everything went on as usual, for I had learned many of my aunt's ways. Poor Elvira! She did not feel the disappointment as keenly as my mother would have done; and to her wealth had proved itself scarcely equivalent to love, though her tastes were such as to require a handsome competency. I understood now what Aunt Trevenor meant by saying she had "not promised."

Gilbert's manner vexed me; it was both deferential and deprecating. If I had not already formed so good an opinion of him, I should have felt suspicious; for I had not such an exalted opinion of the sex, in general, as not to know what money would do, weighed in the balance with beauty.

when she expressed her sentiments in regard to the attachment between Gilbert and Elvira. I relented a little; and grew less stony while my lover continued his pleading; and, oh! forgive me, if I yielded to his ardent protestations, and for a while forgot everything but the luxury of being loved.

When he left, I went to my room, flushed with the glory of the new baptism; and my mirror retrieved the character it had always had in my estimation, by reflecting the beautified face of Elizabeth Nelson.

Does Love make us all selfish for a time? I think so; for I scarcely thought of Elvira during the remainder of the day. I sat by my window at twilight, looking across the fields-my own property, and the woods, sacred to those early walks with Gilbert-and wondered I had been so reconciled to my fate, when I discovered that no heart beat responsive to my own. What unspeakable bliss was there in loving, and being loved!

If for me, why not for others?—and I looked up at the stars that were breaking through the blue, and prayed that there might shine in upon every heart this radiance, so akin to heaven. Then I

overcame the ecstacy of the moment.

her happiness, and have her curse me

"I deny the soft impeachment, though I promise to be all ears," I replied, laughing.

"Give me your heart instead, Elizabeth;" he said, with passionate vehemence; "you must have seen it was that I wanted."

I think my face must have looked the impersonation of all the passions combined, as I turned on the piano-stool, to meet Gilbert Trevenor face to face.

"It is you I want, Elizabeth. Your avoidance of me has but strengthened my regard. From the first I admired your character, and Aunt Trevenor knew it." This must have been what she meant,

there, on the very spot where I had made the sacrifice some months before, I again renounced my hopes and re-buried them. Not without tears and agony almost insupportable; but pride had conquered love before my day, and should duty be less valiant?

As soon as I could command myself, I penned a note to Gilbert, and left it on the piano, where he would be sure to see it when he called, later in the evening.

Elvira was able to join me at supper, and I thought I had never seen her look more beautiful and spirituelle. My own face was one that seldom betrayed the heart by change of expression or color; but those who have passed through the

That night I did not sleep. I thought I heard voices outside my window, but I would not listen. I was glad when morning came, that I might resume my duties, and find in employment some escape from the pressure of disappointment. I waited breakfast for Elvira, but she did not make her appearance. It was nothing unusual, as she was subject to attacks of sick-headache, and frequently kept her room for several days. But some premonition of evil drew me thither, and there I learned the perfidy of those whose love had made the fragrance of these latter days. It was all swept away now, and a desert, where nothing grew that could charm my solitude, seemed to stretch out to life's horizon.

At this time of trial I took Ann Gray, the housekeeper, into my confidence; and she, good, faithful creature, stood my friend, as well as counselor. How impoverished I was, to be obliged to seek sympathy from one so far beneath me in social position! But it did me good, and in this particular I differed from my aunt; though in other respects I felt as though her mantle had fallen upon me. I visited among the poor people of Trevenor, and made friends in many an humble home.

Three years passed by, and I never heard from my sister; though I frequently conjectured her probable fate-for I now believed Gilbert Trevenor to be capable of any villainy.

Ann Gray kept her eyes and ears open, and if the gossips of the place had let slip any loop of knowledge, she would have seized upon it at once.

I had often been haunted with visions of my early home, and the desire to visit Pemberton; so one pleasant day in June, I ordered the coachman to turn the horse's heads in that direction. I was anxious to see how the place looked to me after so long an absence; but instead of feeling a revival of youthful emotions, as I neared my birthplace, I was only conscious of the terrible change that time had wrought for it and me. I returned from my drive,

room, to gaze on the pictures that gleamed so vividly from the walls of memory.

Ann came to my room very early the next morning, her face and figure bulletining "very important news!"

"If you please, miss-it's awful! I can't tell it!" and the good woman sank into the nearest chair, and buried her face in her apron.

"Ann!" I exclaimed, in a voice so unnatural I hardly recognized it as my own; "is it anything about my sister?" "It is, miss," she replied; endeavoring to control her sobs.

"Then think of my anxiety, and try to be calm."

"I will, miss; but, oh! if you had seen her."

I

"Seen her! Have you seen her? almost shrieked, grasping her by the arm. My own passion hushed hers; and I listened with my heart in my ears, to what she had to tell.

"I was down at Mrs. Morse's yesterday, for a moment, and she mentioned having been to see a sick lady who had been brought to Mrs. Runyon's. She said it was enough to make one's heart ache just to see her, and she so young, and so beautiful. Her saying that, made me feel all in a quiver, and I stopped in at Mrs. Runyon's on my way back. Oh! Miss Elizabeth, it was a sorry sight. Her hair was as white as the driven snow; and her eyes like two balls of fire. She looked at me, and seemed to want to recognize me, but couldn't. I haven't closed my eyes all night, for wanting to tell you as soon as I could this morning."

"Order the close carriage; we will bring her home; " I said, in a hoarse whisper.

Ann threw her arms about my waist, and mistress and maid wept in sympathy. We brought her back, delirious as she was, laid her on her own bed, in her own room, where nothing had been disturbed since she vacated it, for I was jealous of every moment that she received the care of strangers.

For days and weeks we tended her with unremitting devotion; and at last

For a while the events of the past few years were completely blotted from her memory; and she talked with me as though we had never been separated. But when she was fully recovered, and could sit by the window and enjoy the delicious breezes that swept through the woods, and over the flowers until they were filled with fragrant odors, she seemed to gather up the links of her broken dreams, and fit them again into her past life.

I watched her that she did not grow • morbid; and carried her into all my plans for the future, making her feel that she had a part in them; and she began, insensibly, to manifest an interest in them, trifling though they were.

Elizabeth," she said one afternoon, when the shadows were heavy, and I could not see the expression of her face: "Elizabeth, have you really forgiven me?" "I had nothing to forgive; " I replied, carelessly.

"You had; though I did not realize it, until it was too late. I wish you had told me."

Our tears filled the silence, until Ann came in to light the lamp; when Elvira would have continued, but I hushed her: the recollections were too painful for both. We laid the memory of the past away, as one might lay the blood-stained armor worn in battle, reverently, and with tears, never desiring to gaze upon it, or recall those scenes which were marked with death and desolation.

My sister's white hair-her crown of suffering, which added to, rather than detracted from her beauty-was to me a constant reminder of the agony she had passed through.

Aunt Trevenor must have known her nephew's habits, and felt averse to having her property squandered by one who had so little pride in the name he bore. Why she did not leave it to Elvira, must ever remain a mystery. I know it was not love alone that prompted its bestowal on me, but diplomacy as well, for she doubtless read the destiny written on the face of "plain Elizabeth."

"He"-she never mentioned his name -"he told me you were trying to win him; were artful, and designing; and I, fearful of losing him, listened to his proposal to leave you without a word of explanation. It was cruel. I always wanted to return and see you; but he would not let me. I was young and giddy, and he was extravagant. He cursed me, because I refused to beg money from one we had both wronged, and said, but for my pretty face he might have been mas

unnecessary. I thank her for it; and I thank God that he has made it possible for me to do the good deeds my heart dictates.

I do not care to know the fate of Gilbert Trevenor, though there is a satisfaction in thinking that "the mills of the gods grind slowly;" and for the injury he has done my sister, I hope and pray, that he may be pursued by a Nemesis as unrelenting as fate, till he shall repent of his great sin, and find forgiveness of God.