she declared that she did not like the proposer, they never had courage to

resist.

During the season of 1847, Geraldine never missed a party or ball. She never tired as long as there was music to listen to, and it was generally very nearly morning before she gained her home. About the middle of the season she was sitting by her mother's side in the splendid salon of the Princess Menzikoff. She had been dancing, and her late partner was saying a few words, to which she scarcely made any reply. Her eyes were fixed upon a gentleman, who, after observing her for some time, had turned away in search of some one. He was the handsomest man she had ever seen in her life, and she was curious to know who he was. A little above the middle height, slight, pale, with great eyes, soft in repose like those of a woman, he had at once interested Geraldine, who, like most women, could excuse every bad feature in a man save insipid or unmeaning eyes; and she asked her mother who he was.

"He's a very bad man," said Madame Delisle. "Of noble family, rich, titled, young, and handsome, he is celebrated only for his follies. He throws away thousands on very questionable pleasures, and has the unpardonable fault, in my eyes, of always ridiculing marriage."

"I cannot forgive him for ridiculing marriage, mamma, but I can excuse him for not wishing to marry.

"My dear, a man who dislikes marriage is never a good man. A woman may, from caprice or from many motives, object to marrying; but a man, except when under the influence of hopeless affection-and men have rarely feeling enough for this always must be a husband to be a good citizen."

"Ah! mamma, you have been so happy, that you think all must be so but you see many who are not.”

"Madame Delisle," said the Princess Menzikoff, who, unperceived, had come round to her, "allow me to introduce you to my friend Alfred de Rougement. I must not call him Count, he being what we call a democrat with a clean face and kid gloves."

"The Princess is always satirical," replied M. de Rougement, smiling; and my harmless opposition to the government now in power, and which she honours with her patronage, is all her ground for so terrible an announcement."

Madame Delisle and Geraldine both

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started and coloured, and when Alfred de Rougement proposed for the next dance, he was accepted, though the next minute the mother would gladly have found any excuse to have prevented her daughter from dancing. Alfred de Rougement was the " very bad man whom she had the instant before been denouncing. But it was now too late. From that evening Geraldine never went to a ball without meeting Alfred. She received many invitations from unexpected quarters, but as surely as she went she found her new admirer, who invited her to dance as often as he could without breaking the rules of etiquette. And yet he rarely spoke: the dance once over, he brought her back to her mother's side, and left her without saying a word, coming back when his turn came with clockwork regularity. In their drives Madame Delisle and Geraldine were always sure to meet him. Scarcely was the carriage rolling up the Champs Elysées before he was on horseback within sight. He merely bowed as he passed, however, keeping constantly in sight, without endeavouring to join them.

One evening, though invited to an early soirée and to a late ball, during dinner they changed their mind, and decided on going to the opera at the very opening, to hear some favourite music which Geraldine very much admired, They had not yet risen from dessert when a note came from Alfred de Rougement, offering them his box, one of the best in the house!

"Why, he is a regular Monte Christo," cried Madame Delisle, impatiently. How can he know our movements so well ?"

"He must have bribed some one of the servants," replied Geraldine; "we talked just now of where we were going before they left the room."

But what does he mean ?" said Madame Delisle. "Is he going to give up his enmity to marriage, and propose for you?"

"I don't know, mamma," exclaimed the daughter, colouring very much; but he may spare himself the trouble.#9HOR "Geraldine Geraldine! you will always then make me unhappy!" said her mother.

"But you cannot want me to marry Alfred? You told me everything against him yourself.""

"But if he is going to marry and be steady, I owe him an apology. But go and dress; you want to hear the overture."

to-morrow, and take all the pretty places round Paris in turn."

"Bon!" cried Edouard; "that suits me. I shall be with you early, for I sup. pose you will go in the morning " "I want to breakfast at Versailles," replied Geraldine: so we must go to bed early."

That I vote to be an admirable proposition. At eleven I will go. But you are going to practise the new variations on Pastoris, are you not ?"

"Yes; and you are going to sing, monsieur," said Geraldine, rising from table. "So come along, and mamma and papa can play trictrac all the time."

That evening the cousins played and sang together until about ten, when they took tea, which Edouard-good-natured fellow-pretended to like prodigiously, drinking three cups of milk and water under the serious impression that it was the genuine infusion-a practice very common in France, where tea is looked on as dangerous to the nerves. Next day they went to Versailles, breakfasted at the Hôtel de France, visited the interminable galleries of pictures, and diued in Paris at a late hour. The day after they went to Montmorency.

Swiftly passed the hours, and days, and weeks, and soon Geraldine saw the last day which was to be her own. In twentyfour hours she was to leave her mother's home for ever, to share that of a man to whom it must be supposed she was very much attached, but who was not exactly the companion suited to her. Geraldine was very grave that morning. It had been arranged that they were to go to St. Germain; and though the sky was a little dark, the young girl insisted on the excursion not being put off.

"This is the last day I shall have any will of my own," said she; "so let me exercise it."

"My dear Geraldine," replied her cousin kindly, "you will always find me ready to yield to you in everything. I shall be a model husband, for I am too lazy to oppose any one."

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My dear Edouard," put in Madame Delisle, "a man who consults his wife's happiness will always be happy himself. We are very easily pleased when we see you try to please us. The will is everything to us.

Then let us start," said Edouard, laughing; "it will pass the time, and I am eager to try."

They entered the open carriage which

they usually used for their excursions, and started, the sun now shining very brightly. Edouard was full of spirits: he seemed bursting with happiness, and was forced to speak incessantly to give it vent. Geraldine was very grave, though she smiled at her cousin's sallies, and every now and then answered in her own playful, witty way. The parents, though happy, were serious too. They were about to lose their last child, and though they knew she would be always near them, a feeling of involuntary loneliness came over them. A marriage day is always for affectionate parents a day of sorrowful pleasure-a link in the chain of sacrifices which makes a parent's love so beautiful and holy, so like what we can faintly trace in thought, as the love of the Creator for man.

*,

They took the road by Bongiral, and they were about a mile distant from that place, when suddenly they found themselves caught in a heavy shower. The coachman drove hastily for shelter into the midst of a grove of trees, which led up to a villa that appeared totally uninhabited. But it was not so; for the porte cochère flew wide open as they drew up, and two servants advancing, requested them to take shelter in the house.

"But we are intruding ?" said Madame Delisle.

“No, madame. Our master is out, but had he been at home, he would insist as we do."

Edouard leaped out, and set the example of compliance. The whole party followed the servants, who led the way into a splendidly furnished suite of rooms. The style was that of the renaissance, of the richest materials, while the walls were covered with genuine paintings by the first masters. The servants then left them, and they were heard next minute assisting to take the horses from the carriage. The rain fell heavily all the

time.

"Upon my word we are very fortu nate," said Madame Delisle: "in ten minutes we should have been soaked through. The master of the house must be some very noble-minded man: no ordinary person would have such polite and

attentive servants."

"Some eccentric foreigner," said Edouard: "all his servants are men; I don't see the sign of a petticoat anywhere."

"Some woman-hater, perhaps," cried Geraldine, laughing, as she took from the

table before her a celebrated satire against the sex.

All the more polite of him," said Madame Delisle, while looking with absolute horror at a book which she knew spoke irreverently of marriage.

"If you will pass this way," said a servant entering, "we shall have the honour to offer you breakfast. The rain has set in for some hours, and your servants spoke of your wishing to breakfast at St. Germain. But you will not be able to wait so long."

The whole party looked unfeignedly surprised; but there was no resisting a servant who spoke so politely, and who threw open a door whence they discovered a table magnificently laid out. Several servants were ready to wait.

"Ma for!" cried Edouard, "there is no resisting such temptation. You seem to know your master's character, and we take your word for it that he would make us welcome."

With these words he gave Geraldine his arm, and led the way, setting the example also of attacking the delicate viands offered to them so unexpectedly. All Breakfasted with appetite after the ride, and then returned to the room they had first occupied. The shower was over, and the warm sun was quickly clearing away all sign of the rain.

"What a beautiful house and grounds your master has here!" exclaimed Edouard: "the garden appears to me even better than the house."

It is very beautiful," said the servant addressed.

Can we go over it?" continued the young man.

Certainly, monsieur; I was about to offer to show it to you."

"I shall remain here," said Geraldine; 'my shoes are very thin; besides, I wish to have another look at the pictures."

Edouard demurred, but the young girl bade him go at once; and, like an obedient lover, he took the mamma's arm, and went into the garden.

The instant all were gone Geraldine rose from her chair and tottered across the room. She was pale, and looked cautiously round, as if about to do some guilty act. Presently she stood before a curtain, which had been hastily drawn before a niche in the wall, or rather before a portion of the room. But it had been done very quickly, and through two apertures you could see stained glass, and, on a small table, something under a glass

case. Geraldine could not restrain herself. She pulled away the curtain, and there, under a large glass, on a velvet cushion, lay the rose which had been cut from her head-dress on the night she had accepted the hand of her cousin. Near it was a pencil sketch of herself.

"Mon Dieu !" she cried, passionately, "he did love me then: what a fool I have been! Wicked pride, to what will you lead me?"

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My Geraldine," exclaimed Alfred, who rose from a chair, where he had been seated, in a dark corner, "pardon me! But I could not resist the temptation. To see, to hear you once more, for the last time, was my only wish. Do you forgive me ?"

"Do you forgive me?" said Geraldine, hanging down her head, and speaking in a low, soft, sweet voice, that had never been hers before. "Mon Dieu! what " exclaimed Alfred, who, pale and trembling, stood by her side.

"You will not force me to say, Alfred," she continued, in a beseeching tone.

"Do I understand aright? O! forgive me, Geraldine, if I say too much; but is it possible that you do not hate me ?"

"Hate you, Alfred! How can I; one so generous and good! If you think me not bold to say it, I will say I love you. After behaving as I did, that confession will be my punishment."

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"My dear Geraldine, then why did you refuse me?" cried Alfred, in a tone of passionate delight.

"Because you did not seem to love me -because you only, in my eyes, sought to marry me because others did."

Geraldine, I seemed cold because I loved you with all my heart and soul. But I was a known satirist on marriage, and I was ashamed to let the world see my deep affection. I wanted them to think that I married merely because it was a triumph to carry off the reigning belle."

"You deceived me and all the world together," replied Geraldine; "but to own the truth, after you were gone, and took my rose with you, I guessed the truth.” "The rose! but did you know "I guessed

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"Mon Dieu !" cried Edouard, returning alone to fetch Geraldine, to whom he wanted to show the garden-" What is the meaning of this!"

"My good cousin," said Geraldine, advancing towards him, and taking both his hands, come here; you will forgive