volino, wanted but a few last touches by the young artist, for such he was, to rival the original. It stood forth, in truth, a perfect fac-simile, save in the portrait of the damsel, whose face, equally as, or even more, beautiful than its supposed prototype, evidenced that the painter, perhaps unconsciously, had been tracing lineaments other than those of the original model.

'You may not have seen the painting, or heard the story I am alluding to. The former you may observe in one of the rooms opening from the Tribune in the Uffizi at Florence, and of the latter I can favour you with the narrative.

'Like the Romeo and Juliet of Verona, Hyppolito and Dianora were youthful members of two noble families at deadly feud in Florence. In conformity with the wonted behests of Cupid,

"Who laughs to scorn all shackles but his own," they met, and met to love. After the first chance meeting and avowal of affection, a stolen glance in church or other place of common resort being ill-sufficient to satisfy their ardour, an appointment was made by the friendly contrivance of an old nurse, who agreed to allow an interview in her presence.

The lover, provided with a rope-ladder, hurried to the blissful rendezvous; but the night-patrol, unfortunately observing the still hanging means of descent, awaiting their opportunity, seized on the luckless Hyppolito as a burglar, and dragged him off to prison.

Rather than tarnish the fair fame of his beloved mistress, the gallant youth allowed himself to be arraigned and condemned as a housebreaker, under the accusation of the rival faction, too glad of an opportunity to humble their foes by the ignominious death of one of the noblest representatives of their

race.

'In those days, short was the interval between condemnation and death; and Hyppolito would have silently and heroically borne his fate, had not the tidings of the fatal sentence reached the ears of Dianora, who, disdaining the conventionalities of society, with self-devotion worthy her

adorer, rushed into the judgment-hall, and boldly avowed the truth.

The story goes, that the judges were so struck with the self-abnegation of the amorous pair, that they unanimously freed the accused; and a meeting of the heads of the hostile houses being held, it was agreed, in acknowledgement of their appreciation of the well-observed faith of the lovers, to cement an alliance by means of their lawful

union.

'The apartment of the artist was large, bare, and, as regards furniture, comfortless; the remains of former splendour, evidenced in the elaborate carvings about the doors and windows, and the tarnished, coppery appearance of parts once richly gilded, tending further to contrast with the meagreness of the fittings, and generally poor quality of the scantily-supplied conveniences for daily

use.

'From a recess, to which it had apparently been made to fit, had been dragged forth into the room a heavy side-table, contrived so as to form a substitute for an easel; most unwieldy to manage, but placed in the best possible light. A smaller table, holding the implements of painting, a few mis-matched chairs, a magnificently-carved but wormeaten old chest, a few minor articles of utility, a small but choice assortment of books on some shelves of common wood, a footless and curtainless pallet in one corner, and a smaller one in another, pretty well comprehended the contents of the domicile.

'On the latter was reclining a delicate, intellectual-looking little fellow about eleven or twelve years of age, intently occupied in gumming some postage stamps in a small book.

""Lorenzo, caro mio fratel," cried the boy, too interested in his occupation to hear us till we entered, "how glad I am you are back. Have you brought me one of the new stamps you promised me ?"

666

Yes, dear child, I have it for you; but have you been staying in all day? I thought you were coming to meet me and see Garibaldi's entry."

"I meant to, fratel carissimo, but I thought I had better put our room to rights. while you were away. I can never do it

when you are at home painting, because I should be interrupting you, and the dust would fly about and stick to the wet colours. Look, now, see how nicely I have dusted all the books, and set everything in order quite ready for you when you want to go on with your picture."

"And so, fratellino caro, you have deprived yourself of the pleasure of witnessing the gay sights of to-day, to stay all alone at home and try and make me comfortable ! You are a good, dear little companion; and I wish I could do more for you than I am ever likely to be able."

"You let me live with you, and that is all I want," said the boy: "when my dear mother died, and that bad uncle of mine turned me out of the house, I might have been starved in the streets, if you had not taken me home with you; and I should be ingrato, ingratissimo, if I did not do all I can to please you

יי!

"Well, dear child, you must be hungry. You can have had nothing to eat since the morning. It is a gala day; you shall go to your favourite café, and have a treat.'

PART IV.

ADINE.

'The casket rich, but richer far

The precious treasure held in store :
A face and form of beauty rare;

A heart and mind beyond compare :-
Mortality an angel wore.'

"OFF we set-we! - towards the Ponte Rubaconte, whence they took boat to the Ponte Santa Trinita, and landed near Doney's. There they seated themselves by an open window, looking out on the Arno, in the only room where smoking was allowed; and while Lorenzo afforded himself but a moderate supply of edibles, on the feigned plea of having previously dined, the plate of the boy Carlo was sedulously and abundantly furnished.

'Soon despatching his own frugal meal, and calmly supplying the deficiency with a full pipe, my possessor goodnaturedly watched his young companion's eager enjoyment of the feast. When his hunger seemed fully appeased,

"Well, Carlino dear, you are forgetting your stamp; here it is; and I have bought a

few more for you of those now out of use. They will look better in your little book than the marked ones."

"Mille grazie, Lorenzo caro," replied the delighted boy, "what a nice, bright-coloured, yellow lion!"

'Yes,' interposed another occupant of the sheet, I am the identical stamp you are alluding to! I remember the circumstance very well; and Carlo said he thought we were much prettier than the new pattern. Poor child! I can tell you something about him by and by that will make your heart ache.'

'Your turn in turn,' was the rejoinder of the Cross, neither pleased with the interruption, nor the reminiscence of the compliment paid the other in depreciation of itself, which, forsooth, I had not been intended to hear, 'allow me to proceed.'

'When the cats-or lions, or whatever they may be-were carefully re-deposited by the child in his protector's purse, Lorenzo proposed walking slowly home, by the bank of the silvery Arno, and they left the café accordingly.

'Near the door was standing a poor beggar; one half-starved-looking child clinging to her side, and an emaciated baby in her arins. The generous-hearted Lorenzo immediately emptied his purse of all the small coin which would have purchased what he had just denied himself, and was hurrying off with Carlo, in avoidance of the benedicites showered after him by the grateful woman, when a stately coronetted carriage, emblazoned with armorial bearings, and glittering with silver, attended by servants. in rich liveries, drove past.

'The occupants were four ;- -a noblelooking, grey-haired old man, a younger one, an elderly female, and a vision of such surpassing loveliness as is often thought of and described, but so seldom seen. The boy observed them first, and, having some idea that the rencontre would not be agreeable to his friend, tried, but in vain, to withdraw his attention. He caught sight of the young man, and the same demoniac expression that had so startled me in the morning, and a like quivering of the whole frame, seemed, as it were, to change his identity.

The purse lay still unclosed in his hand :

""Vendetta," hissed a voice in his ear, "my uncle!" cried Carlo, as he clung closer to his protector, in terror of the ill-looking ruffian on the other side. The whole passed in less time than I take in recounting it. A galloping horse caused a current of air, which wafted me from the open purse, unnoticed by my owners, and deposited me in a few seconds on the coat of the object of Lorenzo's jealousy and hate.

"There's one of your beggar-brat's playthings," said the brute, as he contemptuously tossed me into the lap of his lovely cousin, for so she was; "you had better take care of it for him."

With that momentary touch, my quick capacity for comprehending character gave me an insight into one without a single redeeming quality. Proud, heartless, greedy, unprincipled, cowardly, and licentious, Bernardo del Garbo, early deprived of the admonitions of a father, foolishly spoiled by a doting mother, with sufficient art to hide his most glaring faults from the eyes of a partial grandfather, had contrived to persuade the old noble to regard him as the accepted suitor of his granddaughter Adine, heiress of the vast wealth of her mother, a German princess.

Adine was of too sweet a disposition to resent the taunt, and never, indeed, otherwise than tacitly evinced her distaste for the connexion; but, whatever her secret and, even to herself, scarcely acknowledged feelings in another direction, she patiently and trustfully relied on the influence of her paternal aunt, the abbess of Santa Apollonia, should matters come to a crisis; who would only have been too glad to avert the dreaded match, by receiving her niece and her large revenues into the convent of which she was the principal.

'The abbess and the old marquis were too intent upon a religious disquisition to notice the rude sneer of their relative; and Adine quietly took me up and deposited me in her ivory portemonnaie, inlaid with gold, and adorned with rubies and diamonds. On rolled the carriage, and frequently had I the welcome chance of gazing on such a com

bination of loveliness as seldom falls to the share of mortality. The face, the form, the tout ensemble, of the adorable Adine, were a rare embodiment of heart and soul. Feature and expression, grace and simplicity, modesty and dignity, united to produce perfection. The purse was ever open in her hand; the numerous beggars, as well as the members of the poorer convents, being on the watch for the passage of the well-known carriage, and certain of receiving a handsome gratuity from so liberal a hand, enhanced by a glimpse of the angelic countenance of their benefactress.

'The ducal palace was the destination of the party; where an assembly in honour of the day's event had been appointed by the powers that were. Through the stately rooms, and amidst the brilliant company, "observed of all observers," passed the mar quis and his granddaughter, who, hanging on his arm, had quietly contrived to leave the abbess to the escort of Bernardo, who followed with gloomy brow, fully alive to the tacit avoidance of his society.

'His ill-humour was far from dissipated by his companion's discourse, well inclined to avail herself of so good an opportunity of giving her nephew a gentle lecture on the renunciation of the vanities of the world; perfectly unconscious of the pride of familyby no means incompatible with high religious feeling-evinced by herself in her general haughtiness of bearing, and in the superb and almost priceless diadem of brilliants confining her black veil, and managed at once to denote her regal descent and sacred profession; being formed of large single stones raised on points of invisible Berlin iron-work, so as to resemble the halo conventionally depicted round the heads of saints and martyrs.

appointment more in unison with the sombre tints of his disposition.

'Though I am fully cognisant of all that transpired after parting company with my young friends, Lorenzo and Carlo, as the yellow cat-I beg his pardon, lion-must have accompanied them home, if he tells truth, he may as well relate what occurrences he witnessed, which will give me a little rest, and spare me the annoyance of interruption.'

The yellow lion, nothing loth to avail itself of the hint, shook its mane, settled the crown on its head, and, gracefully resting one paw on its shield, thus took up the narration of the Cross.

'Far different was the scene in the abode of the artist, after we reached home, from that so graphically described by my worthy but uncourteous comrade just now. Poor little innocent Carlo lay crouched in terror at the farthest corner of his humble pallet, ever and anon regarding with tender affection his friend and protector, and longing to try and relieve the agony apparent on his countenance, but fearing to approach nearer his dreaded uncle, who was lounging in a large chair, smoking, sneering, and taunting, the very model of Mephistopheles tempting Faust; while the unhappy Lorenzo, sometimes wildly pacing the apartment, sometimes throwing himself on a seat, and burying his face with his hands on the table, was now striving with all his better nature to combat the arguments of the fiend at his elbow; and now, with all the fervid temperament of the children of the South, goaded by pride and passion, was gradually succumbing to the powers of darkness, and yielding to the dark suggestions of a base revenge.'

(To be continued.)

THE RATIONALE OF A POSTAGESTAMP ALBUM.

BY THE REV. HENRY H. HIGGINS, M.A. SAYS a high authority, 'In all labour there is profit.' Now, without drawing invidious comparisons with other occupations, the collecting of postage stamps has, it will be generally allowed, been followed by very

many of the junior members of the community with a zeal which has not a little astonished their elders; and, at all events, the maxim above quoted may lead us to look for some good results from a pursuit which has called into exercise so much diligence.

The

These prospective benefits seem likely to be of various kinds; some may, perhaps, arise from an examination of the stamps as works of art. The hundreds of kinds which adorn a well-stocked album afford opportunities for discrimination, in judging of the skill and good taste displayed in their execution. They are, of course, in this respect inferior to coins; but comparatively few young collectors can hope to obtain many of the higher specimens of art in coins or medals, the best of which are generally the most expensive, whilst in stamps the reverse of this is more commonly the case. young connoisseur who has expended but a trifling sum in these productions may have learned that an elaborate design, or a showy combination of colours, or a grotesque singularity of pattern, may be found in a very inferior stamp, badly executed, and devoid of any real merit. He may also have learned the very useful lesson, that true excellence is not confined to any single style or model, but attends every careful and skilful application of the rules of art to practice. For example, the full-faced portrait of our Queen on the Nova Scotian stamp is totally different in style from the head of the Emperor of the French on a stamp recently issued; yet as works of art both are truly admirable.

A further amount of good may be derived from the arrangement of a collection, whether it be done geographically or territorially.

The geographical arrangement brings together the stamps of countries situated in the same great natural divisions of the earth's surface; a plan which may well serve to help the memory, especially in such instances as the islands of the West Indies, or the states of the continent of North America. The situations and other circumstances of countries of less note, may, in the same way, be impressed upon the memory. We all know the interest with which we

learn of an incident connected with any place we may have lately visited: something of this kind follows the acquisition of a stamp which has been obtained with more or less difficulty. Many young collectors have probably been induced to make themselves acquainted with the position and natural features of Nicaragua, simply because they either have, or hope to have, its rare stamp.

In the territorial arrangement the stamps of settlements and colonies are in each instance made to follow those of the mother country. The instruction conveyed by this method is obvious, and by no means unimportant.

A far more extensive field for inquiry is opened by the devices which distinguish the stamps of various countries. The possessor of an album must be of a singularly apathetic disposition, if he is not incited to make some investigations into the history of the personages whose portraits are so often before him, or into the significance of the emblems which in many stamps supply the place of portraits; nor is the information thus to be acquired either scanty or dry; in fact, so many points of interest are associated with the designs borne by these little locomotive amulets, that a well-read lecturer might deliver an extensive course of highly-instructive lectures, taking a postage-stamp album as his text-book.

The analogy between the groups into which it is found convenient to distribute a series of postage stamps, and the families, genera, species, and varieties recognised in zoology and botany, is so manifest, and the method of identification of species, &c., by description is so much the same in the one as in the other, that a collector who had honestly made out his stamps for himself, and had arranged his book accordingly, would have no small advantage in commencing the study of classification in any branch of natural history.

So great is the influence upon the study of natural history exercised by the acquisition and possession of specimens, that probably few would apply themselves to zoology or botany if they had to confine themselves to books upon these subjects. Now, within the geographical and historical range occu

pied by postage stamps, it is hard to find anything else at all supplying the place of specimens, except coins, which are too expensive to be obtained by many. In this relation between these trifling bits of stamped paper and the facts of geography and history, lies in all probability the true source of a movement which has affected a very large number of the rising generation throughout Europe and even in America. That hundreds of juvenile collectors are innocent of any philosophical considerations, in trying to make up their books, must be admitted; still, if the pursuit had been a mere fruitless occupation it never could have become so prevalent.

Nor are benefits of an intellectual class the only good results that may be hoped for, when a young collector takes up the pursuit in a proper spirit. He will naturally seek for opportunities of exchanging his duplicates, and in so doing he will have to place confidence in others, and to be strictly careful not to abuse confidence placed by others in himself. He will soon learn the need of avoiding those mean and disgraceful ways of grasping at an unfair advantage in exchange, following which the possessor of the finest collection in the world would only be a fellow to be shunned; and he will learn to keep unspotted that sense of honour, even in trifles, cherishing which a lad will grow up into a gentleman, even if his postagestamp album remains not quite full.

STAMPS NEWLY ISSUED, OR FIRST DESCRIBED.

THE-onza correo oficial Spanish has been changed from yellow to straw colour; and the Prussian envelopes now have the inscription crossing the stamp, which rather detracts from its beauty.

The rare and curious stamp of the province of Corrientes, described in a former number, is now replaced by one of similar appearance, value 3 centavos, instead of 1 real, M. C.

The Belgians, who would not presume to dream of anticipating the French in any improvement, are about to follow their example by adopting the perforating system.