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the spirit is." "That reproach is too se-itself was a very stupid thing. There is vere," replied the Virginian. I meant no originality above ground: every thing no reproach," she answered; "I have ob that is true is dull, and every thing new is served that beauty is your idol, and I wish false and superficial. But there is no use you to worship it." "I did not think that in quarrelling with the world-it is a pret Miss Bruce had observed my character ty good world, after all. You must go to sufficiently to form any conclusion with hear Mr. Macdonough's opinion of it: I regard to my taste.". The pride of the aim sure he will express it eloquently." proudest girl in Christendom was roused" Then you are on good terms nou?" said and there was something indescribably I. She blushed, painfully-excessivelyprovoking in her manner, as she answer- but soon recovered self-command enough ed, "I assure you I think you quite a speci-to reply, "I always thought highly of him." men in your way. Society is such a bag i do not know whether my looks express. of polished marbles,' that any thing old is ed the warning voice my heart was yearn as valuable a study as the specimens of ing to utter; but I am sure the tone of my quartz Mr. Symmes may bring us. Your assent was reluctant and melancholy. modesty has led you to mistake; I have George Macdonough appeared most bril really taken the trouble to observe you." liantly on that memorable day. Graceful "Truly, Miss Bruce, you are the most and dignified, handsome and talented, he singular girl I ever met," said the offended sent a thrill to all hearts alive to the southerner: "you never did, said, nor deur of thought, or the beauty of language. thought any thing like another person." During this scene of triumph, I watched "When a compliment is doubtful, Ches- the countenance of Harriet Bruce with terfield says, one should always take it; the keenest interest, and never before did therefore, I am obliged to you, Mr. Mac- I see a human face through which the soul donough," replied Harriet. And so say-beamed with such intensity. Genius, and ing, she turned abruptly from him, and pride, and joy, and love, were there! I directed her attention to me. then thought she was intellectually beauDuring the remainder of the evening, I tiful, beyond any thing I had ever seen. saw no indications of a reconciliation. Poor Harriet! It was the brightest spot Harriet danced but once-Macdonough in her life, and I love to remember it. and La belle Suisse were near, her in the Maedonough's room was crowded, and near,her set; and they met frequently. The ex-the compliments he received were intoxi treme nonchalence with which she now cating; but in the midst of it all, I ima and then exchanged some casual remark, gined I could see the sparkles of his eyes led me to suspect that he had obtained melt into softness, when he met a glance more power over her extraordinary mind from Harriet. Her looks betrayed nothing than any other individual had ever pos- to my anxious observation; but once sessed; but Harriet was no trifler, and I took notice she called him "George," and do not venture to prophesy. suddenly corrected herself with an extraTime passed on, and with it nearly pas- ordinary confusion. Had my friend in sed the remembrance of this skirmish of dulged in habits of girlish trifling, I should words, and the thoughts thereby suggested. no doubt have playfully alluded to this cir My unmanageable friend seldom alluded cumstance; but there was something in to the facinating acquaintance she had her character and manners which forbade formed; and when she did, it was done such officiousness. I watched her with naturally and briefly. Soon after this, I the anxiety of sincere friendship. I knew was obliged to be absent for several when she once selected an object of pur months. I did not return until two days suit, her whole soul was concentrated; and before commencement at college; and I could not believe that the proud Virgi Harriet's first acclamation was, "You nian, with all his high hopes, and his love must go to Mr. Macdonough's room-he of dazzling beauty, would ever marry is to have the first part, and I thought you I knew he was a very constant visiter, and considered commencement days very stu- I frequently observed lights later than had pid things." said I. been usual in Mr. Bruce's quiet habitation; "So I do; you know I always said life and when he called to bid me a farewell,

her.

a few weeks after commencement, a deep so much secrecy necessary?" "I now gloom on his countenance, led me to think think it was not really necessary; at all that the pride and apparent indifference of events, that which needs to be concealed my intellectual friend might have surpris- is wrong. But George's parents wished ed him into love. him to marry wealth, ard he feared to Weeks and months passed on, and I sel- displease them. He has a moderate fordom heard an allusion to the absent Mac-tune of his own, of which he will soon donough. Harriet's character, and man-come in possession; when he told my. ner seemed changing for the better. The father this circumstance, and that he perpetual effervesence of her spirit in some feared he should be urged to marry against measure subsided, and the vagaries of her his inclination,. my father, in the blindness fancy became less various and startling; of his dotage, consented to our immediate yet there was ever a chastened cheerful-union." "Then why are you so unhappy?" ness of manner, and an unfailing flow of inquired; "you have no doubt that your thought. By degrees her seriousness husband will come and claim you?" deepened, and at last she could not con- "Oh, no! The certificate is in my faceal from me that she was unhappy. Ither's hands, and if it were not, a sense of attributed it to the illness of her aged fa-honour would lead him here. But, oh! ther, for Harriet was motherless, and she to have him come coldly and reluctantly! cherished her only parent with a double my heart will break!" said she, pressing share of love. But when the old man was her hand against her forehead, and weepevidently recovering and her melancholy ing bitterly. "How could I forget that still increased, I knew there must be an-they who listen to passion, rather than to other, and a deeper cause. One day, as reason, must always have a precarious stood by her, watching her progress in a influence on each other? I tried to concrayon drawing, around which she had sole her; she said nothing, but took a pacthrown much of her early spirit and free-kage of letters from her desk, and handed dom, I placed my band affectionately on them to me. Their contents proved the her shoulder, and, touching her forehead mournful prediction of her fears too true. with my lips, said, "You have always told At first, George Macdonough wrote with me your thoughts, Harriet-why not tell impatient ardour; then his letters were me what troubles you now?" She con- filled with amusing accounts of the partinued her task with a quick and nervous ties given to La belle Suisse, whose famovement, and I saw that her eyes were ther had come to reside in their neighborfilling with tears. I gently whispered, "is hood; then he filled his pages with excelGeorge Macdonough the cause?" She lent reasons for not visiting her as soon, gave one shriek, which sounded as if it as he intended; and finally, when Harmade a rent in her very soul and then the riet bowed down her pride, and entreated torrent of her tears poured forth. him, if he valued her reputation, to come

It was long before I ventured to say to soon, he sent a cold laconic answer, mereher, "Then it is as I feared? You doly stating the time at which he might be love George Macdonough?" She looked expected. Poor Harriet! It was too eviin my face with a fixed expression, as she dent she had thrown away all that made replied, "I ought to love, and honor, and existence joyful. However, I tried to obey him; for he is my husband!" Isooth her by the idea that gentleness, pastarted! "Your husband! how-when tience, and untiring love, might regain the -where were you married!" affection on which her happiness must now

"At Providence. Do. you remember depend. She loved to listen to such words when I asked you to go with me to Mr.-they were a balm to her heart. Macdonough's room, and you said, So, Mr. Macdonough came at the time he then, you are on good terms now?'-I had had appointed, and publicly announced been three weeks a wife!" his marriage. I did not see their meet"And your father-does he know of ing; but during the few months he reit?" mained at her father's, I observed his man"Certainly," she said; "you know Iner was uniformly kind, though frequentwould not deceive him." "Then why wasly absent and constrained. An infant

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daughter formed a new hond of union, and which she at last seized the arm of a hus seemed to be the herald of happier days. band who loved her not, and who was The young man watched over the little about to convey her among strangers object with the most intense delight, and hey are all present to me now! Harriet's half subdued character seemned Harriet's letter soon spoke of declining entirely softened, in the doating fondness health; and before three years had elapsed of a mother, and the meek resignation of she implored me to come to her, if I ever a wife loved, "but not enough beloved;" wished to look upon her in this world of none would have recognized the proud, shadows..

sarcastic Harriet Bruce.

I immediately obeyed the summons.

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I must not dwell minutely on particu- Things were worse than I had expected.. lars, which I observed closely at the time. She was evidently very weak, and though and which afterward sunk deep into my she had every thing that wealth could memory. Young Macdonough departed supply, or politeness dictate, the balm of once more to take possession of his kindness never refreshed her weary and estate, and prepare it for the reception Sinking spirit. Mr. Macdonough never of his wife and child. His farewell was spoke harshly; indeed, he seldom spoke at affectionate, and his frequent letters seem-all; but the attentions he paid were so ob ed to restore my imprudent friend to viously from a sense 'of. duty, that they something of her buoyancy of soul. The fell like ice-drops on the heart of his suffer idea of separation from her father washing wife. I heard no reproaches on now her principle source of unhappiness; either side; but a day seldom passed but that trial was spared her; the imbecili-without some occurrence more or less ty of the affectionate old man daily in-painful to my friend. Once, when little creased and a few days before his daught-Louisa jumped into her father's aims, as er's departure, death relieved him from he entered, and eagerly exclaimed, Do the expected loneliness. you love me, papa?" he kissed her with The young husband came, as he had much fondness, and replied, "Yes I do, promised; but his manner was colder, ny child." "And mamina too?" inquired and his looks more stern than formerly, the little creature, with a sort of half en th ugh none could say he had failed in the reating tone, so graceful in childhood; he fulfil nent of his duty. Harriet never spoke put her away from him, answered coldly, of any change; her manner toward him Certainly, my daughter." I saw a slight was obedient and affectionate, but never convulsion in Harriet's face, and in the fond. Her ronantic visions of human notion of her hands; but it soon, passed. perfection, her proud confidence in her At another time when we were searching own strength, were gone, and no doubt in his private library for the latest number she yept bitterly over their mutual rash of the Edinburg, we discovered on a ness. Knowing as she did, that she was small open desk the engravin of La belle a burthen, taken up merely from a sense Suisse, and near it a newspaper giving an of honour, it is not wonderful her very account of the marriage of that young smile had a look of humility and resigna- Baltimorean whom George had thought tion. 'Their regrets were, however, kept so strongly resembled the picture. The carefully concealed; whatever might have surprise was so sudden, that Harriet lost been their feelings, both seemed resolved the ballance of her feelings.she had hither on a system of silent endurance. There to so well preserved. She rushed out of was something in this course a thousand the room-and it was several hours be times more affecting than the most pathe-fore I was admitted to her bedside. tic complaints. I shall never forget the Fortunately for my sensitive friend, this anguish I felt when I saw Harriet bid mental struggle was too fierce to be of farewell to the home of her childhood long continuance. The closing scene of that home where she had ever been an her life drew near: and to her it seemed ilol and an oracle. The lingering prepa welcome as sleep to the weary. Some ration of departure, the heart-broken ex-times the movements of reluctant nature pression, the reluctant step, the 'drooping were visible in the intense look of love she head, and the desperate resolution with cast upon her child, and the convulsive

energy with which she would clasp the equally divided among the fainting band; little one to her bosom; but otherwise all and the more valuable portions of their was stillness and hope. burdens being secured, the remainder was One day, when she had been unusually left as a spoil for the next passer-by. ill, and we all supposed she was about to These arrangements had scarcely been die, she pressed my hand feebly, and whis-made, and the Caravan again put in mopered, "Will you ask George to see me tion, cre two or three horsemen of the once more?" I intmediately repaired to company, who were riding in advance, the library, and told Mr. Macdonough the exclaiined that some tall object was in dying request of his wife. At first, he sight. Every eye was instantly turned in. made a motion toward the door, then, the direction pointed out; and those who suddenly checking himself, he said in a had sufficient strength for the effort, determined tane, "I had better not. It mounted to the top of their camels' load will be painful to us both. I will await to obtain a more extensive view. Among the event here. I returned to Harriet, these was a Fakir, whose light heart hed but I had no courage to say her request supported him when stronger men had was refused. She listened eagerly to failed, and who, by many a wondrous tale every sound for a while; then looking in had continued to beguile the tedium of the my face mournfully, she said, "He will way, and to earn at the same time, a few not come!" My tears answered. her. honest sequins. "Bismillah!" cried he, as She looked upward for a moment, with an he reached the summit of the load, "now, expression of extreme. agony: but never my fellow travellers, will I be your guide; spoke again.

From the American Monthly Magazine. The Column of the Desert.

yonder is the pillar of Haslan and Ayeza

reach but that, and you are safe: an arrow's shot beyond it lies a grove of palms and abundance of the sweetest water in the desert!" A loud shout of joy greeted the Fakir's announcement. Heat, fatigue, Days were fast growing into weeks, and thirst in an instant were forgotten.. and yet the large Caravan, which was The cameis, either conscious of the prox holding its weary way to the gates of Bas imity of water, or goaded on by their im sors saw nothing around it but sand-patient drivers, advanced with renewed sand. Scarcely a shrub; or weed, or energy; and the whole cavalcade which, blade of grass had appeared to relieve the but a moment before,

eye of the toi worm wanderers from the eternal sameness of the scene around

"dragged its slow length along,"

since their last encamqment at a water-the very image of weariness and desponding place too scanty to supply their wants: ency--touched by the magic wand of the Days had passed since then, their princi Fakir's intelligence, pressed forward with pål guide had perished of thirst and wear the same celerity which had marked its ness, and now there was not one amongst exit from the gates of Cairo. An hour's that numerous company who could, with travelling brought the sufferers to the spot any degree of certainty, point at the pro so anxiously .desired; but who shall atper course to the city, whose gates they tempt to paint the tumult and confusion would have greeted as those of their which followed their arrival? Maddened Phrophet's paradise. by thirst, each rushed furiously to the well. In this emergency a halt had been call and many a precious moment was lost ed, and the leaders had met to deliberate. whilst rival candidates contended for the As no one knew the direct course to delicious draught. Order, however, was Bassora, they resolved to continue that at length restored, and the now refreshed which they were still holding, until some betock themselves to repose under the . thing should occur to relieve them from grateful shade of the adjacent | alms. their doubts: two camels, whose, owners The Fakir, who since his assumption of had died the preceding day, were killed, the office of guide, had become a characand their blood, and the small quantity ter of some importance in the band, was of water still remaining in their stomachs, reclining luxuriantly upon a earpet, and

puffing grateful odors from the ambered caravan, of whose approach he has retipped pipe of his neighbor, a rich mer-ceived intimation. It fell into their hands; chant of Aleppobut as they were returning, laden with

"It appears, Hakim," observed the lat- spoil, they were unexpectedly set upon by ter, "thou hast crossed the desert, by this a body of robbers-their leader killedroute, before to-day; the objects seem to and Mizron, deserted by his followers, fell be familiar to thee." into the hands of Kurjislan, the robber

"Thou hast spoken truly, most noble chief; but whether he had died in the conMizraim," replied the Fakir; "twice, flict, or was living in captivity, his heartbefore now, have I reposed beneath these broken parents, notwithstanding the most palms; and once have I passed sufficiently earnest and persevering inquiries, had ne near to behold yon pillar rising like a faint ver been able to ascertain. They had, ⚫ cloud on the horizon"therefore, at length given him up as lost to

"Thanks to the man who reared that them for ever, and centred the full tide of column," interposed another merchant. their love upon their remaining child, their who was reclining near; " doubtless it was daughter Ayeza, whose surpassing beauty erected by some good Mussulman, as a and many virtues added to the report of beacon to the doubting traveller?" · her father's wealth, failed not to attract a

"By no means." rejoined the Fakir, "it large band of suitors. was erected for a far different purpose; and "Upon none, however, did she smile if you would like to listen to the legend but Haslan, in her parents' eyes the one connected with it I shall have great plea- who possessed the fewest attractions, for sure in gratifying your curiosity." although of noble form and prepossessing

The proposal was joyfully acceded to. manners, his father was chief of a small It was immediately noised around that the and despised tribe, between which and Fakir was about to gratify his fellow-tra- that of Ali Bediwar a deadly feud had forvellers with a tale; and the scattered merly existed. Haslan, moreover, was groups lost no time in betaking themselves young and inexperienced in war; and the to Hakim's neighbourhood, and arranging father of Ayeza, proud of his own military themselves within good hearing distance. prowess, scorned to entrust his daughter That worthy, meanwhile, under pretence to the arms of one, who for aught he knew of finishing his pipe, waited until a respec- might, by some future act of cowardice, table audience had assembled around him tarnish the family honor. It was true, inthen mounting with his mat to a bale of deed, that the youth had shown no symp merchandise, placed conveniently for him, toms of fear in the few expeditions in he began as follows:-which he had as yet been engaged; but it

"Many years have now elapsed since was equally true that no opportunity had Ali Beidwar lived in this neighborhood, hitherto presented itself of putting his cou chief of a powerful tribe of Arabs. His rage to any severe test. The maiden, tent was rich with the spoils of the nume-liowever, had no fears for him on that rous caravans which had fallen into his head; and as to the misunderstanding be power. He had married Alzeida, the tween the families, what better way could daughter of a powerful chieftain of a dis-be devised of arranging it amicably, than tant tribe, and ere the expiration of a year a union of two of the opposite members? their happiness had been increased by the It was in vain, that her father pointed out birth of a son; and when, about three to her the well-proved prowess of one, the years afterwards, his. Alzeida bore him a wealth of another, and the pure and noble daughter, there seemed to be nothing blood of a third. In vain did her mother more required to complete their joy. endeavour to excite her vanity and her The boy who was named Mizron, grew up ambition, by promising that a hundred full of promise-active, handsome, and camels, laden with the richest silks, and brave. When about ten years of age, his guarded by five hundred of the noblest father, at the youth's earnest entreaties, horsemen of the desert, should accompary had allowed him to accompany a small her as a bride to the tent of Nourhaden band of his followers, led by a faithful ser-jor to that of Aldebir. Promises, entreavant, to intercept a rich but weakly guard-ties and threats were alike unavailing; and

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