for out of the fiacre there suddenly sprang said a soft voice near me. two French policemen, together with an I started, for I had most unconsciously English Bow Street officer, followed by been uttering my thoughts aloud, while an enormous virago of an Irishwoman-a leaning on the back of my cousin Agatha's perfect grenadier in petticoats-and with couch, with my eyes resting on the sheet a face like that of the ogress in some fairy of music paper which lay before her. I tale. coloured as her glance met mine. "Nay "And have I caught ye at last, ye snak--is it not true?" said I. ing dirty rascal ?" cried she, clutching "Nay," she repeated-"I will not be her fangs into his collar like a harpy; "is answered by a nay!-cousin Henry." it thinking that you could blisthur and "But my dear cousin-my dear Aga bleed me too, that ye wor, you villian?- tha"-cried I, "you are a woman, and a but it's myself that has been too deep for beautiful woman-you can be no judge.” you afther all. Not content with boulting "And supposing I admit it," said Agaoff wid ye, afther giving me lines of pro- tha smiling, "what has my beauty to do mise of marriage, let alone the marriage with either my womanhood, or my judgday and all being fixed, and I sellin' my ment?" nate convaynient chandler's shop, stock in "There you may answer it yourselftrade, tallow, and all that the good defunct- what woman can judge of her sex's failed Mister Laurence O'Dogherty, my dear ings !-what beautiful woman can deal departed husband that was, left me all a fairly by a sister beauty?".. lone a disconsolate widdy wid, and all "Is this all?" replied she, "Then you that yereself moight take me over to Par have learned to libel us merely from the is wid ye, but ye must go for to be afther cant of the day!" stalin' me very bills and drafts, and run away wid thim, along wid me, barrin' that "Surely not!-the cant of the careless you left me behind. But its my own self and the unmeaning-but not where there that has been too cute for ye, mavourneen is a heart and head to think, and to feeland sure the bills are all stopped, and it's no, my dear cousin, do not repeat it. There the sorra a farden you'll get them! But is both trust and truth in woman." "Agatha," said I, "why have you ne "It is the cant of ages," said I. what use to stand argifyin' here at all, at Harry," returned she, "why have you them people sinsible of my family saicrets. this ill opinion of our sex?" So come along wid ye, ye prince of chates, "Pshaw! but with your beauty, and and gay decaivers! and we'll soon see your wit, and your fortune and consewhether it's marryin' or hangin' that you'll quence" be afther choosin'!" "Tell me why do you quarrel with Gasping for breath, the poor, little, half- us?" Harry," continued my cousin inthrottled apothecary was dragged towards terrupting me with more earnestness," we the fiacre, bundled into it, and carried off must not let our own individual disappointin triumph by the lady and her hired myr-ments disgust us with the world at large midons, amidst the shouts of the bystan--search well, and we shall discover our ders. SKETCH FROM LIFE. A SENTIMENTAL STORY. injustice besides, let us be content though we meet but one faithful heart amidst a crowd of treachery." "And how shall we find it?" Where shall we meet with this faithful heart in woman? No, Agatha," cried I, “you mistake the character of woman-you "THERE is no faith in woman!" I ex-do not know her-you cannot know her claimed to myself the other morning, and you, who must always be every way I repeated it thrice with increasing em- above the rest of your sex, and as different as inimitable !" phasis. There is no faite in woman-And She was silent, she was even grave for what woman has taught you to think so?"Ja moment or two, and the shade of thought in the expression of her bland and beauti the air of a pleased child, half with the air ful countenance seemed almost as if it of a woman of fashion, and then folding grew into sadness. She looked at me her arms in her drapery round her, rewith a smile. "Cousin," said she, "tell sumed her contemplation of the painting me your history! you have been unfortu- before us, which this little accident seemed nate;" and she pointed with her small and to have distnrbed. I stood with my eyes - snow white hand to the vacant seat beside fastened on her, wondering who this enher on the sofa. thralling creature could be. She had that There was a gentleness, a delicacy, and decided air of fashion which there is no a tenderness in my consin Agatha's dispo- mistaking, and a certain air much superior sition which gave a charm to her slight- to it; but there was a something so whimest action. It was a gracefulness of char- sical in her style of dress, and in her style acter which seemed to have inspired the of appearance altogether, to make me feel gracefulness of her person and every mo- uncertain what to think of her. tion, though it was a something beyond "Just as I was looking round to inquire grace which made her tone of feeling, both her name of some bystander, she turned in gaiety and sorrow, irresistible. I seat and addressed me; I forgot now what it ed myself beside her on the sofa, and was she said to me, something about my did as she bid me. "I have been in love," favourite painting, or my general fondness said I, "it is my whole history." for pictures; whatever it might be, I was "And what then?" she inquired," was so much a novice in fashion as to feel unyour mistress unfaithful?" comfortable at her speaking to me. I re "I have told you all in one word-member, however, that though her words woman and infidelity go together!" I were select, her manner struck me as paused for some minutes, and when I commonplacc; she, moreover, seemed to spoke again I had obtained more self-me a coquette, and I immediately conclud. possession. ed that she must be marked by all the sili "When I first went abroad," said I, ness of her class. In appearance she might "I spent some time at Florence. The have been about two or three-and-twenty, fashionable lounge was the picture-gallery but I suspect she was more, perhaps from and there was I a daily visitor; but I my own inexperience, for she struck me went thither really to gratify my passion as being used to the ways of the world. for paintings, and not to gaze, and be It was evident that she was aware of the gazed at by the company. One morning admiration which she had elicited, that while I was standing as usual before my she had expected it, and therefore pleased favourite study, I was startled by some with it, and meant to excite a little more, one tapping me lightly on the shoulder, No one but a boy, probably no one but I suddenly turned round-it was a lady, such a boy as I, would have been seized and one of the most beautiful of earth's with these reflections at the moment that creatures; but her look and attitude were she was soliciting my attention; but very even more striking than her countenance young men, and young men unaccustom. and figure. She was, in a manner, steal-ed to gereral society, are naturally more ing a glance into my face, with such a alive to what is real and what is affected curiosity, and interest, and earnestness, in character than those of older and bet. blended with such a fanciful coquetry and ter acquaintance with life, but whose very intelligence in her expression as amazed acquaintance has served to trammel them me. She enjoyed my surprise and admir- into its manoeuvres and intricacies. ation for about half a second, and then "She turned away after some minutes, with the most natural negligence in the and joined her party a few paces off. My world, pointed gracefully with the hand eye followed them as they moved up the which still rested on my arm, to the ground gallery; she shone always conspicuous It was her handkerchief that had fallen among the throng of gentlemen who gaat my feet, and I instantly stooped, and thered as she went, around her, in clusterraised it. She stretched ont her hand to ing numbers, while now pausing for a sereceive it, before I had even time to pre-cond in a picturesque attitude to examine sent it to her, nodded her head half with a painting-now breaking on my ear in tones of exaggerated feeling either of hor- "She could not be fifty, though she had ror or of ectasy--now partaking with faint certainly worn better than any person I effort in the casual vivacity of her attend-know; even when near I could not have ing bevy, or leading with startling violence supposed her past thirty. a sudden laugh. I believe I had just then I can scarcely say how much I dis a rage for simplicity, for even her charms like this description of character. It redisgusted me. She was an Englishwoman volted against all my notions of feminine too, and I had just been commenting, per- propriety; that sensitive dignity of wohaps, with ungrateful sarcasm, on the free-man's peculiar nature! It offended all dom of Florentine manners. At the upper my most respectable feelings towards the end of the gallery I lost sight of her, and sex, and I remember I stood aloof during when I looked around me I found that the the evening from Mrs. Beauvilliers, boy. crowd had followed her-there was not a ishly abashed at her frivolous familiarity of manners. I left Florence soon after, creature near me. "Do you not know her!" said some but carried some of her impressions alone one whom I had approached on purpose with me. She spoiled me for the next to question. "It is the honourable Mrs. twelvemonth. I had never before been Beauvilliers, the celebrated Mrs. Beauvil- vain of my personal qualifications, but it liers, she was the greatest beauty of the was not easy to forget that they had not day or of any day, and she never comes been absolutely unattractive. This was here without making a sensation; by the all that dwelt with me, and some years of way, she means to have you in her train after life passed on the continent, though I fancy, for I saw her cast her eyes on you they may have habituated me to the loosthe moment she entered the room." ness of its decorum, have never destroyed "It is incredible how even the turn of a my esteem for all that is beautiful in puphrase can affect us. These few last words rity!" had realized all my own thoughts with regard to Mrs. Beauvilliers. 66 I stopped for I felt that I was considerably agitated and my silence was of What then," said I, "she's a co- some duration, quette ?" "You will proceed Harry?" said my By no means," cried the other," only cousin gently, "for your story is both ina little addicted to Platonic love and fash- teresting and instructeve." ionable admirers. She has us all fast here, "Yes," answered I," but it is somewhat we all wear her colours. Though, par difficult!" and I still hesitated. "You parenthese, I thought her a little gone by should have seen her," I exclaimed at this morning, these beauties never know length, abruptly. "You should have when to give up, unless we give them up." known her, though she was scarcely hand"Come," said he, "I'll introduce you." some--I will only half name her to you, "Pardon me," answered I, "I know her Agatha, as I have named her to her self in perfectly already." the last days of our acquaintance-Ga "I saw Mrs. Beauvilliers again, it was brilla." at a ball that very evening. She had just "It is just about three years since we withdrawn a little out of the circle of waltz- first met; I remember it well, for even ers, and was leaning against a pillar then it was to me a circumstance of imchanging her white satin slippers. One portance. I was introduced to her in a gentleman stood beside her busied in re- private concert room just as her carriage ceiving the discarded pair: another prof- was annonced-she had been standing fered the fresh ones; and the the third, her near the door-way, and I was the last perfortunate partner, with one knee on the son she bowed to as she left the room. I ground, supported her delicate feet by remember it was near the end of the sea turns on the other and fastened the sandels. son. She was the fashion in London, but "How old is she?" asked I, for I felt I had never admired her. I had heard her quite a curiosity to discover "Lord," answered the pers "I have known her culling heaef ty years!" talked of as beautiful, but I had never thought her so. She was striking, but it was an air of fashion more than either beauty or grace in her appearance. I liked her reception of me; I had always band, and esteem was what she could allowed her to be a fine woman, and I bestow on none. She was incapable of found something extremely agreeable in friendship; her heart had been framed to her countenance when she spoke, and ex- a sentiment she had no steadiness in her treme good nature in her general manner. nature to persevere in her affections. Her She rather interested me than otherwise, husband was little calculated to excite though she had only just stayed to receive either, and to Gabriella he was entirely my bow, and observe to me," that she unsuited. They seldom met, but no ap was going," as she went out. pearence of unharmony subsisted between "She had quitted town for the country them. I have known her consult him on before I could see her again, and not long a matter of duty, and him leave to her after I followed her thither. I forgot now the choice of inscriptions on his dog-colwho it was that invited me: I think it was lars. He never interfered with her, but some connexion of the family, whose em- he was sometimes glad to have her look ployment was to furnish the table with well when she sat at the head of his table. guests, and the guests with society. Ga- "Her appearance had never been the briella's husband was of a rude descrip- lure which attracted me; and her appeartion of men; he was seldom to be seen in ence was then, in my opinion, by much, the house but at dinner, and at dinner he her least qualification. Yet she possesliked to have plenty of people to talk to, sed a large share of the essentials which and to listen to him. If his could be call- constitute beauty: her outline of feature ed society, at table they had his society, was good, and her complexion must once but otherwise these general chance kind have heen brilliant; at times it was still of guests were but little attended to. I beautiful, for Gabriella was no longer should scarcely have availed myself, how-quite what is called a very young woman ever, of this manner of admittance to hos- when I knew her. .6 Her pitality, had I not been rather forced into "She had the address to turn this want calling on them on my accidental meeting of admiration to her persen on my part, some of the party in the neighbourhood. into her most absolute attraction. Agatha," cried I," I scarcely know charms consisted in her undeviating ami why I repeat these details, for it is uneasy ability of manner; in her apparent forfor me to recall the memory of our first bearance of disposition, in her constant acquaintance! propriety of temper, in her implicit obe"If you had known her you would have dience to the caprice of her admirer, and pardoned the madness of my love-had her seeming readiness of obedience to any you known Gabriella you would have exertion of authority, from the man whom wept for the cruelty of her caprice! Her she had received as her husband. I love spirit of coquetry was indeed untamed, to dwell on this part of her character; I untameable. She pursued her victim with could cling to the thought that she might unwearied skill; flung with captivating once have deserved better; that she was ingenuity, her whole heart into his service; not all that she appeared to me when we wound her grateful toils around his exis- last met and parted; a heartless, practiced, tence, and urged on with irresistable per- unblushing, and unprincipled coquette ! suasion the tortures of that grief which "We have periods of feeling when it she contemplated with remorseless and requires but little to open our eyes to the insatiable ambition. How I tried to leave real disposition of matters carried on her-how I tried to escape the influence around us; and once awakened, it is asof her fascinations, it seems of little pur- tonishing how quick we grow into wis pose to tell. I did not leave her, and dom. It must be always impossible in Gabriella's smiles returned. She could these after moments to trace the many, weep too; at times I have seen a startling various, almost imperceptible accidents tear bedew her cheek. But why should that may have occurred to bring us acI instruct you in all the arts and all the quainted with the delusions practiced on expedients of her most reprehensible co-us-perhaps which we have ourselves too quetery; it was as restless as extravagant. readily indulged. To you it may be dif She had probably never loved her hus-icult to comprehend from how slight a VOL. 111-23-3 circumstance my impression of Gabriell's tercourse to prevail between a man and character were first settled into the more his wife. Even in the highest walks of sober reflections on her behavior. life, there is visible such an exquisite and "I had been staggered by sentiment, charming familiarity. To take a fanci and it seemed to me a profligate sentiment. ful view of the subject, for instance, that We were talking on the freedom of Italian one little circumstance of calling each manners, more especially that of the wo-other by the Christian name, abbreviated men, and she was expatiating on them as we hear it too, in every possible way, with considerable eagerness. I remember by people of the first fashion, speaks volshe used the words the luxury of their umes." independence, their perfect want of con- "Poor Mama!" exclaimed Gabriella, trol, all form-odious form and she "I remember mama, always called poor threw her eyes up to heaven as she spoke. papa, Beau!" She had beautiful eyes, but this time "Who was your mother?" said I. their appeal seemed to me out of place."Heavens!" cried she, "don't you She threw them on me, but they did not know?-the beautiful Beauvilliers-La move me, and she yielded her opinions as bella Belissima,' as she was called in Italy! she always did, only with less hesitation I was in mourning for her when I first than was usual with her, for me to be as saw you. Have you never seen the beauusual satisfied with her victory. I was tiful miniature of mama in my room?" peculiarly sensitive on this one point-the "I have seen the original," answered delicacy of a woman's deportment; and I, "in the picture gallery at Florence." Gabriella's manner had sometimes dis- Whether it was the tone of my voice, turbed me. I had sometimes wondered for I felt that it was altered, or the expresat her self-possessien, too, only that to me sion of my conntenance, for it was crimshe never was self-possessed. She had soned to the temples, that struck Gabrioften turned off an uncomfortable sentence ella, I know not, but she changed the conwith a gay laugh, which has covered me versation. For my part I had relapsed with confusion and offence, and I have into my silence, and I slunk away. felt that I should yet been more at ease briella the daughter of Mrs. Beauvilliers ! had she been less so. "Why have you never told me that 66 Ga "How "I was silent for some time after, and you had been to Florence?" said she next thoughtful, and Gabriella tried to woo me morning when we were alone. into better company. She was seldom odd! we must have been there together, unsuccessful, and insensibly we grew into and we were strangers!" conversation again. One or two of the "I knew your mother," said I. rest of the company joined us, and we "Poor mama! heavens! how beautiful gathered into a little circle round her sofa. she must have been. But did you abso"The discourse turned on manners, but lutely know her. I thought I had known this time it was on English manners. A the whole circle of mama's admirers." gentleman present, and who, by the way, But why need I go on. It was, perwas rather a celebrated traveller, just haps, fortunate for me that I could never risen, or rising into fame and fashion, ob- separate the connection between Mrs. served that in no country in the world Beauvilliers and Gabriella. The early did there exist such perfect domestic and impression of her mother which had been conjugal happiness as in England-such left so strongly on my mind, could not be an entire confidence between husband effaced by any recurrence to the daughand wife-such a perfect union both of ter. I could never think of Gabriella heart and of mind." without recalling to my recollection Mrs. "Gabriella assented cordially, and ap- Beauvillers in the picture gallery, or in the plauded the feeling with warmth. I had ball-room at Florence. However disguis turned away, and when I looked again Ied might be their manner, their conduct found her eyes were bent upon the travel-was too similar to bear comparison. From ler. the suddenness with which the veil of my Where, in what country," pursued he illusions fell from my eyes almost from “de w● find such an agreeable social in-that very hour, it would seem now as if 66 |