"Woman! what incarnate fiend are you?" cried Walter, starting from his seat with amazement.

Without heeding his words, the fortune-teller placed a large clear crystal by him, and with her wand tapped it thrice, saying, as she did so:

"First from thy heart drive all hell-born thoughtsthen look and learn."

With a kind of fascination, Walter leaned forward, and gazed upon the smooth, glassy surface.

"Good heavens! what do I see!" at length he almost gasped.

"The past," whispered the woman significantly, drawing her hand over the glass.

"Oh! do not dispel the illusion so quickly," he cried earnestly; "let me look upon it once more. Wonderful! wonderful!"

""Tis gone, and may not be recalled," she replied; "yet once again it is permitted thee to behold a vision -shall it be of the past or future?"

"First assure me that I am awake, and not the victim of some horrid nightmare," said he, rubbing his eyes. "You sleep, and are yet awake; you dream, and yet dream not; look."

It needed no second bidding; long and earnestly Walter gazed into the crystal.

"Your future!" the sibyl pronounced emphatically, and instantly they were in darkness again.

CHAPTER VI.

"BUT my being is confused with new experience,

And changed to something other than it was;
And the future with the past is set at variance."

"ONE needs just such a rough experience as mine, to know how to appreciate a home like this," Walter Everson exclaimed, throwing himself upon a luxurious sofa near his mother and sister.

"Your experience has been almost too rough, judging from your pale looks," the former replied anxiously.

“Come, brother mine, not a word have you told me, yet, of your romantic adventures among the mountains, though I am sure you must have a budget full of them," his sister added playfully, "only that shocking accident which has left such an ugly scar on your temple."

"Unluckily, I have nothing to tell which you young ladies would call romantic," Walter replied, laughing; "there was not even a beautiful mountain maid or woodnymph to fall in love with."

"Just as if we, 'young ladies,' call nothing romantic but falling in love!" was Cicely Everson's pouting an

swer; "I, for one, sir, would have you know that I consider it any thing but romantic."

"Take care! take care, Cicely!" Walter laughed heartily. "There's a tell-tale blush creeping into your cheek, which speaks louder than words. No romance, is there, in moonlight walks through shady groves, with a gay, handsome young officer at your side, breathing low, soft words for your ear alone?- -no romance, in suddenly finding the heart you thought so free throbbing in a captive cell, and he your jailer, eh?"

"Walter! Walter! you are too bad," cried Cicely, crimsoning still more deeply.

"Forgive me, Cicy dear; I was only trying to convince you of your mistake, that was all."

"The mountain air seems to have raised your spirits, if it produced no other effect," Mrs. Everson remarked, with a smile; "you were not usually so lively, Walter."

"That is true, mother; it is the contrast, I believe, between my own beautiful home, my elegant, refined mother and sister, and the miserable den in which I lay for weeks, inhabited by two semi-barbarians, that elates me."

"Yet they attended to you carefully and kindly, you say."

"Oh! yes; the old woman could not have been more tender if I were her own child; for some reason she seemed to take a great fancy to me."

"She probably thought she would lose nothing by taking good care of you; I hope you paid her well for her services."

AN AWKWARD POSITION.

53

"I tried to, but she would not accept any thing from me, only one silver sixpence with which I crossed her hand to tell my fortune. Wasn't that strange ?"

"She was a fortune-teller, then," cried Cicely, with interest; "what did she tell you?"

"Nothing worthy of being repeated, of course," interrupted Mrs. Everson; "Walter no doubt thought it best to gratify her in her own way, but what she said can be of no possible consequence."

Walter made no reply, and his mother continued: "I am sorry the woman declined a remuneration for her trouble; it places one in an awkward position to be under obligation to such creatures."

"So I felt," said Walter, "and therefore I secretly placed a sum of money in the good physician's hands, to be expended in the education of her poor neglected child."

"A matter of rather doubtful expediency, to say the least," Mrs. Everson added; "to people in their condi tion, a 'little learning' proves often a dangerous thing.""

"What little she'll get can not hurt her," said Walter laughing; "she was the worst-looking specimen of humanity I ever saw, though before I left I perceived a decided improvement in her. She may grow up to make some of those New-Hampshire farmers a good buxom wife yet-who knows? I had half a mind to bring her home with me, to see what a refining process would make of her; but I must confess, my heart misgave me when I saw her in her native element, climbing

trees with the spryest squirrel, or running races with the swiftest hare."

"O Walter! you could not have thought seriously of such a thing," said his sister; "I would as soon attempt to tame a young bear."

"So would I; therefore I did not bring her; but come, Cicy dear, now for your secret. Who is this Clarence Willoughby, that has suddenly assumed such importance in your eyes ?"

"He is a young English officer, whose deeds of valor have won for him many marks of royal favor; his birth and family are unexceptionable," said Mrs. Everson, to relieve her daughter from the embarrassment of replying.

"So they should be, to match my queenly sister," exclaimed Walter, gazing proudly at the beautiful girl.

"A truce to all flattery, brother mine," said Cicely playfully, laying her soft, white hand on his arm, while still the blush deepened on her cheek; "come, gratify my curiosity, by repeating what your mountain seer told you."

Walter looked grave, while his mother interposed : "Cicely, how can you have any curiosity about such an absurd thing? It was well enough, perhaps, for Walter to humor the ignorant creature, in return for her kindness to him, but I should be loth to believe either of you so weak as to believe any thing she might say. Walter, do chide your sister's folly."

"The best way to do that, mother, would be to take