"How do I look ?" inquired Gertrude Stanley, as she turned from the mirror to her sister, who replied, looking at her admiringly, "Lovely."

"Nonsense," answered Gertrude, trying to repress a smile; "but do you really like the way I have done my hair? Now tell me, how does it look ?" Like satin," continued Julia. "I never saw it more glossy and beautiful. Those long, soft, rich curls are very becoming; and, in short, you are looking your very prettiest. I pity poor Tom Heyworth if he is at Langley's to-night."

"You need not talk of Tom Heyworth," replied Gertrude, in high good humor at having the suggestions of her mirror, and the whisperings of her vanity, confirmed by the admiration of her sister. "Better reserve your pity for that handsome Mr. Seward who seemed so desperately smitten the other evening. People in glass houses should not throw stones,' you remember, Julia." "I wonder if he will be there?" returned Julia, with animation.

To be sure he will," answered Gertrude. 66 You told him you were going, did you not ?"

"Yes; but I do not remember that he said he should."

"Why of course he will," answered Gertrude decidedly," since you told him that you were, and you know he will. I never saw a man more desperately taken in my life. He seemed absolutely entranced by that last song of yours."

"Oh! by the way," said Julia, "was I not terribly hoarse? I was so frightened that my voice sounded shockingly in my own ears."

"It sounded delightfully in everybody else's, I assure you," answered Gertrude. "Mrs. Lewis said it was the most delicious thing she had ever heard, and Mr. Shelton was in perfect raptures, and Mr. Sholto said he would rather hear you than Castellan a thousand times; and, indeed," continued Gertrude, "I don't think I ever heard your

singing more admired. I really cannot remember all the compliments I had for you."

"I am truly glad to hear you say so," answered Julia, flushing and dimpling with gratified vanity, "for I really feared I had disgraced myself. How do you know that Mr. Seward was pleased? What did he say ?"

"He did not say anything," replied Gertrude, " for he seemed quite speechless; but he listened as if his soul was in his ears. Come, come," she added, playfully, "you need not play modest" (an adjuration not needed, that being a part not often sported by either sister), "for you must have been quite as conscious of his admiration as I was."

"No, indeed," answered Julia; " did not notice that there was anything so very marked in his manner."

"Oh! Julia!" exclaimed Gertrude. "How can you say so? Now that is not being frank?"

"'Pon my word," said Julia, laughing," such reproaches come with a very good grace from you indeed, who pretended to deny just now Tom Heyworth's devotions the other evening."

Well," replied Gertrude, "I am sure he did not talk much to me.'

"No," said her sister, "because you were so surrounded that he could not; but he scarcely took his eyes off you the whole evening."

A knock at the door here interrupted the conversation, and the servant came to announce that the carriage was ready, and their father waiting, and the young ladies descended, persuaded not only of the general stock of admiration that awaited them, but of the devoted homage of two of the most fashionable young men about town, in high good humor with each other, and enchanted with themselves.

"Now throw back your cloaks," said Mrs. Stanley, as they entered the drawing-room. "We must see you before you go. Why, Gertrude, you have arranged your hair differently. Is that a new fashion?"

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Yes, mama, how do you like it?"

"It is beautiful," exclaimed the admiring mother, "and very becoming. And those flowers of yours are charming, Julia. I never saw anything so pretty. You look lovely, both of you. I really wish I was able to go, that I might see you there. Well, papa," said she, turning to her husband, "I think you have reason to be proud of your daughters to-night. And now, my loves, you had better hurry, for the carriage has been waiting for some time;" and, as they departed, the maid who had followed with their cloaks and hoods, said,

"An' sure, ma'am, there'll not be two sich young ladies there besides them;" to which, Mrs. Stanley replied with equal simplicity, "I do not believe there will, Susan;" and, as she reseated herself by the fire, and took up her knitting, she said to a sister of her husband, who resided with them,

"They are pretty girls, sister; are they not?"

There is no question about that," replied Miss Stanley. "You and brother have reason to be proud of them."

"Yes," continued Mrs. Stanley, "we have, as you say, reason to be not only happy, but proud parents, for their endowments are not merely external, they are as preeminent for intellectual gifts as for personal graces. I do not know how it comes that our children should be so talented, but certainly Rufus is very remarkable, and Harry is decidedly the first scholar of his years in town, and Gertrude and Julia are not less distinguished for their accomplishments and wit, than for their grace and beauty." And thus Mrs. Stanley continued to talk on in the happiest persuasion of her being the mother of the most remarkable family in the Union, and this persuasion being, as it was, of the most amiable kind, and calculated to add infinitely to her happiness, would not have been to be regretted, could it have stopped there; but communicating itself as it did to her children, the evil was greater than she could readily have imagined. They certainly, as a family, ranked above the ordinary run of pretty, sprightly girls, and clever, well educated boys, and would have won the meed of general admiration, were not the charm of their gifts and graces marked by a consciousness it is delightful to enjoy, but fatal to betray.

"Those Stanleys are pretty girls," had been the remark of young Seward

"They seem pretty well aware of the fact themselves, though," continued Seward.

"Yes," said Heyworth, "that is the mischief of it. The eldest one, Gertrude, would be very handsome if she would let herself alone; but she is such an affected little puss, and so deucedly full of her pretty airs and graces, that she quite destroys all the charm she might otherwise have."

So it struck me," replied Seward, "but I am somewhat surprised to hear you say so, for I thought you rather taken in that quarter."

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"Oh, it is pleasant enough to dance with such girls," returned Heyworth, they are lively and pretty, and always ready to flirt, but for any admiration beyond that, you are quite mistaken if you attribute any to me. For though Gertrude Stanley is a pretty, strikinglooking girl, there is such a want of repose, and above all, such a consciousness of beauty about her, that she is not to my taste. The other is pretty, too, and has quite a good voice.""

"Yes," replied Seward. "It wants compass and cultivation, but still it is quite a good voice. That booby of a brother stood near me, and as she finished I said something civil to him about her music, when he actually told me that she had sung, last winter, with Castellan, and that many persons preferred her voice of the two."

"That is too good," said Heyworth, laughing. “But he would be rather astonished, by the way, to hear you speak of him and his opinions in such a slighting tone. He is called clever, I believe. Somebody told me he was a conceited but promising youth."

"That he is conceited there is no doubt," replied Seward, "but I don't see the promise you talk of; though it may be, however, for I only conversed with him a few minutes. His insufferable self-sufficiency disgusted me, and I turned off as soon as I could. But you are ungrateful, Heyworth, for the fair Gertrude seemed to me to smile her sweetest upon you.”

"I don't know that, but even if it were so, the smiles of such a flirt are not worth much," replied Heyworth,

who, being a young man of fortune, besides something of a flirt in his way, was quite as well satisfied in his own mind that he could have Gertrude, as Gertrude was that he was dying for her -the usual and mutual result of a desperate flirtation.

"Do you go to Langley's to-morrow night?" continued Seward.

"Yes, I believe so. Won't you?" "Well, I don't know. I am getting pretty tired of this kind of thing, but I may. However, here we are, so goodnight to you!" And the young men parted with their heads not quite so full of their fair partners as the young ladies imagined.

"Well, my loves," said Mrs. Stanley, the next morning, when they met at breakfast, had you a pleasant party last evening?"

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"Oh, delightful!" answered both the girls, at once.

"It was pleasant, was it ?" continued Mrs. Stanley; "Who was the belle ?"

"Oh, Gertrude, of course," answered Julia, promptly, while Gertrude blushed a little, as she repeated, with a smile, her sister's words, of course."

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Yes," replied Julia, "of course. You always are, so you need not attempt to deny it, Gertrude," and Mrs. Stanley looked very much pleased as she said,

"I thought you looked uncommonly well, and your father seemed very much pleased with the effect you both produced. Whom did you dance with? Tell me all about it. Come, you begin, Gertrude."

"Well, the first cotillion with young Morton."

"With young Morton," interrupted the mother, a little disappointed. "How comes it you did not dance with Heyworth the first?"

"Because Morton asked me as soon as I entered the room, and Heyworth seeing, I suppose, that I was engaged, did not come up to me until the second waltz."

"Whom did he dance with?" asked the anxious mother.

"Miss Morton," replied Gertrude.

Yes," remarked Julia, "and I was quite amused to see, Gertrude, that since Heyworth could not dance with, he was determined, at least, to dance opposite to her. He could see you. He was your vis-à-vis, you remember, and how that Miss Morton kept him at her side after

the dance was over! I do think there is nothing so ill-judged as a girl's pinning a young man in that way. He must have been tired to death of her."

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Some people call her handsome," continued Gertrude," but I don't see it."

"Handsome!" ejaculated Julia, with spirit; "I don't think she has the least pretension to it. And then, she is such a cold, dead-and-alive thing! What a relief it must have been for Heyworth to get away from her to you! And yet some people call that manner of hers dignified and high-bred. So absurd! Mrs. Lewis said to me, 'Your sister and Miss Morton seem to divide the ad

miration of the room. I had quite a curiosity to see them together, but I think your sister bears the palm.' And she really seemed to think she was saying something monstrous civil. She must have seen from my manner that I did not feel very much elated by the compliment, for I merely looked at her without answering."

"I don't pretend to be a beauty or a belle,” answered Gertrude, with a haughty toss of her pretty little head, "but I should be sorry, indeed, not to be better-looking, nor have more attention than Augusta Morton. Heyworth is intimate with her brother, and a good deal at the house, and so, of course, he is obliged to be civil to her when he meets her out. But that is all." Which assurance quite comforted Mrs. Stanley, who had been a little annoyed by hearing of his attentions to any but Gertrude, for he was rich, and the prudent mother didn't know but that "he would do," and at any rate did not like to hear of his devoting himself to any one but her daughter.

"What was the matter with Seward ?" asked Gertrude. Was he vexed about anything, he seemed to keep so in the back-ground?"

"Yes, I believe he was," replied Julia; "he asked me to dance, and when I said I was engaged, he turned off and never came near me again. I was sorry it happened so, but I could not help it."

The fact had been that Seward was in no dancing mood, a frame of mind unfortunately not rare with our young men; and Heyworth had really admired Miss Morton. "Not a girl to flirt with," as he had afterwards said, "but a woman to be admired."

"Have him!" ejaculated Gertrude; "to be sure she would. They are trying all they can to get him, but he no more thinks of her than you do."

There was a decision of tone and manner in all this that seemed to imply that Gertrude had her own reasons for knowing better than the rest of the world why this report should not be true; and Julia afterwards said to her mother,

"How strange it is that people should say that Heyworth is attentive to Augusta Morton !"

"Then you do not think he is," said Mrs. Stanley, anxiously.

"Oh, not at all,” replied Julia. "He is desperately in love with Gertrude. In fact he has all but offered himself already."

Mrs. Stanley wished he had quite; but as Gertrude was very young, and decidedly pretty, and her mother rated her claims high, she did not feel very anxious on the point, but passed from the subject to other topics under discussion.

"And so they say young Langley and Miss Murray are engaged."

"Very likely," answered Julia carelessly; for Langley not being one of the set who hovered round Gertrude or herself, was at liberty to marry if he chose it.

"Is it a good match for her?" inquired Mrs. Stanley.

"Yes-that is, he is as good as she'll get," answered Julia. "He is a stupid fellow, and poor, too, I believe," she added, in that sort of indifferent manner as if it were not a matter of the least consequence whether he were otherwise or not. Now, why Miss Murray's claims should have been rated so very

low, would have puzzled anybody to decide, for she was certainly as much entitled, from her youth and beauty, to look high as either Gertrude or Julia, and beside, had some fortune of her own. But it will generally be found that those who have so very high a sense of what is due to themselves, are apt to slight the claims of others. Why, also, young Langley should have been stamped as a "stupid fellow," and probably penniless, would have surprised most people had they not been aware that young men's merits frequently rise and fall according to the amount of admiration they bestow, and the quarter in which it is bestowed. Now, had Langley come within the charmed circle that comprised in Gertrude and Julia's eyes all the young men worth anything, it is very probable that, from being a decided "nobody," he would have loomed up into a "charming fellow," as many who had fallen from the ranks were, from being "very clever," found to have "nothing in them."

Notwithstanding the resolute denial and obstinate unbelief of the Stanleys, the report of Heyworth's engagement gained ground, and finally incredulity itself was silenced, by the fact being formally announced, and then the indignation of the family rose high.

"Not that Gertrude would have had him. In fact, she had as good as refused him," or, at least, so her mother said; but they "felt sorry for the young man," who, from their account, was not at all in love with his bride elect.

As for Gertrude herself, she did not care much about the matter beyond never liking the defection of an admirer, for she had been for the last two weeks deep in a flirtation with Harry Armstrong. And thus the season fled by; and though Gertrude and Julia were decided belles, no suitors offered that came quite up to the mark, for Mrs. Stanley was ambitious, and required wealth and station for her daughters; and as for the girls themselves, they were full of "visions." So one or two young men, who, as it afterwards turned out, would have been very good matches, were rejected with scarce a second thought.

Summer succeeded winter, and winter summer, and except the occasional shock of an engagement from some quarter that they had chosen to appropriate to themselves, the months sped by agreeably enough. A few years, however, is an age to youth and beauty, and as marriage followed marriage among the young and gay, Gertrude and Julia were beginning to find themselves among the "last roses of summer." Mrs. Stanley now looked anxious when she saw young men hovering round her daughters, and inquired with ill-disguised interest into their fortunes and prospects. She was disappointed, too, and depressed, when she heard of new engagements, which her daughters now began to resent as something quite personal.

"So," said Mrs. Heyworth, quite triumphantly, "Julia Stanley is going to marry Mr. Allan at last! I thought she would come to it."

"Yes," replied her husband," he has grown rich as she has grown old, and that is what people call the reward of constancy.'

"I think she has the best of it," continued Mrs. Heyworth. "I never liked those girls, nor indeed any of the family -they were so vain and self-sufficient."

"Oh, they were nice enough girls; pretty and pleasant too," answered Heyworth, "only they were spoilt by the atmosphere of flattery they lived in at home. The old people thought they were paragons, and no wonder that the children grew up in the same opinion." "Well," rejoined Mrs. Heyworth, "all that may be very amiable, but I know of nothing more tiresome than people's praising up each other so. I never said a civil thing to Mrs. Stanley about the girls, that she did not take the words out of my mouth, and run so ahead of me, that to keep up with her was impossible."

"It is not in good taste, certainly,” replied her husband; "and ill-judged, besides. They puffed up Rufus and Harry into a reputation that really led people to expect something of them, and they have sunk, after all, into very ordinary young men."

"As for Gertrude," continued Mrs. Heyworth, with some exultation, for she had never forgiven her some remarks she had heard of her making, "her day has gone by."

"Yes," replied her husband; "I saw her the other day; she is looking thin and eager."

Thin and eager! Alas, poor Gertrude! F. E. F.