neckcloth, and won from so important a task

by Zelie's magic strain.

"Brava, brava !" he cried.

"Jules, if she

sings thus at her début, the field is won, her fortune is made!"

The last sentence fell coldly on Julian's ear, and Zelie murmured, as Alphonse returned to his toilet, "My fortune!"

Julian tried by his praise to dissipate the gloom he saw stealing again over her peculiarly expressive face-Alphonse returned.

"I am ready," he cried. "Zelie, be not idle; practice for a couple of hours, it will amuse your mind and keep up your talent; that last shake was a little feeble."

"But I am ill and weak, Alphonse." True, but your weakness is not of the lungs."

"I know not that."

"But, thank Heaven, I do! else all would be over with me, for you—”

"Well!" said Zelie, eagerly.

"Would fail," trembled on his lips, but luckily the little sprite Tact came to his rescue:

"would perhaps be lost to the fondest of brothers. You would leave Alphonse alone in the world."

"No, dearest, no!" cried Zelie, springing up and catching his hand. "I love thee too well to leave thee-smile Alphonse and come back soon; I will practice all day and all night. Ah! would he be indeed alone in the world if Zelie died?"

"He would indeed."

Zelie kissed his hand, and, changeful as an April morn, said, "Go, go! now I am so happy, I can bear to be alone! come back soon though; take care of him, dear Mr. Jules -farewell, my own Alphonse !"

"How much your sister loves you!" said Julian, as they hastened down stairs.

"Hush!" replied Alphonse. "You alone possess my secret, you only know she is my sister."

"But the world must know it."

"The world must not know it! Think what a blot it would be on the name of De Villeneuve were it known that a daughter of that ancient house gave her talents for hire. It is agony

enough to me to see her compelled to do so. I would rather burn out my very soul by the midnight lamp, as I have done but Zelie feels her power. She is ambitious, she knows she can win wealth and fame. She is like a racer who sees the goal-there is no stopping her till it is won."

"But do you not place her in a false position? What a far deeper stain, should a daughter of such a house as yours pass, even though her name be not known, as living under the protection of a man not recognised as her brother!"

Dear

"But that will not be-in London I shall hire a duenna to attend her, I shall not live with her; here we are all unknown. girl! she does love me with all a sister's love; I told you that we are not sprung from the same mother-mine, a proud daughter of the English house of Howard; hers, an impassioned child of Italy, with a heart all fire and a soul all song-well, we alone survive, proud beggars as we are! I cannot tell you all our story, nor why it would be ruin were

she known now as my sister and a De Villeneuve. Your noble generosity, my dearest friend, enables her to make this trial, and if she succeed as La Zelie,' perhaps I may be able to recover the estates of Villeneuve, and compel the world to receive her as a daughter of our house. She is much better, to-day. She likes you, Julian, and is always impatient when she hears you are coming; to-day she said you were the beau ideal of a proud sensitive Englishman-a very Oswald, and she plaited her hair in your honour, for the first time, since her illness."

Julian coloured. "I think," he said, "she has no eyes, no heart, but for her brother."

"It is her first affection; I am her only relative; her warm young heart is so attached to mine, that the girlish heaven of her fancy conceives nothing brighter than the lunar rainbow of a brother's love.

passion must dawn one day; were he for whom it dawns.

her brother, how would she band!"

But the sun of

and richly blest

If she so loves adore her hus

"But, accustomed to your glowing sentiments and poetical imagery, which you pour alike into your novels, your plays, and your conversation, the common language of common human beings must seem to her as stiff and soulless as the sentences of a phrase-book, learned by rote."

"Not so; she laughs at me, and says I talk like a book; and she praised your conversation, and said, you must be a poet.'

Alphonse," he

said, "you will suit one of my cousins marvellously; a girl all soul and sentiment." "And handsome ?"

66

Yes, both are handsome, but she is the belle. The form of Juno-black

eyes, half love, half pride; a nose whose slight aquiline gives dignity, and yet is feminine, too-beautiful dark hair, and a lovely skin, so clear, you can read each message of the heart in her tell-tale cheek. How do you like her picture, and my adoption of your flowery style?"

"She must, indeed, be beautiful! and the other "

"What, Ellen? I scarcely know whether