'pon my honour there are, when my spirit could, aye, and would, willingly endorse that sentiment of yours, Mr. Charles."

"I beg to put my signature to it now-at once," interposed George Bell. "The shady softened hours of a sunset evening like this is infinitely more to my taste than was the untempered brightness of midday; and, in so speaking, I metaphorically include everything, as does my friend Beechley."

"I spoke literally, not metaphorically!" observed Charles.

666

Everything,' is a very inclusive term, and I declare I hardly understand its application," said I, wondering at their gloomy opinions after so glorious a day.

"For one thing, I refer to people, Miss Denzell," replied Captain Bell, coldly, and with, I felt sure, a secret feeling of satisfaction at the opportunity thus afforded of perhaps punishing me for my recent unflattering behaviour to himself; "women especiallythat strongest point with men. Of all the female characters (I can affirm this from plentiful experience) the most attractive to ninetynine out of a hundred of my sex is that

possessing a combination of those essentially feminine charms, a gentle, subdued cheerfulness, kindly considerateness of manner towards every one, good sense in conjunction with humility, and an habitually sweet thoughtfulness for the happiness and welfare of others. Add to all this a sensitive humanity for every living thing in distress, and you have a perfect woman."

I pressed my arm against Sariann to call her attention to the fact of how this description suited herself; but she was too humble to see it.

In saying the return-home arrangements were the same as in the morning, I was wrong on one point. Monica insisted upon coming back with me, and begged Dora Bell to change seats in the carriages-a request which, to my satisfaction, she acceded to. There was no girl whose society was so amusingly agreeable to me as pretty Monica's. I was afraid poor Dora did not, in her heart, relish the move; but her black-eyed petitioner was unconscious of that fact, and so it was done.

"My goodness!" cried the lively damsel, "what a stupid piece of feminine perfection!

A Lucilla Stanley! And it does not matter, I suppose, how ugly your charming woman is; for you make no mention of looks, most gallant captain ?"

"No; for the good qualities I have named would create beauty of themselves, Miss Monica."

"Oh, would they?" she replied, laughing. "I should like to see what stand made beauty of that kind would effect in opposition to Nature's beauty."

Captain Bell reddened, fortunately unseen by wicked little Monica.

"The fact is, Miss Dormer," he resumed, in a rather confused voice, "no girl of ordinary or disagreeable features could possess them; such fascinations of character could only emanate from a corresponding winsomeness of form. In saying this, however, bear in mind, young lady, that many a girl, whose personal appearance you might condemn as absolutely plain, we men might, nay, more often than not, do, consider attractive and lovable."

"That 's true," rejoined Monica, gaily, "and proves how deficient in good taste you men are."

"Men are much more influenced by expression than by mere beauty of form and feature,' observed Charles. "I doubt if one man in fifty would prefer marrying the woman he admires most in preference to her he likes best."

"But why not try and unite the two?" I asked, smiling.

"Yes, the thing is possible, and is occasionally done, but very rarely." He spoke slowly, in that altered, constrained voice which always perplexed and often annoyed me, glancing quickly at me as he spoke. "Yes," he went on, "they are sometimes united. When they are, Heaven help the unfortunate wretch who loves the fair possessor hopelessly!"

"How widely we have wandered from our first subject!" interposed Sariann.

was it about? I almost forget."

"There's such a charm in melancholy,
I would not, if I could, be gay,"

sang Monica.

"What

"That was the introductory subject, Sariann; and it seems to me they have kept, more or less, close to it."

"No; we have not strayed so far from the

point as you might think, Miss Beechley," rejoined Mr. Cherrup, laughing.

"I conclude, then, it is upon the strength of this exhilarating principle, that melancholy rules the hearts of men, so many gentlemen marry invalids?" resumed Monica.

"Capital! capital!" cried the little pater. "I declare you have us there, Miss Dormer. Yes, 'pon my honour, that is a fact. Really, now, when I think of it, I can't remember an invalid girl in any family who was not married first (if old enough), or might have been, if she chose. Yes; and stranger still, I have known, at different times, three nice pretty maidens who all died of consumption, and each was followed to her grave by poor young lovers to whom they had actually been engaged to be married."

"That singular taste on the part of the gentlemen no doubt accounts for the matrimonial engagements so often formed, we are told, in hydropathic establishments."

"That taste is, I think, easily accounted for," resumed Captain Bell. "Invalidism naturally exercises a softening, subduing, if not a refining, influence over both mind and