were beheld with new eyes-the eyes of a creat- | introduction in society had taken place beure new-bound; the condition which silly folk tween them. call being "in love."

nature.

It has its sillinesses-no one will deny; its weaknesses and madnesses; but it has its divine side too, chiefly because then, and not till then, comes the complete absorption of self into some other being dearer and better, higher and nobler than one's self, or imagined so; which is the foundation of every thing divine in human If men or women are ever good at all -ever heroic, unselfish, self-denying - they will be so when they first fall in love; and if the love be worthy, that goodness will take root and grow. As a tree is known by its fruits, so a noble love, be it happy or unhappy, ennobles a whole life. And I think no friends-no parents especially if they are real friends, real parents, true as tender, generous as wise, can see two young people standing at the enchanted gate without a prayerful thankfulness; ay, thankfulness. For it is the gate of life to them, whatever be the end.

Neither friends nor kindred stood by these four to watch or warn them, to help or to hinder their footsteps, in entering this unknown paradise; they walked into it deliberately, day by day and hour by hour, from that first Sunday night when Julius Stedman lay on the Misses Kenderdine's sofa, talking to one and gazing at the other, with all his heart both in his lips and eyes.

"But we know all about them nevertheless," argued Edna. "I quite well remember that when I was urged to send for Dr. Young to you, and found he had died suddenly, his successor was very highly recommended. It must have been the same Dr. Stedman. Had I sent, and had he attended you in the fever, how very funny it would have been!"

"Yes, indeed. Suppose we tell him what a near escape he had of either killing or curing me!"

"I think not, dear. As you say, there is no necessity for them to know any thing about us. I do not mean even to tell them that we live at Kensington; but it is a satisfaction to know something about Dr. Stedman, and it warrants us in being kind and civil a little to that poor sick lad-he looks no more than a lad. And how very ill he seemed this morning!" So Edna reasoned with herself, most simply and sincerely; as she drifted-they all drifted into that frank association, which, the first barrier being broken, was sure to come to people living in the same house, having nothing in the wide world to do but to go out and come in, and watch each other's goings out and comings in, innocently enough; but yet with a certain interest that appeared to waken up into new life the whole party, especially the invalids.

For Letty was a, little of an invalid again. She took a slight chill; and Dr. Stedman prescribed for her, in a very reticent, formal, but still pleasant but friendly way, which further helped on the intimacy between them. And as for Edna, her chief friend, as she openly declared, was Julius. He took to her suddenly and completely, with a kind of childlike dependence, so affectionately persistent that there was no withstanding it. Soon it became quite natural for him to send for her in to sit with him when his brother went out, to beg her to accompany them and "see that nothing happened to them" in the daily walk that Will shortly began to insist upon, first round the garden, and gradually lengthening, to the total abolition of the Bath-chair. He talked and jested with her alternately, for she was a merry as well as earnest little woman: he tyrannized over her, making her see to his little comforts, which she did in quite a motherly, or, rather, as he declared, a "grandmotherly" way; sometimes he

He was the grand foundation of the acquaintance, the corner-stone which seemed to make it all safe and right and natural. The sacredness of sickness was upon him and around him; for after the exertion of that night he fell back considerably, and for some days made his brother and his friends-in the anxiety they grew into friends-very miserable about him. The Misses Kenderdine were by no means strong-minded women, to fly in the face of the world, and make acquaintance with, or suffer themselves to be made acquaintances by, any stray young man they happened to meet. They had a keen sense of decorum; but then it was the decorum of true womanliness, the pure simplicity of soul which sees no harm in things not really harmful; the sweet dignity of maidenhood, which, feeling that, known or unknown, met or unmet, there can be to any woman but one man alive who is a possible husband, regards the rest of the sex with a gentle kindness-a placid indifference—even presumed to tease her, but all in such nothing more.

At least such was Edna's condition, and by the strong influence of her character she turned Letty into the same, or an imitation of the same, for the time being. After a long consultation between themselves, the sisters agreed that it would be ridiculous in them to stand aloof from the poor sick fellow in the next room, and his grave, anxious brother, who seemed wholly absorbed in. nursing him, because these happened to be young men, and they themselves young women; and no regular

frank, boyish, and yet perfectly gentlemanly fashion, that the result was inevitable-Edna grew exceedingly fond of him.

"Fond of" is the word, that gentle tenderness which almost invariably, though not always, precludes the possibility of any thing more.

This firm alliance, open and free, between Julius and Edna, made things progress amazingly, and threw the two others together more than Letty's sister would, a week ago, have dared to risk. But then, Dr. Stedman, the more she knew of him, seemed the more unlikely to fall

Julius had his wish, and made sketches innumerable, sometimes open, sometimes surreptitious, of her flexible figure and lovely face. Of evenings he used to repeat them from memory, and make compositions out of them. Dr. Stedman was called out of his medical researches for endless criticism upon Miss Kenderdine

into the ranks of Letty's victims, being exceed- | least for a long time. In the eyes of men, probingly sedate and middle-aged for his years, and ably for always. apparently not at all disposed to make the best of his opportunities. He would walk by Letty's side for hours without detaching her from the others, or talking to her very much himself; he seemed to like looking at her as any man might, and that was all. Obviously he was incapable of flirtation, did not seem to understand what it meant, carried on all conversations with the sisters in the most open, grave, and courteous earnest; as Letty declared, it would have been quite impossible for her to set up a flirtation with him, even had she tried.

To do her justice, she did not try. She too was subdued by the shadow of heavy sickness, which she had so lately escaped, and which still hung over the two brothers. Her sympathy was aroused; she thought less of herself and her charms, and was consequently more charming than she had ever been in her life.

they always called her Miss Kenderdine, and her sister Miss Edna, though why, nobody knew -as the gardener's daughter

"Gowned in pure white that fitted to the shape,

Holding a branch to fix it back."

Miss Kenderdine in medieval costume, as Kreimhild in the Niebelungenlied, and Miss Kenderdine, with her hat off, and sea-weeds in her hair, standing with the tide rolling in upon her feet, musing pensively with head bent forward-a veritable Ariadne of Naxos.

"That's the best, I think," said Will, whose comments were always sharp, short, and decisive.

Did the young men see and feel it? this extraordinary fascination, half of soul, half of sense, which breathes in the very atmosphere "I think so too," replied the other, lingering of a beautiful woman, if she has any thing wo-over his work with an artist's delight. "There manly in her at all. And Letty had a good is a wonderful deal of the Ariadne in her face deal. There was in her not a particle of ill- naturally." nature, that " envy, malice, and all uncharita- "Yes. The features are of the true Greek bleness," which women have sometimes sore type-sensuous without being sensual, pleasureneed to pray against. She was always gentle loving, but not coarse. She ought to marry a and lady-like, and extremely sweet-tempered. rich man, and then she would do uncommonly If taken altogether, her character was chiefly well." made up of negatives, her beauty was a thing so positive that it supplied all deficiencies, at

"Probably; so would most women," said Julius, with come sharpness.

For,

Will did not notice that, but still gazed in | courtesy, that did her own heart good. keen criticism on the sketch. she argued to herself, it was not like the civili

Ay, it's like her; a true Ariadne face- ties shown to Letty; it must be sincere, since that, Theseus lost, would take up very comfort-it was shown to a poor, plain, little schoolmisably with Bacchus." tress. She had taken care to let their new friends know they were only schoolmistresses, teaching tradesmen's daughters in a London suburb-so much, no more; and she had noticed with approbation that neither brother had made the slightest further inquiry; nor had their respective positions in life, or pecuniary affairs, or family connections, been again referred to.

"Horrible!" cried the artist. "I never knew such a matter-of-fact, abominably blunt fellow as you. You might as well say that if Miss Kenderdine were disappointed in love she would take to drinking."

"She might. I have seen some terrible cases of female Bacchants under similar circumstances. But I beg your pardon. You need not tell her I said so. Besides, she is never likely to be disappointed in love," added the doctor, as he put down the sketch-book, and ceased the conversation.

Thus they spent day after day, these four young people, in as complete an Arcadia as if there were no such a place as the common, working-day world, no sound of which ever reached them. This little Isle of Wight, which was not then what it is now, but far simpler, far lonelier, far lovelier-though it is lovely yet

It was the only conversation that during the first fortnight the brothers held concerning their new acquaintances. Indeed, there was not time, for, excepting the late working hours--might have been an enchanted island of the after nine or ten o'clock-scarcely an hour passed when the occupants of the two parlors did not meet, or sit waiting, expectant of the chance of meeting. Not that any walks or talks were purposely or systematically planned -still they always seemed to come about, and at length both sides seemed to make reasons or excuses for them.

sea-an Atlantis, such as weary mariners sailed after in vain-where no one toiled and no one suffered; no one hated, or quarreled, or betrayed; but all within was as sweet and peaceful as without, and where these young people seemed to live a life as innocent as the birds, and as peaceful as the primroses.

Edna

Letty even forgot her new bonnet. "We are just a lot of children out on a never took that expedition to Ryde; it seemed holiday," said Julius one day, when they were a pity to waste a day thereon; and for two all sitting eating their combined lunch on a Sundays more the sisters went contentedly to primrose bank, with larks singing madly over-church in their winter's clothes. But it was head, the salt wind freshening all their faces, and far away the outline of white cliffs and blue sea stretching into infinite brightness-infinite peace. "Just mere children, Miss Edna, and oh, do let us enjoy ourselves as such. We shall have hard enough work when we get home."

“That is true,” said Edna, with a half sigh; and she too gave herself up to the enjoyment of the moment.

spring in both their hearts all the while.

tain country walk Edna discussed eagerly with Julius that celebrated historical fact, which he had tried to illustrate by a large cartoon in the previous year's exhibition at Westminster Hall.

"Did you compete for the prizes ?" she asked, walking along by his side, while the others went on ahead, this being their usual way, because Letty disliked being hindered with Julius's still feeble steps.

This was, they agreed, the most wonderful spring they had ever seen. The primroses were so large; the hyacinths so innumerable and intensely blue, and the trees came into leaf with such especial luxuriance-all in a minute, as it seemed; some days you could almost see them growing. The twenty-ninth of May the oaks were full enough to shelter a None the less enjoyable that it was, strange-moderate-sized King Charles; and on a cerly enough, the first time in their lives that these two young women had had any frank association with men-good, pleasant, clever men. To Letty the opposite sex had always come in the form of lovers-not always satisfactory, especially in the amazing plurality with which they had blessed Letitia Kenderdine; while Edna knew nothing about men at all. That cheerful, frank intercourse-social, moral, and intellectual-which, within limits, does both sexes a world of good, was to her not only a novelty, but an exceeding pleasure. She was not a stupid woman—indeed it sometimes dawned upon her that she might have a few brains of her own, since she could so readily "Perhaps other people-Will especiallyenter into the talk of these two men, who both, think me cleverer than I am. I don't know in their way, were undoubtedly clever men- how it is," added he, mournfully, "but I althoughtful, original, and with no folly or coarse-ways seem to miss the exact point of success. ness about them, such as would at once have I get near it, but I never touch it. I am afraid repelled these maidenly gentlewomen. Nei- my life has been-always will be a failure." ther of the brothers attempted in the slightest degree to make love to Letty, and both treated Edna with a grateful politeness, a true heart VOL. XXXVI.-No. 213.-Y

"I tried, but I failed. I always do fail, somehow."

“That is hard. I wonder why it should be so, when you are so very clever," said Edna, innocently.

"Many lives are, that do not show it outside," replied Edna, more sadly than her wont. For she too, on that sunshiny day, with all things

"Plain, are you? Every body doesn't think so; Will doesn't. The very first night he saw you, when you sat adding up your accounts, he told me what a nice face you had." "Did he? I am sure I am very much obliged obliged to him!" to him."

"And your sister?" continued Julius, still watching the other two with an intentness that might have seemed peculiar had not Edna now become accustomed to his artist way of staring -"quite in the way of business," as he took