"Shocking!" cried Bessie; "pray, don't listen any more, Herbert."

"Pshaw, Bessie! I shall clear the pit. Effie loves snipe too well to leave me the wrong side of that."

Effie was either offended at Herbert's intimation that her favours might be bought, or perhaps she saw his lack of faith in his laughing eye, and, determined to punish him, she declared that all was dark and misty beyond the pit; there might be a leap over it, and a smooth road beyond-she could not tell-she could only tell what she saw.

"You are a croaking raven, Effie!" exclaimed Herbert; "I'll shuffle my own fortune;" and seizing the cards, he handled them as knowingly as the sibyl herself, and ran over a jargon quite as unintelligible; and then holding them fast, quite out of Effie's reach, he ran on-" Ah, ha-I see the mist going off like the whiff from a Dutchman's pipe; and here's a grand castle, and parks, and pleasure-grounds; and here am I, with a fair blue-eyed lady, within it." Then dashing down the cards, he turned and kissed Bessie's reddening cheek, saying, "Let others wait on fortune, Effie, I'll carve my own."

Isabella was nettled at Herbert's open contempt of Effie's seership. She would not confess nor examine the amount of her faith, nor did she choose to be made to feel on how tottering a base it rested. She was exactly at that point of credulity where

much depends on the sympathy of others. It is said to be essential to the success of animal magnetism, that not only the operator and the subject, but the spectators, should believe. Isabella felt she was on disenchanted ground, while Herbert, with his quizzical smile, stood charged, and aiming at her a volley of ridicule; and she proposed that those who had yet their fortunes to hear should, one after another, retire with Effie to a little inner But Herbert cried out, "Fair play, fair play! Dame Effie has read the riddle of my destiny to you all, and now it is but fair I should hear yours."

room.

Bessie saw Isabella's reluctance, and she again interposed, reminding her of "mamma-the coming night," &c.; and poor Isabella was fain to give up the contest for the secret conference, and hush Bessie, by telling Effie to proceed.

"Shall I tell your fortin and that young gentleman's together?" asked Effie, pointing to Jasper. Her manner was careless; but she cast a keen glance at Isabella, to ascertain how far she might blend their destinies.

“Oh, no, no-no partnership for me," cried Isabella, while the fire which flashed from her eye evinced that the thought of a partnership with Jasper, if disagreeable, was not indifferent to her.

"Nor for me, either, mother Effie," said Jasper; or if there be a partnership, let it be with the pretty blue-eyed mistress of Herbert's mansion."

Nay, master, that pretty miss does not choose her fortune told-and she's right-poor thing!" she added, with an ominous shake of the head. Bessie's heart quailed, for she both believed and feared.

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Now, shame on you, Effie," cried Herbert; "she cannot know any thing about you, Bessie ; she has not even looked at your fortune yet."

"Did I say I knew, Master Herbert? Time must show whether I know or not."

Bessie still looked apprehensively. "Nonsense," said Herbert; "what can she know ?-she never saw you before."

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True, I never saw her; but I tell you, young lad, there is such a thing as seeing the shadow of things far distant and past, and never seeing the realities, though they it be that cast the shadows." Bessie shuddered-Effie shuffled the cards. "Now just for a trial," said she; "I will tell you something about her-not of the future; for I'd be loath to overcast her sky before the time comes--but of the past."

"Pray, do not," interposed Bessie; "I don't wish you to say any thing about me, past, present, or to come."

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Oh, Bessie," whispered Isabella, "let her try -there can be no harm if you do not ask her— the past is past, you know-now we have a chance to know if she really is wiser than others." Bessie again resolutely shook her head.

"Let her go on," whispered Herbert," and see what a fool she will make of herself."

"Let her go on, dear Bessie," said Jasper, "or she will think she has made a fool of you."

Bessie feared that her timidity was folly in Jasper's eyes; and she said, " she may go on if you all wish, but I will not hear her;" and she covered her ears with her hands.

"She

"Shall I?" asked Effie, looking at Isabella; Isabella nodded assent, and she proceeded. has come from a great distance-her people are well to do in the world, but not such quality as yours, Miss Isabella Linwood-she has found some things here pleasanter than she expectedsome not so pleasant-the house she was born in stands on the sunny side of a hill." At each pause that Effie made, Isabella gave a nod of acquiescence to what she said; and this, or some stray words, which might easily have found their way through Bessie's little hands, excited her curiosity, and by degrees they slid down so as to oppose a very slight obstruction to Effie's voice. "Before the house," she continued, "and not so far distant but she may hear its roaring, when a storm uplifts it, is the wide sea-that sea has cost the poor child dear." Bessie's heart throbbed audibly. "Since she came here she has both won love and lost it."

"There, there you are out," cried Herbert, glad of an opportunity to stop the current that was becoming too strong for poor Bessie.

VOL. I.-B

3

"She can best tell herself whether I am right,” said Effie, coolly.

"She is right-right in all," said Bessie, retreating to conceal the tears that were starting from her eyes.

Isabella neither saw nor heard this-she was only struck with what Effie delivered as a proof of her preternatural skill; and more than ever eager to inquire into her own destiny, she took the place Bessie had vacated.

Effie saw her faith, and was determined to reward it. "Miss Isabella Linwood, you are born to walk in no common track," she might have read this prediction, written with an unerring hand on the girl's lofty brow, and in her eloquent eye. "You will be both served and honouredthose that have stood in kings' palaces will bow down to you-but the sun does not always shine on the luckiest—you will have a dark day-trouble when you least expect it-joy when you are not looking for it." This last was one of Effie's staple prophecies, and was sure to be verified in the varied web of every individual's experience. "You have had some trouble lately, but it will soon pass away, and for ever." A safe prediction in regard to any girl of twelve years. "You'll have plenty of friends, and lots of suiters—the right one will be-"

'Oh, never mind-don't say who, Effie," cried Isabella, gaspingly.