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cant, literary cant, fashionable cant, musical cant, political cant, and cant of all sorts in abundance, and Britain was the birthplace of this hydraheaded monster."

"You are not so partial to England, Mrs. Temple, as my daughter Helen is," remarked Mr. Ludlow. "I believe she carries her affection for it so far, that she would value a grain of English dust more than an ingot of Peruvian gold."

"Then she possesses a feeling that is very un-English," said Mrs. Temple, in reply. "She ought rather to bow down before gold and worship it."

"Oh, Mrs. Temple! you are too bad to call the English idolaters,"

cried Geraldine.

"Whatever they may be," said Mr. Ludlow, warmly, "they are very unchristianlike in their conduct towards us. They are doing all that they can to ruin us, and, not content with that, they heap undeserved odium and contumely upon us. Let England take the beam out of her own eye before she attempts to take the motes out of other people's eyes. Let her look to her factories, her prison-poorhouses, her vast nests of unimaginable poverty, misery, and guilt, that accumulate in the very hearts of her most splendid cities; let her clean out her own Augean stables, and then it will be time enough for her to cast her restless eyes on countries far removed from her."

"No, no, come now," said Mr. Mackenzie, "we must not speak or think so undutifully of our mother country. As they say in Scotland, 'England's bark is waur than her bite.'"

"I wish we belonged to your country, Mr. Fish; we should receive more justice at your hands," said Mr. Ludlow.

"'Mericay would be a more nat'ral protector for you, certainly," responded Mr. Fish; "but we don't want you; with so vast an extent of country as we have, embracing a large portion of the noo hemisphere, we don't need colonies, like England, to add to our greatness and power.' Why, then, do you crave so to get hold of Cuba? You would seize her fast enough if you only had a decent pretext," said Mr. Mackenzie.

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A political conversation ensued, which lasted, to the great disgust of Mr. Fanshawe, until Mrs. Montresor made her appearance, exhorting everybody to repair to the boats, when the party, taking her advice, speedily re-embarked, happily without any further adventures in the water. After a short row by moonlight, they reached in safety, and apparently in high spirits, the opposite shore, where carriages were in waiting to convey them to Mr. Ludlow's, at whose house the remainder of the evening was to be passed.

V.

THE evening at Clare Hall was to be spent by the young people in dancing, and in cards by those who liked them. The ladies were only in demi-toilette, but some of them thought fit to improve their appearance by adorning their hair with natural flowers. A vase of flowers in Helen's dressing-room was ransacked, and her black handmaidens were despatched to gather more from the pretty flower-garden that lay beneath her windows.

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'Helen, how pale you look!" exclaimed Florence, as she suddenly

turned her eyes from the mirror in which she had been admiring her own image, while trying flowers of every hue in her hair. "Very pale! and what is the matter with your eyes? I declare you have been crying."

Nonsense," said Helen, hastily; "it is the sea-breeze that has made my eyes look red, and you know I am always pale."

"But the sea-breeze has made nobody's eyes look red except yours. You surely have been crying."

"Look at your own eyes how red they are; positively they are frightful," said Helen.

"Red are they? Frightful? Good Heavens! do give me some rosewater, Fanchette," she exclaimed, turning to one of Helen's attendants, and forgetting her curiosity about Helen's crying in the horror of her own beauty being at all impaired.

Fanchette supplied the rose-water, and Florence resumed the pleasing task of placing the most becoming flowers amidst the ringlets of her dark hair.

"For whom are you making that bouquet of myrtle and jasmine, Geraldine?" asked Mrs. Temple.

"I think I shall give it to my exquisite friend Mr. Fanshawe. By the way, I don't think he will, in your hearing again, boast of being blasé, Mrs. Temple. You really were too hard on him, poor harmless creature!"

"I own it provokes me to hear such men-things made up of froth and whalebone-talking as if they had deeply suffered from overwrought feelings. Every blockhead must needs be a Childe Harold, and pretend to exemplify those lines:

He felt the fulness of satiety—

With pleasure drugg'd, he almost longed for woe,

And e'en, for change of scene, would seek the shades below.

If their doom were in my hands I would condemn them to purgatory, at least, for their odious affectation."

"You had better," said Geraldine, laughing, "like Milton, condemn them to be

Upwhirl'd aloft,

O'er the back side of the world far off,
Into a limbo large and broad, since called
The Paradise of Fools,

thus, in the midst of justice, remembering mercy."

The black musicians had now commenced their operations in "the hall," as the largest sitting-room in a West India house is generally denominated, and the sprightly violin and deafening triangle (an instrument dear to negro musicians) were summoning the dancers to the business of the evening.

Geraldine's hand for the first quadrille was claimed by the persevering Mr. Fanshawe, to whom she had rashly promised it in the morning, and whom she was very much inclined to wish either in purgatory or in limbo; but for the first waltz she was engaged to Mr. Le Vasseur, who on this occasion seemed to have surmounted his disinclination to dancing. They both waltzed well, and excited much admiration in those who were looking on.

During one of the pauses which they occasionally made,

Geraldine caught a few words of a conversation which was going on between two ladies about herself and her partner.

"Miss Montresor will work a reformation, I think, in Mr. Le Vasseur ; he seems quite captivated."

"They would make a very handsome couple," was the reply; "but, by all accounts, he is too much under the yoke to cast it off easily. What a pity that young man has so thrown himself away !"

She lost the immediate rejoinder, and then heard, "Taken to gambling lately."

Geraldine was startled at what she heard; she felt a thrill of painful disappointment, and unconsciously raising her eyes, she observed an expression of uneasiness pass over the pleasing and animated countenance of her graceful partner.

"Will you waltz now, Miss Montresor ?" he said, quickly.

"Yes, do let us go on," she replied as quickly; and she felt a slight pressure of the hand he held, as if he were grateful to her for removing from the vicinity of the gossips whose disclosures were so mal à propos.

The waltz was over, and Le Vasseur still lingered by Geraldine's side, but the ease and vivacity of their conversation were gone. Geraldine insensibly sank into silence, and he stood looking at her as if there were something which he wished to, but dared not, say. He sighed; she echoed the sigh. Sighs in some cases are dangerous things, and there is no knowing to what future results those which have just been recorded might have been the precursors, had not Mrs. Montresor's well-timed approach put to flight the awakening sensibilities of Geraldine and Le Vasseur. That lady's manner to poor Le Vasseur was as repulsive as possible, without utter disregard to the rules of good breeding; and upon some very slender pretext she abruptly carried her daughter off to a distant part of the room.

Geraldine, who knew that her mother's prudence led her to be all things to all men and all women, was extremely surprised at her scant civility to poor Le Vasseur, and she was not a little chagrined when Mrs. Montresor requested her not to dance with him again.

"Why not, mamma?" she asked.

"The why I will explain to you at another time, but you may rely on my prudence, Geraldine, and believe that I would not unnecessarily interfere with your choice of partners."

"How very odd!" thought Geraldine. "What can be the matter with Mr. Le Vasseur, that this ban seems to be put upon him? Yet the gentlemen seem to be on good terms with him."

Wondering would not solve the mystery, but Geraldine could not drive the subject from her mind the whole evening, and she felt a degree of provocation at her mother for having forbidden her to dance with Le Vasseur, to whom she had previously engaged herself for the first dance after supper.

Feeling vexed, Geraldine looked listless, and almost cross. Helen, too, seemed much out of spirits; her usual gaiety had fled, and not even the attentions of Mr. Thornley could call a smile to her cheek. Bad spirits and bad humour are very infectious, and the unusual gravity of the two leading belles speedily gave a tone to the evening. The day which had commenced so propitiously seemed about to close heavily in weariness and dissatisfaction, and everybody wondered why nobody seemed pleased.

"What can have become of Lionel Seymour, Miss Ludlow?" demanded Mrs. Mackenzie, who was leaning on Mr. Fish's arm. "He has disappeared as if by magic. I hope he was not forgotten when we returned to our boats, and left to play Juan Fernandez on a desert island."

"He felt extremely indisposed," said Helen, "and apologised to papa for not keeping his engagement here this evening. He went home when we landed; he felt the fever coming on, I believe."

"Oh, did he? Poor fellow! I dare say he was in a hot enough fever," said Mrs. Mackenzie, with a significant look.

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"Hot fever! Dear me !" exclaimed Mr. Fish, in much alarm. was sure some of us would suffer from exposure to the 'doo.' Poor Mr. Seymour! he should lose some ounces of blood. He would find being bled a great relief; it might check the increase of his complaint."

Mrs. Mackenzie laughed heartily. "What, you would bleed him, would you? To cool him, no doubt."

"I think bleeding in such cases as his very efficacious," replied Mr. Fish, solemnly. "Ah! I was afraid of that heavy doo.' I begin to feel some awkward symptoms myself a slight degree of cold shivering-ague coming on, I am afraid." And looking extremely miserable, he began to shake from mere apprehension.

"Let me prescribe for you, Mr. Fish. Take a tumbler of warm will have no ague." sangaree, and you

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Sangaree? No; I guess a glass of swizzel would be more wholesome. Will you join me in a little swizzel ?"

“Í, Mr. Fish? Ask a lady to drink rum-and-water!" exclaimed Mrs. Mackenzie, reddening, and making a face of disgust.

"No offence, madam. In 'Mericay ladies often drink rum-and-water." "That may be, Mr. Fish, but ladies don't drink rum-and-water in the West Indies at least, I never, in the whole course of my life, met but with one who did, and she, poor woman, would willingly have dispensed with the water. Rum killed her at last."

"Do you mean to insinooate, madam," said Mr. Orlando Fish, waxing wroth, "that the ladies of the Oonited States drink?”

"I have it from your own authority that they drink rum-and-water." "Madam, there do not exist on the face of the earth females so temperate as our 'Merican females."

"Mr. Fish, far be it from me to gainsay it. I don't in the least doubt their temperance and their excellence in every respect. I am sure, if you had not just now told me it, I should never have dreamt that they were addicted to drinking rum."

Mr. Fish looked daggers at his impertinent companion, but he scorned making any further reply; and unceremoniously dropping her arm, he consoled himself by going in search of the swizzel which was to ward off his anticipated ague.

"The hot-headed Yankee!" exclaimed Mrs. Mackenzie, as he strode indignantly away, "he hardly needs his swizzel to warm him now."

"So, Geraldine, you have bestowed the bouquet you said you were preparing for Fanshawe on Mr. Le Vasseur? I think I see it displayed in the button-hole of his coat. Do you give him myrtle?" asked Mrs. Temple, with a slight sneer.

"I dropped the bouquet when I was waltzing with Mr. Le Vasseur, I believe," said Geraldine, "and if he wears it, he must have taken the

trouble of picking it up. I ought to be flattered by his thinking it worth while to preserve my poor bouquet."

"Flattered!" exclaimed Mrs. Temple; "he ought to think himself honoured in being permitted to preserve it, and infinitely honoured in Miss Montresor's having condescended to waltz with him."

Le Vasseur did not attempt to speak to Geraldine during supper, nor to penetrate the crowd of gentlemen who surrounded her chair, but, standing at a little distance from the opposite side of the table, he kept his eyes fixed on her with a look of deep interest and unrepressed admiration, and the moment supper was over he came forward to remind her of her promise to dance with him again.

"I am very sorry," said Geraldine, "but my promise to you must be annulled by one I have made since. My mother does not wish me to dance any more to-night, and I believe we are going home immediately."

Le Vasseur looked mortified and disappointed, and Geraldine would have said something to do away the unpleasant feeling her refusal to dance with him again seemed to have created, but she perceived that her mother and Mrs. Temple were observing her attentively, and dreading a lecture on imprudence from the one, and some well-bred ridicule from the other, she bade Le Vasseur good evening, and passed hastily on. She remarked that he left the room immediately, and soon after Mrs. Montresor's party also took their leave.

A HOLIDAY TOUR IN SPAIN.

BY A PHYSICIAN.

THE total absence of daylight prevented any passenger from seeing the pretty improving town of Loja, although nearly an hour was wasted by several taking chocolate-that perpetual refreshment of Spaniards at all times or seasons. Nevertheless, it may be interesting to mention that it was always a place of great importance when the Moors possessed Granada, it being considered one of the keys of their position. In the middle of the town an ancient castle perches upon a rock, and below runs the celebrated river Genil-afterwards seen at Granada-crossed by an old Moorish bridge, while several prospects in the neighbourhood are reported as very picturesque. Lachar-a very miserable-looking place-was next traversed; then Santa Fé, having a much better aspect, with some good houses; and lastly, the productive Vega lay spread out on every side, with Granada glittering in the sun at a distance. For several hours, before arriving at that much-desired termination of a most fatiguing night journey, the scorching sunshine, blinding clouds of dust, and a high wind, which prevented any of the diligence windows being opened, lest some of the six tired prisoners therein confined might be choked, made it no small gratification when, about eight A.M., the lumbering vehicle at last delivered its living cargo over to the tender mercies of publicans and hotel-keepers, who always gladly receive such profitable consignments.

Notwithstanding, or perhaps in consequence of, the frequently exag

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