Cornelia mused a moment, and then said, slowly, as if watching the effect of her question :

"You have seen Eugene, of course ?"

66 "Yes."

"He has changed very much in his appearance, has he not ?" "More than I was prepared to expect.'

He is to be a merchant, like my father."

"So he wrote me.".

"You endeavored to dissuade him from complying with my father's wishes, did you not?"

"Yes, most earnestly," answered Beulah, gravely.

"Beulah Benton, I like you! You are honest indeed. At last I find one who is." With a sudden impulse, she laid her white, jewelled hand on Beulah's.

"Is honesty, or rather candor, so very rare, Cornelia ?"

"Come out from your 'loop-hole of retreat,' into the world, and you can easily answer your own question."

"You seem to have looked on human nature through misanthropic lenses."

"Yes, I bought a pair of spectacles, for which I paid a most exhorbitant price; but they were labelled 'experience!" She smiled frigidly.

"You do not seem to have enjoyed your tour particularly."

"Yes I did; but one is glad to rest sometimes. I may yet prove a second Bayard Taylor notwithstanding. I should like you for a companion. You would not sicken me with stereotyped nonsense.'

Her delicate fingers folded themselves about Beulah's, who could not bring herself to withdraw her hand.

"And sure enough, you would not be adopted? Do you mean to adhere to your determination, and maintain yourself by teaching ?"

"I do."

66

And I admire you for it! Beulah, you must get over your dislike to me."

"I do not dislike you, Cornelia."

"Thank you for your negative preference," returned Cornelia, rather amused at her companion's straightforward manner.

with a sudden contraction of her brow, she added:

"I am not so bearish as they give me credit for.'

"I never heard you called so."

Then,

Ah? that is because you do not enter the enchanted circle of our clique.' During the morning calls, I am flattered, cajoled, and fawned upon. Their carriages are not out of hearing, before my friends and admirers, like hungry harpies, pounce upon my character, manners and appearance, with most laudable zest and activity. Wait till you have been initiated into my coterie of fashionable friends! Why, the battle of Marengo was a farce, in

comparison with the havoc they can effect in the space of a morning, among the characters of their select visiting list! What a precious age of backbiting we city belles live in." She spoke with an air of intolerable scorn.

"As a prominent member of this circle, why do you not attempt to rectify this spreading evil? You might effect lasting good."

"I am no Hercules, to turn the Peneus of reform through the Augean realms of society," answered Cornelia, with an impatient gesture; and rising, she drew on her glove. Beulah looked up at her, and pitied the joyless, cynical nature, which gave an almost repulsively austere expression to the regular, faultless features.

Beulah, will you come on Saturday morning, and spend an hour or so with me?"

"No, I have a music lesson to give; but if you will be at home in the afternoon, I will come with pleasure."

"I shall expect you, then. You were drawing when I came in; are you fond of it?" As she spoke she took up a piece which was nearly completed.

"Yes, but you will find my sketches very crude."

"Who taught you to draw ?"

"I have had several teachers. All rather indifferent, however." "Where did you see a St. Cecilia? There is too much breadth of brow here," continued Cornelia, with a curious glance at the young teacher.

"Yes; I deviated from the original intentionally. I copied it from a collection of heads which Georgia Asbury brought from the North."

"I have a number of choice paintings, which I selected in Europe. Any that you may fancy are at your service for models." "Thank you. I shall be glad to avail myself of the privilege." "Good bye. You will come Saturday ?"

"Yes; if nothing occurs to prevent, I will come in the afternoon." Beulah pressed her offered hand, and saw her descend the steps with a feeling of pity, which she could not exactly analyze. Passing by the window, she glanced down, and paused to look at an elegant carriage standing before the door. The day was cold, but the top was thrown back, and on one of the cushions sat, or rather reclined, a richly dressed, and very beautiful girl. As Beulah leaned out to examine the lovely stranger more closely, Cornelia appeared. The driver opened the low door, and as Cornelia stepped in, the young lady, who was Miss Dupres, of course, ejaculated rather peevishly:

"You stayed an age."

"Drive down the Bay-road, Wilson," was Cornelia's reply, and as she folded her rich cloak about her, the carriage was whirled away. Beulah went back to the fire, warmed her fingers, and resumed her drawing; thinking that she would not willingly change places with the petted child of weatlh and luxury.

CHAPTER XX.

BEULAH VISITS CORNELIA-MISS DUPRES HAUGHTY MANNER— BEULAH RETURNS HOME-MEETS HER GUARDIAN-PAINFUL SCENE-CLARA NERVES HER HEART FOR THE FUTURE-HER TRUST IN GOD-BEULAH SCEPTICAL.

T was a dreary Saturday afternoon, but Beulah wrapped a warm shawl about her, and set out to pay the promised visit. The air was damp and raw, and leaden, marbled clouds hung low in the sky. Mr. Graham's house was situated in the fashionable part of the city, near Mr. Grayson's residence, and as Beulah passed the crouching lions, she quickened her steps, to escape the painful reminiscences which they recalled. In answer to her ring, the servant ushered her into the parlors furnished with almost oriental magnificence, and was retiring, when she gave her

name.

I have orders to show you up at
She has seen no visitors to-day.

“You are Miss Benton, then. once to Miss Cornelia's room. This way, miss, if you please." He led the way, up an easy, spiral flight of steps, to the door of a room, which he threw open. Cornelia was sitting in a large cushioned chair by the fire, with a papier-mâché writing-desk beside her, covered with letters. There was a bright fire in the grate, and the ruddy haze, together with the reflection from the crimson damask curtains, gave a dim, luxurious aspect to the chamber, which in every respect betokened the fastidious taste of a petted invalid. Clad in a dark silk robe-de-chambre, with her cheek pressed against the blue velvet lining of the chair, Cornelia's face wore a sickly, sallow hue, which was rendered more palpable by her black, glittering eyes and jetty hair. She eagerly held out her hand, and a smile of sincere pleasure parted the lips, which a paroxysm of pain seemed to have just compressed.

"It is such a gloomy day, I feared you would not come. Take off your bonnet and shawl."

I

"It is not so gloomy out as you imagine," said Beulah. "What? not, with dull clouds, and a stiff, raw, northeaster? looked out of the window a while since, and the bay looked just as I have seen the North Sea, grey and cold. Why don't you take off your bonnet ?"

"Because I can only sit with you a short time," answered Beulah, resisting the attempt made to take her shawl.

"Why, cannot you spend the evening ?" said Cornelia, frowning.

66

I promised not to remain more than an hour." "Promised whom?"

"Clara Sanders. She is sick; unable to leave her room, and is lonely when I am away."

"My case is analogous; so I will put myself on the charity list for once. I have not been down-stairs for two days."

"But you have everything to interest you, even here," returned Beulah, glancing around at the numerous paintings and engravings which were suspended on all sides, while ivory, marble, and bronze statuettes, were scattered in profusion about the room. Cornelia followed her glance, and asked, with a

joyless smile:

"Do you suppose those bits of stone and canvas satisfy me?" "Certainly. A thing of beauty should be a joy forever.' With all these, and your library, surely you are never lonely."

"Pshaw! they tire me immensely. Sometimes, the cramped positions, and unwinking eyes of that 'holy family,' there over the chimneypiece, make me perfectly nervous.'

"You must be morbidly sensitive at such times."

"Why? do you never feel restless and dissatisfied, without any adequate reason ?"

"No, never."

"And yet, you have few sources of pleasure," said Cornelia, in a musing tone, as her eyes wandered over her visitor's plain

attire.

"No! my sources of enjoyment are as varied and extended as the universe."

"I should like you to map them. Shut up all day with a parcel of rude stupid children, and released, only to be caged again in a small room in a second-rate boarding-house. Really, I should fancy they were limited, indeed."

"No, I enjoy my brisk walk to school, in the morning; the children are neither so dull, nor so bearish as you seem to imagine. I am attached to many of them, and do not feel the day to be very long. At three, I hurry home, get my dinner, practise, and draw, or sew, till the shadows begin to dim my eyes, then I walk until the lamps are lighted, find numberless things to interest me, even in a winter's walk, and go back to my room, refreshed and eager to get to my books. Once seated with them, what portion of the earth is there, that I may not visit, from the crystal Arctic temples of Odin and Thor, to the groves of Abyssinia? In this age of travel, and cheap books, I can sit in my room in the third story, and by my lamplight, see all, and immeasurably more, than you, who have been travelling for eighteen months. Wherever I go, I find sources of enjoyment; even the pictures in bookstores give me pleasure, and contribute food for thought; and when, as now, I am surrounded by all that wealth can collect, I admire, and enjoy the beauty, and elegance, as much as if I owned it all. So you see, that my enjoyments are as varied as the universe itself."

L

"Eureka!" murmured Cornelia, eyeing her companion curiously, "Eureka!" you shall have the tallest case in the British Museum, or Barnum's, just as your national antipathies may incline you."

"What impresses you as so singular in my mode of life?" asked Beulah, rather dryly.

"Your philosophic contentment, which I believe you are too candid to counterfeit. Your easy solution of that great human riddle, given the world, to find happiness. The Athenian and Alexandrian schools dwindle into nothingness. Commend me to your categories,' O, Queen of Philosophy." She withdrew her searching eyes, and fixed them moodily on the fire, twirling the tassel of her robe, as she mused.

"You are most egregiously mistaken, Cornelia, if you have been led to suppose, from what I said a moment since, that I am never troubled about anything. I merely referred to enjoyments derived from various sources, open alike to rich and poor. There are Marahs hidden in every path; no matter whether the draught is taken in jewelled goblets or unpolished gourds."

Sometimes, then, you are blued,' most dismally, like the balance of unphilosophic men and women, eh?"

66

Occasionally, my mind is very much perplexed and disturbed; not exactly 'blued' as you express it, but dimmed, clouded."

"What clouds it? will you tell me ?" said Cornelia, eagerly. "The struggle to see that, which I suppose it never was intended I should see."

"I don't understand you," said Cornelia, knitting her brows. "Nor would you, even were I to particularize."

"Perhaps I am not so very obtuse as you fancy."

"At any rate, I shall not enter into detail," answered Beulah, smiling quietly at the effect of her words.

"Do you ever weary of your books?" Cornelia leaned forward, and bent a long searching look on her guest's countenance as she spoke.

"Not of my books; but sometimes, nay, frequently, of the thoughts they excite."

"A distinction without a difference," said the invalid, coldly. "A true distinction nevertheless," maintained Beulah.

"Be good enough to explain it then."

"For instance, I read Carlyle for hours, without the slightest sensation of weariness. Midnight forces me to lay the book reluctantly aside, and then the myriad conjectures and inquiries which I am conscious of, as arising from those same pages, weary me beyond all degrees of endurance."

"And these conjectures cloud your mind ?" said Cornelia, with a half smile breaking over her face.