where she established herself in a small lodging in silks of better days! One by one had she parted the High Street. with her trinkets; and one morning after her soli"Her own maid, who had hitherto been inex-tary breakfast, she burst into tears, and after lookpressibly attached to her ‘dear lady,' soon grewing at me attentively for some time, hastily hid me tired of the very small establishment; and, when beneath her cloak. She walked with me slowly she discovered that if the door was ever answered to a silversmith's shop, with a deep blush exhibited she must answer it, and if the tea had any chance of being brought up she must bring it, she came one morning with a warning voice, and declared she could not live in any family where no footman was kept. 666 me to the man, and with a faltering voice declared that as I was rather of an old pattern, she might perhaps be tempted to exchange me for another. Others were brought forward, but in each there was some fault, and at last, with affected carelessness, but trembling in every limb, she said: Well, then, give me, just for the present, as I cannot decide to-day, give me the value of it in-in-money, and 1 Why, my Lady,' replied Maggs, 'I'm sure I feels for your Ladyship-but then I've no place to sit in; for I can't cohabit with the one maid, who “Oh, you wish to sell it, my lady?' said the is cook and all, you know my Lady:-and then, man, bluntly. She sank into a chair, made no reyou know, I'm in a delicate condition of health, ply, but held out her thin white hand. Scarcely and have never been used to dine upon cold re-feeling the money which the man put into it, cerfuses, and make out with bacon much too often; tainly unconscious of the amount, she tottered to and then, though your Ladyship pays me my her home. wages, you forgets, my Lady, that so being there's no house-keeper's room now, nor second table like, I must have my tea money, and my beer money, and my washing money, and The Countess was indeed poor, and being too proud to allow her poverty to be seen, at least where she could possibly conceal it, she was daily driven to paltry manœuvres and humiliating subterfuges. 64 "Thus I parted from my first poor mistress, and shortly afterwards, when persons of a very different stamp were taking a friendly cup of tea together, I heard from one of them that the Countess was dead. "Alas! how many, like her, struggle on against a torrent of distress and difficulty, and form plans, and look with hope to the future, and talk of brighter days! And the struggle continues, and the hope fades away, and youth and health depart, and they sink into the grave! Where are the relatives who might have cheered them, the friends who might have assisted them? Probably commenting on their demerits, and tracing their present sorrows to past misconduct. The absent and the unfortunate are sure to be in the wrong. Thus was my poor Countess blamed for past extravagance; and in truth it was easier and cheaper to point to her errors, than to cheer her old age and smooth the pillow of her death-bed. Being visited by all the leading families in the neighborhood, heavy was her heart when rich or titled acquaintances were received and ushered in by the all accomplished servant at all work, (for since the departure of Maggs, the noble widow had been compelled to content herself with one); but still she covered her vexation with a smile, and "I was now, like some other coroneted indivialways said, "You see I am quite unsettled, quite duals, out of place, and again to be bought. Though a bird of passage. I have brought no servants second-hand, I was certainly as good as new, and with me, and no carriage. I'm so unused to ma- I occupied a conspicuous station in the silvernage for myself!" And for months and for years smith's window. After a month of cold inactivity, was the poor bird of passage caged in the small I was bought by the young landlord of the Crown lodging, and tended by the one domestic; and still Inn, who judiciously selected me, because he saw it sung to the same tune, and talked of carriages that a crown was engraved upon me. He thereand powdered menials as if their absence was only fore added beneath the coronet the letters W. S.. temporary. Nevertheless she gave what she, poor being the initials of his own name, William Snell.' lady, was pleased to call her petites soirees; and II should add that he had recently married Miss was polished up, and some who were unaccus- Maggs, formerly own maid to my dear deceased tomed to be associated with Dowager Countesses, boasted much of being invited to these reunions. "But even those dim assemblies (I cannot call them entertainments,) rare and spare as they were, impoverished the already too poor lady, and she was seen walking through the town with stately step, in a gown more shabby, and a black silk bonnet browner than formerly. mistress. The engraver cut me to the very heart while tracing upon me the plebian W. S., and when I stood at breakfast before the innkeeper and his wife, my humiliation was complete. "The Crown' was a fourth-rate place of public resort, one degree above a public-house. It was thronged on market-days, and mercantile people who came in gigs filled it every evening with smoke and with clamor. "The landlord had excellent liquor, and very much liked to drink it himself; and even his bride, after pouring from me the strong black mixture which a suburban grocer sold as tea, was accustomed to qualify it with a little brandy.' A little brandy, like a little learning, may be said to be a 66 'dangerous thing,' particularly of a morning, for the little imperceptibly becomes more, and the young woman who gives a relish to her tea with a spoonful, will sooner or later learn to fill her glass. It is a bad thing when landlords take to drinking with their customers They are apt to be impartial, and to drink with all who come; therefore, for every glass bought and paid for, there is a pernicious and unprofitable accompanying glass drank by mine host to the peril of his own constitution, and the detriment of his own profits. William Snell's face began to grow red, and his temper to show symptoms of sympathatic inflammation. Mrs. Snell's tea also grew daily more spiritual, and the landlord and landlady were constantly at what is called high words,' which words, however, when put together, form very 'low language.' Children, too, accumulated, and the demand for small millinery increased. She, however, though fond of dress, was too idle to make it for herself, much less for her children, and dirty and wretched enough became the Crown and its inhabitants. As sure as rats quit a falling house, do customers desert a comfortless inn. Smaller and smaller grew the incomings of the Snells, and louder and louder their diurnal altercations. "One morning the fair hand of the hostess hurled me at the head of the host. I lay bruised in a state of insensibility, and recovered consciousness only to perceive that I was deposited in a pawnbroker's shop. "Overfine domestics are sure in the end to meet with poetical justice. Full of complainings when living in some wealthy family, and dining at a better table than can be commanded by many a well-born person, oh! that we could see them when married and settled!' I have actually known a footman in the family of a baronet give warning because ‘he had no apple-souce with his pork!' "I now became the property of an antiquated spinster, and a busy life did I lead. I was the nominal attraction which induced an extensive sisterhood to meet every evening. Tea was the inducement held out, but scandal was the real charm; and though I was loath to give a handle' to such proceedings, I was forced to submit. "I must confess I did not find myself in the most select circle of the town, therefore each lady of the party boiled with indignation against the giver of some entertainment from which she was excluded. Oh, the abuse that was lavished on everything and everybody!-the characters that were discussed, the motives that were imputed! The tea-maker was a brewer of mischief, and the tempers of her guests would have turned Twining's best to gall. You could not look at them without perceiving that the venom of their tongues had corroded the enamel of their teeth!" There was a pause. I ought to have mentioned that the spout of my tea-pot ended in the similitude of the beak of a bird; and whilst I lay back in my arm-chair gazing on it and listening to its reminiscences, it seemed to me that the beak moved. Suddenly I was disturbed by the opening and shutting of a door. A person entered the room, passed before me, and intercepted for a moment my view of the silvery orator. Ere that form departed, something was placed on the fire, and when I again looked towards my tea-pot steam was issuing from its lid. I tried to compose myself that I might again listen, but the charm was broken. I now heard the loud singing of my tea-kettle, but my tea-pot was taciturn! I passed a restless night, and awoke in the morning with a very bad headache. I now merely state the circumstance as it occurred, without being able in the least degree to account for it. By the bye, it surely couldn't have been the brandy and water?-Court Magazine. ORIGINAL. Lines To her who will understand them. FAIR Lady with the darksome tress, Of beauty such as thine. That neck of spotless white, Yes, lady, with the darksome tress, And flowers their sweets display, There's magic in thy smile, It stays the coming tear. I've thought of thee from home, I saw I worshipp'd thee. Before my dazzling sight, Fair lady, with the darksome tress, I've yielded to love's pow'r, Wilt tell me truly-plainly then, Hast thou e'er thought of me? J. E. V. FATAL BIRTH DAY FETE. TRANSLATED THE FRENCH. me. every perfection. It was the first season that the DURING my career of life, I have frequently seen my companions fall by my side, my brothers in arms, whose loss I have most deeply deplored; but, in recalling to my mind those ideas of glory, that hereditary fame, which so peculiarly endears the memories of heroes who have fallen in the field of honor, and, reflecting, that nothing was left for but an infirm old age, and an obscure grave, I have frequently been tempted to envy those whose names are immortalized by their very deaths. Every day takes from me some old friend, some companion, of an age equally advanced with my-deepest impression by the charms of her person, self; Iregret them, but without murmuring: in the and the proofs which she had given of the superiwords of Montagne, "their lamp of life had burnt ority of her talents, which her interesting modesty to the socket;" death is the immediate conse- set off with double splendor. Monsieur de Vilarquence of a protracted old age. But, when a young mont had been prevented from accompanying the girl, just entering the portals of life, for whom hea- ladies, whom he had, therefore, entrusted to my ven appears to have in store a long series of happy care: and, during the whole continuance of the years, on whom nature has lavished all her most ball, which encroached far into the morning, I had precious gifts, and whom birth and fortune have officiated as gentleman in waiting to the fair Rosurrounded with their most brilliant delusions-bertine; I held her fan and her handkerchief, when a being, such as this, is torn from the em- while she danced; I led her back to her place, and braces of her mother, the hopes of her family, and took particular care to cover her with her shawl, the expectations of love, there is in this cruel de-as soon as the country-dance was concluded. I cree of fate, a kind of subversion of the general was under the same charm which had enchanted How suddenly, and how laws of nature-an assemblage of contradictory every one around me. circumstances, ideas and expressions, at which dreadfully, was it to be dispelled! It was two the senses sicken and the heart breaks. Such is o'clock when the party broke up; Robertine had the event to which I have alluded in the title of danced in the last set; her mother wished that she this article, and of which, during this short digres- should sit down a little while, to rest herself—but, with a shawl, a wrapping cloak lined with fur, sion, I have not lost sight. and a well-closed carriage, what danger could possibly be apprehended? On our going down stairs, the coachman was not with his horses; and, while the servants went in search of him, we had to wait some minutes, in a freezing hall, (an inconvenience very general in Paris, and from which even her palaces are not exempt.) At last the carriage drove up-Madame de Vilarmont set me down at home-and the lovely Robertine, in bidding me good night, added, that she could not do without me, and that she retained me as escort to all the balls of the next season. Robertine de Vilarmont was the daughter of a brave naval officer, a companion in arms of the gallant De Suffreen, who, by twenty years of glorious toil, had acquired an undoubted right to enjoy, in the bosom of his family, an ample patrimonial estate, to which he has added little or nothing by his services. He still reckoned among his imperative duties, that of educating his son for the service of his country, and of bringing up his daughter to become the reward of some young soldier, who, by his name, his rank, and his merit, should show himself worthy of such recompense. I had known M. de Vilarmont in the East Indies. Much younger than me, his father had consigned him to my care, as to that of a mentor, and our relations of friendship have never since been interrupted. It is two years since I accompanied him to Rochefort, when he went thither to enter his son as a midshipman, on the quarter-deck of a vessel which he had himself commanded, and at whose masthead the grandfather of the young man had, thirty years before, hoisted the flag of a vice-admiral. This regular descent of glory was a good omen, and accordingly, our young Leon, as a reward for a gallant action, had already received the decoration of the brave. is If I am alive," answered I," but, next year a long while for an old man, like me, to look forward to." Could it be conceived, that for her it was still longer! On calling, the next day but one, at the house of Monsieur de Vilarmont, I found the whole family assembled in the chamber of Robertine, who was confined to her bed by a violent pain in her head; her eyes were sparkling, her skin scorching, and her breathing difficult. I know not what frightful presentiment seized me. The air of security which sat on the faces of the whole assembly-even on that of the mother, who was seated at the head of the bed, holding the hand of her daughter-would Mademoiselle de Vilarmont had nearly reached have surprised me, if I had not seen that it was her fifteenth year. Educated with the tenderest produced by their confidence in a young physician, care, under the eye of the most affectionate of mo- in a Titus wig, curled with the utmost care, who thers, she was already regarded as the model of assured them, (admiring himself in the mirror poet of the seasons, Saint Lambert, the green turf had been hallowed, to receive the remains of a charming being, whom heaven appeared to have shown to us for a few short moments, only to leave an eternal regret for her loss. while he spoke, and flirting, with the end of his] where, near the tomb where sleep the ashes of the finger, the remains of a pinch of snuff, which had fallen on the frill of his shirt,) that the quickness was entirely owing to a febrile movement, induced by the paroxysm of the evening before. I took my leave, feeling less confidence in the sounding words of the doctor, than in the prudence of the father, and the youth of the patient. After quitting this scene, business called me for a few days into the country. On my return home, my porter brought me the letters which had arrived for me during my absence: amongst these one was of larger dimensions than the others; I opened it hastily, and, inscribed on a grey satin paper, bordered with mournful vignettes representing the attributes of death, I read the words-" Attend the funeral of Robertine." I threw myself into a carriage, and, on arriving at the Hotel de Vilarmont, I found the fatal draperies of death already hung around. I traversed the deserted apartments; hastened to the closet of Monsieur de Vilarmont, which I found him pacing with lengthened strides. He saw me, and threw himself into my arms, without uttering a single word. The silent agony of this struggle between manly fortitude and overwhelming grief, repulsed all those established consolations of which indifference is always so prodigal. "Come," said he, after a few moments silence. "I have need of your assistance to force my wife to quit this house." What a frightful spectacle offered itself to my eyes in this unfortunate mother! Never have I seen grief under such an agonizing appearance. On her knees, at the door of her daughter's chamber, which force alone prevented her from entering. She wept not; her bloodshot eyes were dry, fixed, and vacant: " Robertine, my child!" were the only words which escaped her lips. I, myself, designedly, resounded this loved name in her ear-her tears began to flow again-her strength failed-she fainted away-and we took advantage of this cruel moment to carry her through the garden to the carriage, into which her husband accompanied her, in order to conduct her to the house of her father. I returned into the parlor, where all the friends of the family were assembled in gloomy silence, preparatory to the funeral ceremony. The open windows gave us a view of the great gate of the hotel, where was the coffin, covered with white silver-fringed drapery, and surrounded by twenty young girls, whose sobs and prayers were audible even to our ears. The master of the ceremonies now came to acquaint us that all was ready. The body had been placed on a car, draperied like the coffin, on which were mounted four young girls, who held the corners of the mortuary pall, and who banded to their companions the strings of silver with which the coffin was surrounded. The relations, in a manner buried under their cloaks of crape, followed on foot; and the numerous friends of the family, in mourning coaches, prolonged the procession, which was closed by the servants of the house, clothed in black. Our first stoppage was at the church of the Mathurins, where the last offices of religion were celebrated; after which we proceeded, in the same order, to the cemetery of Mont Martre, Robertine had no name to transmit to posterityher memory belongs exclusively to her disconsolate parents-and for that reason they have been content to engrave on the stone which conceals her for ever from their view, the few following lines of Malherbes: Born in a world where flowers of fairest hue Herself a rose-she lived, as roses 'do- WITH a heart light and careless I dance in the sun, When he slants o'er the wave, and the vintage is done No maiden so merry as I: I rise with the dawn, and I sing through the day The deed of the brave, who, in foray or fray, Reap'd the harvest of glory-I glow till my lay Seems to lift my rapt soul to the sky! With my dulcimer, viol, or light tamborine, And waken the echoes around ;- At the sweet modulations of sound. Ye gentles of Provence, come list to my lay; I've a dirge for the grave, a romance for the gay, Which their homage has frequently won! Renown'd in my own native valleys of song, Like the syrens of old I have charm'd the dull throng, And you will I charm, if you'll listen, ere longWell, what think you?—my ditty is done! Spring. SPRING-flowers, spring-birds, and spring-breezes, Fancies again are springing, ORIGINAL. Tea Table Chat. NUMBER III. A LONG Succession of parties, balls, the festivities attending a fashionable wedding, etc., prevented the fair friends from meeting, for some time. At length a day was appointed, and they promised to attend. They all assembled, except Louisa, and they were anxiously expecting her arrival, whilst the hissing urn gave "note of preparation," "melancholy and musical," that the beverage which was to unlock their ideas from the "storehouses of the brain," give pungency to wit and force to satire, was distilling. Before however it lost its delicate flavor by "drawing" too long, Louisa entered, gaily singing "I've been roaming, I've been roaming.' "Ah, that," answered Louisa, "remains a mystery unsolved-unelucidated-as profound as the cause of the separation of Byron and his ladyno one knows-some say one thing and some another-but the general opinion is, of course, to lay the blame on the lady-woman has to bear the odium of all domestic differences." "With justice, most generally," said Adelaide; " for woman's power is so great in domestic life, that she can soothe the rugged nature of man and produce harmony in the most discordant elements, if she only exercises discretion, can wield him to her purpose, and make him what she wishes." "It is very hard," said Cornelia, that woman, who is universally conceded to be the weakest being, should bear the odium of all man's folliesand he who ought naturally to be her protector, her support-who ought to strengthen her weakness and guide her in the right path, should lean to her for force to bear up against the temptations of the world-if he sinks under them she is to be "Open your budget then, forthwith," said Cornelia," and let us speedily tear character to tat-punished in the world's opinion; and if she falls, ters-where there is a slight crack, make it an odious rent-where there is one black spot, find out all is corruption." "Ah, behold," said Louisa, laughing, “what a solemn face Harriet has put on-she takes us seriously, and as she, though vowed to single blessedness, professes to abominate scandal, she thinks it necessary to look mighty grave." though the weaker of the two, she falls unpitied, unassisted-with censure heaped fourfold upon her head." 16 "It is a very short time ago," said Adelaide, since I attended the wedding festivities of Mr. and Mrs. O; every thing promised a happy marriage-both handsome, accomplished, and apparently amiable, of equal fortunes, equal families, and suitable ages. What could have caused this unhappy difference." "Indeed," said Harriet, "I know the goodness of your heart too well, Louisa, to fear any thing malicious from you-but I think we cannot be too "Some apparently slight defect," said Louisa, careful in avoiding a spirit of censure and fault-in the machinery of wedded life-one little finding. It is so easy to discover deficiencies in spoke of a little wheel wanting, has thrown the others, whilst our own errors are undetected-if whole into confusion. There has been a runaway we were to employ the same care and trouble in match, too." our own bosoms, we might perhaps eradicate many a loathsome weed and prune off many an unsightly excrescence." "Well, well," answered Louisa, "I leave all my faults and follies to the tender mercies of my dear five hundred friends, whilst I make free with theirs. Why do people commit such unheard of follies, if they do not wish to be ridiculed; and why do others deviate so widely from the laws of morality, if they are not to be censured. If we love excellence, we must be sensible to the want of it; and when we meet with its reverse, we can not countenance it." "We need not countenance it," said Harriet, "but we know not all the temptations, the trials, which have beset those who have fallen: we know not how we ourselves should have with 66 Who, who," cried they. The sentimental Miss T, and the dashing Mr. K. Splendid preparations were making, all the blonde in Broadway was bought upStewart's and Fountain's richest sattins and challys, gauze, etc., were purchased. T- and Swere overwhelmed with employment-the most nimble fingers of their journey ladies were busily plying their scissors and thimbles, when lo! the bride has absconded unadorned-the marriage was quietly performed by an obscure clergy man in the country, and the finery, all useless." "What was the cause of this proceeding?" asked Cornelia. 66 Ah, that is another mystery, which will take a wiser head than mine to solve," replied Louisa; "it is generally supposed, as the lady was young stood them—and by the errors we have commit- and romantic, that she wished to personate Lydia ted-the weaknesses we have fallen into,-we Languish, and as fate denied her an unrelenting should learn to judge leniently of our fellow-father or cruel guardian to oppose, she tried what dangerous roads and rivers obstructed by ice would do, to show the obstacles all-powerful love mortals." Very true, very true, my dear Harriet," said Louisa; “but if I do not unburden myself, I shall explode, evaporate, vanish into thin air. In the first place, Mr. and Mrs. O—, that pattern of married couples whose mutual affection was so apparent, have agreed to disagree-one house cannot contain them-in short, they have sepa rated." 68 Indeed!" cried they all-"what can be the reason?" |