lings and windings, in which the female heart differs from that of man."

"Aye, I know them well; never can you know them as I know them !" said Aitham, blushing very crimson, then becoming as deeply pale ;—“ their power of passion, their energy of feeling, the burning enthusiasm which not even habit or education can quench, albeit they may smother it,-all these I have seen, and to them I can testify. Trust me, there is no love like the love of woman,-none that will dare so much,-none that will hope so fondly, even for the sun at midnight, even that happiness shall spring from despair." He paused for a moment, buried his face in his hands, sighed profoundly; then, by an effort raising his head, he displayed a countenance of indifference, almost of gaiety. “There is this beauteous Lady Blanche Evelyn,"

he continued," glowing with health and beauty, the pride of a noble father, the person in whom is to vest so ample a demesne, so exalted an ancestry, adored by all in whom one could judge she had any possible interest, and she has no happiness. This creature, who seems too bright to be moulded of our elements, is not happy!"

"It would rather move my wonder to see her all smiles, against whom a mother's heart is closed; who is fated to wound the maternal breast more deeply than all the struggles, which have formerly convulsed it, could wound it; and who feels, that the circumstances which separate her from that parent, involve her own eternal salvation! Can Can mirth, and the shout, and the revel, disperse thoughts like these, or disarm them of their sting?" said Lewen.

"Come, you reason well, considering

that you argue only on hypothesis," returned the laughing Page ;" it is well that you confessed you knew

little of the female heart; these sentiments were, in all openness, sufficient to proclaim your ignorance. Trust me, no tie of mere affinity has the power so to subdue woman, to make her play such various strains, to alternate her joyous and her doleful moods so rapidly, as those of Lady Blanche alternate. No, no, we must search beyond the estrangement of the Countess,-far beyond the dogmatizing and the fulminations of Father Valerius ; we must penetrate even into the innermost sanctuary of a woman's heart, and see what image is enshrined there.'

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"Still I see but that of a mother utterly estranged, the term of whose estrangement may perhaps be eternity," replied Lewen solemnly.

The Page bent forward, looking

up earnestly into Lewen's face with a glance that seemed to pierce to his very soul.

Lewen met that glance of mingled archness and mockery, with a steady calmness whose expression just touched on the verge of an inquiry.

Altham laid his hand on the shoulder of Lewen. Prefacing his remark with one of those laughs which seemed almost like the blithe carolling of infancy, he somewhat lowered his voice, leaning towards Lewen, and said with a keenness of tone that belied not his manner, "Is it love, Master Secretary, think you, is it love?"

Lewen's countenance changed too visibly to have escaped eyes infinitely less penetrating than those which were now bent on him. His cheek flushed crimson, then became paler than usual. His eyes flashed intolerable brightness, but it was the brilliance of agitation.

He trembled.

The accents of his voice were broken as he asked-" And who. is the object of that love?"

The glance of that Page was steadily fixed on Lewen, but it might have been questioned whether his vision was impressed by the object on which it appeared to be fixed, its gaze was so vacant. A single spot of hectic red glowed on either cheek, and the rose of his lips was deepened into a dry scarlet. There was no tremulous agitation of form: a statue-like stillness pervaded his whole frame, except in the minute breathings which seemed each the effort of convulsion. The eyes of himself and Lewen met,-they recognized each other; yet each was so'occupied by internal objects as not to discern the state of his companion. "Is it love? And who is the object of that love?" repeated Lewen. The Page uttered a wild laugh. "Let him who asketh