thinking of her father's discussion the evening before, "confess, that the simplest and most unadorned nature may sometimes be as attractive as the most polished efforts of art."

"Quite papa!" cried Tremaine.

"No! not quite, for I am too weak for argument."

Tremaine wished within himself that the Doctor sometimes had been so too.

"What I mean is," continued Georgina, "that the magnificent saloon and gilded palace of you men of refinement, could not perhaps supply any thing so soothing to sense, as this cheap and simple scene."

"More like still!" answered Tremaine ; " I protest I shall be afraid of you."

"Are you then afraid of papa?"

"Oh no!—and yet that is—I am afraid I sometimes shock his prejudices too much."

“I assure you that fear is reciprocal."

"I wish we could oftener convince one another," said Tremaine.

"Well, but we both think you improved," observed Georgina; "confess, you are not half so listless as you were, and that you can even almost bear with ordinary scenes and ordinary people. An arbour of scarlet-beans, for example, instead of a magnificent conservatory."

"Agreed! in such company," answered Tremaine, with an air of gallantry, yet of sincerity, not at all displeasing to Georgina.

"That speech shall not let you off. No! I mean even if alone; if indeed," added she pausing, "to be with one's own mind is to be alone."

"You are then, after all, fond of being alone?" Till I grow tired of myself," replied Georgina, with simplicity.

"I should think that could not soon be."

"It all depends upon the humour one is in, you know. There are moments when I long to dance, or ride a race, if my father would ride one too ;— which he never will. There are others when I could sit still for hours, with almost no particular employment for my thoughts, and occupied solely in the soft soothing of a reverie. It is at these times that the simplest sights and sounds in nature seem the most pleasant."

"I'm afraid it is because you have never been introduced, or past a winter in town. I must refuse you for a judge till you have for months been twice a week regularly at the Opera," said Tremaine.

"That will not change me," rejoined Georgina, "though the confession may lower me in your esteem."

"Willingly."

66

Why then, much as I love music, I scarce know the sound that enlivens me more than the crowing of the cock we now hear; and I have seen my father pleased, in such moments as we were talking of, by listening without interruption to the mere rhythm of the dairy maid's churn."

"No doubt he thinks them as beautiful as the tones of Viotti, or the pipe of Tramezzani,” said Tremaine, ironically.

"Not so,” replied Georgina; " for the sounds are not to be compared, and, as mere sounds, the one far exceed the other. But my father says it is the associations that make them so pleasing;-they are all cheerful, and indicate the habitation and business of a well-ordered family."

"Why this again is papa in petticoats," cried Tremaine, apologizing at the same time for the liberty of the observation.

"I wish it were," said Miss Evelyn.

"Well! you are able advocates, I admit," added Tremaine;"but I would wager you are the only advocates that can be found for such mediocrity, or rather such monotony in happiness."

"As for mediocrity, I am persuaded no drawingroom could make me happier than at this moment" (Tremaine looked pleased, but Georgina was thinking more of Mary than of him); "and for monotony,

your favourite Madame de Staël gave me a passage the other day, which seems too just not to be decisive on the two sides of the question."

"Do you remember it ?" asked Tremaine.

"I think I do," said Georgina; “it is in her work "De l'Allemagne," and is this: La monotonie dans la retraite, tranquillise l'âme: La monotonie dans le grand monde, fatigue l'esprit.' Now I am dans la retraite,' and you in the grand monde ;' and hence, I dare say, all the difference between us."

6

"Would to Heaven," said Tremaine, admiringly, but with an involuntary sigh, "that were really all."

Georgina looked surprised,-but not quite comprehending him, went on: "do you know there is more than one passage in Madame de Staël that we thought applicable to you? for my father and I talk of you often."

Tremaine was more and more pleased, and found himself almost taking her hand; it is certain he gazed upon her with eyes that were not "lack lustre," and that knew at times well how to speak. It almost distressed her, and she was going to break up the conference.

"I wonder where my father can be all this time,” said she; "there must be some mistake; I must search for him."

Tremaine entreated, before she went, that she

would favour him with the passage in which he was so interested; and as his manner, though most impressive, was at the same time most respectful to woman, and never more so than at that moment, she found no difficulty in obliging him.

"The passage I particularly recollect," said Georgina, "is where she talks of the necessity for the solitary man's being also an active-minded man: 'L'Homme solitaire a besoin qu'une émotion intime lui tienne lieu du mouvement extérieur qui lui manque.' Now in town, I apprehend," added Georgina, “the Opera, or, more probably, the House of Commons, may be your mouvement extérieur;' but as I am neither a fine lady, nor a member, I am forced to content myself with an 'émotion intime,' and find it, where papa bids me look for it, in the simplicity of nature !"

"She is the loveliest-minded creature in the world," said Tremaine to himself, as he delivered her to her father, and took leave of them to return to Woodington.

END OF VOL. I.

LONDON:

PRINTED BY COX AND BAYLIS GREAT QUEEN STREST.