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young lady if she was fond of retirement and country life.

"Above all things! O, I do so delight in it," she answered, her beautiful eyes glistening with rapture, "that I think I could bear banishment for life to very many of the quiet and secluded spots one finds in England. (Here the major began to rub his hands in ecstasy.) I never liked the noise and bustle of town life, but always preferred a walk through a shady grove, or by the banks of a murmuring brook, to all the gayety of the parks and promenades. I could better enjoy such a stroll than a "showoff" at the levee of the Queen; and for balls and assemblies, and mazurkas and galopades, and all that sort of thing, can they compare with ripe strawberries plucked by one's own hand, and eaten with new cream in one's own summerhouse? No: I should prefer seclusion, and a narrower homage, being of opinion with Ovid,

'Vive sine invidia mollesque inglorios annos,
Exige et amicitias tibi junge pares.'"

Gentle reader, be so good as to look at the picture in the Athenæum, painted for this point of my story. See how faithfully and accurately the artist has depicted the surprise, horror, agony, of

the worthy soldier, at finding his newly-enshrined idol a blue-stocking. One hand is uplifted in astonishment; the other shades his eyes from the bright spectre of youth and beauty. He is endeavoring to leave the chair to which the soft vision has chained him. In the countenance of the lady, there is some surprise, and not a little chagrin, visible; and the under lip, the least in the world, pouting, shows pique; but the predominating expression is that of subdued laughter at his look and gestures.

In spite of the unhappy quotation from Ovid, Major Roche married the charming Harriett Lemmen, immediately on his return from Paris. He has quite forgotten his horror of learned ladies in the acquaintance he has made with one of the greatest sinners of the class. When any thing is said in his presence against blues, or when doubts are expressed of their making pleasant companions, my friend, bestowing a kiss on the little white hand or smooth forehead of the sweet creature at his side, exclaims, Vide et crede.

AMBITION.

VIRTUE alone can bless: 'tis Heaven's law

God's mighty will-man's universal doom: All this we know-a trite, familiar saw,

Rung in the ear from childhood to the tomb.

We know that life is short; we know its endFor all around doth whisper of the grave; The ocean drinks the river; forests bend, Giving to winter what the summer gave.

And still Ambition to some giddy height

Leads us away, and tempts us, and we kneel; Yet, ere we grasp these kingdoms of delight, Loud in the ear Death rings his hollow peal.

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