alighting from it, pursued her way on foot, strictly forbidding either of her two tall footmen to follow her; she had not, however, calculated on the length of the street, neither had she calculated on the sensation which would be pro in thinking on the motives which had procured her this reluctant attention from them, and anticipated with delight their disappointment and vexation when fully awakened to the horrors of the connection she was providing for them. Miss Garston now thought it high time that the denoue-duced in the locality by her blonde veil, pinkment of the tragi-comedy should take place; she spoke to Miss Glenallan on the subject, the latter acknowledged her affection for Lord Alfred. "I am, however," she said, "an imposter; I am not the individual that Lord Alfred believes me to be; oh! how can I expect happiness from an union with him if that union can only be gained by persevering in a blameable deception?" Miss Garston was not at all disconcerted by this speech; she considered the scruples of her protégée only words of course, plausibly enough arguing that if the young lady had felt any conscientious horror of the scheme, she would not so easily have been persuaded to become an actress in it. Miss Garston next addressed herself to Lord Alfred-" My dear young friend," she said, "has confessed to me her devoted attachment to you, but I fear that difficulties encompass you. Lord Glenallan is mercenary as well as ambitious; the latter feeling would be fully gratified by an alliance with a family distinguished as your own, but he has repeatedly told his daughter that he would never sanction her union except with one possessing equal wealth with herself. You must have recourse to a private marriage; I will venture to predict that you will very quickly obtain Lord Glenallan's forgiveness." Lord Alfred strongly objected to this plan; the pride which Mrs. Allison had justly enough mentioned as his decided characteristic was wounded, and he declared his resolution never to enter any family clandestinely. Miss Garston expostulated, soothed, and argued. Lord Alfred hesitated; the man who deliberates is as surely lost as the woman who does the same, and in a short time he gave his consent to a private mar-guilty of that nisdemeanour in pronunciation riage, provided Miss Garston would ensure that of Miss Glenallan. Miss Garston could not help smiling, when Lord Alfred left her, at the idea of the actual position of the family which he had so magnanimously declared "he could not endure to enter clandestinely." She had felt, some days ago, a strong inclination to recreate herself with the sight of the plebian parents of Hannah Wilkins; and she knew that she might indulge her wish without danger of discovery, since they were not aware of the existence of such a being as herself, merely believing that their daughter was staying on a protracted visit at the house of her aunt, Mrs. Philipson. Accordingly, having obtained from Mrs. Philipson an exact description of the street in which Mr. Wilkins pursued his vocation as a haberdasher, Miss Garston set out on a journey of discovery to that place; her stately coachman looked horrified at the neighbourhood to which she directed him, and her milk-white steeds seemed indignautly to paw the plebian ground which they were compelled to traverse! Miss Garston desired that her carriage might stop at the end of the narrow street where stood the paternal mansion of the future Lady Alfred Harleigh, and satin mantilla, swansdown boa, and white silk parasol. A group of children in the middle of the street stood to look at her in such amaze that they would inevitably have been run over by a gig, had not the young doctor who drove it voluntarily reined in his horse, that he might himself enjoy a good view of the splendid incognita; a porter who came behind her, carrying a deal box, actually stepped outside the pavement instead of uttering the usual "By your leave," which is followed by a heavy blow as quickly as the report of a gun follows the flash. Two men smoking on a bench before a public-house removed the pipes from their mouths that they might utter some audible, but not particularly refined commendations of her personal appearance; and a policeman quietly crossed the way, that he might give her, if necessary, that protection which the possessor of a showy person and a showy dress united, is very likely to require in a narrow street in Whitechapel. Miss Garston felt relieved when she entered the little dark shop, where old Wilkins was at that moment engaged in selling an ounce of brown packingthread to a woman who had a baby placed before her on the counter, and held the key of the housedoor in her hand. The ignoble customer was soon despatched, and Miss Garston, while asking for gloves, muslin, and ribbon in succession, contrived to make her quick eye thoroughly acquainted with the whole bearing and style of the establishment; she ascertained, to her great satisfaction, that old Wilkins was vulgar, mean, and servile; that he performed the whole duties of the shop in person, and that in every speech he uttered he was which Mrs. Ramsbottom denominates "exasperating the H!" Miss Garston also cast her eye into the parlour behind the shop, the door of which was open, and beheld a sight which gave her intense gratification; an atrociously fat woman in a red linen gown was industriously working a lace collar, while a dingy, under-sized servant girl was laying the cloth for dinner on a small round table. Miss Garston was not near enough to detect the defects of the table-cloth, but she had the pleasure of ascertaining the presence of a tin pepper-castor, and a pewter pot! With what complacency did she recall the intelligent mind and mauly address of her own father, the slender figure and "silk attire" of her mother, and the town and country house, handsome carriage, and establishment of clever and skilful servants which had always been hers since the first period of her recollection. "Lord Alfred," she indignantly soliloquised, "has spoken with contempt of my family and my early habits, perhaps he may find those of Hannah Wilkins rather inferior to them." She dropped her purchases into her embroidered satin reticule, paid the price of them, two sovereigns, which was received with more delight by old Wilkins than a draft of two hundred pounds would have elicited in Regent Street, and then pursued her way down the street, followed by the eyes of mixed crowd of admirers, to which were added those of old Wilkins, who stood at the door with his mouth wide open, and a half terror-struck, half triumphant expression of countenance, such as a young merchant in the Arabian Night's Entertainments might be supposed to wear, when a veiled beauty from the seraglio of the Sultan has come incog to the Bazaar, to make a selection from his choicest silver stuffs, leaving behind her a purse of gold pieces in part of payment. Miss Garston desired her coachman to drive back to a civilized locality; she called on two ladies of title, visited the Diorama, a conservatory of rare plants, and an exhibition of fine pictures, but nothing did she behold that inspired her with such delight as the sight of the future father and motherin-law of the fastidious and exclusive Lord Alfred Harleigh. Lord Alfred had requested a private interview with Miss Glenallan: he was shown into the boudoir which Miss Garston had allotted to her during her visit; he spoke of love, he spoke of a private marriage. Miss Glenallan wept bitterly. Lord Alfred renewed his protestations; she was silent. Only tell me," he warmly exclaimed, "that you object to my attentions, and you shall no longer be oppressed by them." "These tears are not tears of aversion," said Miss Glenallan, withdrawing her handkerchief. "Then," replied Lord Alfred, "they flow from fear of your father's displeasure; oh! do not doubt that if he values your happiness, he will soon learn to esteem one who will make it the study of his life to promote it." "Such is not the cause of my grief," said Miss Glenallan; "Lord Alfred, you behold an imposter in me; I am not what I seem to be, I am not the daughter of Lord Glenallan." Lord Alfred looked on her with wondering incredulity. "Impossible," he said, "Miss Garston has known you long; she repeatedly mentioned you to me before I saw you; surely you could not impose on one who was familiar with Miss Glen allan from her childhood." "No," replied Miss Glenallan, "the imposition has been originated by herself; I was the party to it, and you were intended to be the victim. Miss Garston was wounded and hurt by some satirical observations on her family which you made without being aware that she was within hearing; she imagined that her vengeance might be best wreaked on you by betraying you into a secret marriage with a girl of low origin, who might be introduced to you as a person of rank and fortune. I fell in her way; she was pleased with my appearance; she suggested her scheme to me, and I had not strength to resist the temptation." A pause ensued. "Do you command me to leave you?" said Lord Alfred. "Can you need any command to do so?" asked Miss Glenallan, in astonishment; "do you not detest me for my deception, and despise mé for my low birth?" "Your deception was culpable," replied Lord Alfred, "but it is evident that you sincerely and deeply repent it, and your penitence has been evinced by your voluntary disclosure of circum stances which I should otherwise never have known until united to you. In respect to your birth, I might once have thought it an objection, but since I have known what it is to love I have ceased to be proud; your elegance of mind and person must ennoble all connected with you; they may receive honour from you, but under no circumstances could they give it to you. I cannot be happy without you; I renew my entreaties to you, that you will become mine; say but one word in reply, I ask no tedious recapitulation of the past, no painful allusion to it-a single monosyllable of consent will suffice for me." "Then," said Miss Glenallan, a bright beam of sunshine sparkling through her tears, "I cannot be so unkind as to withhold it; but it will be necessary that I should make many allusions to the past, although I hope and believe they will not be of a painful nature. Have you patience to hear a long story?" Lord Alfred promised attention, and his interview with Miss Glenallan was extended to a duration of two hours; at the end of that time he quitted her presence, looking as joyful and triumphant as if he were engaged to be married to a princess of the blood-royal, and Miss Glenallan proceeded to the boudoir of her patroness. "I have accepted the hand of Lord Alfred Harleigh," said she, with a brilliant smile of happiness; "no particulars respecting the marriage have yet been arranged, but he has gone to acquaint his family with his engagement to me, and tells me that he is Miss Garston told her she was rejoiced that all sure they will be delighted at the intelligence." was so satisfactorily settled, and inwardly ejacu givings must have been all feigned; no doubt she lated, "Artful hypocrite, her conscientious misthink she will enjoy no enviable lot as the despised, is delighted at the success of her deception, but I insulted wife of a needy nobleman." The next morning Lord Alfred drove up to the door in his curricle, and preferred a petition that Miss Glenallan might accompany him home in it, as his mother and sisters were most anxious to welcome her. She agreed to his request, and in about an hour a note from her was delivered to Miss Garston, saying that she should feel obliged to her if, in the course of her morning drive, she would call on the Marchioness of Delfield, as there was a reason that made all the family desirous of her presence. Miss Garston gaily showed the note to Mrs. Allison. "So," she exclaimed, "my triumph has begun; these haughty dames are anxious to obtain the assistance of one on whom they once looked down with disdain, to give their son and brother clandestine possession of the hand of an high-born heiress; well, they shall be gratified, a special licence shall be procured, and at the earliest period they suggest, shall the ceremony be performed in my own drawing-room, and I will fill the station of bridesmaid to Hannah Wilkins. After this kindness on my part, the bridegroom's | foe, who employed equal pains to prejudice them mother and sisters can scarcely refuse to accom- against me. When I came of age, I removed pany me on a short excursion, and I will have the from the house of my uncle, which had long been pleasure of introducing them to their new rela- unpleasant to me, and left Italy in company with tions in Whitechapel." a family of friends to whom I had been for some "My dear Miss Garston," exclaimed the panic-years strongly attached. I resided with them for stricken Mrs. Allison, "how can you speak so terribly? the whole town will be talking of your vindictive disposition, the newspapers will get hold of the story." " "Of course they will," replied Miss Garston, "and I will take care that every caricaturist and lampoon-writer in London shall partake of their enlightenment." a twelvemonth in Derbyshire, and during that time never attempted to renew my acquaintance with my cousins, although deeply desirous of doing so. At length I visited London with my friends; I heard, a few days after my arrival, that the faithful and worthy housekeeper who had lived in my father's family till the time of his death, had attained much celebrity as a fashionable florist. "What a shocking thing it is," soliloquized the I was anxious to see and converse with Mrs. dame de compagnie, as she tied on her bonnet, Philipson, and not finding her at home when I "that people should be so violent; it is high time called, I sat down to amuse myself at the piano to get out of her house, and I am glad to think that till she returned. She received my visit with I have arranged for a pleasant new situation. low-much delight; and after we had conversed for a ever, I may as well accompany her now to Lady time, she showed me a pencilled note which had Delfield's, of course the denouement of this sad been left for her by Miss Garston, and smilingly business will not take place before the marriage."observed that a high honour had been conferred Mrs. Allison, however, was destined to find herself mistaken in her calculation. on her that morning, in having been supposed to possess a niece of my personal appearance. It When the ladies entered the drawing-room at appeared that her niece, Hannah Wilkins, was in the Marquis of Delfield's, the company assem- the frequent habit of coming to her house and bled there were all grouped as if for a tableau. practising on the piano, and that she had been Lady Delfield sat on a sofa, her arm encircling there two hours ago; but as her exit and my the waist of Miss Glenallan; Lord Alfred, on an entrance were both made by the private door, it is ottoman at their feet, was regarding them with not surprising that the young woman in the shop, heartfelt delight; the Ladies Ilarriet and Esther hearing the sound of the piano, and probably not were placed at a little distance with netting in very critically scanning the style of the performtheir hands, which they were not employed upon, ance, should conclude that Miss Wilkins was still and the Marquis sat at a table with an open seated at the instrument. When I saw the note book before him, which he was not reading. in which Miss Garston expressed a wish to see Miss Garston was very coldly received, in fact Mrs. Philipson's niece the next day with her aunt, Miss Glenallan was the only person who ad- I could not help feeling a great desire to accept dressed her. "I have deemed it my duty, Miss the invitation; report had informed me that my Garston," said she, "to make a full and free cousin, Lord Alfred Harleigh, was paying attenconfession to this honourable family of the decep- tion to the lady in question, and I was anxious to be tion I have practised on them." Miss Garston a personal judge of her attractions. Imagine my started with amazement: had her young friend surprise when, instead of being requested, as I been of Scottish origin, she would have concluded had surmised, to sing a ballad or bravura, I was that she had "cast the glamour" over the honour- entreated to assume the character of the Honourable family with whom she sat so familiarly able Miss Glenallan, for the purpose of entrapdomesticated. Was it to be accounted for by any-ping Lord Alfred into a marriage. I do not think thing short of a spell of enchantment, that the haughty Marchioness of Delfield, after listening to a full and free confession" of the scheme to ensnare her son, should encircle with her aristocratic arm the ignoble waist of the daughter of a Whitechapel haberdasher? Miss Glenallan continued "All that now remains to ine, Miss Garston, is to make a confession to you: I am not, as you are well aware, the Honourable Miss Glenallan, but I have something to impart which will astonish you-I am not Hannah Wilkins!" "Who, then, are you?" gasped the horror-struck heiress, feeling as if herself and all surrounding her were turning into marble statues. 66 "You are well acquainted," said the fair stranger, "with the name of Adela Sefton, and with her unfortunate estrangement from the society of her beloved relations. I was induced to cease my correspondence with my cousins, from listening to malicious representations concerning them, which I afterwards found were circulated by a I did right in acceding to this proposition; my You have which, sooner or later, are sure to recoil to'plague the inventor.' Lady Adela Sefton ceased speaking, and the Marquis, who had been for sometime revolving a sententious lecture to Miss Garston on the evils of revenge and the advantages of repentance, was on the point of opening his lips to deliver it, when he was prevented by Miss Garston's adoption of the usual refuge of passionate and mortified ladies, a violent fit of hysterics. The usual means were employed for her restoration; Mrs. Allison then suggested that home would be the best place for her, and she was assisted into the splendid carriage, the luxuriantly easy springs of which seemed on that occasion to resemble the machinery of the rack to her. Nor did she derive much consolation from the kind offices of her dame de compagnie; as soon as she arrived at home, Mrs. Allison told her that, foreseeing the very unpleasant position in which her late plot would place herself and all connected with her, she had accepted the situation of companion to a dowager of quality, and intended to remove to her new residence that very evening. Thus "left and abandoned of her velvet friends," Miss Garston was consigned entirely to the companionship of her own thoughts-melancholy and unsatisfactory associates. She removed into the country, and secluded herself from all society; but she was anxious, like Cowper, to peep at the world "through the loop-holes of retreat" by means of the newspapers, and they teemed with the story of her malice and her mortification. In fact it was perfectly impossible that the affair should be kept a secret, so many people had been introduced to Lady Adela Sefton as Miss Glenallan, that it was quite necessary they should receive an explanation of the mystery of her "alias." Besides, the dowager with whom Mrs. Allison resided, had a great taste for scandal, and the dame de compagnie enjoyed an unwonted popularity in relating to successive coteries of titled gossips every particular of the faults, follics, and artifices of her late patroness. I wish I could say that Miss Garston evinced any signs of salutary penitence for her conduct, but I fear that she lamented the failure of her scheme more than the formation of it; she is, however, as disappointed and miserable as the most rigid distributor of poetical or prosaic justice could wish her to be, and she affords a melancholy proof of the inutility of youth, beauty, and wealth to confer happiness, when the heart is haunted by that worst and most tormenting of feelings-the desire of revenge on our fellow-creatures for the fancied, or even real injuries that we have received at their hands. STAR GAZING. BY MISS LORD. Stars! bright stars! your glittering rays, The grave magician's task is o'er- In your bright climes? From heaven's zone Is earth a fullen star alone? What are these longings of the mind And that which mystery here hath seal'd, Oh, yes! just like the arch that beams O'er April skies its transient gleams, These soarings are a token sure That mind shall more than time endure; That countless, rast eternity, Shall be its only boundary! Reading. SONNET. Go, seek the midnight feast, the revel gay— Go, sun thyself in splendour's glittering ray Mix in the maze where Pleasure weaves her dance, REMINISCENCES OF THE FIRST BY ELIZABETH YOUATT. We love the past, for still CALDER CAMPBELL. he was consistent enough to act up to, and was never weary of repeating. In summer he was awake with the lark, and even in winter the bright light in his quiet study cheered the lonely way of many a poor labourer going to his daily toil, with the consciousness that his minister, too, was up and doing. Those morning hours, how much he used to value them, and what a world of business he got through before the rest of us were out of our beds! but woe to any one who ventured to disturb him, or break in upon that period set apart in its quiet freshness for study and meditation. This, however, rarely occurred, the majority of his family being far too fond of their own rest to think of interfering with his studies. It happened, however, one bright morning, that Mr. Mordant's pupil, Frank Graham, was suddenly aroused out of a sweet dream, of which he could remember nothing more than that it was all about May Mordant, by a summons to attend the in his study; where Frank made his appearance a few moments after, bewildered and half asleep with so unusual an exertion. The old man was so deeply engrossed by his books as not to notice his entrance, or even the very significant cough with which he in vain endeavoured to make it manifest, until aroused at length by the voice of his impatient pupil. April has come again-that month so exquisitely described by Leigh Hunt, "with its clear crystal mornings, noons of blue sky and white clouds, and nights in which the growing moon seems to lie looking at the stars, like a young shepherdess at her flock!" April, all smiles and tears, resembling that happy season of youth of which it has always seemed to us to be the type." governor," as they used to call him, immediately Years ago how merrily we bounded forth to seek for primroses and cowslips, amid our favourite haunts, with the loved companions of childhood! How joyous and light-hearted we were then; how ready to laugh-to enjoy-or to weep in very sympathy, for we had but few cares of our own! But now all is changed, and we do but dream of the flowers we once so loved to gather. It may be that our brows ache, and our cheeks pale for the fresh breath of the early spring-time, shut out by the close atmosphere of city walls; but there is still the same hope, and joy, and love in our hearts, and the same blue sky above that smiled upon our childish pastimes. Memory, with her quiet eyes, sits brooding over the sweet past, while Imagination folds up her restless wings, and yields the pen, whose rapid movements she so loves to aid, entirely to her guidance; while by-gone times seem but as yesterday. Our readers may easily find out for themselves the origin of All Fools' Day (the first of April), and we merely purpose to relate a few of the incidents connected with it, which have either happened among ourselves, or been told us by those on whose veracity we could implicitly rely-simple and everyday events, which find a ready echo in many a young and careless heart; and will, we hope, elicit from others those truthful records of their own experience which are so delightful to sit and listen to from loved lips. Who cannot remember some old ghost story, told around the blazing fire on a winter's night, and leading in its turn to at least a dozen others, until one has been afraid to rise up at last and go to bed? “Ah, that reminds me of an anecdote," or, "A similar occurrence happened once to a friend of mine," continually breaking forth from one or the other, and prolonging the theme until it threatens to prove exhaustless. Thus would we have it with our April reminiscences, while one soothing tear, or glad peal of joyous laughter, would more than repay us for the pleasant trouble of transcribing them. "If ever you expect to achieve fame, or, in fact, fo be great in anything, rise early." Such was the tavourite maxim of the good Mr. Mordant, which "Well!" said Mr. Mordant, turning sharply round, and eyeing the intruder with no friendly glance. "What brings you here at this hour?" "I understood, sir, that you wanted me," replied his pupil. "Pshaw! You have been dreaming, Mr. Graham, and had better go and have your sleep out, only don't disturb me again." Was it fancy, or did Frank really hear a burst of suppressed laughter as he closed the study door somewhat hastily, and thinking it as well to have a walk so bright a morning, as he was up, passed on towards the shrubbery? It might have been, for a few moments afterwards, May Mordant's merry face greeted him like an early sunbeam, banishing in a moment every cloud. At first, as they walked on together, one might have heard much noisy mirth; doubtless she was laughing at him for being up so early, and prophesying that something would be sure to happen in consequence before the day was out. And then, on a sudden, there was silence between them-a strange silence, far more eloquent than words; while the bright eyes of the maiden veiled themselves in their deep fringe, and were so earnestly fixed on the ground that one might have imagined her looking for something, instead of its being highly problematical whether she ever saw it, or was conscious of the "felicity" as Miller somewhere calls it, "of putting one's foot upon nine daisies, a sure test that spring is come.' What could he have been saying to make the way seem so short-the time pass so quickly? They found, on their return, Mr. Mordant waiting breakfast for them; his good humour completely restored after the morning's interruption; for, to speak the truth, it was a thing that seldom departed from him for long together; and |