gold thread must be taken and carefully when they meet, with a needle and the carried all round the little clusters of maize-coloured silk, and, without break. beads, and on from one cluster to another, covering the stitches round the edge. The beads in our pattern are very small, and of a bright turquoise colour;

ing off, sewing the ring on to the top of the watch, having before taken care that the join of the ribbon which forms the edge shall come in the same place. We

THE WATCH PINCUSHION.

can assure our young lady readers that this is one of the prettiest pincushions ever invented.

but if there should be any difficulty in procuring them of the same size, and some a little larger are taken instead, then it will be better to use only five, for "MARY" IN SATIN STITCH. - This fear of spoiling the delicacy of the effect. pretty name is to be worked in satin It now only remains to take a wire stitch, with very fine cotton. It is quite button the size of the ring of the watch an ornament used as a handkerchief

MARY

given in our illustration, and having cut out the thread centre, wind the wire ring round and round with the gold thread as regularly as possible, fastening the ends,

VOL. III.-NEW SERIES.

corner. No. 80 of Messrs. Walter Evans and Co.'s Perfectionné Cotton will be found the proper quality for the embroidery of these extremely elegant letters.

GUIDO 'FIRTH'S FLIRTATIONS.

CHAPTER I. "HARRY, you presume upon your privilege as a friend."

The speaker, a young man of some nineteen or twenty years, pushed his chair back so violently that it fell to the ground, and he rising paced backwards and forwards on the carpetted space the narrow limits of the little room inclosed.

"I am sorry, Guy, that you should think so, when my aim all along has been simply your own good, and the welfare of those whose happiness is bound up in your own."

"But there are some things one cannot bear to hear, though they bear the selfish motive, one would think we might become more easily reconciled to than any thing else that plea for restraint, one's own good."

The haughty lip relaxed, and the flashing eye cooled, as he paused before the table at which his companion sat with books before him, with which however his fingers played idly.

many congenial associates that composed the circles of students in this quiet, out of the way, little town; but so it was. They were room mates, and inseparable companions in many pursuits though, s may be supposed with natures so widely different, there must be occupations which the other could not enter into.

Guido's disposition was pleasure-loving. He was not averse to study, and pos sessed good abilities; but he lacked the earnest devotedness of Harry. Indeed, the only and petted child of wealthy parents, he possessed not the governing aim that made Harry's labour so great and his life so sincere; he dallied too much with the allurements that surrounded him, and suffered himself to be led into neglect of duty that entailed many difficulties.

It was the frittering away of time, that had been given him for the acquirement of studies, that were hereafter to be needful to him in his foreign home, that Harry had taxed him with now, and provoked that remark with which my story opened.

"Guy," continued Harry, "you must admit that there is truth in my remarks. Our morning study hours are nearly past. I have mastered my tasks for the day. Yours have yet to be begun; and we are engaged to a quadrille party, at Mrs. Rivers's, to-night."

"By Jove so we are," responded Guy, with a prolonged whistle.

A faint smile played over Harry's full, red lips, as he took up some torn and blotted sheets of violet tinted paper that environed his books on all sides.

It was a fine face, that of the youth addressed, by the younger of the two, as Harry-dark, and stern, and resolute. As to features, not handsome; but possessing a quiet strength in its simple goodness of expression. On the broad, white brow lay the mark, that he who runs may read, of a pure and lofty soul, fighting with the daily trials and temptations of life-fighting but to conquer. For the rest, Harry Dorrel was short in stature, reserved, and shy in disposition, shrinking from the notice his talents were continually attracting. Possessing none of the brilliant qualities that made "But the topography of a billet dour his companion so popular, he was, never- has been the extent of your morning's theless, not less known and beloved in studies. Were you successful, Guy!" the circle in which he moved, for the A bright crimson flush spread itself charity that was ever seeking to benefit over Guido's handsome face; but the another, and the unselfishness that was comic archness of Harry's was not to be the fearless pilot of his intercourse with withstood, and he burst out laughing— his fellow-students and friends. Harry, you are a meddlesome dog. It was singular that Guido Firth-Who would have thought your eyes had handsome, gay, and gallant-should have been wandering so much from the calen sought on this quiet, studious Hlations before you as to perceive what I and den him as his friend, from the was doing?"

I I

66

Harry's smile warned Guy, more plainly than words could have done, not to trust to his blindness where any one he loved was concerned.

Harry tossed the falling dark hair from his gleaming brow as he spoke, expanding his broad chest with the long breath of excitement he drew in, and the full glory of his manhood ringing in his musical tones.

"Ah, Guy, you are a sad flirt! This was intended for Miss Rosie-was it not? And there is little Elsie Rivers in a perfect "Oh, Guy! brother! friend! shake off flutter of anticipation over the conquest the unworthier: be your nobler self. she intends to complete to-night. My Give up this flirting-useless, heartless, vanity will not allow me to say that I selfish as it is. If you must have bright have but a small chance of making im- eyes to shine upon your path-if you feel pressions upon the fair sex, yet I have no that you cannot labour unless a gentle specimens of their handiwork to glory in, voice bids you God speed--choose one and remind me of their delicate beauty, from the many, the purest, and best. as you have. I have no silken tassel Live, labour, and strive for her approval. pendant, from a gaily embroidered velvet I can understand a downright honest love cap, to dangle in my eyes, and remind the brightest jewel in manhood's crown; me of its pretty giver, and abstract my but not this devotion to the many-a thoughts from my books,-nor are my fancy that varies with overy breeze. Now feet encased in variegated wool work; fired by the magnetic glance of a brubut I have yet to find that this helps you nette,-then softened by the melting on in the great labour of life: for, oh light of an azure eye. I want to show Guy! dear friend! life is no bauble to be you that while a true and holy love may trifled, toyed away, but a great and awful be your greatest spur to the conquest of reality, upon the use of which depends all that is good and noble, this trifling our weal or woe for eternity." and flirting with every girl you see will increase the vacillation of your purposes, and unfit you for the duties that await you here and in your after life."

Guido Firth had continued his walk, up and down the room, while Harry spoke. Once he had stopped, opposite the glass over the mantel, when Harry alluded to the handsome smoking cap he wore, to observe the effect of its gold and green embroidery on his bright features and closely-curling golden-brown hair. As his blue eyes sparkled with conscious vanity, Guy was beautiful as a young Adonis. As Harry concluded, Guy was stationary by his side, his hand resting upon his friend's shoulder, and tears quivering on his long eye lashes. "Harry, I have not deserved such a friend as you are. Excuse my shortcoming, I cannot help it, though I know my life to be nearly all frivolity, with no one pursuit perseveringly followed. It is, it must be, my nature."

"No, Guy, you wrong yourself. You have a strong and resolute will when you choose to exert it, you have a mind capable of the noblest efforts; but, shall I say it you have a vanity so great that you are continually and foolishly led by it to fritter away the time, that should be used in great and glorious labour, in the grand struggle of life."

"Harry," Guy exclaimed, clasping his friend's hand warmly, "if I ever become worthy of the dear parents who have sought to make their careless son good as well as successful, to you they will owe it. I will forego the commencement of the party to-night, and mind you, the first quadrille promised me by that lovely little Nellie Seymour, to make up for the lost time this morning. A good excuse will put all right with our hostess and Elsie."

It was nine o'clock when Guido Firth and Harry Dorrel entered the house of Mrs. Rivers. It needed no very acute observer to note the many bright eyes that gleamed brighter still when Guido made his appearance, nor the soft flush that mantled in the smooth young cheeks.

Elsie Rivers, the fair young daughter of the house, was the great attraction of the evening; fair as a poet's vision, lovely as the dawn of a summer's morning, with a bashful consciousness of her beauty as the knowledge dawned sweetly upon her through the soft, earnest glance of Guy's eyes. Her lithe figure was draped in

clouds of gossamer white, through which and lost the portrait of the loveliest girl in Christendom, all through my confounded indolence; and I lay down in my clothes to save time, too, by all that's glorious!"

a snowy silk gleamed like snow-flakes through a veiling pale of moonlight; her hair rippled in shining curls from her pure young brow, falling long behind, gleaming with every shade of gold and brown as the shining waves caught the lamplight; there were blush-roses on her bosom and in her lovely hair, and as soft a bloom upon her cheeks, as Guido claimed her little hand for a promised dance, and her violet eyes fell beneath the glance of his.

Guido's attentions were not vacillating that night, for no fairer than Elsie was present, and he thought he was really following Harry's advice in that he devoted himself so entirely to her.

"Call me at six to-morrow morning, old fellow," Guy exclaimed when the friends had returned to their lodgings. "I'm fairly in for it at last-chosen my divinity, and prostrated myself at her shrine; in fact, acted entirely according to your advice. She is leaving early tomorrow, going to visit a relation in the north, and I am to call for her portrait," and Guy divested himself only of his dress-coat and tie ere he threw himself down upon the bed for a few hours' sleep, to be in readiness. "Be sure you remember, Harry," were his last words ere sleep claimed them both.

No amount of fatigue made Harry Dorrel forget his duty; and though he knew his master was lenient when, as it sometimes happened, a dance made late hours on the preceding evening, he arose at his usual hour, and calling Guy according to promise, started off for the works.

"Never mind, Guy. No use crying over spilt milk."

"A Job's comforter you are, certainly. What do you think the young lady her self will imagine is the cause of my nonappearance? A pretty opinion, indeed, she'll form of me."

"She will doubtless have departed," said Harry, with comfic gravity, "and taken with her all the light and beauty of N. Where shall you turn for com. pensation and consolation?-east, west, north, or south?"

Guido turned round half vexed, half laughing, and aiming at Harry with the brush he had in his hand, the latter thought it expedient to make his escape to the parlour, where breakfast was laid.

Guido's conscience-pricks soon vanished; for, before many days were over, Elsie's moonlight loveliness was forgotten in the charms of a certain golden-haired little witch, called Katie Somers.

Katie was a visitor at the house of Mr. Freestone, the architect, with whom many of Harry's and Guy's fellow-students dwelt, so that the latter was constantly thrown into her society during the festi vities that were held in her honour. A gay, mischievous little sprite, was Katie, and nothing loath to accept the handsome and accomplished Guido Firth as her escort and beau on all occasions. She was the petted and best-loved niece of Mr. Freestone, who had adopted It was not yet six, and Guy, sleepily her brother Mark, as Katie had been glancing at the clock, turned over for claimed by an aunt, for they were or simply five winks more; but during the phans. Katie's visits were of rare and reign of drowsiness his feelings had be- memorable occurrence, as her aunt's home come much less ardent, and the vision of was in the extreme south of our sea-girt Elsie faded away into an indistinct dream. isle. As to personal attractions, she was Seven o'clock struck-half-past and the veriest little witch that ever condeHarry, returning to breakfast, awakened scended to inhabit mortal mould; from Guy, who started up hastily and glanced the soft golden-ringed curls that decked round with such comic bewilderment that her lovely head, to the dainty tips of her Harry threw back his head, and his fairy feet, she was perfectly enchanting. musical, mirth-inspiring laugh rang She danced, laughed, played, sang, and through the room. conversed with an artless grace that rode triumphantly over all Guy's good resolu tions; and Harry grieved more than ever

"By jove! Harry, it is no laughing matter. There-I have been and gone

over his shortcomings, but silently now, heated with a prolonged and spirited for he saw that remonstrances were use- dance, Guy drew Katie into the conservaless. Katie might have quoted truth-tory and seated her beneath a cool and fully," Veni, vidi, vici," for she seemed sheltering accacia. It so happened then to turn the hearts and brains of all, from and there, Guy scarcely knew how, that the biggest to the least of her uncle's Katie's fairly-like beauty completely swept pupils; even Harry-steady, resolute, away every idea that had hitherto resystematic Harry-saw visions of golden strained him in his flirtations, and he ringlets dancing athwart his books, and told her plainly and simply of his love when he shut his eyes to repel the tan- and admiration. Guy had never put talising idea, sweet blue eyes peeped into these thoughts into words for any young his own with a mocking loveliness. lady before. Katie's blush and confusion were flattering assurances; but at that instant her brother's voice was heard at the door of the conservatory calling his sister's name.

A week before Katie left, Mr. Freestone gave a party in honour of his niece, a dance in the large rooms of his elegant house, that seldom echoed to the sounds of such fairy-like revels. Katie, in flowing robes of glittering pink silk, looked lovelier than ever with those silken rings of pale gold sweeping back from her blue veined throat and temples, and Guido modulated his voice to its softest tones, as with her little gloved hand upon his breast he promenaded the flower-decked room by her side.

"Wait, Katie, one minute," pleaded Guy, "answer me."

"Let me go, I must. Mark will be here directly," Katie exclaimed in embarrassment.

"But I may not be able to speak to you again to-night. Katie, do you love me? I will come to-morrow evening. If you favour me, Katie, darling, wear this same little diamond cross and chain. I shall need no words."

"Katie, Katie," called Mark.

Katie broke from Guy's detaining hand, glanced back through burning blushes to let fall in silvery tones

"Come if you will." She fled to her brother's side.

They were talking of Harry, whose dark, thoughtful face had interested the volatile Katie, and provoked questions from her which drew forth Guy's unselfish eloquence, which made the little maiden's cheek glow with feelings she had never known before, of which admiration was but the smallest part. She could not tell why it was that, when Harry asked her to dance, she felt no tempta tion to laugh and flirt with him as she did with Guido and the rest. Was it that his goodness and knowledge over-trimmings of black lace, that enhanced by awed her trifling little self! Yes, that must be it she thought; but Harry did not seem to perceive the vast difference between their individual selves, but conversed with her with a gentle d'eference that delicately re-assured Katie.

He was wise and kind. Katie respected him vastly; but then he was so different from Guy, whose eyes spoke such subtle flattery when they rested upon her that hers drooped beneath the transparent lids; and his haud, Katie wondered what it was in its firm pressure that thrilled through her slender frame, and brought the warm crimson creeping, creeping up over neck and face.

The evening was nearly over, when,

The next evening there was a dinner party of her uncle's friends. It was not for them that Katie dressed herself so daintily in the dark-blue silk, with its

contrast the pearl whiteness of her skin, and the radiance of her golden curls. With a smile and a blush she stood before her mirror to fasten on the slender golden chain, with its diamond pendant, that was to tell her boy-lover so much that night. The gentle dignity of her mien, and the light in her blue eyes, were quite independent of the guests with whom Katie conversed so wisely and sweetly, that her uncle was delighted, and whispered the warmest approval in her ear. With the crimson deepening on her cheeks, Katie retired to the drawingroom, but she could neither settle to books nor to music, but wandered restlessly about the room, now peeping