adders, she would suck the wounds with her mouth; were you in prison, she would draw you out, if it could not be done but by a cord woven of the tresses of her long fair hair; were you on the gallows tree, she would tend, and watch, and cheer you to the last; and then sit down beneath your feet and die. And why should she do this? Why abandon home, and friends, and riches, and honour, to cleave to poverty, and disgrace, and death? Do you ask why? O man! man! because she loves, and is a woman ! While speaking, and for some moments after, her cheek burned, her eye flashed, the veins of her forehead swelled, and her bosom throbbed as if it would burst the corsage; but soon these phenomena of her sex's emotion disappeared; and heaving a deep sigh, she shook away some large bright drops from her eyelids, and continued more calmly.

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Having received a hint of Madame Dallheimer's intended departure in the morning, I went, the night before, to bid farewell to a friend; and was introduced by her into an inner apartment, where she meant to gratify my curiosity with the sight of some new dresses before they were packed up for the journey. It was here that I overheard the direction and destination of the travellers; for Madame and her major-domo passing through the room, we were obliged to conceal ourselves behind a screen till they were gone. I afterwards saw the young lady coming from her own apartment in the north wing. Her face was flushed, and her step quick and resolute; but when she observed the preparations for the journey, she became as pale as marble, and seemed ready to faint. I knew of the love that was between you, for I had often seer you here, and more than once, out of curiosity, fol

lowed you, in your evening visits, as far as the garden wall. I looked at her significantly as she passed, trying to with say my eyes, my poor young lady, can I do anything for you?' and she observed me; for a gleam of hope lighted up her countenance for a moment; a struggle of some kind took place; and she half opened her lips to address me. But at that instant her mother's voice was heard calling her name; and her hasty step entering the passage. Ida's lips closed at the sound; her almost opening heart folded its leaves anew; she shrunk as if within herself; and wringing her hands, which she then pressed wildly on her brow and bosom, turned silently away."

Carl drank in these words with a greediness that seemed to dread the loss of a syllable. He was almost

suffocated with emotion.

"My noble, my high-minded, my pure hearted," ejaculated he in a broken voice, "my great, my good-my poor, poor Ida!" and the sobs, which he could no longer control, burst forth convulsively from his labouring bosom, and the once gay and reckless gallant, leaning his head upon the shoulder of Liese, fairly wept aloud.

The two strangely-assorted companions, having ascertained that the coast was clear, left the château by the back window, by means of which Liese was accustomed to enter; the latter having determined to accompany her protégé to the end of the valley. As they walked on her spirits seemed to desert her; and Carl, although less sad than before, was plunged in meditation.

"Do you dread the hazard of the journey?" said Liese, at length. "Do you shrink from the degradation you may suffer in travelling without money? How different that is with me! I have often wished, I have

long wished, that—that—” and she fixed her eyes, with a deep, longing gaze, upon the blue distance before them, and stopped abruptly.

"How delightful," she resumed, "must be the vicissitudes of the life of a wanderer!

To look upon other hills than those you have been accustomed to from infancy; to gaze upon strange faces, and strange lands

"What is it that you have long wished? " demanded Carl gently.

"That I might,"-replied Liese, with the same incoherence, and blushing deeply—"I only wished that -that I were a man!"

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My dear Liese," said he, with a grave tenderness, while he put his arm round her waist, as they walked side by side" my dear sister, my best friend, to wish that you were other than what you are, a true-hearted, simple-minded woman, is a crime against nature and humanity. Beware of the life of a wanderer, which is the most unfit for you, or rather, for which you are the most unfit of all the daughters of Eve! high and daring spirit; your frank and guileless disposition; your youth; your beauty;-O Liese, promise me that, till you obtain the protection of a husband, you will remain at home, the light and love of your own valley!"

Your

"I will not promise,” replied Liese, almost sullenly; "where is the use of such an exaction? I have no money; and I cannot play the guitar, or sing such lays as used to float at night, like a dream, over the garden of Madame Dallheimer. And as for a husband, holy Mary! would you have me wed one of the clods of the earth? one of the base cur-hearted churls who shuddered when they beheld the light in your window,

supposing it to be borne by the ghost of old Christine! A wanderer! No, no; I must live where I am planted, bright, sharp, and bitter, like a holly in a hedge, respected by its more vulgar neighbours-because it can stop a gap just as well as the rest.”

"You will live, Liese, where you have been planted, like a rose, diffusing freshness, and fragrance, and beauty around you; and if I return successful from that far world which appears so beautiful to you, because its pits and precipices are covered with the veil of distance, you shall share, like a sister, in my good fortune."

They were now on the ridge of the hill which bounded the further extremity of the valley, and both stood still simultaneously. Carl took out his shirtbrooch, which was set with a stone of some value, and stuck it in Liese's collar, requesting at the same time a common pin in exchange. She resisted for some moments; but perceiving the curl of his lip, and the flush of his brow, at what he felt as an insult to his poverty, she at length complied. He would then have kissed her, with a muttered farewell; but courtesying low, she raised his hand to her lips, as is the custom in some parts of Germany when an inferior receives a reward or a present, and walked silently away. Carl, grieved and somewhat hurt by her apparent caprice, looked after her reproachfully for some moments; but turning round at a little distance, she saw him in this attitude, and, on the instant, bounded back again with a sudden cry, threw herself into his extended arms, kissed his lips, and hiding her face in his bosom, sobbed bitterly. Then, as if ashamed of her emotion, she raised her head, with a bashful but 'sunny smile, and fled with the swiftness of a deer towards the village.

Some days after the departure of Carl Benzel, Liese, whose restless mind seemed to require employment, forsook her chickens and eggs, one evening, to go and visit the old woman who was left in charge of Madame Dallheimer's mansion; and from her she heard a piece of intelligence that was exceedingly interesting in the present state of her feelings.

It appeared that only the evening before, a man, in the livery of a servant, had called at the house, to "fish" out of the old woman, as she expressed it, some information regarding the whereabout of Benzel. He said that he had a letter to deliver to him from a lady, and that he had searched all Aix-la-Chapelle in vain, where he could only learn that the imprudent young man had ruined himself at the gamingtable, and fled from his creditors. A letter from a lady! What could have induced the bearer to extend his researches to Madame Dallheimer's house, where the person he sought had not visited publicly for many months? There was only one way of accounting for this; and on hearing that the old woman had pointed out the direction in which Benzel had gone on the evening he left her, she hurried home.

It was dark when she reached the village; and Liese could almost have fancied that her protégé had returned to his lodging, for a light burned, as she had first seen it, in the window of his original chamber. After some minutes it proceeded to the next, and the next, and the next, and then descended in the same way from floor to floor, till it reached the kitchen. Liese, in the mean time, had approached the house rapidly, while continuing her observations; and finding that the front door was fastened, glided round to the window behind, which she had so often made use of herself for entrance egress.