kind friends, sever so many pleasant friendships, and yield up so many hopes and prospects without considerable regret. Even the thoughts of returning to his native country, and the wonders awaiting him there, could not stifle sorrow. Among the letters which he did not burn, was one in a lady's handwriting, which ran as follows:

"DEAR FRIEND.-I write to you because you are going away-because in a very short time the pleasure of memory will be the only frail link between us. Be assured I appreciate the motive which led you to decline the invitation to our house last evening, and to absent yourself so much of late. Do not imagine Miss Larkins has betrayed any confidence She merely told me enough of the conversation which passed between you to hinder me from thinking that the alteration in your conduct proceeded from caprice-to let me see that it proceeded from the best, the noblest, the most disinterested motives. Yes, you are right, it is best that we are are not to meet

again. My father is obstinate in wishing me to marry an American only. Yet I am glad I have known you, and that I am convinced there are men in the world who can act disinterestedly and nobly. Why should I hesitate to tell you, now that we are never to meet again, that it is better for my peace of mind that it should be so. The laws of society are very hard upon us women.

We

are expected to look upon all men with cold indifference, until one has singled us out to propose to, and then, if he be eligible, to change at once into the fond passionate adoring creature. From what I know of you, I shall not sink one iota in your esteem for writing this. You do not admire the mincing prudes, who, without taste and judgment to have a preference for one man over another, sit by in pretended indifference, while their mamas plot and scheme for them. After all, what is the difference between honestly writing or telling your preference, and constantly acting it by all those arts and shifts which society permits? A girl may dance night after night with a man,

and listen and talk nonsense to him by the hour, but she dare not whisper unto herself, 'I love him,' lest Mrs. Candour should visit her with his displeasure. It seems very strange, but I dare say it is very right, that we require so much more stringent laws than the gentlemen to keep us in order. You happy beings may go abroad and forget your loves in new flirtations, but we poor creatures must pine in hall and bower. Pray burn all my scraps of poetry. I send you one more-the last :

"Farewell, but never from my heart

Shall time thine image blot;
The dreams of other days depart,
Thou shalt not be forgot.

And never in the suppliant sigh

Poured forth to Him who rules the sky,

Shall my own name be breathed on high
And thine remembered not."

Ernest, like most young men, had carried on many silly flirtations, when he believed that the other party was no more serious than himself, and that it was done mutually pour passer le temps; but there was something too noble in his mind to permit him to become that de

graded thing, whether man or woman, a flirt. As he grew older, and better acquainted with human nature, he could not help perceiving the fatal influence which one mind may have over another, and the consequent sin of thus sporting with the destiny of a human being. Some might have thought him vain and conceited for the conduct he had pursued towards Miss Norton, but his own conscience taught him he had done right. She was an heiress, the Prince loved her to desperation, and her father would disinherit her if she married a foreigner. Under these circumstances, the possibility of him, a poor artist, being the cause of unhappiness or disappointment to more than one, sufficiently indicated to him the course he ought to follow It was at this crisis his mother's letter arrived, and by unfolding the new prospects in view, served to confirm and second his resolution, which a longer residence in the same town with Miss Norton might possibly have caused to flag.

He was a good deal affected with the manner

in which the Prince received the news of his

speedy departure.

Going to leave New York, where you are so well known and getting on so well? Going to cut all your artist cronies ?-no more oyster and champagne suppers-no more spouting?—or, can it be," he stopped, and then went on with the privilege of an old friend," can it be, Ernest Basil, that you have proposed and been rejected by Eleanor Norton ?"

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Nothing of the sort, my dear fellow".

The Prince seemed labouring under great agitation, at length he spoke

"I cannot make it out, Basil; if you had told me you were to be married to Miss Norton, I would have believed you. I have long lost hope in that quarter; though," he added, with a tone of emotion which invested his short stature with dignity, "I have not ceased to love her either, and-I could have wished you joy of it, my friend, I could. She's too good for me. I can make her