stately white lily stands erect and tall, by a bulging grim old sea-god, whose scaly tail winds down the staircase in many folds, appearing and disappearing amidst the pots of flowers. A redundant vine, laden with broad leaves, and purpling clusters of grapes, hangs over each side, while the pots themselves are twined with wreaths of ivy, until the plants appear to spring out of an ivied bed.

Satisfied with my work, I brought down our old nurse to pass judgment thereon, and, leaving her to exchange words with those who happily had the power to do so, I proceeded to the garden, and from thence to a temple, built on a rising piece of ground in the park.

My father would, I knew, look for my figure under the colonnade, and to heed his wishes was the service of our lives.

Sloping down from the temple was a smooth green sward, at the bottom of which ran a narrow stream, which gradually ex

panded into a considerable sheet of water, that half surrounded our house. At one end was an ornamental boat-house, and a fringe of woods skirted the lake on the north-eastern side; but smooth velvety banks, with a succession of green terraces from the house, gave it an air of sylvan beauty that only needed figures of grace and gaiety to realise a picture of Watteau's. As I looked down, I peopled the slopes and terraces with groups of dames and cavaliers,-the trains of the ladies, and the long feathers in the hats of the cavaliers, as they courteously doffed them, alike sweeping the ground as they passed to and fro; while from out of the casements in our many windowed house, framed in the carved sills, looked many lovely faces and gallant forms.

The house cast a broad shadow on the lake, the battlements round the roof being reflected back on its bosom, as if cut by mortal hand in adamantine stone. Three stories high, and roofed up with so sharp a

pitch that three tiers of windows lighted the dome, it had a most imposing appearance, yet was more beautiful than grand. beautiful in its old English quaintness, its grey stone, its cheerful open casements, the clustering roses, myrtles, and magnolias that climbed in rich luxuriance even to the upper windows. It was beautiful in its air of home, its quiet grace, the exquisite verdure, with the sunshine of gladness over everything.

Behind the house rose an abrupt hill, clothed to its very summit with beechtrees, here and there an opening, through which the sunbeams sent long golden rays, gilding the old roots and branches with a burnished hue.

Beyond the lake was the park, undulating over many acres, intersected with avenues, a winding road, and ornamented with knolls of trees: oaks and larch standing alone in solitary beauty, the pendent branches of the latter sweeping low on the sward.

The sky illuminated all, with its pure celestial blue,floating clouds just passing between earth and heaven, as if they were the mantles of the guardian angels, left there, as descending, they now whispered thoughts of the other world into the eartheaten heart of man.

We, the three sisters, knew no other home, had visited no other country. The love of change had not yet awakened a longing in our hearts. It might be that our home satisfied all our desires; its beauties never palled, its comforts were boundless, and the happiness of our lives had never been broken.

But I see figures through the trees. They are returning from their ride; emerging from the avenue by the great oaktree, they will catch the first glimpse of the temple, of me, standing under the colonnade. My father salutes me by removing his hat, my sisters wave their handkerchiefs.

There is so much love to be divided among us, that even this short absence has borne the appearance of a long parting, and I must run down to meet them at the hall door. Then they show me that I have not been forgotten. Mabel gives me a handful of the Campanula Patula, scarcely sensible that its fragile life has been torn from the parent root, so carefully has she carried it; and Pamela brings the long pendants of the lady-fern, with which she knows I can weave coronets for their hair; while my father draws forth a bunch of young nuts, that I might judge how ripe the summer was growing, and how soon we might go a-nutting.

Then they looked into my eyes, and read that I too had thought of them, and my sisters gave me their hands, to lead them to their surprise. Our father followed, and we all stood in the great hall, before the oaken stair-case. Then in their delight, I tasted my pleasure twice over.