to question the propriety of anything we desired to be done.

Therefore in obedience to my wishes, a train of gardeners brought pots of flowers in full bloom and fragrance, with which we decorated the dark old staircase, until blossoms peeped out from every balustrade, and on the large oaken pillars, that marked each flight, a crowning pyramid of beauty and fragrance capped its pediment with an ornament of nature's carving. Pleased with the effect, I accepted as my due the garrulous admiration of the executors of my "happy thought."

The old hall seemed to brighten and smile under the influence of the rich colours and sweet odours it encircled in its embrace for the first time.

And the eyes of all the dead stuffed creatures on the walls glanced with a sort of life in them, as if it was pleasant to see once more the flowers and plants of the earth they had loved so well. Such is the

beauty of contrast.

There is no outrage to

the sight in youth and age together.

The

one beautifies the other. On the mouldering wall, what looks more lovely than the delicate fern, the warm verdant velvety moss, and the little clinging orange-coloured lichen?

On the old stag-headed oak, bared by centuries, and knotted with age, clings the bright, vigorous, healthful ivy, rampant with its redundancy of life, festooning its ancient friend with garlands of green, and crowning its hoary head with its brightest and youngest shoots.

And so with my old staircase, that so late stood bare, confident in its own massive beauty, now blushing with a thousand blooms, that were dimly reflected back on its dark shining surface, doubling themselves again and again. A little delicate moss-bud lays its confiding head against the round moulding of a balustrade, kissing, as it were, a little twin sister. A

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.