"how cruel is the effect of that solicitude "which urges you to tear the veil from "the heart whose feelings and whose "wants I would hide from myself; to awa"ken me from that dream of peace in "which I blindly reveled, and touch upon "that bosom-chord where all my joys and "all my sorrows hang!" It was now for the first time since Imogen had plunged into the rosy tide of pleasure, or floated in soft delirium on its traitorous wave, that reflection dissipated the fairy spell with which she had cheated herself into seeming bliss, and taught her to understand the nature of those feelings which often hung a gloomy shade upon the brilliant gloss of joy, and dimmed with a tear the frolic smile which the triumph of every longcherished wish illumined in her eye.

Why, when the adulation of a world was offered up at the shrine of her genius and her charms, did her unsatisfied soul so often turn on itself in anxious search for something dearer to its feelings than the

world's adulation could bestow? why, even in the moment of pleasurable delirium, did her sated senses sicken in the midst of their gay enjoyment? or why, when gal lantry wooed her delighted attention with all the persuasive rhetoric of assumed passion, did her ear refuse to convey its homage to her heart, and her lip exhale the sigh of pensive and abstracted reflection ? "It is," said Imogen, "because every

thing dissipates, and nothing touches "me; because my heart is all a void, a frightful void, and my affections, chilled " and withered, in vain seek an object to "kindle their warmth and awaken their

energy. And what is praise, unheard

by one in whose triumph only we can truly triumph? and what is pleasure, if "the heart participates not in its illu"sions ?"

Often indeed, after the gay and dissipated orgies of the day, had Imogen sought her couch without being pursued thither by one felicitous recollection rescued from

the multitude of enjoyments which had pressed their treasures on her acceptance; and it was then that the faded vision of her soul-felt bliss floated over awaking memory, and that the now-passive heart stole from the recollection of its former felicity one sweet emotion to warm its latent nerves: for the rich, the noble, the farfamed, lady de St. Dorval remembered on her purple couch of down the golden dream that once hovered over the humble pillow of the Novice of St. Dominick; that dream which was but the reflected vision of her waking joys; that dream which gave back to her imagination the intercourse of soul she had recently supported with the Minstrel of Provence. Her heart kindled at the endearing remembrance, but despondency chilled the transient glow, and many a tear stained that cheek which the ensuing -day beheld dimpled with the sportive smile of pleasure: for, denied that supreme happiness of which her soul was capable, she pursued the attainment of all those lesser

joys fortune had placed within her grasp, and pursued them with all that unmodified ardor which marked the enthusiasm of her character, and the vivacity of her disposition.

The last day of her first five weeks' residence at Paris was that on which Imogen had completed her twentieth year, and, according to her father's will, was of age. On this day a splendid entertainment was to be held at the hotel de St. Dorval; and a short time previous to the assembling of her guests, the chevalier requested and obtained a private audience of Imogen in her cabinet. Presenting her a paper he said with a smile" It is an old fashioned act "of civility to present a birth-day gift; "and yet it is among the number of those "little antiquated interchanges of social "courtesy which time seems willing to rescue from the revolutions of fashion." "And this, I suppose, my dear friend," said Imogen, looking at the paper," is a "letter patent of immortality, drawn out

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by your long silent muse in favour of your humble servant, and in the form "of a birth-day ode."

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No," said the chevalier, smiling; "it is a more humble conveyancer of poor temporal dignity."

Imogen looked again at the paper-the royal seal was attached to it-Imogen changed colour.

The chevalier in a graver tone continued "That ancient and illustrious title which "a series of ages have witnessed in posses"sion of your ancestors, but which by the "influence of the Salique law became ex

tinct with your father's life, the king has "been graciously pleased to grant to his daughter. This paper contains the let"ters patent of your nobility: that which

by inheritance you could not possess, by "the king's royal grant is yours. Long 66 may the countess de St. Dorval wear the "coronet of her ancestors, and shed new ❝lustre on her distinguished rank-from "the light of her more distinguished virtues,"