experienced, except in Paris, at the sight of the unknown. She stood there like a fairy queen, robed in majesty, and crowned with the perfection of beauty and loveliness; and a smile of compassion for the daring lover, who ventured, not without fear and trembling, into her presence, danced upon her rosy lips.

"The astonishment, Mademoiselle, without which no mortal can behold your charms, is not new to you; but the sight of such perfection is entirely new to me." I stammered out so with much difficulty; she answered with some slight compliment, and spoke with great sprightliness and vivacity on different subjects. Her self-possession restored me by degrees to my own, and enabled me to examine her with a more critical attention.

I have not taken up the pen to write an elaborate treatise on female beauty, or to give laws to the pencil of the artist. Miss Constantia may have her portrait painted, to serve in future as the standard, if she is so zealous a well-wisher to the beaux-arts. Nor have I any claim to the title of virtuoso; therefore the most highly-finished description I could give, would not, perhaps, be better than none at all, in the opinion of the gentry of that class. Suffice it then to say, that my inexperienced eye sought in vain for a single blemish or imperfection amidst so many beauties. This roundness of contour, this elegance and symmetry of figure, this in imitable blending of the rose with the lily on the cheek, belong to no country but the land of beauty, and it was only her brown hair and dark sparkling eyes, that could serve as proofs of any relationship with France. How I regretted the abuse I had so inconsiderately and so unwarrantedly lavished upon the French ladies. How contemptible in my present estimation did the brightest beauties of Hamburgh appear, who were so unlucky as to serve me for a comparison with this angelic creature!

My admiration increased as she, with an amiable artlessness, gradually developed her talents and accomplishments. She played, she

It was some time before I could feel at ease in her presence. She remained true to herself; always enchanting, but never more so at one time than at another, and I grew accustomed to her as to the sight of a beautiful painting. My natural gaiety of temper returned, and I joked her, without reserve, on the pretensions which her father's complacency towards me warranted my putting forth. "I have proved with my eyes," said I, "and my heart is already most cruelly scorched. But I am a merchant, and it is usual with us to put every article, as far as can be done without injury to it, to the test of all our senses. You cannot then, belle Constance, refuse me permission to try whether those ruby lips are as sweet to kiss as they are tempting to look on." She was too true a Frenchwoman to be angry at this jest. I kissed her, but her treacherous lips caught mine, and they clung to them like the luckless sparrow to the limed twig. I could not take them away; and when, at length, by her withdrawing her head, their release was effected, my cheerfulness was gone, and I wanted I knew not what. From this moment her conquest was complete. I saw nothing, I thought of nothing but Constantia. I hungered and thirsted for nothing but the nectar of her lips; and as it appeared to depend solely upon myself, by declaring her my bride, to secure to myself every enjoyment that she could bestow, so it was the more unaccountable that I should mount the ladder of bliss in imagination, step by step, till I hung, not only with extacy and delight, but with violent and impetuous desire upon each individual charm! The evil grew every time I saw her. She herself was evidently less at ease. In short, unable to hold out longer, I went to M. Gerson, fourteen days after my arrival, and demanded the hand of his daughter.

I will not attempt to describe the old man's joy on the occasion, or the grotesque capers and gestures by which he testified it. He led me to his daughter, and gave her into my arms. I clasped the incompa

rable girl with rapture to my bosom. "Bravo!" cried he, as he beheld us; "excellent! c'est comme il faut, je m'en souviens encore! To-morrow, Constantia, I will write to your sisters, for they must be present at your nuptials."

And my oath to wait till, like an eastern Sultan, I could choose between three houris, and throw my handkerchief to the happy object of my preference? Alas! my dear brothers and sisters, do ye not know how little such ballast helps to steady a heart when passion fills its sails? One glance of the beloved cancels all oaths! They melt like snow before the sunny smile of beauty.

Angelica, the second daughter, arrived in a few days. She had been residing with a relation at Rochelle. Beautiful as she was she appeared less so near her sister, and I congratulated myself, almost without knowing it, on having, at all events, chosen the best of two. Victoria, the youngest, was still absent. A letter came in eight or ten days time to her sister Angelica, saying that she was gone to a distant part of the country on a visit, with her aunt, to whose care she had been entrusted, and would soon return.

This delayed our nuptials, and I had plenty of leisure to compare the two sisters with each other.

Angelica was one inch shorter than her sister; her figure one inch nearer the em bon point; her skin one degree inferior in blancheur; her teeth not quite so small, so regular, and so white; in a word, each feminine beauty had been allotted to her a little, but very little, inferior to her sister's. She sang and played; she worked embroidery and painted on velvet; but her performances were only those of an apt and promising pupil, while her sister's exhibited the finished touch of the master.

It gave me much pleasure, at first, to make these observations in favor of my elect. Angelica was moreover somewhat dejected and reserved, which was greatly to her disadvantage. It was not long, however, before this apparent melancholy passed over like a summer cloud, and was succeeded by a gaiety and playfulness that nature had enEur. Mag. Sept. 1823.

dowed with irresistible interest and attraction, and which the tranquillity of her sister's temper relieved and brought out, like a figure painted in brilliant colours on a sombre ground. An overflow of witticisms streamed from her lips. Scarcely had I time to admire the point of one repartee before a second claimed the like tribute of applause and admiration. She frequently sup pressed her wit, but she could never conceal or disguise the arch and satirical, yet good-natured expres sion of her thoughts that beamed from her eyes.

Her actions, her attentions, bore the same stamp; her song expressed the most widely-opposed sentiments. with equal fidelity to nature; her paintings were marked with an ori ginality highly piquant; and her, embroidery in design at least, though not in execution, greatly excelled her sister's.

Naturally gay and lively myself, I was delighted with her volatile disposition; we grew more and more intimate, and while I gave Constantia my kisses and sighs, my conversation was always addressed to her laughter-loving sister. But these kisses, much as they enraptured me, and these sighs, softly as they swelled my bosom, I found, on repetition, always the same. Angelica's conversation, on the contrary, took every day a new and more enchanting turn. As often as I beheld Constantia my bosom heaved with tender wishes; as often as I listened to Angelica my whole soul flew to the fascinating chatterer.

For some time they preserved an equipoise-imperceptibly the scales began to rise and fall alternately, and at the end of another fortnight I loved Constantia while I beheld her only, but the lively Angelica occupied my thoughts no less in solitude than in her presence.What most astonished me was, that the former witnessed the decline of my attachment without displeasure, while the latter shewed no marks of satisfaction at my growing partialty.

M. Gerson said nothing to all this. Engaged all day in his counting-house we saw him but in the evening, when, throwing off all the cares of business, he gave himself up

2 D

entirely to domestic enjoyments, taking part in all our games and amusements; and I found that the little Esop, as he frequently called himself, was not far inferior to the ancient hero of fabulists.

He introduced me to many of his friends in Bourdeaux, and procured me by that means a number of engagements, which, to my annoyance, took me frequently from home, and oftentimes without making me any amends for the loss of my charming society. Love had completely altered me, and the costly banquets and brilliant entertainments of the inhabitants of Guienne had no longer any attraction for a heart that had once tasted its purer joys.

One evening, returning home from a visit, I alighted at the garden-gate, knowing that the family would be there that day. On entering a pavilion where I expected to find the company I heard voices, and trod lightly, more from instinct than with intention. I was not long in recognizing the voice of my betrothed in altercation with a man. "I am sorry for it, I suffer by it myself, but I cannot help it.""Oh, if you did but wish it!" replied a voice which I thought I knew. "But I durst not do it, D'Argenet."

D'Argenet was a clerk in the house, whom I had occasionally met at dinner, and I considered him an unassuming gentlemanly young

man.

"It is hard-it is insupportable," said he, “after receiving such strong assurances of love from the most amiable of beings to be thus deceived." "You know I cannot help it."—"I can scarely believe it." "Fye, D'Argenet, you have no right to doubt it; you know, as well as I, how expressly my father has forbidden us any attachment, because he has bound himself to Mr. Waltmann's father."-" A foolish obligation."-"That is his affair. You persecuted me with your love the expected bridegroom came not. I thought myself entitled to choose, and I made choice of you because you pleased ine. At length he came," "Oh! that he had never come!" "I should not have regretted it, This big blue-eyed German has all the pride without the politeness of a Frenchman. His love is peremptory

and dictatorial, and when he has been drinking with my father I am quite afraid of him. But would you have me displease my father? You well know he will have his own way, and I must be contented if I get, though not an amiable, at least tolerable husband."-"Heavens ! what tortures you inflict upon me! Are these charms, which I adore, to become the property of another? To be basely sold to him like a bale of goods! Oh! Constantia, I will not endure it on the fatal day that gives you to him I will leave the country for ever, or kill myself or him."" You are a fool, D'Argenet, and would be least so if you were to choose the former." This retort, uttered with her wonted calmness, and with the most musical accent, threw the lover into an extacy of rage, and he uttered his remonstrances with such rapidity that I could catch only a single word here and there; however, I had heard enough, and I withdrew as softly as I had entered.

"A narrow escape, Mademoiselle," said I, as I rested myself on a bank, after half an hour's promenade. "But you have deceived yourself. I am satiated with your inanimate charms, and the attractive Angelica will amply compensate me for their loss."

Early the next morning I waited upon M. Gerson. Pretending a great deal of generosity, I assured him that I would never allow myself the most distant claim to the hand of a lady, whose heart was already disposed of. The old man was so enraged that I had difficulty in restraining him. D'Argenet was poor. I represented to him that a lady like his daughter, possessed of 800,000 livres, might with propriety choose a husband without fortune, and, moreover, a merchant, whose industry would probably soon double the sum. It was solely on my account that he was so concerned about it. In order to appear consistent I complained a good deal of the loss of Constantia, but ventured to assure him, at the same time, that I considered Angelica capable of consoling the most distracted lover, and that I did not doubt of loving her, in a short time, as passionately as I had her sister, provided I had his sanction to my addresses. So

the bargain was struck, and we sought the two ladies, who were ignorant of what had passed, to announce to them their fate.

I felt half afraid as I stood before them, not of Constantia, whose secret wishes were about to be gratified, but of the trimming glances of my new mistress, which promised me a warm reception. Hitherto I had returned her satire, stroke for stroke; to-day I seemed to face my foe defenceless and unarmed.

"Charming Constantia, “I began, as M. D'Argenet, who had been sent for, entered the room, "this young man has a prior claim to your hand to me, and deserves it the more as you have yourself given him this claim. I lacerate my own heart while I thus burst the bands which have united it with your's, but I will never purchase my own happiness at the price of hers, who is to form it; and I have used all my persuasion to induce your father to give you to my rival." M. Gerson confirmed what I said, and the two lovers soon forgot their gratitude in the joy to which they abandoned themselves. It was the first time that I had beheld Constantia embellished withthe expression of feeling, and I felt that I would have parted with her at no price had she once shewn herself thus to me.

The worst was now over; with assumed tranquillity and confidence, but with actual shyness and dread, like a culprit, I presented myself to Angelica, who had not uttered a word, but had been scanning us all with a keen eye pregnant with mischief. "You are extremely generous, Sir," said she, ill concealing a smile at the expense of her lip, and giving me a look that it is impossible to describe. "If so, my angelic Angelica, I may confidently reckon upon your rewarding me." "As such disinterestedness deserves, Sir, rely upon it."-"Your very flattery intimidates me."—"I intended it should."-" But the attraction of your charms is more powerful.' "I wish I had less of them"-"Then I should suffer less." "That is not my reason for wishing so.' "I am now deserted."-"] pity the deserted." "So much the more ardently, then, let me

hope," said I, bending my knee before her," that you will pity and relieve me by consenting to marry me."-" Oh! I beg, Sir, you will settle that matter standing. It is not worth while-marry, say you ? that is but little; I was almost afraid you were going to ask me to love you."-"I take that for granted." "You will do me a great favour if you will always take that for granted, it will save me a great deal of trouble."-" You drive me to desperation !"-What favour but that one can you ask that I would not most willingly grant? You will at all events lose nothing."-" I feel how little I deserve such a treasure, and will endeavour at least to outdo you in tenderness."-" There you will have greatly the advantage of me."-"M. Gerson," said I to her father, "I must entreat your mediation; Angelica promises to marry me, but she bites and scratches, and lays about her like a Tartar bride."

"Let her have her way. She is a foolish girl, but an affectionate daughter, and she will make you an excellent wife. There," said he, laying her hand in mine, "she is your's." She gave her hand without resistance, and regarded me, while I held it, with a look of assurance and triumph that seemed to say,

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you are now in my power, and I will soon let you feel it." I interpreted it so, and, not feeling disposed to give her an opportunity of carrying her threat into immediate execution, I took no further notice of her, but after conversing a few minutes with D'Argenet withdrew, not a little disgusted at the occurrences of the day.

She

Angelica continued in the same tone; and I regretted a thousand times that I had converted my amiable and entertaining chatterbox into a quarrelsome mistress. sought every occasion to torture my feelings; and when by reiterated taunts she had so exasperated me that my anger was on the point of breaking out with fury, she soothed and flattered me again till I forgot all, and was even foolish enough to hope she would alter her conduct. It was not enough that I personally suffered by her freaks, but I had, moreover, the mortification to per