ceive that our contests afforded entertainment to the whole family, and was compelled to take their laughter to myself, because I too keenly felt that I was the losing party.

The measure of my sufferings was not yet full. The severest torture was still in reserve. The uncle, from Rochelle, arrived at M. Gerson's on a visit, bringing with him a young man, whom they called cousin. Angelica embraced them both, and my keen jealous eye read in the glances of the said cousin an emotion that appeared too tender for mere relationship. "I am heartily glad you are come, cousin," said she to him, "here is my intended bridegroom, Mr. Waltmann, of Hamburgh. I have hitherto only teased and joked him a little, but l will now be revenged on him, through you, for all the harm he may do me after our marriage.' The young man blushed, and replied by some unmeaning compliments. "I now solemnly appoint you my Cicisbo, for the Italian custom pleases me since we have husbands from Germany. You shall be umpire in all our quarrels, because I make sure that you will always decide in my favour. You shall have the key of my apartment; you shall always be near me to defend me against him. He marries me merely out of revenge because my sister does not like him, and surely I act very generously in making his revenge as difficult, that is to say, as sweet as possible."-"You are an imp of the devil," cried M. Gerson, threatening her. "Leave me to myself, my lear father, the Germans have alays shewn great patience towards our nation, and I fear myself, that I should not easily find a lamb of a Frenchman to hold out with me." I was boiling with rage. Great as was the effort it required, I restrained myself, however. Il faut faire bonne mine à mauvais jeu. But it was past endurance when she made earnest of the jest, treating her cousin with familiarity and tenderness, while she repulsed me with the greatest harshness. "I do it nerely to try you," was her answer my remonstrances. "That is, ut open my body to ascertain

whether my heart beats; but I shall find means to escape this cruelty." I left the room hastily, and she pur sued me with shouts and laughter. Highly incensed I went instantly to her father, and laid my .complaints before him. "You surprise me," said he, "I imagined you to be on the most friendly footing to gether. Yes, yes; she is a little satan, but withal an affectionate, kind-hearted girl, and if you do not cross her humour with too much sensibility, you will have the liveliest wife in the world. However, I'll talk to her.”

He did it regardless of my opposition; and whether inconsiderately or intentionally I know not, but he did it in the presence of the whole family.

The smiles of the audience, as M. Gerson, with many grimaces, delivered his paternal exhortation, announced to me my fate. What,' said Angelica, "are the nerves of a German so delicate? You cannot endure that I pass through life skipping and dancing? While you fail of hitting my humour, it is no wonder that you cannot gain my love."-"Charming Angelica."

tt

Say that to my sister, I am wicked and insupportable; and yet I love you as well as any lady does her lap-dog or parrot."-" Do you not perform the part of the former? for those animals bite and snarl at their mistresses, though never so much fondled and petted by them." She smiled and gave me her hand, which I kissed with gratitude. But this humour lasted scarcely a quarter of an hour, and I became again the object of her ridicule.

By accident, rummaging one day in my trunk, I found a letter from my father, addressed, “To the beloved bride of my son." The affectionate language of a father, thought I, will make some impression upon her, and I delivered the letter to Angelica.

"It is not for me," said she, "for I am not beloved; however, I will open the letter, as I am to fill the place of one who is." She read it.

You have an excellent father, Mr. Waltmann; his kindness really surprizes me. He knows that ladies are fond of ornaments, and brides

particularly. Will' you not shew me the jewels?" I was struck dumb with shame and confusion; I stared wildly at her, unable to make her any answer. Surely you have not lost them ?"—"My father must have forgotten them; will you per mit me to see the letter ?"" What, shall I entrust so valuable a document into such rapacious hands? Cousin Cicisbo, read it to him." The counsin read,-" The solitaire and the bracelets, which my son will deliver with this letter, are for your acceptance, &c." I stood like a tree shivered by the lightning, ready to sink to the earth. I cursed the hour a thousand times that led me to this house, and made me acquainted with perfections that to me were only a source of trouble and vexation.

"Pray, cousin," said my tormentor, pointing at me with her finger, "now only look at this poor sinner. His father sends him away from Hamburgh because the ladies there all know him too well to have him. Three sisters, the ornaments of France, attend the coming of this German bridegroom like slaves in Smyrna, waiting for a purchaser. Oh! thinks he, they will thank God if I come at all, soon or late; and so he takes a ramble of three weeks to make the most of his liberty while it lasts. His means are exhausted, and he is prudent enough to prefer the well-stocked kitchen and rich cellar of his future father-in-law to starvation at Paris. But how is he to get there? Oh! the jewels of his intended bride must contribute, such of them, at least, as the Parisian friends may have spared." "-"Good God! I exclaimed. "Be silent this gentleman shall know it all. He comes and sees the eldest; she pleases his fancy, and the reigning beauty of Bourdeaux becomes his bride. I come next. He hears me, I catch him by his ears."

"How unjust!"-"Don't interrupt me. He gives the first a charming, respectful, gallant dismissal; and any body who did not know him might possibly have given him credit for something like generosity; then he turns to me as the second, merely out of compassion, lest I should pine with grief at his neglect, or die an old maid for want of

another offer. I accept, with great humility, the present of his love a little worn by so much use, suffer myself patiently to be abused by him and scolded by my father on his account, and now instead of my jewels, which he has either sold or given away, he brings me the empty letter in derison."-"Dearest Angelica!"-"I beg you will not name me; my name sounds horridly, quite diabolically from your lips; really, you deserve to be married to me for a punishment. I will engage that my sister Victoria will make a third and more complete conquest of your heart, for she is as handsome as Constantia, as witty as I, and has more sensibility than both of us together, and bears the name with the deed. But do not flatter yourself that she will have you. You are mine now, and this letter of your father's, even without the solitaire and bracelets, is a deed of gift of your person which I will never part with." The most agreeable assurance, adorable Angelica, that you could possibly give me.""Spare me your flattery till I wish to hear it." Her angry mien was so evidently a disguise that I found her doubly attractive, and I seized her hand to kiss it. "Hold!" she cried, snatching it away, "the hour is not yet come when I am to serve out my tenderness to you in portions and rations, as my duty and my conscience may dictate."

At length we received intelligence that Victoria would arrive the following day, and the impatient father fixed the day after that for the celebration of both our nuptials. Angelica made no objection. The nearer prospect of being mine "for better for worse" seemed to inspiré her with milder feelings, and I rejoiced to see it.

Victoria came late in the evening. I expressed a hope that it was not too late to offer her my congratula tions on her return, but Angelica stopped me short. "I thought so, said she, but you will not see her; not until you stand with me at the altar shall you behold the treasure that you have rejected unseen, to throw yourself into the clutches of such a plague as I am."-I confess that I did not contemplate the event

without some little misgivings of mind. Angelica was beautiful, rich, and spirituelle; but I reflected that the first of these perfections would soon decay; the second was of little value to me; and the third, to judge by the experience I had already had, would strew more thorns than roses in my path. And where would then be those happy hours of calm contentment and domestic peace, which I promised myself would abundantly compensate me for the loss of my freedom, and the boisterous and extravagant pleasures of a batchelors life?

D'Argenet came and embraced me as his brother-in-law, aud led me to the saloon where the ceremony was to be performed. The father, the two sisters, the uncle, and the cousin were already assembled there, together with the priest. Victoria was the only one absent.

"Oh, she is still at her toilette," said Angelica; "she will not allow even a bride, on the day of her nuptials, the satisfaction of being thought handsome in her presence; a great weakness, is it not, my dear Waltmann ?" I nodded in affirmation. She was indescribably fascinating in this sprightly mood."Well, then; you have to thank your stars that I am more solid."

At this moment two ladies entered the room by a side door. I was much more surprised than the sagacious reader will be, who has long suspected it, to recognize in these two ladies my Parisian friends, the aunt and her lovely niece. "At last," cried Angelica, drawing me by the hand towards the table, where the minister stood prepared to perform the sacred office; but my face was turned towards Victoria, who, blushing a deep crimson, and more beautiful than she had ever appeared to me, regarded me with a serious and enquiring look."-" Your love seems to need the lash," said Angelica; 66

pray begin M. La Tournelle." The words were like an electric shock to me. I hastily disengaged my hand, and stood petrified before the minister; he smiled and laid down his book.

Victoria stood unmoved. My ring sparked on her finger, and the bracelets, which I had sold at Orleans,

on her arms. All eyes were fixed upon me, and I was ready to wish the earth would open and swallow me up. "Pray cousin," cried the provoking Angelica," Do marry Victoria for my sake, for as long as my bridegoom sees a sister single he thinks he is bound to make love to her."

The young man approached Victoria. Unable longer to master my feelings, I flew across the room and took her hand. She blushed, gave me a look of tenderness, and suffered me to hold it. "Is it possible?" I exclaimed. "I have no claim upon your forgiveness, but with the powerful emotions you first taught me to feel all my hopes revive, and it rests with you, lovely Victoria, to crown or blast them for ever?"-"I am no longer my own," she replied, pointing to the jewels; "I have received my price."

"This is past endurance," exclaimed Angelica, "So rude a bridegroom never was before. God keep me from such a husband! Come, cousin, you have a kind, true soul— I will venture it with you. He may do as he pleases, I absolve him from all obligation to me."

My perplexity was over. I cast a supplicating glance towards the father. He could scarcely speak, so great was his emotion; laying our hands together he conducted us to the other couples. The minister commenced the service unasked, and in ten minutes time the three sisters were made three wives.

George, instead of taking the bracelets to the jeweller who resided at the further end of the city of Orleans, had applied to the nearest respectable merchant. The latter enquired, with some suspicion, to whom they belonged; George scrupled not to tell him my name and the object of my journey. I know M. Gerson well, said he, and willi with pleasure, advance Mr. Waltmann a sum of money upon these bracelets, which have doubtless an other destination than to be sold in this city." This was precisely what George wished. One enquiry led to another, and my scamp of a ser vant, who had taken great offence at my Parisian adventure, related the whole of it to this gentleman,