fawning attentions, was the only one of his household with whom General Harrington was not for the time in ill-humor. athirst; but waving her away when Agnes filled it again, and would have pressed it upon him." "Remove these things, Miss Agnes, if you pleaseand order some one to have the carriage ready. I must go to the city at once." With all his self-possession, this old man was a moral coward. He knew that James Harrington was the only person to whom he could look for help-and yet the Agnes took up the salver, and moved away, hesitatvery thought of applying to him, made the gall rise biting, by the door, as if she wished to speak. terly in his bosom. To save time, he gave notes for the debt, and made no change in his life, save that he was away from home now almost constantly-a circumstance which the members of his household scarcely remarked in their new-found happiness. One morning the General came forth from his bedchamber, harassed and anxious. He had slept little during the night, and the weariness of age would make itself felt, after a season of excitement like that through which he had passed. He found the Sevres cup on his table, filled with strong, hot coffee, and a muffin delicately toasted upon the salver of frosted silver, by its side. Indeed, as he entered the room, a flutter of garments reached him from the door, and he muttered, with a smile, as he looked in an opposite mirror. "Well," said the General, a little impatiently, "is there anything I can do?" "The chambermaid, sir, I daresay Mrs. Harrington has no choice; and I should be so obliged if you permitted my old nurse to have the place. She is very capable, and I am lonely without her." "A colored woman, is it?" asked the General, hastily. "Yes, from the South. She is all I have left." “Of course, let her come, if she knows her duty. I will mention it to Mrs. Harrington." "Thank you," said the girl, gliding softly away. "It will make me so happy to have some one in the house that loves me." The General answered this attack on his sympathies, with an impatient wave of the hand. He seemed greatly disturbed—and, as the door closed, threw himself into a chair, with something like a groan. "Can this be true? Lina, poor little Lina, can this be real? and Ralph, my own son. Great Heavens, it is terrible!" "Faith, the little girl is very kind; I must think of this." He sat down and drank off the coffee, rejecting the muffin with a faint expression of disgust. As he lifted it from the salver, a note, lying half across the edge, as if it had lodged there when the papers on the table were pushed aside, attracted his attention. He He swept a hand across his forehead, distractedly. was about to cast it one side, when a singular | Then, starting up, as if stung to action by some agonizperfume came across him with a sickening sweetness; and, snatching at the note, he stared an instant at the seal, and tore it open. The color left General Harrington's cheek. As he read he started up, crushing the note in his hand, while he rang the bell. "Did you ring, General. I was going by, and so answered the bell," said Agnes Barker, presenting herself. "Yes, I rang, certainly I rang-but where are the servants? Where is the woman who takes charge of my rooms?" "The chambermaid? oh, she went away yesterday. I believe Mrs. Harrington has not supplied her place yet." ing thought, he began to pace up and down 'he room with a degree of excitement very unusual to him. At length he paused by the window, and, opening the note, again read it over and over with great anxiety. At last he went to a desk standing in a corner of the room, and opening one secret drawer after another, drew forth a bundle of faded letters. As he untied them, the identical perfume that hung about the note he had been reading, stole around him; and, turning paler and paler, as if the odor made him faint, he began to read the letters, one after another, comparing them first with the note, and then with a key to the cypher in which they were all written, that he took from another compartment of the desk. At last he drew a deep breath, and wearily folded the "Who brought up my coffee? who arranged my papers up. rooms yesterday and this morning?" Agnes blushed, and cast down her eyes in pretty confusion. "The new cook has not learned your ways, sir; there was no one else, and I "You are very kind, Miss Agnes-another time I shall not forget it: but, tell me, here is a note lying on my table near the breakfast tray; how long has it been there who brought it-where did it come from?" Agnes looked up, with the most innocent face in the world. "Indeed, sir, I cannot tell. A good many papers lay on the table, which I carefully put aside; but no sealed note, that I remember." "This is strange," muttered the General, walking up and down, stopping to look in his coffee-cup, as if still "This is plausible, and it may be true," he said, locking his hands on the table. "The persistent malice of the thing, confirms its probability. She was capable of it-capable of anything; and yet I do think the poor creature loved me. If I could but see her, and learn all the facts from her own lips. Yet the note is better evidence. Who, except us two, ever learned this cypher? How else could she have known these particulars about poor Lina? But, this is terrible. I did not think anything could shake me so! Ralph, my son Ralph, I must speak with him— No, no! Let me think; it's better that Lina alone should know it." The old man arose-tottered towards the bell, and rang it, nervouslessly, at if the silver knob were a hand he loathed to touch. Agnes answered the summons, but even her self-possession gave way as she saw the General's face, pale and almost convulsed, turned upon her. "I have ordered the carriage-it will be at the door in a few moments, sir," she stammered forth. Ralph ? Ah, you are teasing me, General, because you know-that is, you guess-it would break my heart not to think of him every minute of my life." "Silence, girl; I must not hear this," said the old man, dashing his hand aside with a violence that scat "Send it back to the stables; I shall not go out. tered Lina's golden ringlets all over her shoulders. The morning has clouded over." Agnes glanced at the sunshine pouring its golden wmth through the library window, but she did not ve ure to speak. Go," said General Harrington, in a suppressed voice, "go find your pupil, and say that I wish to speak with her a moment." 'Miss Lina-is it Miss Lina I am to call?" stammered Agnes, taken by surprise. 66 'General," said Lina, lifting up her eyes, all brimming with tears, and regarding him with the look of a grieved cherub: "don't terrify me so. What have I done? Alas! what has Ralph done? For the whole world we would not displease you, after all your kindness. Indeed, indeed, we are too happy for anything evil to come within our thoughts." "And you are happy, girl?" 66 Very, very happy. It seems to me that all the "It is Miss Lina that I wish to see; have the good-earth has blossomed afresh. I thought this morning, ness to call her." that the sunshine never was so bright as it is to-day, and what few leaves are left on the branches, seem more beautiful than roses in full flower. Dear, dear General, it is something to have made two young creatures so happy! I thought last night, for life seemed so The courteous but peremptory voice in which this was said, left Agnes no excuse for delay; and, though racked with curiosity, she was obliged to depart on her errand. The General sat down the moment he was alone-sweet that I could not waste it in slumber-and when and, shrouding his forehead, lost himself in painful thought. 66 you The door opened, and Lina came in, smiling like a sunbeam, and rosy with assured happiness. Did send for me, General?" she said, drawing close the chair in which the old man sat. "Is there something I can do that will give you pleasure. I hope so!" The General looked up; his eyes were heavy-his face bore an expression she had never witnessed in it till then. He looked on her a moment, and she saw the heavy mist melting away from his glance, and it seemed to her that his proud lip began to quiver. "Have I offended you?" inquired Lina, with gentle regret. "What have I done?" The old man arose, and laying a hand on each of her shoulders, bore heavily upon her, as he perused her face with an earnestness that made her tremble. He lifted one hand at last, and sweeping the golden curls back from her brow, gazed sadly and earnestly down into her Those soft, blue eyes, that filled with tears eyes. beneath the sad pathos of his gaze. "Lina!" His hand began to tremble among her curls. He bent his forehead down, and rested it on her shoulders, sighing heavily. "Tell me do tell me what I have done," said the gentle girl, weeping; "or, is it Ralph? Oh, sir, he cannot have intended to wound you!" แ Ralph!" exclaimed the General, starting up, with a flush of the brow. "Do not speak of him; never let me hear his name on your lips again!" "What? Ralph-never speak of Ralph? You do not mean it. Indeed, I am quite sure, you do not mean it. Not speak of Ralph? Dear General, if he has done anything wrong, let me run for him at once, and he will beg your pardon-oh, how willingly! Not speak of the moonbeams came stealing in around me, making the curtains luminous, like summer clouds-I thought that you must have such heavenly dreams and grateful prayers to God, for giving you power-so like his own that of filling young souls with this seautiful, beautiful joy!" "Ah!" said the General, with a deep sigh; "all this must change, my poor child. I thought yours was but a pretty love-dream, that would pass over in a week." "Oh, do not say that do not say your consent was not real-that you have trifled with two young creatures, who honestly left their hearts all helpless in your hands." Peace, peace," said the old man, standing upright, and speaking with an effort. "I have not trifled with you. I did hope that all this might pass off as such love-dreams usually do; but, I have promised nothing which should not have been accomplished, had not a destiny stronger than my will, or your love, intervened. Lina, you can never be married to my son!" Lina looked in his face-it was pale and troubled ; his eyes fell beneath the intensity of her gaze- his proud shoulders stooped--he did not seem so tall as he was, by some inches. The deathly white of her face, the violet lips parted and speedless, the wild agony of those eyes, made him tremble from head to foot. "Why? oh, why!" at last broke from her lips. near "I promised Alvarez yesterday," said Señor Manuel speaking slowly, whilst a grave smile played about his lips, excited apparently by the red I WAS Commission- | flush which lit up the clear olive of his son's com- "It would," I said, "very well." "Then, Alfonso," continued the merchant, "you will for the purpose of have three horses ready saddled by daybreak, unless establishing a com- you decline accompanying us; in which case, two will mercial agency in of course suffice." A gay laugh from the son as he rose, bowed, and left the apartment, was a sufficient reply. As soon as his shadow disappeared from the open corridor, Señor others who occupy Manuel said, in a confidential sort of way: "The boy has fallen in love, but not so stupidly as I at first supposed." As the merchant spoke, his glance reverted complacently to a recent number of El Crónica de Cadiz, which had previously, I noticed, engaged his "Nothing like so Bay of Cadiz. Dur-stupidly as I had supposed-certainly not. And after ing my unexpectedly prolonged stay there, I became in all, love is the great passion, the irresistible, sentiment, consequence of a rather close intimacy with Señor Manuel, the sublime enthusiasm, the the everything, in short, a principal merchant of that city, to whom I had been in this sunny, superb Spain of ours at least. accredited-involved in a singular affair, the chief inci-morrow, my friend, you shall see a Dulcinea that might dents of which I have thrown together in the following turn all mankind into Quixotes. By San Jago! there is not such a pair of eyes in all Spain as Doña Katerina's!" narrative. I was breakfasting one Sunday morning with Señor Manuel and his son Alfonso, a young man of frank and attention in a remarkable manner. "Doña Katerina! A lady of degree, it seems?" To 15 "No, no," laughed Señor Manuel, as he rose and carefully pocketed El Crónica-" that is only a complimentary way of speaking, you understand. But you shall know all about it to-morrow, the more readily, my friend, that I wish to take your opinion on the subject. But mind, and be here early, as there is a long journey before us. A Dios!" indulged in about love and romance, the charms by which Katerina, whoever she might be, had won his consent to her union with his son, were of a sufficiently tangible and solid kind to be plainly set forth and summed up in his ledger. Atlantic, whose surging murmurs, brought by the odorous south wind, struck faintly and soothingly upon an attentively listening ear. In the season of buds and flowers, the place must have been as fresh, blooming, and fragrant, as the two charming girls, who, with Juan Alvarez, met us at the myrtle-trellised gate. Let The dwelling and grounds of Juan Alvarez were very pleasantly situated at a considerable distance in our It was subsequently deposed that, in the afternoon of favor from San Lucar and the Guadalquivir, but comthis same day (September 26, 1833), one of the numer-manding a fine view of both, as well as of the broad ous groups of busy politicians lounging about the Puerta del Sol, Madrid, and eagerly discussing the recent palace revolution consequent upon the resuscitation of the king, after he had been officially pronounced defunct by the royal physicians, was hastily approached by a middleaged man, very shabbily attired, and further remarkable for a shy, slouching, though half-military air and bear-me here describe these youthful maidens-neither was ing. He abruptly addressed himself to Señor Perez, a wealthy money-broker of Madrid, who appeared to feel anything but honored by the stranger's preferential notice. "You have not heard the news it seems?" said the new-comer, as he dragged the reluctant Perez away by the arm. Señor Perez took the letter offered him, adjusted his glasses, and it was delightful to note the benignant graciousness which gradually overspread his previously forbidding aspect. Scarcely permitting himself to read to the conclusion, he hurriedly exclaimed: "Dead! and so suddenly? Why, then, my dear De Gonsalvo, you are your uncle's heir!" Unquestionably so; but," he added, with a halfashamed glance at his threadbare raiment, "it is not in this guise I should appear at Castello." "Certainly not. You want money, and shall have it. Come with me; yet stay; was there not some talk, many years ago, of the marriage of that rebellious slip of a son, Enrique de Gonsalvo?" "Yes; he married Constancia, an elder sister of Inez de Calderon, Queen Christina's present favorite lady of the palace; but he left no issue." "No issue, male or female? I remember now to have heard so. And since they are both long ago with the saints, you, señor, are the undoubted heir. Bravissimo! Come with me, excellent sir: I will furnish you with any sums you require. Come!" A note to this freely rendered excerpt from the judicial archives of Sevilla adds, that the deponent, Josè Perez, further recalls to mind, upon reflection, that, later in the day when the precited conversation took place, Antonio de Gonsalvo suddenly asked him, if he knew how far it was from Madrid to San Lucar de Barrameda, in Andalucia; to which he, Josè Perez, replied, that he had never heard of such a place, as indeed he never had till within these last few days. I was punctual to the time agreed upon with Señor Manuel; and both father and son being in readiness, we mounted forthwith, and set off at a canter. The weather was delicious, the horses excellent, the roads nowhere impassable, and, as we gaily caracoled along, I became more and more satisfied, from the merchant's thickening hints, that for all the inflated rubbish he had yet eighteen-as I might have done a few hours after making their acquaintance. Luïsa, slightly the taller, and considerably the fairer, was the daughter and only child of Alvarez, whom she, however, did not in the slightest manner resemble: not so much as her companion, Katerina, who did so in some slightly appreciable degree, though, truly, it would have puzzled one to say in what particular feature; and she was no relative of his, nor indeed of any other tangible person, and known simply as Katerina. Juan Alvarez, to be sure, had always given out that she was the stray scion of an illustrious family of the old Gothic blood of Spain, consigned to his care under painful circumstances for awhile, but certain to be ultimately claimed and restored to her rightful position with prodigious éclat and rejoicings. This was a kind of story that would never, under any circumstances, have gone down very well with me; and, in the present instance, the Gothic blood and parentage part of the romance was quite evidently a fiction. If ever there was a damsel of the genuine Andalucian race, Katerina was one. This her hair, complexion, glancing Arab eye, agile, slight, yet warmly rounded figure, quick, gushing susceptibility of temperament, and keen, eager enjoyment of life, unmistakably proclaimed. Luïsa, now, judging from appearances, might have had a smart sprinkling of Gothie blood in her veins. She was fairer than Katerina; her hair, especially, was many shades lighter than the glossy ebony, of Katerina's long plaited tresses; and her feet, though well-formed enough, and by no means excessively large, were of nothing like such delicate symmetry as her companion's. Then her speech and manner, compared with the half-Moorish maiden's, were unimaginative, cold, and formal. Luïsa, in brief, although, it might be, a handsomer person in a strict sense, was certainly not a more lovable one than Katerina, whose charming face showed as many dimples as there were letters in her baptismal name. But I must have done with this damsel-drawing, and turn to Señor Juan Alvarez, a lithe, sinewy, black-eyed, black-haired, sallow, shrewd-faced individual of middle age, of neither repulsive nor prepossessing aspect and manners. I was, moreover, very soon satisfied, as we strolled through his old-world cultivated vine and olive fields, that he possessed neither more nor less of apti tude for business than the generality of his leisure- | being an equally fanatical Exaltado, perished in Vidal's loving countrymen, albeit there would a glimmer now and then shoot forth from his deep-set, cavernous, flurried eyes, which convinced me that he was by no means indifferent in the matter of profit, if obtainable without much personal effort. One thing I rather liked him for he was evidently strongly attached to the orphan intrusted to his guardianship, and tenderly solicitous for her--Katerina's-welfare. But to resume this narrative; I found Alvarez to be in so unbusinesslike a mood, that I was at length fain to conclude that his mind was, for the present, at all events, hopelessly preoccupied with the Alfonso and Katerina marriage affair (which I knew from Señor Manuel, he was extremely anxious to forward and hasten). I was right. Clearly discerning the uselessness of further business discourse, I proposed returning to the house; and we had no sooner done so than the young people, with that singularly intuitive perception-common, I have observed, to all countries-by which, without a word being spoken, they became aware that certain interesting arrangements will be best furthered by their absence, stole quietly off, and I was doing the same, when Señor Manuel caught me by the arm, and said: "I beg you will not leave us. I shall be glad of your advice and assistance in the matrimonial arrangements. My friend Alvarez will, I am sure, have no objection." The quick furtive glance of "my friend Alvarez " said: "Every objection" quite plainly; but as his lips said: "None in the world," I reseated myself, lit a cigar, and assumed a listening attitude. outbreak against the government of Ferdinand, having "You see," began the merchant, with some hesitation, as if hardly knowing at which end of the story to commence "you see-that is, you will presently-that Katerina is not Katerina at all, but Constancia de Gon-hers yet-perhaps never will be, God knows. Well, I salvo " say, my friend Juan, considering these things, comes to "Doña Constancia de Gonsalvo," interposed Juan me and tells this story; which I, of course-for one Alvarez. "Yes, yes, of course. Doña Constancia de Gonsalvo, whose honored parents both died about fifteen years ago-one of grief, the other of gunpowder." 66 Enrique de Gonsalvo," said Alvarez, with dignity, "colonel of cavalry in the forces of the heroic General Vidal, blew himself up rather than surrender to the troops sent against him by Ferdinand, who had dismissed the constitutional Cortes " "Yes, yes; we know all about that," interrupted Manuel, who, unlike the majority of his class, was an Absolutist. "He was a rebel against our lord the king, a setter-up of revolutions, and the end was, that Colonel de Gonsalvo was a dead traitor, his wife and child proscribed outlaws "— 66 No, no-disinherited outcasts, you mean." "Tell the story yourself, friend Juan; you will do it better than I shall. By San Jago! my head always spins round like a humming-top when I think of a sensible man risking his for such nonsense." Juan Alvarez did so, but with so much circumlocution, that I had better perhaps relate its substance in my own words. Colonel de Gonsalvo, the only son of Don Lopez de Gonsalvo, a fanatical royalist, he himself must look at both sides of the cloth before buyingtake time to consider. There is Don Lopez, I reflect, still in the prime of life". "Sixty-four, if he's a day," interrupted Alvarez. "You hear; a man scarcely ageing, and who may live, as I say, thirty or forty years longer. Then there is a varlet of a nephew, who knows, or at least suspects, that the heiress to the Gonsalvo estates is under the care of my friend Juan, and he may give trouble." "He lost his commission of captain of artillery, as I told you, whilst serving at Ceuta, for misconduct, more than a twelvemonth agone. Besides, he will have no right in the matter whatever, and is not worth a real.” "Well, be it as it may, I have made up my mind to brave all chances, in consideration of Katerina's charming qualities, and Alfonso's ardent attachment to her, provided that you, Juan Alvarez, furnish me with incontestable proof that the amiable girl is in very truth Doña Constancia de Gonsalvo, and heiress-presumptive of the estates. If you do this, Juan, it is my wish that the marriage be celebrated without delay." "The proof is easy and conclusive," said Alvarez, as |