had been summer. I called for Nellie in the afternoon, and she was ready, and away we went. She looked charming, with her rosy cheeks and bright eyes and sunny hair; and I was happier than ever I had been in my life.

Going out of the village we met Tom Armstrong with his splendid cutter. He looked daggers at us both or at least I thought so; and he went, as I heard afterwards, to invite Sue Nichol to ride with him. As he drove out of sight, I made up my mind to ask the question that would settle everything on our way home.

Man proposes and Heaven disposes. Things happened that evening that I had not thought of. We were going back, in the moonlight, when I put my hand on Nellie's, and made her turn her eyes towards me.

"I had been trying to say something to you for a long while," I said. "Perhaps you guess what it is."

But before I could utter another word my horses became frightened at something, and away they went like mad things. Nellie clung to me and screamed. I did my best to stop them. They left the road entirely and took their way across a field, and striking against a stump the snow had hidden, the sleigh was overturned, and we were thrown out together.

I

I was not hurt; but Nellie lay insensible. lifted her in my arms and clasped her to my bosom, and begged her to open her eyes and to speak one word to me. But she was like one dead, and in my terror I dared not take her home. I carried her, instead, to my sister, who, frightened half out of her senses, came forth to meet me. She took Nellie into an inner room and bade me bring a doctor, and he was there soon.

I spent an hour of agony such as I had never felt before; but at last Jennie came to me, all smiles.

"There is no danger," she said. "She has come to herself; she only fainted from fright. You haven't killed her or even hurt her much, you foolish boy."

And I burst into tears. Jennie bent over me. "But to think that she should be so sly," she said. "A gentleman's portrait in her bosom all this while, and not a word to me of it! I'll punish her for it now."

And away she ran back to Nellie, but my tears were all dried up, and my heart was like gall. She was engaged to some one else, then, this girl who

was so dear to me. Some one had been before me, and she wore his portrait next her heart. Fool that I was not to guess it.

I never asked whose portrait it was-Tom Armstrong's or Jack Mayden's I did not care. When Nellie was well enough to go, in the course of an hour or two, I drove her home and bade her good-by.

I said, "I regret that I should have been the means of alarming you so, Miss Brodie," and she looked up into my face with her great blue innocent eyes, and said: "It was not your fault; you could not help it. I was so foolish to faint away."

And I thought to myself, "what deceitful creatures women are!" for the look she gave me was as sweet as if she had not worn another man's portrait in her bosom.

A week from that day I went to New York, and sought out an old ship-owner, who had been my father's friend.

"I'm tired of farming," I said, "and want to try the sea as a common sailor."

The old man would have laughed me out of the notion; but when he found me firm, he gave me what help he could.

I went on board a vessel bound for China, and wrote to sister Jennie, telling her to send for Uncle William and his wife to manage the farm, which I knew they would be glad to do; but I never told her where I was or what I had done. I meant, you see, to throw myself away, and be heard of no more by any one. Of course, I was mad for the time; that is the only excuse for me.

So I led the sort of life a sailor in the merchant service leads-no very pleasant one I can tell youfor a year or two, and I grew no better for it, and no happier. The other men had mostly some one at home-mother or sister, or wife or sweetheartto get a letter or a message from at times. I, of my own act, had no one. And all the while, at work, or at mess, or in the hours when watch was kept on deck, I thought of Nellie; saw her as she looked when she sat by her father's side in the summer moonlight; saw her with the firelight on her golden hair, beside the winter hearth; saw her smiling up at me, as we whirled through the snow drifts that last bright day, and saw her as she lay like a dead thing in my arms. And fancy painted other picI saw her as Tom Armstrong's wife. I saw her-oh, good heavens !—with his children on her knee !

tures.

frankness and fearlessness which spring from the innocent, happy, and childlike emotions have become utterly alien to us, there will recur passages in every lifetime when the only perfect utterance of the feelings will consist in some lively, fantastic swaying motions which come under the denomination of dancing.

In most of the ancient nations dancing com; posed a part of their religious ceremonials. The Egyptians danced in honor of their god Apis, who symbolized the sun, and moved in circles and evolutions, indicative of sorrow at sunset and rejoicing at sunrise. The whole Greek population met on certain days at the market-place, and joined in hymns of thanksgiving and in dances consecrated to their divinities. In the Jewish records there is frequent mention of dances of a sacred character. Moses and Miriam danced to their song of triumph after the passage of the Red Sea, and David danced before the Ark on its rescue from the Philistines. Among savage tribes, at the present day, dancing is one of the chief observances on all occasions where religious rites are performed.

We read in Homer that dancing as well as reading was customary at entertainments, and, from his time on, the Greeks manifested an extreme fondness for this pastime. It accorded with the genius of this beauty-loving people, and afforded them an ample opportunity to exhibit their graces of person and their elegant action. Aristotle ranks dancing with poetry, and, carrying this idea into a figure, the art has been prettily defined as "the poetry of motion."

The sedate Romans preferred to look upon social dances rather than to perform them, and deemed it derogatory to their dignity to join in its mazes, except in religion. Professional dancers, who were generally slaves, were employed to amuse the company at banquets and private entertainments. It is still the fashion in the East to secure the services of professional dancers on all festive occasions. In Egypt and India dancing-girls are a necessary adjunct to every entertainment.

The religious dances of the ancients may have given rise to the Greek drama, but they cannot be considered the source of the ballet. The first indication which we have of the modern ballet is at the Court of Leo X., in Italy. It was, in the beginning, connected with the crude theatrical exhibitions which took some Scriptural or sacred

theme for illustration. But it soon lost its religious association, and became a purely secular form of amusement. From Italy it spread to other countries, and in the reign of Henry VIII. was introduced to the English Court. Henry himself, and his young daughter, the Princess Mary, found great pleasure in this species of pastime.

When the Great Prior of France and the Constable Montmorency visited Queen Elizabeth, she entertained them with a ballet, the subject of which was "The Wise and Foolish Virgins," and which was performed with elaborate scenic effect by the ladies of the Court. Dancing was a favorite amusement with Francis I., and the fair, frail Margaret of Valois acquired a wide repute for her exquisite grace in its execution. Don John, of Austria, paid a visit to Paris for the sole purpose of witnessing her skill in the art. Louis XIII. was fond of the ballet, and sometimes condescended to tread its measures. Louis XIV. particularly favored the ballet in his youth, and, at the advanced age of sixty-one, appeared on the stage in the ballet of Flora. Masked balls became the fashion under this monarch, and were given with great splendor. After the death of Louis XIV. the Regent estab lished the masked opera-ball, which has since been a notable feature in the dissipated life of Paris. In 1739 a masked ball was given by the City of Paris, on the celebration of the marriage of Mme. Elizabeth with Don Philip, for which fifteen thousand invitations were issued.

In 1765, Almack, the keeper of a fashionable gambling-house in London, opened a magnificent assembly-room in his establishment for the convenience of the lovers of the dance and of the pleasures of gay society. A series of balls was inaugurated at the rate of one a week for twelve weeks. Admission to these balls was procured by a subscription of ten guineas; but the patronage was so great that it soon became an exceedingly difficult matter to obtain tickets, and many applicants of both sexes, whose claims on account of rank and wealth to admission into high circles were not slight, failed to get entrance to the exclusive resort. The popularity of Almack's continued for upwards of seventy years, with brief periods of intermission; but, in 1836, began a final decline, and now its prestige is irretrievably lost. During the last twenty-five years, efforts have from time to time been made to revive the balls, but with indifferent success.

was inhabited by a branch of the same Pelasgic race which settled in Greece; but owing to the peninsular shape of Italy and the barrier interposed by the sea, the intercourse of the two populations soon ceased, and middle Italy yielded to the Etruscans, who had risen to influence and power about the time when Rome was founded. It is probable that the Etruscans were of a northern origin, but little is positively known of their early history. Once settled in the country they soon began to display a fondness for Pelasgic art, as their remains attest, Greek myths being usually

was also apparent in architectural structures, although they had a distinctive character of their own which was displayed for many ages, and which was visible in buildings erected as late as the first century after Christ. The oldest monuments of this Etruscan period are the remains of walls in which great blocks of stone were placed above each other in horizontal strata. In some cases these blocks were reduced to an oblong shape, thus showing progress in art, while in others the blocks were rude and polygonal in form, thus exhibiting an accordance in style with the earliest and rudest