The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

/ BJilLlNDA: A BEAUTY I CHAl'TEB I. -V- flnuft Marii IlIB WINK IS THE Gliil'B-rLCiWKIl. Spaia or C)-pli*in? A brtnd new CUphtm villa, all dubl, dol- nSH, »ud decorum, with "Mr. Au;jU3tud ' Jooud " upou the brand-new door-pUt:;. Adrtwiu|{-rooai, like une'd lif-.opprodBively , ' $tiS aud iiainteredting, diiiiu;{-rooin to xnatub. Iiuabaad to niatcli, everytli'.u); to taatcii I FiuH Bruddtsld carpet* beueatb Ooe'afoot, a aua pondesaiuKiiii warmth and cheurfulneuii of a farthiut; riidli lij^bt over- Itead. tiervautd to wan upon one a:id con- â- ame oiitt'd uieaua; a bruiij{bam, perhapd, &earin;i tli ; Jonedcoat-of-ariiisaudliveribd; indiiipatablt) respectability, iiididpatablu â- ppearance â€" value, how much of dolid giod to ouu'u ael(?â€" well ninintaiiieil. Aouude- jneat, pleasure, play, the ijuiok-courtiag blooi, iho jollity, the "go" of cxisteuue, S0v7>'iere. Su much for Clapham ! AnJ Sjiaiii ? Spain, jabt acrosi Ilia Pyre- need ihore â€" Spain, from whence tbd warm trind bluwd on Beliuda'd Ihm at thid xnomautâ€" what of that ulternative? Au unintereatiug husband to mart with, no mnah in common has futurity'd chauoea lx>th;butuot a stiff, not a dull one. A al little hamar/ creature in the main is ria Joso de tieballos, wioe merchant and commiiaion axent of Seville, unburdened, 'tis true, by aupertluity of intelleot, but light of dlep in walt>: or oauhuoa, and aiug- inn tenor love sougd padsably; hit swarthy fingerb toj be-rioged, his swarthy locks too ber^amolud for the very finedt taste; hia diet ovurtaadiu){ Bomewhat toward garlic; and Bill, it but by virtue of his Hpauiah niataroB(|auuead, less vulgar far than Mr. Au)<uitua Jones of Clapbam. Whit would life bo by his side? la the Tifdt place, thinks Beliada, sagely, liie, did on j uitrry the littleSevillian, need no; of necessity be patsbd at his side at all. Maria ,To9o would naturally have to look after hia agency business, travel to distant coaatriea for wine orders, take his pleasure, as Kpaniah gentlemen dc, in c'.ab or cafe, Jeaviotf his wife free. Freeâ€" in a flat in a Seville street; no appearance to keep up; no roipectability ; a tiled il )9r instead of Brusield carpet beneath ono'a feet ; not a hops of brougham or liveries this side of heaven -but free! The good warmthgiviu^; â- an of Spain overhead; a hundred swoiit didtraclianii of dauoe and tortuiia to count the days by ; bull fiifhta, theatres, and muaio for onus Huudayd; enjoyment, in short, the rule, not the exccptio.i of life, and with only Maria Jo le, who, after all, â- taaia comparieuu with Mr. Augustus •TonoB right well, for drawbadi. liuUuda croidiH her aruu, shikes lior head philosophic >lly, yawnii a little, then oaata herself full length on tli^j turf, in un« of thota attitud<-H uf delicu'ii southern Ity.iaom which Murillo's bi''.;^ar children have made familiar to us, and, ga/ing up tbroogb the branches of the curk trees at the intense Huiiltblne of the sky abjve, begini to meditate. Sunburnt as t mai:^e-lield io Jun*, uu- •haoklud bo lily and mentally by rule as any young gitaiia who roims the mounttiiis yonder, throui;h what conlratictory whim of fortune came Bolinda O'dhea by this hii^h-sounding name of hers? Anamo reminding one irreaiatibty of the ir^uik and milletlnur of bnudoirs, of Mr. Po|.. J verii'^B, china teaonpn, roui{H, pearl powlor artilloel She will hi 17 in a month or two, but pos eaaea few of the theoretli: cliarina assigned by poets and novel writers to tlitt age. Iliir hands and feet arodisproportionably large for hersleu- <i«rli:nbi4, herwaiat ia straight but forinlesa, her giit and geatures are niasju'.ineâ€" no, not that oitlvr, tooyod that can real a. right the ){irl is at full of potential womanly face as the Krapi llowrr of iviiie; and still dare not call her " feminine," as people of tho north or of citien underKtarid the wcrd. She can play paume, the national Ilad(|ue fives or rackets, with any gamin of herataluruin St. Jean deLu:: ; in the excite- menl «f the iiport will sbuw hot b'.ooj like her comrades -djcasionally, indeed, say, at some disputed point of a let match, will bo tempted into using a vt.ry mild Ijamia's expletive or two ; she ntn row, she can swim, ehe can whistle. Uut through her great, <iark eyes, poor, forxaken Itulinda, the softest girliah sonl louka out at you Vith pathetic incongruity, and though hur Voiabulary bo nut choiru, aha po»uaaes Heaven's great gift to her ae\, a distinctly, eiiellently funiinine voice. Ot her possible beauty at some f.itura time v:s will not now â- P'lak. Bhu is in the chrysalis or hobbluilv- hijy staKe, wli-n you may any day nv a skinuy, hhUow, ugly dnoliiing uf a girl turn into a protty one, like a trniiiiformation in â-  (^brisiniaa piece. ICyca, month, fiiet, hanilii all look ti .> big lor Ilelinila at pres- ent ; and as to her raimimf li> r t>tttered fruok, her uudaroed â€"no, I ihusl i ualiy enter a littl'i u[>on tlmantecodciituuf my lieroine's life bofoiM I make known theau details in all the disgraceful nakednuas of fact to the pabllo To begin with, the bloo I of earls and kings (lliburnitn kings) runs in liei vtins. Ilirmuther, tb>i Lady Kli-.tbuth Vaiisittart, fifth daughter of the Karl of I.iakeird, at the romtiitio ago of 11, foil in lovewitli anil married a i:«rlain fascinating Irish spemt- thrilt. Major CoriiKiiuH O'Shea, whom she met auiidentally at a Scarborough ball ; endured tho ncghMit, and woraethan neglect, of her handsome hiiaband, fur llui space of two years ; thtDi happily tor herself, pour â- oul, died, leavtDg(7ornuliua the father nt one baby daugbtsr, the lielinda of this lit- tle history. Why Major O'Shea, an eaav-t'jmpered, -easy-principled aoldic r of fortune, no longer himSMlf in the freshest bluiiiii of youth- why (I'Hhea in the llrsl iMtanoe should havo been at the pains to WOO the t-IJnrly I^ady Kli/ibeth no one OOlfld tell.e.xcepi that she ti'</j Lady Kli;:abetn and that in- terest, that ii/nii /•ituu.i of ruined innn, mi|(lit bo aupposed to lie dormant in the liarl, her fath.T's family. Whateyor his motives, whatever hia matrir.niiial di.tap poiDtincii'.a, the Major, even hii boat friends allowed, behaved hi insulf creditably on his wife's do»th. Wore a hand that all but covered his hat, swore never nga' j to tuiieh a card or dice box (nor broke hit oath for tlires weeks) ; and wrote a letter full not only o( pious, but well-worded tontimeiits to did father in-lawâ€" from whom, deapite many touching alliisiona to tho infant pled.;e left bohind by tbcir sainted I :ii>!abeth, ho noeWad, I innst say, bat a curl and pom- pous do;2dn lines in lefly. Then, liis duties ua a widower discharged, loraelius cast about him to see bo# be sbculd best perform those of a f athsr. The sum of 13,000, Lady ICIizabeth's slender fortane, was settled inalienably on the child. " Me little one is not a pauper entirely," O'Shea would say, with tears in his good-looking Irish eyes. " If Providence in its wisiom should be pleased to uiga my recall to-mor- row, me angel Belinda would have her mother's fortune to stiind between her and starvation." And so till she had reached the age of seven " me angel Beliuda " was indifferently boarded, at the rate of iibout 140 a year, and no holidays in a Cork con- vent. Then O'Shea brought his face and lineage oncd more to the marriage market, on this occasion winning no faded scion of nobility, but tho still blooming widow of a well-to do London lawyer, and Belinda, for the first time since her birth, had to learn the meaningâ€" bitterer than sweet, poor lit- tle mortal, in her caseâ€" of the word home. Before she bad baen a week under the roof of her father and his now wife, the iron of cold neglect, shar(ier to a child's sensitive nature than any alternation of harshness and affection, had entered her soul. The second Mrs. O'Shea was a woman whom all the ladies of her acijuaiutance called " sweet " â€" you know the kind of a human creature she muat be? A blonde skin, the least in the world inclined to freckle, blonde hair, blonde eyelashes, eyes of a dove, voice of a dying zaphyr. A sweet little woman, a dear little woman, an ad- mirably well-dressed, and, what is more, a well-conduftfd little woman, but â€" not fond of childern. Nothing could more beaati- fully beUt her character and the occasion than her conduct toward her small step- daughter. " I should never forgive myself if the poor darling grew op without regard- ing me as a mother," said Mrs. O'Shea, not wholly forgetful, perhaps, that the poor darling cjuld call the Karl of Iiiak<-ard grandpapa. " And, though the Major is so sadly ladirfereut, on the m'wt I il<if of all subjects, I feel it my duty to bring bor at once under Protestant in- lUieuces." But the Protestant influences established a grim Loudon nurse in a London back-nuraery ; the discovery made, too, that obdurate aristocratic connections were in no way to be softened through the child's agenoy-and Belinda, on the score of love, could scarce have fared worse bad she been one of the gutter children whom she watched and envied, through the prison - bars of her window, down in the court below. Had she bsen ornamental, the bolls of life nli^ht have broken differently for her; a rcbi-and- white tla.\-'n cuile<l puppet sit- ting beaide another roae and-while tlaxen- chignoiied puppet in a brougham, being scarcely lets attractive, thoU)ih on the whole more troublesome, than a good breed of pug. But uliu was very far in- dued from urusiii>mtal ; a skinny, dark coniple\ioned child, with over- big eyes looking wistfully from au ovt-r-amall face, and huir cropped c1:}h^ to the head, coupe a rdsiiir, acci)r.tiii|{ to French fashion often atloptedfortheyounger children in some Irish convents. And so, pII fortuitous acaideuts working together and a^ainat her, Belinda was left to atarve! Her small body nouri- shed on the acouNtomeit roast mutton anil rice pudding of the I'^ngliah nursery, and S3al â€"eager, fervent, hungry little soul thai it was left to starve Khu tried, uiipellcd by the potent iiecea sity of loving there was in her, to love her nurses. But Mrs. O'Shea's was a house hold in wLich, iiotwithNtandiug the sweet ness of the iniatress, the women servants shifted as perpetually as the characters in a pautdmime. If Keliiida loved a Harsh unu month, kIih iiiiist pnrforcu love a Mary the next, anil then a now Sarah, and then a Hannah. Hlie tried, casting longing eyes at them from her iron hound prison-win dows, to love the iieiijhboring gutter childrenâ€" h» ly gutter children, free to make the moat of such grimy fractions of earth and aky as fate had yielded iheni ! Sim tri-'il -nil, • Ifort was nut needed le-re; with all the iMi^ht if lntr iinlunt, keenly- Htriiiig nature, Belimla, tliniUKliuiit those early years of isolation and neglect, loved her father. Little onuugh she saw of him. O'Shea had come into a fortune of suiue thirty or furty thouaind pouuds liy his second iiiariiage, and was spendingit like a man. (Like a muiiBter! Mrs. O'Shea would de- dare pitooudly, when the inevitable day of reckoning had overtaken them. VVould she over have consented to a brougham and men Mnrvanls mid Sunday dinners Sun- day tJinners with her principlesâ€" if she had known that Major O'.SIiea was a pauper, not worth tho coat he waa married in!) Occasionally, twice in three inoiithB,pi.rh»pa, tho fancy would strike (!oriielins to lounge, his pipe in his iiioiith, into the child's nnrsjry fura^iim. ofronipa. Occasionally, after entertaining some extra line friends at dinner, pi<rhapa he would bid the serviinls bring Misa O'Shea down to dessert, ehitlly it would aeeni hut lli'limla was happily indiscriininalivB for the opportunity her pri'Honco aflordod of airing his connection with Iho I'.arl of Liskeard's family. On a few bliaafnl Sunday e throughout th« year he would take her out for a walk through the parks. I his waa all- tho solo approach to parental lovo that hrightenod llelinda's lonely child's life; and ns years went on even this scant intercourse between O'Shea and hia daughter lesseneil. Difliculties inultiplieil around ttieman; truths of many kinds dawned upon the poor pink-and- white fuel whose Hubatancu ha had wasted. UucriminationB, long abiences, cruel le- trenchments of oxpenilitiiro, falling off of fair weather friends, all followed in natural sei|nenco. And tho i came the crash in earnest; Holinda's pittanco their only cor. tain support for tho future! Tho house in May t'air inuat bo exchanged for one in Bayswater, the house in llayswater must givoplaoolii lodgings: the lodgings from " elegance," so called, muat aiiik to reapect- ability; respectability to eighlaen shillings a week, no extras, and dirt and discomfort unliinitod. Belinda, instead of roast iiiiittun and rice puddim;, must eat whatever I'lihl scraps chanced to be over from yester- dav's meals, and no pudding at all ; insleikd of yawning over l''rench verbs, or thrum inlng BciiloB on the piano, must run errands, niena olothus, crimp chiogiions, plait false tresMf, and generally make herself the milliner, lady's maid, and dradga of her stopmamma, llosa. Barring tho halr-dresaing duties, which, Hoeing tho strait to which they were re. ducod, goaded her to doperation, 1 snonld say the oh^n^e ot /ortune affected the girl's spirits but lightly. Children of a certaio age rather like catastrophes that out them adrift from all old landmarks, so long at least Ui the catastrophes wear the gloss of newness. Belinda, by temperament, craved change, movement, action of an y kind, and of these she bad far more in Bohemia than in Balgravia. She bad also more of her father I Not a very desirable acijuisitioo, one wouldsay, viewing matters with the eyes of reaaon ; but Belinda, yoo see, viewed them with eyes of love â€" euor- moas difference. Cornelias descended the ladder of life with a philoaophic, gentlemanly grace, that added the last drop of bitterness to Mrs. O Shea's cup. It waa not the first ex- perience of tbe kind, it must be remembered ; and so long as abundant alcoholic: resource fail not, 'tis curious with what ease men of his stamp get naed to these little social vicissitudea. O'Shea had worn a thread- bare coat, had frequented a tavern instead of a club, had drunk gin and water instead of claret aud champagne, before this, and fell back into the old, well-greased groove of insolvency almost with a sense of relief. Belinda, who coold see no evil in what she loved, tboaght papa's resignation sub- lime ! Hid dross from shabbinesa degenerated to something worse, hia nose grew redder, his hoars and his gait alike more uncertain. In Belinda's eyes he was still the best and dearest of lathers, the moat incomparably long-suffering of husbands. " Rose must have her chignons crimped, mast pat on her pearl powder and her silk dresses, just as if we were rich, still," the girl viuuld think with tho blind injustice of bor age, " while papa, poor papa, wears hia oldest cloth' sand broken boots; yes, and will sing a song at times to his little girl, and he gay and light-hearted through it all." And the wisdom of the whole wr'ld would not have convinced her that -oere could be courage, of a kind, in Hose's crimped chignon and silk dresses, aud cowardice â€" that worst cowardice which springs from tho apathetic deapair in her father's greasy coat aud broken boots and gin-and- water joviality ! The truth was this : Cornelius knew that hia last trick waa made. Hose that she bad the possibility of one still in her hand â€" a certain Uncle Robert, crasty, vulgar, rich, " living retired" in hia own villa at BromptoD. Very different would Belinda's story have turned oul had this uncle chancel to be an aunt. Tbe old lady never lived who ooiild resist the blandiahmentaof Cornelias O'Shi a when ha willed to fas- ciuale Upon the coarse, tough heart, the hardened, unbelieving ears of Uncle Robert, tbe riahman'a sentiments, repen- tance, touching allnaionseven to honor and hi^li lineage were alike wasted. Roaie had chosen to throw herself avay npon a scoundrel. Don't talk to him about birth ; Uncle Robert called a man a gentleman who acted as a gentleman. Rosie, poor fool, had made her bed and must lie upou it â€" fur Uncle Robert's language waa no less coarss than hia intelligence. Still, let her come to want, let the scoundrel of a husband decamp, take his worthless pre- sence to any other country he chose, and keep there, and the door of I'ncle Rotert's bouse would never be closed against his sister's child. And as the old man had not another Bear relation apon tbe face of the earth, Mrs. R^m-j knew pretty well that, O'Shea's disappearance once compassed, not only would the door of I'ncle Robert's house, but a fair obanca for a place in Uncle Robert's will, xland open to her. A laa' card, I repaat, was to be played by Mrs. O'Shea. Sue played it wellâ€" with that instinctive knowledge of male hnman nature that you will find in the very shallowest fuuiiuine souls. Uncle Robert was a democrat to the back bone; tittle- tattle fruni the bloated up()er ten must oonao.juently be distasteful to him, were it but as proof of his own radical theories ; and Rose t>oulil prattle to him by the hour together about her lady's card debts, and hJM Kraco's p-ei;*ddloo«, and her poor dear U'Si, lilt's iutiiiiate connection with the aridlocraiiy. < I ucle Robert was as proud of his purse as any self-made man in Kuk^laiid. Nothing swelled him with the righteous sense of solvency like the sight of another's pauperism; still for Ai< niece to have appiaretl diacroditably dressed before the servants, a [loor relation in all the galling indecency of a merino gown or mended gloves, would have exasperated the old man beyond measure. So Rose took excellent care to do her pauperism gen- toelly. In the most scrupulously neat silk dressâ€" "the last of all my pretty things. Uncle Kubtrt. Oh, if you knew -can we poor women help being foolish.' -if you knew how drHadlnt it is to one to >tive up the rellnenients of life! "â€" in the moat be- coming attire, 1 say, that women could wear, this simple creature would pay her huiiiblo, tearful conciliatory visits to the Hrompton villa, and seldom return with- out a oris i pieoa of pap-jr, never entirely empty handed, to the bosom of her family. .Vi last, ono line spring morning, came an overture of direct recunciliatiou couched ill the plainest pusaihie language, from Uncle Robert's own lips. Let Major O'Shea betake himself to America, one of the colonies anywhere out ot Kiiglaud that ho chose, sulemiily swearing to keep away during tho space of two yearn at least, and Uncle Itohert not only promised to reoaive ba k his nieoe to preside over his house and sit at tbe head ot his table, but to pay O'Shea the sum of three hundred pounds before hia departure. Knongh, sorely, to last, if tho man had a man's heart within his breast, until snoh time as he could gain a decent independence for himself by work. Cornelius was absent from home, that is to say, from their dingy lodgings, for the time being, when this occurred ; had been absent more than a fortnight, Ueavon knows on what luisaion- 1 believe ho called it tho Doncnater Spring Meeting to hia wife and daughter. He returned late that samo evening, rather more hiccoughing of speech than usual, and with just sixpence short for the payment of his cab-hire in hia pocket. Riii-ia broke the news ot her uncle's proffered generosity as O'Shea sat drink- ing his hot gin-andwater after supper, Belinda mending a vory torn stocking with very long stitoliea at his side. "Of course it is impossible," sighed Mrs. O'Shea, with tears In her meek eyes. " I feel il a duty to mention the proposal, if only to Bhow the Christian spirit of my relations ; but of coarse aaoh a aeparatlon would ba impossible." " ImposBible, Rosel" sighed O'Shea, bis sodden face brightening. Of so fine and discursive a nature was the creature's hopefulness, that the bare mention of three hundred pounda and of being rid of bis domesticities saSiced to inspire him with the visions of a millionaire. "Who talks of impossible? Ami the man, d'ye think â€"is Cornelias O'Shea the man to let his own paltry feelings atand between his family and proaperity?" And in lesa time than it takes me to write, husband a^d wife had made up their minds heroically to tbe sacrifice. The details were not diffioalt to agree apon. Cornelias would seek his fortane in America, " tbe best country on earth for a man of resolution and ability." Poor, semi-widowed Rose took refuge at Bromp- ton. Belinda, with the haadrod^ and twenty pounds a year derived from her mother's fortane, might be considered independent. She should be sent to some moderately expensive boarding-school for the next two years, the term of her father's baniahment, and Uncle Robert had con- siderately said that she might look upon hia house as her home during the mid- summer aud Christmas holidays. Belinda independent, Cornelias put upon his lega and offered his freedom, aud Rose restored to a pew in church, fine clothes, and livery servants. What a toach of tbe magician's wand was this! Next day was Sunday. Major O'Shea dyed his whiakers, which ho had suffered to grow gray onder the cold shade of poverty, brushed aphis coat, pat on a pair of lavender gloves, and lounged away the afternoon in the park, his hat as rakiably set on hid head, his whole air jaunty aa in the palmiest days ot his youth. Madame after duly attending morning service â€" for was it not her first duty, said Rosie, her eyes swimming, to offer thanksgiving for her own and her dear O'Shea's good fortune?â€" madame, after attending morn- ing service, betook herself to Brompton, and employed the remainder of the day in talking over events and planning a thousand agreeable domestic comforts for herself with Uncle Robert. Belinda, poor little fool, cried herself white and sick with passionate grief. She did not want respectability, or boarding achools, cr a home in the holidaya. She wanted all she loved on earth, her' worthless old father, and was to lose biin. " We really have very different ways ot showing our affectioa," said Mrs. O'Shea, when she returned well dressed, blooming, full of hope in the future, and foand the child crouched down, dinnerless, dirty, her faoe distigured and swollen with tears, beside a tireless hearth. " I suppose I shall suffer, more than anyone else by voar papa's absence, bat I do \e\at it riijkt. I do not embitter the thorny path of duty still more to his feet"â€" Rosie had always a flne, tlorid style of metaphor ot her own when she tried to talk grand â€" " by useless tears and lainantatious." From that night until tho final sep- aration, scarcely more than a week, Belinda kept her feelings better under control. She worked a little parse in secret, upon which you mav be sure many a salt tear fall, put in it all her slender hoard ot pocket money, and pushed it into her father's not unwilling hand on the day of his departure- instinct telling her what kind of gift would to Cornelius ba the wel- come token of filial love. 'When the su- preme moment of parting bad arrived, she clung to him, shivering, tearless, dumb ; while Rosie, whose only fooling was one of cheerful relief, cried almost to the verge of unbdcomingness, and uttered every imagin- able wifely platitude about the heart- rending cruelty of the situation, and tho dreadful, dreadful pain that her devotion to duty and to her husband's interesta was 'coaling her. Then came tho removal to Brompton ; fine rosewood and mahogany, excellent dinners, city frienda. Uncle Robert's vul- gar, purse-proud talk- all, it would seem, very tasteful to Mrs. O'Shea. And then, loss than a twelve mouth after Belinda felt the last kiss ot her father's lips, came a New York paper, directed iu a strange hand, to Uncle Robert, and containing tbe bald annoanosmenl of Cornelias O'Shea's death. Tho poor, little girl, away at a second-class Brighton boarding-school, was summoned home in haste ; tho blinds of the Brompton villa were drawn decently close for four days, and partially lowered on the fifth, or imaginary funeral day ; Roaie, for the second lime iu her life, veiled her sorrow under the most bewitching weeds. Uncle Robert talked abonl tho mysterious ways of Providence, k»pi the corners of his mouth well down before the servants, and ere a week w.ta over had made a new will leaving every shilling he piissossod at th I unconditional diaposal of nis dear niece. Rose. O'Shea, in short, in dying had csmmitted by far the best action ot his half century of life, and everybody In his house knew it. Everybody but Belinda ! Nature baa compensation for us allâ€" gives a neglected little daughter to love, to mourn, even a Cornelius O'Shea. Fieroer than ever grew Belinda's rebellion now against Unola Uobort'a smart furniture, dinners, butler, all of them bought, she would say, her dark eyes tlashing firo through her tears, bought with papa's life. If they had not driven (lapa away from Kngland he bad not died, nor she been desolate 1 Let them send her away -anywhere on the face ot the earth that was nor Brompton. Yes, she would go to school abroad to Boulogne, Berlin, as they chose. Onlyâ€" patketio stipulation for her age â€" let her remain away until she was old enough to see after herself in life, unaided, and let her have no holidays. And a charmingly opportune chance of gralilyiiig tbe girl's perverpo fancies was not long in presenting itself. Sedulously reading throuiihthe eduoational columns of tho Timri, Rose one morning, with a lighting of the step-maternal bosom, oame npon tbe following : IUKKOI'lMllTlNUV lOB IMKENTS AND OUARDl.lNS : " A lady of literary attainments, Booially nnencumbered, and entertaining advanot-d ideas aa to the higher culture and destinies of her sex, offers her society and infiuenoe to any young girl of good birth, for whom improvement by con- tinental travel may be desired. Terms moderate, aud paid invariably in advance. Ileferenoes exchanged.'' By the next post, Mrs. O'Shea and the lady holding advanced ideas wero in com- munication. They interviewed each other ; they exchanged opinions on the destiny of tho aex ; they exchanged reteronorj. After ' some battling, the oommercial part of tha transaction was broutfht to a satisfactory close, and Belinda, sullenly submissive to anything that divided her from Roe*. Brompton, and unols Robert, made her next great step in life. Tbe name of her new preceptress (ot whom more hereafter) was Bi:<-ke, Miaa Lydia Burkeâ€" a name not unknown to fame either in the speech- makioti or book- making world. And under, or often with- out this lady's care, Belinda's " caltare " has been progressing up to the present time; no material change occurring meaa- wbile at Brompton save Uncle Robart'a death, which took place about three months before the date at which this little history opens. Some smalteriut; of languages thia girl, drifting hither and thither over Earope, has picked up ; some music and dancing ot a vagrant kind ; a good deal of prematore acqaaiutance with human nature; lite opened, I fear, at somewhat tattered pagea of her class, book ; ne>>lect, not invariably the worst educator, for her master. A socially uoencambered ladv, bent on correcting the mistakes made by her sex during the past six thousand years, and with the higher destinies of the future at her soul, could scarcely have time to waste on the one unimportant auit immediately beneath her eyes. In few minds are broad- ness of vision and capacity for small da- tails coexistent. The mind of Mies Lydia Burke was ot the visionary or far-embrao- ing order â€" an order quite beyond the wretched details of fawn dresses and darn- ing needles. Nowton forgot his dinner hoar; could a Misa L)dla Burke be expected to notice the holes But this brings me baok exactly to tbe point at which a certain pride in my poor little heroine forced me iato retrospeclion â€" the holes in Belinda's stockings. CHAPTER II. AMUBualU, CASH. It is out too obvious that they are a hap- hazard, unlawful pair. Belinda darns not, neither does she aew. Her clothes go an- ooanted to the washer-woman, and return or do not return as they list; by nainral processes of selection, auch as are of tougher fibre than their fellows survive and oome together in the end, irrespective of any primitive differences in color or design. Of these stockings that she now wears, one being grey, the other brown, both ragged, it would indeed be hard to conjeotare the original stock ; nor is their incougrnooa effect lessened by a well-worn pair of the sandals of the country, c>/>tir</ufrfii,iu BaB(|ae Sarlance, linen slippers, roughly embrot- ered in scarlet, aud bound high above the initep by worsted sandals. Her frock is of rasty black, texture iudescribable ; her hat of unbleached coarse straw, so batlered oat of shape that one muat see it on a human head to recogui/.:<it aa a hat al all. And she wears liar hair in plaits, tight, hideooa plaits, lied together al tbe ends, according to the fashion of the Spanish peasants, by a piece ot fraved-out, onoe Kreen ribbon. Spam or Clapbam? Utising herself lazily from the sward-such mixtures of dust aud lifeless slock as here in tbe south we dignify by the name of sward â€" Belinda, after several more yawns, draws forth from her rattled pooket a letter, writ- ten on sea green Euglish note paper, that must certainly have cost the slender double postage, and in a characterless Utile board- ing-schuol ladies' hand : " JSiy dearust Beliuda." " Dearest â€" fur her to call me ' dearest 1' when papa himself used to thiuk ' my deskr little girl ' sufficient ! But Rose must be a byprocrite. even iu writing." " Yoa will be surprised, and i hi<pe pUated, to hear that 1 am coming all tlie way to the south of Franca to see you. 1 am sure, when 1 lock al St. Jean de Vi\xi on the map, it quite takr>a my breath away. I have always had a horror o( the Ba) ot Biaoay, and can never sleep iu the train as moat (wopledo, and then 1 atu such a cov/ard about strange beds ! But of courae Speuctr will ba with me, and as there have been several cases of smallpox cloae al baud, aud 1 am so f riKhtenetl at>out it, Dr. Pickiiey says the wisest thing I can do is to pack up my boxes and run. I have been vacci- nated three times, and althout^h the doctore say not, I tbink it always took a Utile. I do hope there is no smallpox about in the south. It you have not been va.;ciuated already, you mii{ht get it done as a pre- caulioQ before 1 arrive. I trust, dear, yoa will find me looking pretty well. I am in mourning still, but ot course slight, for poor Uncle R)bert has been dead three months; indeed, the milliners scold mo for wearing it any longer. But I oon- sult feeling, not fashion, in such things, and what can bu more beixoming than pale laviuulur silk richly trimmed or a white Sultana poIotiaia-< e>li;ed with black velvet and a tier^ fringe ! 1 wish I knew whether hats or bonnets were best etyle iu foreign watering-places. I have written to ' The Queen ' to aak, but I am afraid 1 aball not get the answer before I atari. Nothing ia seen in London bnt those large flat crowns, which never suited me ; and tho Dolly Vardena have got so dreadfully common ; Really, aa I often aav to Spencer, dress ia one long trial. Were it not for those I love, I woald- but this ia a subject on which I dare not trust myself to speak. My dearest Belinda, I shall have news to teU you when we meet, ef ihe most deeply in- teresting nature, affecting (he future of m lio:h, 1 am ^lad >ou have made aoiuain- tance with Augustus Jones, lie ia a prime favorite of mineâ€" iuiieed, he iiiil make me oorreapoua with himâ€" young men are so fool- ishâ€" and, aa I tell ihem all, au oil woman like me ! What you say about hia ' vul- garity' is something ridiculous. How con il matter whether his father sold (latent stoves or not '! Has a young man money ? llow was hia inouey made ? is the question ths world asks. I only hope he will be still at St. Jean de l,uz when I arrive, which may be almost as soon as thia lelti'r. Present mv complimoDta to our excellent friend, Miia Burke, and believe ma your own affectionate mamma, " RosK. " I*. 8. â€" Augustus Jonea has a villa at Clapham, elegantly furnishedâ€" everything in the first style ! I have often dined there in hia father's time with poor dear llncla Robert. Augustus will be an excellent parti, I can assure you, Belinda, for any girl who may be fortunate enough to win him." (To be Conlluaed). ^^ There ia only one way to eat com off a oob, and that is to lake the ear in your hand. Holding tho ear down with yoor foot and gnawing ihe corn off is tabooed in mannerly society. â-º h M