"L'ame doit se roidir plus elle est menacée, "Et contre la fortune, aller tête baissée,

"La choquer hardiment, et, sans craindre læ "mort,

"Se presenter de front à son plus rude effort."

Dearest Catherine, rouse yourself; think only that St. Clair has married, -that his wife is a woman who drags him from the elevated circle of superior minds, to the level of the mass.

-You never loved this man as he really is; -on the contrary, you have been devoted to an imaginary excellence which he does not possess, but which is yet to be found. Suffer your mind to exert itself, and rise superior to your fortune.

I rejoice in the expected arrival of the chevalier Balermo. I read accounts, in every periodical work, of the progress he has made in his discoveries. I am extremely desirous

of seeing him. Do not suspect that this desire will influence my visit to you. Believe me, no additional motive is wanting, when I have the prospect of seeing you.

As to Lockhart,-ha il capo a grilli, as the Italians say; and I think I may defy his utmost ingenuity in the art of tormenting.

Sir Albert will precede my letter. You are still under an injunction of

silence.

ELLA GRAFTON.

CHAPTER XIII.

CATHERINE LOCKHART was not changed. She was precisely the same brilliant, restless, beautiful woman that had captivated Sir Albert Beverley.

Daily he became more devoted to her. Her eccentricities ceased to annoy him. He had overcome the first painful emotion they excited; and in the same manner as the eye becomes accustomed to the personal defects continually presented to it, so he ceased to regard them as deformities.

Perhaps even they gave her an additional interest. There was so much apparent carelessness about her; such an indifference to opinion; an

open defiance of the world, and an independence of action peculiar to herself. Yet this position of mind was so totally distinct from any thing masculine; it was an intrepidity produced by circumstances,

not the rough offspring of a rude and boisterous nature. Her very levity differed from that of others; sometimes it seemed a mockery of herself; the produce of contempt for the world, and of herself who permitted any thing in such a world to affect her. Her wit, in its most playful character, retained the stamp of a despairing heart. Compared with that of people in general, it was the sombre, splendid grandeur of Sicilian amber, contrasted with the flashy gaudiness of the Prussian. The sudden bursts-the breaks-in her countenance, were like flashes of lightning over a murky, yet

grand mass of clouds.-Perhaps this peculiarity-this originality-were, in regard to Sir Albert Beverley, her greatest fascination.

His observation of her became every day more minute. He began fully to understand her weaknesses and deficiencies. These rendered her more interesting rather than otherwise; and perhaps such a feeling is natura]. It seemed to imply a dependance-a helplessness, which was inexpressibly endearing. Her sense of her own foibles operated forcibly, and appealed continually to his heart. He desired to be her protector, and his feelings towards her had more tenderness when he considered his relation to her in that character, than if there had been a perfect equality between them.

Sometimes he deluded himself with