on of an only brother. She had received him with complacency on
that account, which had served to increase his ill-fated partiality. She
felt that she could not give one word of encouragement, yet she did not
wish to drive him to despair.

[_NY Weekly_: The Fatal Mistake:

.... That amiable Almena received me with the sweetest complacency,
as the friend of her brother.... Edward's penetration soon
discovered the ill hid partiality....
...
.... neither should she wish to throw me into despair....]

The band of music now began to play in the garden. They commenced with
the celebrated air of the Star-Spangled Banner, and continued playing
different pieces for the space of several hours.

As soon as the music ceased, they left the garden to return home, and
all the people now apparently thronged out of the gates with as much
avidity as they had entered them some hours before. When they arrived at
the dwelling of Alida, they found that the time had whiled away, and
that the evening had progressed to a late hour.

On his way home the mind of Mr. More was absorbed in the following
reflections. "When I told her my affection, the blush was diffused over
her cheek--and the tear of sensibility started in her eye. She evinced
her regard by silent expressions, which she has shown repeatedly in many
proofs of interested friendship, accompanied by the softness of her
winning manners, and the engaging mildness of her disposition. Bonville
is her declared admirer--but he may not be a favoured one. Should he
meet with her approbation at any future time, would not his own fate be
wretched, and the universe would become a blank deprived of the society
of Alida, shaded over with the deepest tints of darkness and
melancholy."

CHAPTER XXIII.

O let me view, in annual succession, my children, friends, and
relatives. Those that in friendship's bonds are linked together
by ties of dear remembrance.

The scene was highly animated, and the days were delightfully pleasant,
when Alida returned with her parents to the country. The showers of
April had cleared the atmosphere and revived the earth with a lively
gaiety. The ice in the bay and river had melted away, and the steamboat
had again began its course. The rumbling water-fall was again heard at
the mill, the pensive stream stole its way through the forest,
reflecting from its lucid bosom the light cloud which dwelt in the
air--floating on the gentlest zeph