tiful romance
at the end had resulted from my having disregarded her warning to
"beware of foreigners."

* * * * *

There is not much more to tell. I left Baden at the end of the month,
and returned to Paris. Six weeks later I had a letter from Aunt Edith
urging me to come home for her wedding, which would take place prior to
the holidays. The Chevalier Roma had long since become convinced that
his "friend," the consul at Rome, was the key to the whole mischief, but
his suspicions in that direction came too late for him to regain a clue
to Aunt Edith. Several letters sent to her name at New York of course
had never reached her. The surest and quickest way to accomplish his
desire, to prove to the heart he had through so many years cherished how
true and loyal had been his allegiance, how deep and sincere his love,
was the one he had chosen and acted upon with such alacrity.

A few weeks after my aunt's marriage I received the wedding-cards of
Herr Schwager and Miss Kate Barton. After all, merry Kate had accepted a
"horrid German" for her husband, and thereby the truth suddenly dawned
upon my mind that _I_ had been the recipient of the Herr's exceeding
kindness because I was "neighbor to the rose."

MARY WAGER-FISHER.

THE CENSUS OF 1880.

The taking of the census of the United States is, at any time, an event
of national interest and importance. That of the tenth census, in 1880,
will be especially interesting, as marking the completion of the first
century of our declared independence. We shall then ascertain, more
fully and concisely than we have yet been able to do, exactly what
progress has been made in one hundred years by a people left free to
work out its own destiny, alike in form of government and in material,
moral and intellectual development, under no check except its own
self-imposed restraints. The record of such progress ought to be the
most valuable contribution ever made to political, economic and social
science. Whether it shall prove so or not depends chiefly on the manner
in which the essential work is done. It is already time that public
attention should be drawn to this important event, since the law under
which the census is to be taken must, if it shall be at all adequate to
the occasion, be passed by the present Congress.

The United States is the first nation which ever implanted in its
Constitution a provision for taking at regular periods a censu