of that. Perhaps it contains something that I
ought not to see?"

"Perhaps it does. Oh, no," she whispered in his ear; "but Aunt Dorothy
will sneer so at it."

The old man was too much pleased with his child to care for Aunt
Dorothy. He knew, of old, that her bark was worse than her bite; that
she really loved both him and his daughter; but she had a queer way of
showing it. And unfolding the paper, he read aloud, to the great
annoyance of the fair writer, the fragment of a ballad, of which, to do
him justice, he understood not a single word; and had he called upon her
to explain its meaning, she would, in all probability, have found it no
easy task.

LADY LILIAN.

Alone in her tower, at the midnight hour,
The lady Lilian sat;
Like a spirit pale,
In her silken veil,
She watches the white clouds above her sail,
And the flight of the drowsy bat.

Is love the theme of her waking dream?
Her heart is gay and free;
She loves the night,
When the stars shine bright,
And the moon falls in showers of silver light
Through the stately forest tree.

And all around, on the dewy ground,
The quivering moonbeams stray;
And the light and shade,
By the branches made,
Give motion and life to the silent glade,
Like fairy elves at play.

And far o'er the meads, through its fringe of reeds,
Flashes the slender rill;
Like a silver thread,
By some spirit led,
From an urn of light by the moonbeams fed,
It winds round the distant hill.

When sleep's soft thrall falls light on all,
That lady's eyes unclose;
To all that is fair
In earth and air,
When none are awake her thoughts to share,
Or her spirit discompose.

And tones more dear, to her fine-tuned ear,
On the midnight breezes float;
Than the sounds that ring
From the minstrel's string,
When the mighty deeds of some warrior king
Inspire each thrilling note.

* * * * *

"So there's a hole in the ballad," said the old tar, looking up in his
daughter's blushing face. "Julee, my dear, what does all this mean?"

"It would be a difficult matter for Miss Julee to explain," said Aunt
Dorothy.

Further remarks on either side were stopped by the announcement of
Colonel Hurdlestone, and his son and nephew