stares thee in
the face--now that thou must grapple with the sternest difficulties of
adverse fate--thou hast lost the poetry of sentiment which could alone
give to that dream the colours and the form of human life." He could not
again think of that fair creature as a prize that he might even dare to
covet. And as he met her inquiring eyes, and saw her quivering lip,
he felt instinctively that Graham was dear to her, and that the tender
interest with which she inspired himself was untroubled by one pang of
jealousy. He resumed:

"Yes, the last time I saw the Englishman he spoke with such respectful
homage of one lady, whose hand he would deem it the highest reward of
ambition to secure, that I cannot but feel deep compassion for him
if that ambition has been foiled; and thus only do I account for his
absence from Paris."

"You are an intimate friend of Mr. Vane's?"

"No, indeed, I have not that honour; our acquaintance is but slight,
but it impressed me with the idea of a man of vigorous intellect, frank
temper, and perfect honour."

Isaura's face brightened with the joy we feel when we hear the praise of
those we love.

At this moment, Duplessis, who had been observing the Italian and the
young Marquis, for the first time during dinner, broke silence.

"Mademoiselle," he said, addressing Isaura across the table, "I hope I
have not been correctly informed that your literary triumph has induced
you to forego the career in which all the best judges concur that your
successes would be not less brilliant; surely one art does not exclude
another."

Elated by Alain's report of Graham's words, by the conviction that these
words applied to herself, and by the thought that her renunciation of
the stage removed a barrier between them, Isaura answered, with a sort
of enthusiasm:

"I know not, M. Duplessis, if one art excludes another; if there be
desire to excel in each. But I have long lost all desire to excel in
the art you refer to, and resigned all idea of the career in which it
opens."

"So M. Vane told me," said Alain, in a whisper.

"When?"

"Last year--on the day that he spoke in terms of admiration so merited
of the lady whom M. Duplessis has just had the honour to address."

All this while, Valerie, who was seated at the further end of the table
beside the Minister, who had taken her in to dinner, had been watching,
with eyes, the anxious tearful sorrow of which none but her father had
noticed, the low-v