hether she will receive her husband I cannot
say, but will hazard an opinion that, should she one day behold him at
her feet imploring pardon, love would overpower all remembrance of
former wrongs. But there's Fred.," added the joyous-hearted girl. "I
must away to meet him."

"Where?" asked Alice, gazing on all sides.

"There, walking down that avenue of poplars!" returned Josephine. "I saw
him some moments since,"--love is so quick-sighted when its object is at
hand, and so abstracted when it is at a distance,--and Josephine hurried
away to meet her lover, leaving Alice to stroll onward by herself.
Presently, Hannah, the servant-girl that Mrs. Sykes, the benevolent
lady, averred had been "bejuggled" from her by Mrs. Orville, came
through the garden at full speed, exclaiming, "Miss Alice, there be a
gentleman in the parlor waitin' to see ye!"

On hearing this message, Alice accelerated her steps to reach the house,
and retired to her room a few moments to adjust her dress before
entering the presence of her visitor.

Reader! that truant-knight, for whom we went in search so long ago, is
found at last.

* * *

Far down "_la belle riviere_" floated the fairy white steamboat on its
winding-way to Louisville, while the joy-groups danced and sung by the
clear moonlight over the airy decks.

And now once more adown the proud-rolling Mississippi, we see that
"floating-palace," the Eclipse, cutting her way through the foamy
waters. How, all day long, the verdure-clad shores smile up to the
clear, cerulean heaven that arches above! And how the moonbeams pour
their silvery light down on the sleeping earth! and all the while, by
night and day, the boat sweeps proudly onward.

Among the hundreds of passengers that roam the decks and guards, we
recognize two familiar faces; and our eyes love to linger on them, for
they are redolent with happiness. One of them is that of the dreamy,
abstracted girl we noticed years ago, leaning over the balustrades of
this same queenly boat as she approached New Orleans. But she was alone
then. Now; a manly form is bending over her, and whispering words we
cannot hear; nor do we need to hear them to know they carry joy to the
listening ear, for her dark eye glows with happiness, as she looks
confidingly in the face of the speaker, and utters something which
brings the same joy-light over his fine, intellectual features.

Now you do not wish us to tel