villa, la Cour des Fees a name that had gotten into general use,
though somewhat corrupted in sound.

On the present occasion, the blinds of the principal apartment of the
pavilion were open, and its mistress was still to be seen at one of the
windows. Alida was at an age when the sex is most sensible of lively
impressions, and she looked abroad on the loveliness of the landscape, and
on the soft stillness of the night, with the pleasure that such a mind is
wont to receive from objects of natural beauty.

There was a young moon, and a firmament glowing with a myriad of stars.
The light was shed softly on the water, though, here and there, the ocean
glittered with its rays. A nearly imperceptible, but what seamen call a
heavy air came off the sea, bringing with it the refreshing coolness of
the hour. The surface of the immense waste was perfectly unruffled, both
within and without the barrier of sand that forms the cape; but the body
of the element was heaving and setting heavily, in a manner to resemble
the sleeping respiration of some being of huge physical frame. The roar of
the surf, which rolled up in long and white curls upon the sands, was the
only audible sound; but that was heavy and incessant, sometimes swelling
on the air, hollow and threatening, and at others dying, in dull and
distant murmurs, on the ear. There was a charm in these varieties of
sound, and in the solemn stillness of such a night, that drew Alida into
her little balcony; and she leaned forward, beyond its shadow of
sweet-brier, to gaze at a part of the bay that was not visible, in the
front view, from her windows.

La belle Barberie smiled, when she saw the dim masts and dark hull of a
ship, which was anchored near the end of the cape, and within its
protection. There was the look of womanly pride in her dark eye, and
haply some consciousness of womanly power in the swell of her rich lip,
while a taper finger beat the bar of the balcony, rapidly, and without
consciousness of its employment.

"The loyal Captain Ludlow has quickly ended his cruise!" said the maiden
aloud, for she spoke under the influence of a triumph that was too natural
to be suppressed. "I shall become a convert to my uncle's opinions, and
think the Queen badly served."

"He who serves one mistress, faithfully, has no light task," returned a
voice from among the shrubbery that grew beneath and nearly veiled the
window; "but he, who is devoted to two, may well despair of s