ht seem somewhat of coquetry in her manner; but very
little observation would show, that such unerring gracefulness cannot be
the result of mere practice, and that, innate character had assumed that
garb which best suited it, and not one to be merely worn for a
season. Her accent, too, when she spoke English, had enough of foreign
intonation about it to lay the ground for a charge of affectation; but
he should have been a sturdy critic who could have persisted in the
accusation. The fear was rather, that one leaned to the very fault of
pronunciation as an excellence, so much of piquancy did it occasionally
lend to expressions, which, from other lips, had seemed tame and
common-place. To any one who has seen the graceful coquetry of French
manner engrafted on the more meaning eloquence of Irish beauty, my
effort at a portrait will appear a very meagre and barren outline; and
I feel how poorly I have endeavoured to convey any idea of one, whose
Spanish origin had left a legacy of gracefulness and elegance, to be
warmed into life by the fervid character of the Celt, and tempered again
by the consummate attraction of French manner.

The ease and kindliness of spirit with which she sat between the two old
men, listening in turn to each, or answering with graceful alacrity the
questions they proffered--the playful delicacy with which she evaded the
allusions they made from time to time to the disappointment the ruined
house must have occasioned her--and the laughing gaiety with which
she spoke of the new life about to open before her, were actually
contagious. They already forgot the fears her anticipated coming had
inspired; and gazed on her with the warm affection that should wait on a
welcome. Oh! what a gift is beauty, and how powerful its influence, when
strengthened by the rich eloquence of a spotless nature, beaming from
beneath long-lashed lids, when two men like these, seared and hardened
by the world's ills--broken on the wheel of fortune--should feel a glow
of long-forgotten gladness in their chilled hearts as they looked upon
her? None could have guessed, however, what an effort that seeming
light-heartedness cost her. Poor girl! Scarcely was she alone, and had
closed the door of her room behind her, when she fell upon the bed in
a torrent of tears, and sobbed as if her heart was breaking. All that
Father Luke had said as they came along--and the kind old man had
done his utmost to break the shock of the altered st