m the mouth of the model
before her.

Bella shuddered, and was seized with a deadly trembling, for as she
stood there with her gaze fastened upon the floor, and her hand laid
upon the garment of the man not her husband, it seemed to her as if she
should sink to the earth. At this instant, her whole life unfolded
itself to her view.

The days of childhood--there was no definite image of these. The
teachers praised her quick comprehension; a French bonne was dismissed,
and a strict English governess received into the family; Bella learned
languages easily, and good manners seemed natural to her. Her smart
repartees, when she was very young, were repeated admiringly, and this
flattered her vanity, and extinguished all childish ingenuousness.

Ladies and gentlemen visiting the house, or meeting her casually in
different places, praised her beauty in her hearing. She was confirmed,
but the holy ceremony appeared to her only as the sign of her
deliverance from the nursery, when she must lay aside her short dresses
and put on long ones; and when going up to the altar, the thought which
predominated in her was, Thou art the fairest one. As the bishop had
taken tea the evening before with her parents, he was not to her a
supernatural being as to the rest, for he had spoken familiarly with
her, and she appeared to herself to be, in the church, the central
point of all observation.

Her father yielded to her wishes, and Bella, at fourteen years of age,
was introduced the next winter into society. She made a brilliant
appearance, and was much courted; everybody spoke with admiration of
the air of fresh youth that hovered around her. But she early exhibited
a sort of coldness, so that she was nicknamed the mer-maiden, and in
her eye there was what might be called a cold fire. Even the reigning
Prince singled her out. She still kept the engagement-card of her first
court-ball as a sacred relic, and with it a withered bouquet.

Now followed an unbroken chain of homage and attention. Bella, with her
ready and apt replies, was the life of the circle in which she moved.
While yet a child, her beauty had been praised in her own hearing, and
now that she was a woman, her remarkable mental powers were extolled,
either directly or indirectly, so that she was sure to be informed of
it. Her striking remarks and keen criticisms were quoted, and her
witticisms passed around. In this way she had acquired the reputation
of great knowledge, w