is the old cathedral, with a wonderful head of Saint Francis
and a whole forest of columns; and when you come we will bribe the
sacristan not to lock you in, as they did at St. Roch. I shall
never be a Roman Catholic, but I go to mass sometimes, for there is
no Protestant service here, and one cannot be quite a heathen where
everybody is so devout. What I dislike most is to have a chaplain
in the house, walking about in his black petticoat, but of course I
never say a word to Francisco.

"By and by we are going to our house in Madrid. _Our house in
Madrid_! does not that sound very strange? It all seems so unreal
that I am afraid of waking up and finding it a dream.

"Do, dear Madame Fleming, give up slaving in that old school and
come and live with Francisco and me. He says he wishes you would,
and it would make everything seem more real if I had you here.
Think of it, now. You will, won't you? As ever, your dear child,

"HELEN ALVALA."

This true story suggests a little sermon in two heads: 1st. To all
possible and probable lovers: It was not the count's rank or wealth, but
the fervor and constancy of ideal love and his whole-souled, exclusive
devotion, that won the heart of the American girl. 2d. To all sensible
American parents: Do not permit your pretty young daughters to make a
tour in Europe unless you are willing to leave them there.

MARY E. BLAIR.

A JAPANESE MARRIAGE IN HIGH LIFE.

In describing a Japanese marriage in high life we do not intend to soar
_too_ high. It is not for our alien pen to portray the splendors of such
a marriage as that of the princess of Satsuma to Iyesada, the thirteenth
Sho-gun of the Tokugawa dynasty, when all Yedo was festal and
illuminated for a week. Neither shall we describe that of the imperial
princess Kazu, the younger sister of the Mikado, who came up from Kioto
to wed the young Sho-gun Iyemochi, and thus to unite the sacred blood of
twenty-five centuries of imperial succession with that of the Tokugawas,
the proud family that ruled Japan, and dictated even to her emperors,
for two hundred and fifty years. We leave the description of those royal
nuptials to other pens. Ours aspires only to describe a marriage such as
has happened in old Yedo for the thousandth time in the samurai
class--the gentry of Japan.

Were you with us in Tokio (the new name of the capital of Japan) we
sh