ven in my memory. Bearing
all these matters in remembrance," said the major firmly; "recollecting
my own strange experience, how can I discredit Mr. Ancelot's narrative?
_I firmly believe it_. We are surrounded by mysteries. The invisible
world enshrouds us. Spirits have their regards intently fixed on us, and
a very slight vail divides us. Spurn the vulgar error," said the old
veteran stoutly, "that a soldier must be a scoffer. I remember the holy
record, and its thrilling declaration; 'We are a spectacle unto angels
and unto men.'" A pause ensued, which neither of the listeners cared to
terminate. At length he spoke again. "The dews are falling. The last
pleasure-boat has landed its fair freight upon the Denne. The breeze from
the sea blows keenly, and warns us elderlies to think of our
night-possets and our pillows. Trevor, give me your arm. Happy dog! You
have no bullet in your back! May you never know the agony of existence
when even to move some dozen yards is torture!"

* * * * *

We should do our utmost to encourage the Beautiful, for the Useful
encourages itself.--_Goethe_.

* * * * *

[From the Ladies' Companion.]

THE LADY LUCY'S SECRET.

BY MRS. NEWTON CROSLAND.

"With clamourous demands of debt, broken bonds,
And the detention of long due debts,
Against my honor."--TIMON OF ATHENS

"How in the turmoil of life can love stand,
Where there is not one heart, and one mouth, and one hand?"
LONGFELLOW

In a charming morning-room of a charming London house, neighboring
Hyde-Park, there lounged over the breakfast-table a wedded pair,--the
rich merchant Farrars, and his young wife, the Lady Lucy. Five years of
married life had, in most respects, more than realized the brightest
hopes which had been born and cherished in the dreaming days of
courtship. Till the age of forty, the active mind of Walter Ferrars had
been chiefly occupied by business,--not in mean shuffling, speculative
dealings, but on the broad basis of large transactions and an almost
chivalrous system of integrity.

Then, when a secured position and the privileges of wealth had introduced
him to that inner circle of English society which not wealth _alone_ can
penetrate, but where wealth in some due proportion is an element
necessary to hold fast a place, it was thought most natural and proper
that he should choose a wife from the class which seems set apart