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can assure you it is very hot here when steam is up,
although we have got thick doors to our furnaces."
"Where do the coals come from?" I inquire.
"The coal-bunkers at the side seem very small.”

"O, they are stowed under the saloons and cabins; but we can get at them from here. Perhaps you have seen an absurd drawing of the ship in some shop-windows in the city. The artist appears to have seen your difficulty, and has shown the coals in the points beyond the screw. It is true we might have filled the points with coals, but we should never have been able to get them out."

The propellers differ in many respects from the screw of an ordinary vessel, in there being one at each end of the ship, in half of each being out the water, whereas usually the whole is immersed, and also in the peculiar way in which they are connected with the ship. The engineers say that their six blades, of which, as they revolve, three will be always immersed, will do the same work as the three blades of an ordinary screw. Those pointed pieces beyond the screws are to divide the water as the ship goes ahead or astern; they turn round with the fans, the whole revolving with an axis or " shaft," which extends the whole length of the ship, and turning about a straight line drawn from point to point of the cigar. The ship really ends inside of the screws, and, divested of the screws and points, would look like a cigar with two blunt ends; but the form of the vessel appears perfect to the point, and the blades seem to have been thrust in to the surface. Like the fins of a fish, they are so evidently not parts of the sur-gine in the corner; his duty is to pump water into face as not to take off the effects of its curvature.

On board the ship, we are first shown the engineroom. We go down a staircase so constructed as to put our hats in imminent danger of being knocked in or off, and find ourselves on one side of the engines, which are in the centre of the ship. What an intricate maze of pipes and rods and cranks, all polished to a marvellous degree of perfection! Every cubic inch appears to have been made some use of; and when the engineer, who has volunteered to show us the engines, lifts up a piece of iron in the flooring, we see that the small place beneath is full of pipes and taps also. "Our great difficulty," says he, "has been to find room for everything; we never fitted engines of such great power in so small a space. You can see here," he resumes, "the way in which the ship is put together. This, which you can touch, is the half-inch outside plating. What would they have said a few years ago to having ships half an

inch thick!"

He informs us that these half-inch flat iron plates form the skin of the ship, and are kept out to their curved form by iron ribs, which, in the ends of the vessel, are complete circles; but here, where we are roofed in by a deck, they form three parts of a circle, and the ends turn up, and make the upper boatshaped portion of the ship. The ribs are formed of what are technically called angle-irons, a section being an angle, each of whose two bounding lines is about half an inch thick. An idea of the form of one of these ribs may be obtained by half opening a book, first dividing the leaves in the middle of the book. One of the covers with its leaves may be taken to represent the leaf of the rib which is next the skin, the other the leaf which is at right angles to it, and imparts the strength required to keep the skin in its proper form. The advantage of this form of rib appears to be, that it can be easily fastened to the skin by rivets. The ribs in the engine-room are placed about a yard and a half apart, that being the largest compartment of the ship, and also being subjected to great strains by the motion of the engines.

As the engine is only interesting through being fitted in so small a space, we do not spend much time over it, but ask our guide to show us the next compartment. He says the next is the stokehole; so we mount the staircase, and go down a still more difficult descent into a box about three or four yards square. We notice four furnaces, two on the fore and two on the after side. "You see," says our guide, "there is not much room for stoking, and I

I remark that they seem to have a very small space for water in the boiler.

"Yes, only three inches all round the furnace; and so our pumping arrangements have to be very carefully contrived, so that the boilers shall be filled as rapidly as the water is turned into steam. I must introduce you to the donkey, this small enthe boilers, and to work the ventilating apparatus." "The ventilating apparatus,-where is that?" I ask.

"The part of it which you can see here is that tube overhead, and the barrel through which it appears to pass. The tube extends nearly the whole length of the ship, and the small pipes convey the hot air into it from the cabins. It empties itself into the barrel, in which are revolving fans. The donkey turns the fans, and thus the air is drawn out of the tube, and expelled through the opening which you see in the barrel. When we have steam up, we are so hot here that the heated air from the cabins is cooling, and as we only get the draught on our heads, it is something like having one's feet in a warm bath, and head in a snow-storm."

"And I suppose the donkey works that ballastmachine which I have heard of as one of the curiosities of the cigar-ship?"

"O no; there is another small engine on purpose," answers the engineer. "You know, then, that we have something new in the way of ballast. It is under the engine-room, just in the middle of the ship, and consists of a pendulum of lead weighing about seventeen tons. When the ship is too much over on one side, we move the pendulum to the other, and she is righted at once; so you see we shall not roll over and over in the first heavy sea we meet, as people are fond of saying about us. You have now seen all I can show you of the engines; I suppose you will not care about the saloons, which are only painted and gilded as they might be in any other yacht, but would prefer seeing the novelties of the ship. If so, I am at your service."

Cheerfully accepting this offer, we ascend to the deck, and go forward. Here is a ladder-way to the smoking-saloon, but just above it we are told to look for the steering apparatus, or rather the part of it which is to be seen above the deck. The compass is in close proximity to it, and is so suspended as to be unaffected by the pitching of the ship, and to uninterruptedly tell its tale in storm and calm. The representative on deck of the steering apparatus is a brass handle and axle, the handle something like that we see used to set a railway locomotive in motion. The handle turns horizontally, the axle being vertical, and, as we are informed, extending the whole depth of the ship. It is of course impossible to put the rudder in its usual position at the stern of the ship, the stern in this case being one of the cones which revolve with the fans; so where could it be placed, and how moved? This was one of the

many problems the solution of which the peculiar | partments, the partitions being made water-tight; form of the vessel involved. The rudders (for there is one aft, and one forward) are square thin pieces of metal, and if we could see under water, they would appear to project from the keel. One edge touches it, and the other three edges are made sharp like a knife, so as to offer no resistance to the water. The axle, of which we can see the upper end, runs out through a tube to form a connection with the middle rudder, and about it the rudder turns. And having thus settled to our satisfaction the steering question, we ask what next.

"The next interesting thing," says our guide, "will be the anchor, or rather that part of its gear which can be seen on board. To see it, we must pay a visit to Jack's quarters: here is the boatswain, we will ask him if we can go there."

The boatswain, on being asked, says that Jack has just finished his dinner, and if we don't mind the odor of pea-soup, we are at liberty to go; and he'll go with us, as Mr. Jones is wanted ashore. As we walk along the deck, he informs me that" We berth the blue-jackets right aft, abaft the cabins, and the stokers for'ard; but what you want to see you'll best see in Jack's quarters."

We accordingly descend another ladder, and first we notice a table in the middle extending the whole length of the compartment. "That," the boatswain informs us, "is the casing of the shaft. You know how it is just in the middle all the length of her, in the way everywheres, and the shipwrights have had to make tables, and steps to ladders out of its casing, anything to hide it, just as the ladies like you to think a sofa bedstead's only a sofa. The men use that table to mess on, and sleep in the berths along the side."

"What! in those places that look like shelves in a linen-draper's shop?"

"Yes; there is just height enough between two shelves for a man to get in and drop down inside the boarding in front, which keeps him from rolling out. Talk about over-cramming the people that the railways turn out of their houses; none of 'em are crammed like this I know; but sailors are used to it. But you want to see about our anchors. I don't lieve in 'em myself. Our guv'ner thinks they'll hold her by their weight; but I don't think as the skipper trusts to 'em much, for he 's got a pair of others as a stand-by."

and thus hitherto, in going from one to another, we have had to ascend to the deck, and descend by another ladder. But now we cannot do this, as we are in the extremities of the ship, beyond the deck. The remaining spaces must be entered through this, and so the usual contrivance of water-tight doors is adopted, the doors being shut upon india-rubber, and screwed close, so that the india-rubber completely fills the joint. These compartments are used for provisions and stores. At the end of the next one to us is the bulkhead or partition upon which the shaft turns, and which communicates the power of the screw to the ship. It is made very strong, and is rigidly connected with the ship, it being the part of the ship which first receives the moving force of the screw, and thus has a tendency to move from its position.

"And now for the saloons," says the boatswain: and accordingly we visit them, and see that the engineer's description is correct. Everything is done on the principle of getting as much accommodation as possible out of a little space. The cabins in which the officers will eat, drink, and sleep are about the size of a compartment of a railway carriage.

And what do you think of the Ross Winans? says our guide in parting; "isn't she a queer fish?" Without expressing ourselves in such decided terms, it is certain that any one who has seen the cigar-ship must allow that, in many respects, she is a great curiosity; and whatever may be thought of her chances of answering the expectations of the owners, there can be but one opinion as to the excellent and skilful manner in which every detail has been suited to the general design.

HAIR-DYEING.

ARE wigs immoral ? because if not, one scarcely perceives a reason why the newspaper moralists who are so fond of describing Anonyma and Cora Pearl with a kind of reprehensive voluptuousness of detail, should waste so much moral strength in debe-nouncing the practice of using hair-dyes. It is not wickeder, one would think, in itself, than wearing false teeth, or scattering powder, or padding, and all those sins have hitherto escaped with very lenient censure from the newspaper pulpit. Hair-powder, it is true, since it became a taxable offence has been condemned as nasty, which it is, and ugly, which, as any one will acknowledge who has ever seen an old minuet at the opera, it decidedly is not. It suited bright faces very well, though it made the pallid ghastly, and its disappearance, though a gain to cleanliness, was a loss to that variety of appearance which is the greatest external charm of society. People, footmen excepted, have forgotten powder, but they have not forgotten adornments as deceitful as the hair-dyes against which they are so amusingly and unintelligibly indignant.

We cannot see anything like an anchor, and are decidedly of opinion that a cabin is not the most likely place to find one; but our guide does not leave us to wonder long. He shows us an upright iron tube, something like a small funnel, up which, he tells us, the chain comes from the anchor. Another strange contrivance! The anchor is shaped like a mushroom, and has a hole just its shape cut out of the bottom of the vessel for it, so that when it is "weighed" the surface of the ship is unbroken, and there is nothing to tell of the existence of an anchor. When the ship is to be anchored, the chain is let go, and the mushroom is dropped into the water to find a hold in the bottom of the sea.

The compartment at the other end of the ship corresponding to the one we are now in is appropriated for the stokers. Although it is much like the other, we go to see it, passing on our way the cooking-place, which is in a house on the deck. We are rewarded for our trouble: the doors between this house and the spaces on the fore-side of it happen to be now open, and we can see one of the ends of the vessel. The ship is divided into eight com

The practice of using them is not a novel one. Women, and men too, have dyed their hair from time immemorial, and there has not been an interval within the last three centuries during which hairdressers have not employed pigments to conceal grayness, whiteness, or eccentricity of color in the hair. The only thing new is the fashionable shade, and the introduction of that shade is in one way a very distinct gain. It has restored the popular faith in the possible beauty of light-haired women. condition of public opinion upon that subject has for

The

years past been almost a marvel. That a people essentially Northern, among whom five persons in six have hair tinged with some shade of light brown, should prefer black hair is perhaps natural, for infrequency always increases the piquancy of admira

tion.

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So rapid has been the spread of this fashion, that the resources of chemistry have been ransacked for dyes, and we have before us a huge volume of receipts for the production of almost any shade. They are all very nasty-nastiness is the real objection to hair-dyes, as it is to rouge and chignons, and is not to false teeth- and all subject to one fatal defect. They do not change the inherent color of the hair, which grows every moment as it was originally made; the pigments therefore must be incessantly reapplied, and the hair, instead of being dyed, as, for instance, a topaz is dyed by burning, is only painted, by no means a very pleasing idea. One would think it prima facie possible to make a radical change, the coloring matter being an oil held as it were in a tube, and impregnated with substances the character of which has been discovered.

shout of moral reprobation. Dyeing may be immoral possibly, but dyeing red cannot be more immoral than dyeing black. The world does not greatly condemn a fair woman whose beauty is spoiled by untimely grayness for removing the blemish,-feeling, though not acknowledging, that beauty is a gift which it is as Orientals, on the same principle, admire fair hair right to preserve as health or eyesight, and if white and excessive lightness of complexion, and one Af- hair may be made black, surely brown may be made rican race, the Somali, stains its wool with henna golden. At all events it is made every day, and if and lime till it is of a dull brick-dust hue. But the those who make it would only remember that the goldEnglish horror of light hair in women was almost en locks of Flavia, who has a cheek like a peach and comical in its intensity, so deep as to affect literature a brow of milk, not of alabaster, O minor poet! and penetrate the opinions of the uncultivated mass. healthy flesh never being absolutely bleached, - will One shade of red, that false auburn which is red not necessarily suit Lalage, who has a face carved in the sun and brown under artificial light, was tol-out of Derbyshire cheese and a forehead which canerated, chiefly, we imagine, because fashionable opin- not tan, the golden hair would add to the grace and ion is formed under chandeliers; but the true au- variety of assemblies. burn, which has a golden flash in it under the sun and a red flash only by candle-light, the auburn which the Italian painters loved three centuries ago, and Millais can paint now when he will let his imagination work as well as his eyes,- was utterly condemned, all the more viciously perhaps because that is the shade in which hair is found most voluminous and silky. Men's judgment was acidulated by the admixture of the one envy which the best women can never quite suppress. Flaxen hair, even that wonderful flax which suggests an aureole, and which -probably from its association with the appearance of little children-conveys an indefinable impression of innocence, for which Thackeray gave it to Becky Sharp, was disposed of summarily as "tow." Golden hair, we mean the true gold, looking as if it had been spun not from any metal so much as from a sunny topaz, was first called "conspicuous," and then, when bands became universal, "sandy." That color is perhaps the only one to which curls are essential, just as black is the only one in which curls can never be most becoming. As to the different shades of red, the language was ransacked to find terms of abhorrence which should be sufficiently expressive, and while the costermonger asked somebody "to put out that 'ere bonnet, it must be burning by now," the peer summed up his dislike in the emphatic word" Carrots!" So deep was the disgust for this shade that it extended even to men's heads. Nobody ever suggested that men with fair hair could not be handsome, or denied that the highest Norman type, the tall, fair-haired, steeleyed, light-complexioned man, was the ideal type of all, but everybody professed to abominate red. Hundreds of school-boys have had their lives rendered miserable by a shade too much of the hated color, and grave remonstrances have been addressed to the managers of Christ's Hospital against their uniform, on the ground that the sun by some mysterious process would turn brown hair red.

Accordingly to Mr. Cooley, "The chemical constitution of the hair was first made known by Mr. Hatchett, who showed it to consist chiefly of indurated albumen, together with a little gelatine, or matter that yields it. Soft and very flexible hair is said to contain the most gelatine. Subsequently, Vauquelin discovered that hair contains two different kinds of oily matter, the one white and bland, common to all hair; the other, colored, and on which in part the particular color of the hair depends. He also found small and variable quantities of mineral substances in hair. In lightcolored hair he found magnesia, and in black and dark hair iron and sulphur. It is the presence of these last that mainly gives to dark hair its color. Fur, wool, bristles, and spines, in their chemical nature, structure, and mode of formation, resemble hair; as also, to a very great extent, do the feathers of birds."

We ought, if that is correct, and we knew how, to be able to feed people into hair of the wished-for color; but then we do not know how, and so are driven back on devices many of which are dangerThe sun, if the evidence of fact may be trusted, ous or disagreeable. It is easy enough and safe either blackens the hair, which seems impossible, or enough to darken the color. A weak solution of induces the race which live under its beams to pro- acetate of iron dissolved in water and mixed with a duce the black hair which most effectually protects little glycerine will, if rubbed daily into the head, the head. No tropical race is light-haired. Part of gradually and permanently darken the hair and the objection to red hair no doubt arose from the ugly benefit the health besides, a hint we recommend complexion, and freckles, and turned up nose by which to red-haired beauties when popular prejudice turns it is often accompanied, but the aversion was felt and against them again, as it will one day. Lead, often expressed even in cases where red hair was only the used instead of iron, is as dangerous a substance as natural complement of very regular beauty. The it is well possible to employ, and the lead comb in new fashion, therefore, of dyeing hair to lighten its which our grandmothers trusted is of very uncertain color, instead of dyeing it to darken it, strikes right efficacy. There is no swift mode which does not athwart a natural prejudice, - so clearly athwart, involve the use of lead or silver to a dangerous exthat, while it has restored people to the use of their tent, and no safe mode except iron, or sometimes senses in judging color, it has also raised an absurd | after a certain age iron and sulphuret of potassium,

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Liquor of ammonia (.880-.882) 2 fluid drachms;

put in the cork, and shake frequently for some hours.
The next day pour off the liquid portion. The sedi-
ment, which forms the dye, must then be well stirred
together, and again before use. It is to be applied for
8 to 10 minutes to produce an 'auburn color; 15 min-
utes, for 'chestnut '; 20 minutes, for 'full brown '; and
30 minutes, or longer, for 'deep brown' and 'black.'
For the paler shades it is to be washed off with water
containing a little common soda.

"(Liquid Plumbic Dye.') Take of
Hydrated protoxide of lead
Liquor of potassa

ounce;

2 fluid ounces;

mix in a stoppered vial, and agitate it frequently for some days. It must be used more or less diluted, according to the object in view. By its skilful application, every shade, from a pale sandy red' to dark brown,' may be produced; and these may be turned on the 'golden brown,' auburn,' and 'chestnut,' by subsequently moistening the hair with a weak solution of sulphuret of potassium or hydrosulphuret of ammonia."

'deeper toned,' a few drops of solution of diacetate of
lead (Goulard's extract) should be added to the acetate
solution.
"A solution of pure annotta, obtained by boiling it
in water slightly alkalized with carbonate of soda, or
with salt of tartar, gives a 'golden yellow' or 'flame
yellow,' according to its strength, to very pale hair, and
corresponding tones to darker hair. A previous 'mor-
dant' of alum water 'deepens' it; and a subsequent
washing with water soured with lemon-juice or vinegar
'reddens' it, or turns it on the 'orange."

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Henna, by the way, is unobjectionable, and never fails, so that if any woman really wishes for bright red hair she has only to make friends with some attaché of the embassy at Constantinople or with in Paris a dye which instantly changes white or Mr. Layard. We must add, that there is now sold flaxen hair into the most glorious gold, which is nearly instantaneous, and never fails, or can fail. It is called orpiment, is the golden sulphuret of arsenic, and has only one trifling drawback, which those who want it probably will not mind. It kills, just as inevitably and as swiftly as doses of arsenic would.

CINDERELLA.

H. never

WE were at Paris one year ten years before the time I am writing of- and Mrs. Garnier lived over us, in a tiny little apartment. She was very poor, and very grandly dressed, and she used to come rustling in to see us. Rustling is hardly the word, she was much too graceful and womanly a person to rustle; her long silk gowns used to ripple, and wave, and flow away as she came and went; and her beautiful eyes used to fill with tears as she drank her tea and confided her troubles to us. liked her; but I must confess to a very kindly feeling for the poor, gentle, beautiful, forlorn young creature, so passionately lamenting the loss she had Instantaneous hair dyeing is effected by washing sustained in Major-General Garnier. He had left the hair in a solution of nitrate of silver, and then her very badly off, although she was well connected, in a mixture of hydrosulphuret of ammonia and dis- and Lady Jane Peppercorne, her cousin, had offered tilled water, which acts as a mordant, when the hair her and her two little girls a home at Ravenhill, she instantly turns either brown or black. It is, how-used to tell us in her eploré manner. I do not know ever, on the golden shades that intellect has been recently chiefly expended, and here is a list which includes every color except one-the golden bronze which is caused by washing with a solution of blue vitriol, followed by another of the ferrocyanide of potassium.

"A strong infusion of safflowers, or a solution of pure rouge, in a weak solution of crystallized carbonate of soda, gives a 'bright red,' like henna, or a 'reddish yellow,' according to its strength, if followed, when dry, by a mordant' of lemon-juice or vinegar diluted with one half to an equal bulk of water.

"An acidulated solution of a salt of antimony, followed by a weak mordant' of neutral hydrosulphuret of ammonia or the bisulphuret, carefully avoiding excess, gives a red turning on the orange,' which tones well on light brown hair.

"A solution of sulphantimoniate of potassa (Schlippe's salt) with a mordant of water slightly acidulated with sulphuric acid, gives a 'bright orange red' or 'golden

red color.'

"Golden Yellow. A solution of bichloride of tin (sufficiently diluted), followed by a mordant' of hydrosulphuret of ammonia, gives a rich 'golden yellow tint' to very light hair, and a golden brown' to darker hair, owing to the formation of aurum musivum, mosaic gold,

or bisulphuret of tin.

"A solution of acetate or nitrate of lead, followed by a mordant' of yellow chromate of potash, gives a brilliant rich 'golden yellow.' If wanted warmer' or

why she never availed herself of the offer. She said once that she would not be doing justice to her precious little ones, to whom she devoted herself with the assistance of an experienced attendant. My impression is, that the little ones used to scrub one another's little ugly faces, and plait one another's little light Chinese-looking tails, while the experienced attendant laced and dressed and adorned, and scented and powdered their mamma.

She really was a beautiful young woman, and would have looked quite charming if she had left herself alone for a single instant, but she was always posing. She had dark bright eyes; she had a lovely little arched mouth; and hands so white, so soft, so covered with rings, that one felt that it was indeed a privilege when she said, "O, how do you do?" and extended two or three gentle confiding fingers. At first she went nowhere except to church, and to walk in the retired paths of the Park de Monceau, although she took in Galignani and used to read the lists of arrivals. But by degrees she began to chiefly to please me, she said - go out a little, to make a few acquaintances. One day I was walking with her down the Champs Elysées, when she suddenly started and looked up at a tall, melancholylooking gentleman who was passing, and who stared at her very hard; and soon after that it was that she began telling me she had determined to make an

--

had had an offer from a person whom she respected, Colonel Ashford, whom I might have remarked that night at Madame de Girouette's; would I, — would I give her my candid opinion; for her children's sake did I not think it would be well to think seriously? ...

"And for your own, too, my dear," said I. "Colonel Ashford is in Parliament, he is very well off. I believe you will be making an excellent marriage. Accept him by all means."

effort for her children's sake, and to go a little more into society. She wanted me to take her to Madame de Girouette's, where she heard I was going that evening, and where she believed she should meet an old friend of hers, whom she particularly wished to see again. Would I help her? Would I be so very good? Of course I was ready to do anything I could. She came punctual to her time, all gray moire and black lace; a remise was sent for, and we set off, jogging along the crowded streets, with our two lamps lighted, and a surly man, in a red waistcoat and an oilskin hat, to drive us to the Rue de Lille. All the way there Mrs. Garnier was strange, silent, nervous, excited. Her eyes were like two shining craters, I thought, when we arrived, and as we climbed up the interminable flights of stairs. Ition. A cruel fate separated us. I married. He guessed who was the old friend with the gray moustache in a minute: a good, well-looking, sick-looking man, standing by himself in a corner.

I spent a curious evening, distracted between Madame de Girouette's small talk, to which I was supposed to be listening, and Mrs. Garnier's murmured conversation with her old friend in the corner, to which I was vainly endeavoring not to attend.

My dear, imagine a bouillon, surmounted with little tiny flutings all round the bottom, and then three ruches, alternating with three little volants, with great choux at regular intervals; over this a tunic, caught up at the side by a jardinière, a ceinture à la Bébé."

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When you left us I was a child, weak, foolish, easily frightened and influenced. It nearly broke my heart. Look me in the face, if you can, and tell me you do not believe me," I heard Mrs. Garnier murmuring in a low, thrilling whisper. She did not mean me to hear it, but she was too absorbed in what she was saying to think of all the people round about her.

"Ah, Lydia, what does it matter now?" the friend answered in a sad voice, which touched me somehow. "We have both been wrecked in our ventures, and life has not much left for either of us now."

"Dear friend, since this is your real, heartfelt opinion, I value your judgment too highly not to act by its dictates. Once, years ago, there was thought of this between me and Henry. I will now confide to you, my heart has never failed from its early devomarried. We are brought together as by a miracle, but our three children will never know the loss of their parents' love," &c., &c. Glance, hand-pressure, &c., tears, &c. Then a long, soft, irritating kiss. I felt for the first time in my life inclined to box her ears.

The little Garniers certainly gained by the bargain, and the Colonel sat down to write home to his little daughter, and tell her the news.

Poor little Ella, I wonder what sort of anxieties Mrs. Ashford had caused to her before she had been Ella's father's wife a year. Miss Ashford made the best of it. She was a cheery, happy little creature, looking at everything from the sunny side, adoring her father, running wild out of doors, but with an odd turn for housekeeping, and order and method at home. Indeed, for the last two years, ever since she was twelve years old, she had kept her father's house. Languid, gentle, easily impressed, Colonel Ashford was quite curiously influenced by this little daughter. She could make him come and go, and like and dislike. I think it was Ella who sent him into Parliament: she could not bear Sir Rainham Richardson, their next neighbor, to be an M.P., and an oracle, while her father was only a retired colonel. Her ways and her sayings were a strange and pretty mixture of childishness and precociousness. would be ordering dinner, seeing that the fires were alight in the study and dining-room, writing notes to save her father trouble (Colonel Ashford hated trouble), in her cramped, crooked, girlish hand; the next minute she was perhaps flying, agile-footed, round and round the old hall, skipping up and down the oak stairs, laughing out like a child as she played Everybody wants one," said Madame de Gi- with her puppy, and dangled a little ball of string rouette, concluding her conversation, "and they under his black nose. Puff, with a youthful bark, cannot be made fast enough to supply the demand. would seize the ball and go scuttling down the corI am promised mine to wear to-morrow at the open-ridors with his prize, while Ella pursued him with ing of the salon, but I am afraid that you have no chance. How the poor thing is overworked, her magazin is crowded,-I believe she will leave it all in charge of her première demoiselle, and retire to her campagne as soon as the season is over."

"It is cut en biais," Madame de Girouette went on; "the pieces which are taken out at one end are let in at the other: the effect is quite charming, and the economy is immense."

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"For you, you married the person you loved," Lydia Garnier was answering; for me, out of the wreck, I have at least my children, and a remembrance, and a friend, is it so? Ah, Henry, have I not at least a friend?"

66

"And you will come and see me, will you not?" said the widow as we went away, looking up. I do not know to this day if she was acting. I believe, to do her justice, that she was only acting what she really felt, as many of us do at times.

I took Mrs. Garnier home as I had agreed. I did not ask any questions. I met Colonel Ashford on the stairs next day, and I was not surprised when, about a week after, Mrs. Garnier came into the drawing-room early one morning, sinking down at my feet in a careless attitude, seized my hand, and said that she had come for counsel, for advice. She

She

her quick flying feet. She could sing charmingly, with a clear, true, piping voice, like a bird's, and she used to dance to her own singing in the prettiest way imaginable. Her dancing was really remarkable: she had the most beautiful feet and hands, and as she seesawed in time, still singing and moving in rhythm, any one seeing her could not fail to have been struck by the weird-like little accomplishment. Some girls have a passion for dancing,- boys have a hundred other ways and means of giving vent to their activity and exercising their youthful limbs, and putting out their eager young strength; but girls have no such chances; they are condemned to walk through life for the most part quietly, soberly, putting a curb on the life and vitality which is in them. They long to throw it out, they would like to have wings to fly like a bird, and so they dance

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