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Rh its calculation; it seems thoughtlessness—again we pity, pardon, and fancy that amendment which never comes.

There is something amiable in even believing in our good feelings, but it is an amiability whose loveliness is even less lasting than that of the complexion. Marie passed along—she had arrived at an especially pleasant part of her reverie—she was arranging her future household.

"I will be lenient," thought she, "to Mesdames les Frondeurs; they will be glad to get back on any terms, and their high birth will be an answer to the many who may urge claims on the plea of having known me now. My sisters had better marry foreign princes—it would be mortifying to see them forced to yield precedence to any. As for Henriette, that cannot be helped;—an embassy will be the thing for Mercœur."

How many more places might have been distributed by her incipient majesty it is impossible to say, for the thread of her meditation was broken by the sudden termination of the path. It ended in one of those beautiful little nooks, which, girdled in by shade, are yet full of sunshine; the branches close the sides, but the clear sky is overhead. In the midst of a circular plot of grass was a small fountain; a nymph knelt amid the waters, and a