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Rh last, flung, as it floated by, the full richness of its colouring on the marble. The artist was recalled, by his sense of beauty, to reality.

"O, my sister, do come and see how exquisite is this effect!" exclaimed he, with all that youthful eagerness which is impatient for sympathy in its delight.

Slowly the maiden came from the adjacent window, where she had been leaning silent and apart. But her reverie had been deeper far than his. He had dwelt on fancies—she on thought; and the charm of the one was sooner removed than the weight of the other.

"Very beautiful, Guido!" said she, kindly;—but kindness was not enough for one who wanted admiration.

Strange mystery of our nature, that those in whom genius developes itself in imagination, thus taking its most ethereal form, should yet be the most dependent on the opinions of others! Praise is their very existence; and those who have the wings of the dove, with which they might "flee away and be at rest," delight rather to linger on the high road, forgetting that where the sunshine falls, there too gathers the dust, and that the soil remains when the silver lustre has passed. Alas! thus ever does the weakness of our nature