and the sneers of the straight tall trees, who, according to the fashion of the good old fairy times, were endowed, not only with feeling and reason, but with speech!

Many, I fear me, are the crooked sticks which "the ancient of days," by a strange infatuation, compel themselves to adopt. And much might be gravely and properly said upon this subject, for the edification of young and old; but the following will be better than grave discussion, and more to the tastes of those who value scenes from real life:

"Lady Frances Hazlitt, Charles! Surely the most fastidious might pronounce her hand

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My dear fellow, you must permit me to correct your taste. Observe, I pray you, the short chin, and that unfortunate nose; it is absolutely retroussé.”

"It may be a little opposed to the line of

beauty-calculated to overset it, perhaps; but did you ever see such a glorious brow?

"Mountainous !"

"Such expressive eyes?"

"Volcanoes!"

"Psha!-Such grace!"

"Harry,” replied the young nobleman, smiling according to the most approved Chesterfield principle, removing his eye-glass, and looking at his friend with much composure, "you had better, I think, marry Lady Frances yourself."

"You are a strange being, my good lord," replied his friend, after a pause. "I would wager a good round sum, that, notwithstanding your rank, fortune, and personal advantages, you will die— or, at all events, not marry until you are—a veritable old bachelor. I pray thee, tell me what do you require?-A Venus ?-A Diana ?-A Juno? -A

-a

Simply, a woman, my dear fellow; not,

indeed, one of those beings arrayed in drapery. whom you see moving along our streets, with Chinese features, smoke-dried skins, and limbs that might rival those of a Hercules; nor yet one of your be-scented, spider-waisted priminies, who lisp and amble-assume a delicacy which they never felt, and grace which they never possessed. My ideas of woman's perfections-of the perfections, in fact, which I desire, and-I may say"-(Lord Charles Villiers was certainly a very handsome and a very fashionable man, and yet his modesty, I suppose, made him hesitate in pronouncing the latter word)-" I may-I think

-say-deserve," gaining courage as he proceeded-" are not as extravagant as those required by your favourite Henri Quatre. He insisted on seven perfections. I should feel blessed if the lady of my love were possessed of six."

"Moderate and modest," observed his friend, laughing; "1 pray you tell me what they are ?"

"Noble birth, beauty, prudence, wit, gentleness, and fidelity." Mr. Henry Beauclerc drew forth his tablets, and, on the corner of the curiously wrought memorials, engraved the qualities Lord Charles had enumerated, not with fragile lead, but with the sharp point of his pen-knife, "Shall I add," he inquired, "that these requisites are indispensable?"

"Most undoubtedly," replied his lordship.

"Adieu, then, Charles-Lady Frances's carriage is returning; and, as you declare fairly off, I tell you that I will try to make an impression on her gentle heart: you certainly were first in the field, but as you are insensible to such merit, I cannot think you either deserve to win or wear it. -Adieu! au revoir !" And, with a deeper and more prolonged salute than the present courtesies of life are supposed to require, the two young fashionables separated-one lounging listlessly towards the then narrow and old-fashioned gate

which led from Hyde Park into Piccadilly, trolling snatches of the last cavatina, which the singing of a Mara or a Billington had rendered fashionable; the other proceeding, with the firm and animated step that tells plainly of a fixed purpose, to meet the respectable family carriage, graced by the really charming Frances, only daughter of the Earl of Heaptown.

To look forward for a period of five and twenty years, blanches many a fair cheek, and excites the glow of hope and enthusiasm in those of vigorous and determined character; while the beauty trembles for her empire-the statesman for his place-the monarch even for his throne-those who have nothing to lose, and every thing to gain, regard the future as an undefinable something pregnant with light and life; to such, diamond-like are the sands that sparkle in the hour-glass of Time. while the withered hand which holds the mystic