An Original Belle

us experience. She was awed and somewhat depressed, as well as resolute and earnest. Life was no pleasure excursion to her father. Questions i

the best spirit of his age, and found recreation in the best thought of

ve read but never thought of much: the chief need of men who can do much or who amount to much is the intelligent sympathy of women who understand and care for them.

to breakfast their domestic handed her a note from her father, by which she was informed t

She enjoyed her first exultant thrill at her sense of power as she compreh

r she had a passion for dress, and few knew how to make more of it than she. But a new and stronger passion was awakening. She was made to feel at last that she had not only a woman's lovely form and features, but a woman's

could think of little else. She went over her father's words again and again, dwelling on the last utterance, w

rong rebound from what she at last recognized as mean and unworthy. She also had a little natural curiosity and vanity to see if her face was changi

ad begun, with a dissatisfaction as to the past, amounting almost to disgust, and with fears, queries,

ome, finding us all unprepared. Oh, why don't mamma feel and see more? We have been just like comfortable passengers on a ship, while papa was facing we knew not what. I may not be of much use, but I feel now as if I wanted to be with him. To stay below with scarcely any other motive than to have a good time, and then to be paralyzed, helpless, whe

agerly, and almost her first words were, "

fact. No; I have given you a wrong impression. Nothing has been humdrum to-day. An acquaintance down town said: 'What's up, Vosburgh? Heard good news? Have our troops scored a point?'

of my supp

magine. You shall see how gallant I can become under provocation. We must make the most of a couple of hours, for that is all that I can give you. No sail to-night, as I had planned, for a government agent is coming on from Wa

ng to give me a c

, get ready for the street. Put on what you please, so that you wear a smile. These

her father. The quiet man proved true the words of Emerson, "

vents of the day, and contemporaneous history became romance under his version; the actors in the passing drama ceased to be names and officials, and were invested with human interest. She was made to see their motives, their hopes, fears, ambitions; she opened her eyes in surprise at his knowledge of prominent people, their social

ed that at times she l

now all this?"

are exerting a positive influence. It is interesting to study the men and women who, in any period, made and shaped history, and to learn the secrets of their success and failure. Is it not natural that men and women who are making history to-day-who in fact are shaping one's own history-should be objects of stronger attention? Now, as in the past, women exert a far greater influence o

eded. You should write romances, for you but touch the nam

a stage from which Shakespeare borrowed the whole gamut of human feeling, passion, and experience. I also wished to satisfy you that you have mind enough to become absorbed as soon as you begin to understand the significance of the play. After you have once become an intelligent spectator of real life you can no more go back to drawing-room chit-chat, gossip, and flirtation than you can lay down Shakespeare's 'Tempest' for a

reafter I shall be only too proud if you will talk to me as you have done, giving me glimpses of your thoughts, your work, and especially your dangers, where there are any. Never deceive me in this respect, or leave me in ignorance. Whatever may be the weaknesses of my nature, now that I have waked up, I am too proud a girl to receive all that I do from your hands and the

and I fear I have been too encouraging,-not intentionally and deliberately you know, but thoughtlessly. He was the cleverest and the most entertaining of my friends, and always brought a breezy kind of excitement with him. Don't you see, papa? That is what I lived for, pleasure and excitement, and I don't believe that anything can be so exciting to a girl as to see a man yielding to her fascinations, whatever they may be. It gives one a delicious sense of power. I shall be frank, too. I must be, for I w

u love

different from those of girls! Then my love of power came in, you see. The other girls were always talking about their friends and followers, and it was my pride to surpass them all. I liked one better than another, of course, but was always as ready for a new conquest as th

your mother's side till you are as

t what am I to do? Sooner or later I shall

Should the South triumph, phases of the Old-World despotism would creep in with certainly, and in the end we should have alliances, not marriages, as is the case so generally abroad. Now if a white American girl does not make her own choice she is a weak fool. The law and public sentiment protect her. If she will not choose wisely, she must suffer the consequences, and only under the impulse of love can a true choice be made. A gi

for myself,-to stay with you and mamma, and t

be love let

more than you can afford. You should be frank on this point also, when you know I do n

ve a rival, or to lose what I have so recently gained. Nevertheless, I know that when the true knight comes through the wood, my sleeping beauty will have another awakening, compared with which this one will seem slight indeed. Then, as a matter of course, I will quietly take my place as 'seco

, as Shakespeare says, yo