ever villanous or dishonorable, by which he could hope to add to his rank or his fortune. He became the willing tool of his depraved master, and at last committed an act at his instigation, which made his immediate departure from the country the only means of safety for himself and his patron. Before it was discovered, the nobleman procured him a lucrative foreign appointment, as the reward of his villany. Finding his income insufficient for the extravagant vices and habits in which he indulged, he was anxious to add to it by a wealthy alliance, and also to provide for his anticipated dismissal from his situation. Mary Liston was the first golden opportunity thrown in his way by fortune. He saw she could be easily secured, but he knew that 'all is not gold that glitters,' and wished to make, in this case, 'assurance doubly sure.'

At a brilliant ball, given at a fashionable hotel, Emily Courtney and Mary Liston were the rival belles of the evening. In one of the intervals between the dance and the waltz, Emily, with her lover, the count, and two or three others, were engaged in an animated discussion upon the various styles of female beauty. Among the group, was the quondam friend of Mary Liston, who had carefully avoided all intercourse with her, since she received the startling information of her obscure origin. A gentleman who stood beside her, addressing himself to Emily, said :

Your city, Miss Courtney, has long been famed for the beauty of its women; and its celebrity has been justly won, if one may judge from its present representatives. Miss Liston is certainly a lovely creature, and if it would not be trespassing on your kindness, you would render me your debtor, by requesting the favor of an introduction to her.'

Emily bowed haughtily, and replied: 'You will be under the necessity of applying to the lady next to you; for Miss Liston's name is not admitted upon my visiting-list. I have never had the honor of meeting her among my acquaintance; but the frequent attempts of her family to get into society, have given them, at least, notoriety of a kind, however, not very enviable.'

How ludicrous and how inconsistent are the claims of distinction in our mongrel society! We have often heard two families, of equal standing, thus speak of each other; and those who are most dubious of their own right of place, generally express most contempt for those whose equality they must feel, while they scorn to acknow. ledge it.

It was during the evening of the ball, that Mary Liston's hopes met with final success. The don, in promenading through the room, overheard the following conversation between two fashionable foplings.

• What has brought you to the Springs, this summer, Horace?' said one to the other: 'have you come here to mend your health ?'

'Ah no! Fred., 't is from a cause more lamentable than that: it is with the hope of mending my condition; for my purse has failen into a distressing marasmus. My old uncle has just died, and cut me off without a shilling. The old fellow showed me his will, a year or two ago, in which he had left me his sole heir. And when, in a dangerous illness, last winter, he was thought to be dying, I

was so overjoyed at the thought of coming into immediate possession of such a fortune, as my own had nearly dwindled away, that I took three or four of my friends to a hotel, to treat them, in return for their hearty congratulations. We had a high carousal, I assure you; but as ill luck would have it, the decrepid old wretch sprang up again into second youth, like a Phoenix, and upon hearing of my frolic, from some kind friend or other, he threw his will into the fire, and made another, bequeathing his untold hoards to some charitable institution. But begone dull care!' I am as merry a dog as ever, in despite of this mischance. You have been here long enough, Fred., to spy out the land; can you tell me where is the finest chance for a profitable speculation?'

'Such chances are very scarce, Horace; but there are two or three, that are at least worth trying for. There is an old Liston here, said to be worth a plum, and he has but two children, and both daughters; so you can have two birds to aim at, which you know, by all gamesters, is considered to offer a greater certainty of success than where there is but one.'

'But this plum is the title good?" asked Horace. 'Indisputably so,' replied his friend: 'I have had it from the best authority. And the old man looks quite apoplectic.'

'Ha! this is best of all - for I do not like to wait long for dead men's shoes. I have had enough of that.'

The don was quite enraptured by the information he had overheard, and sought an early opportunity to offer himself to the acceptance of Mary Liston. This was soon found, and before the gay assembly had dispersed, Mary was triumphing in the proud thought of having secured a titled foreigner for her future husband.

She

The gentle and retiring Alice was also being wooed and won, to the surprise of her family, who had always looked upon her as being destined for an old maid. The bustle and gayety of Saratoga had so few charms for her, that she endeavored to absent herself from them, and spent most of her time in the solitude of her own room. at last had the happiness of finding a congenial companion in a young lady, who was an invalid. A warm friendship soon sprang into greenness and beauty, between two young creatures whose tastes and pursuits were so nearly assimilated, and so different from the gay crowd around them. The friend of Alice had an only brother, to whom she was fondly attached. He arrived at Saratoga a short time after their intimacy commenced. The favorite theme of Helen Stanley, when talking to Edward, was her dear Alice - her kindness to her in sickness - her attention to her every wish - the virtues of her heart, and the graces of her highly cultivated mind. Edward Stanley felt grateful to Alice for all that she had been to his sister, and the respect and esteem which her character awakened in his heart, after becoming acquainted with her, soon deepened into a devoted attachment.

A few days previous to the time fixed on for the departure of the Listons from Saratoga, Edward revealed the state of his feelings toward Alice, and requested permission to ask her father's consent to their engagement. He told her that his situation would not justify an immediate union, but his prospects of success in his profession were flattering, and that he hoped in a few years to claim her as his bride, if he should be so happy as to find his proposals sanctioned by her parents.

Mrs. Liston and Mary were indignant when they heard of it, and told Alice it was mortifying to them to think of her thus lowering herself, by entering into an engagement with a poor physician, whose only support was to be derived from his profession. But their opposition, in this instance, had no effect on Mr. Liston, and he said that as he had permitted them to have their own way in choosing a Spaniard as his future son-in-law, he was determined that Alice should make her own selection. The various testimonials that he had received of the character and high standing of Edward Stanley, so fully met his approval, that he gave a free consent to their future union.

The marriage of Mary Liston with Don, which took place soon after their return, created quite a sensation. Mrs. Liston and the donna had the gratification of finding that this union with a titled foreigner placed them at once among the élite of society, and Mary had also the additional satisfaction of a complete triumph over her former rival; for the volatile count had forgotten his engagement with Emily Courtney a few weeks after her departure from Saratoga. His heart was like a mirror, for it only bore the image of the beauty before him, and a new face quickly filled up the space that Emily had left.

The don and his beautiful bride were the favorite subjects of conversation in the fashionable world; and nothing could exceed the continual gayety and the extravagant display in which the first year of their marriage was passed. All seemed delighted to honor them, and their presence was considered quite an enviable accession to any assemblage.

But their splendid career was as short as it was brilliant; for as soon as the villanous act which had induced the don to leave his country, was traced to him as its perpetrator, an order was despatched from the government, depriving him of his appointment, and proclaiming his real station and character. His former patron suffered the fate he deserved, and his tool owed his safety to his obscurity. As soon as the news reached America, he was suddenly deposed from the assumed rank of a Spanish grandee, to the son of a Castilian cobbler, and a dependant on his father-in-law, old John Liston. In the midst of the mortification under which Mary and her mother were writhing, Alice received a letter from Edward Stanley, informing her that he had entered into a lucrative partnership with an old physician, whose ill health obliged him to relinquish most of his practice, and requesting her to name an early day for their union. A few weeks after the receipt of this letter, Alice, attired in a plain travelling habit, was united to the one she had so wisely chosen, and accompanied by her husband and his sister, took her departure for her adopted home, where she was to enter into the calm, hearth-side enjoyments of domestic life.

The unhappy Mary's chagrin and discomfiture were as complete as had been her brilliant triumph, and she shrank from her former gay associates, and became a prey to discontent and ill humor. The quondam don soon found his level in a company of low gamblers, and ceased to give his wife even the semblance of attention. This, however, was no deprivation to her, for he had become as much an object of her loathing as he once was of her pride. Honest John Liston would have turned him from his house, but for the intercession of Mary and her mother, who, for the sake of appearances, were willing to retain him as an inmate.

About a year after the marriage of Alice, her father was reading with tears of joy one of her affectionate letters, he had just received, in which she was describing the beauty and infantile graces of his little namesake, John Liston Stanley. While it was still lying open before him, a gentleman came into the counting-room and presented him a draft for a large amount, upon which his own signature was endorsed. The first glance was sufficient to pronounce it a forgery, and with the energy and perseverence of a much younger man, he started to trace it to its source. He was successful; but to his dismay, he found the forger to be his son-in-law the husband of his Mary! For the sake of his unfortunate daughter, he determined to pay the note, hoping by this means to conceal his villany from the world, but resolving that he should no longer remain under his roof.

He hastened to his home, with the forged draft in his hand. As soon as he saw his wife, he bitterly exclaimed: 'See the wretched effects of your craving ambition! The husband of our Mary is a forger and a villain. To save her from the mortification of his public exposure, I will pay this draft, though it will nearly ruin ine. But wife! wife! we are both justly punished. I threw no check on your aspiring notions, for I too was pleased with the world's hollow flatteries. Mary was our pride and our cherished idol, but she is miserably thrown away on the scape-gallows son of a Spanish cobbler, while our once neglected Alice is the happy and respected wife of an American husband - a high-minded and honorable man, whom, as a son or a son-in-law, the proudest in the land might feel prouder to own.'

G.

PERE LA CHAISE.

VOILA, mes frères, à quoi se termineront enfin les desirs, les espérances, les conseils, et les enterprises des hommes: voilà ou viendrout enfin échouer les vaines reflexions des sages et des esprits forts, les doutes et les incertitudes étérnelles des incrédules, les vastes projets des conquérans, les monumens de la gloire humaine, les soins de l'ambition, les distinctions des talens, les inquiétudes de la fortune, la prospérité des empires et toutes les revolutions frivoles de la terre!" MASSILLON.