Beatrice.

BEATRICE .

BY THE AUTHOR OF THE " OLD OLD STORY , " "ADVENTURES OF DON PASQTJALE , " ETC . CHAPTER II . A T the time my story commenceswhich was soon after I settled at CayleyMrs .

, , - ' - * - Mortimer had been for some years a denizen of that good town . She , like a sensible woman as she was , had accommodated herself to her now position , ( not in itself an unenviable one , as times went , ) ancl soon made friends to herself—as she was jeretfcy sine to do ,- —alike by her genial manners and her ladylike but unpretentious deportment . It was well known that she came of a " good old stock . " " Her ancestors came over , sir , with William the Conqueror , " Jorrox , the medical man , was

fond of saying ; ancl , happily for us all in England , despite a great deal too much of this very " brassy age , " there lingers amid our honest English folk , —go where you will ¦ —a great regard for the " old names " ancl " ancient families . " Indeed , in some parts of thee country , this amounts still ( I for one like to remember ) to a " belief !" Sometimes it happens , for instance , that the " Great House " is tenanted by a convenient occupantpro tern . who has taken a " repairing lease" ancl is a most useful

, , , and judicious locum tenens . But if you walk clown into the village , ancl turn into the sanded "common room" of the De Mowbray Arms , you will soon learn the exact value at which owner ancl occupier are estimated ; you will soon gather the correct voice of that " public opinion , " which is mostly right in such matters , however a little prone to sentiment or exaggeration , to the platitudes of the wind-bag , or tho fallacies of the stump-orator of the day . The old name has still a great hold on our

consei'vative peoiele ; and the fact is in itself the best answer to the crude ideas or the noisy assumptions of the destructive school . But , bless my heart ! here I am already drifting into a most serious question , alike of political economy and national existence . Forgive the erratic pen , kind reader ; I will keep it henceforth more under control , aud " Eevenons a nos inoutons . "

After a few years had sped on , —in a Very quiet , customary way of existence , —¦ Mrs . Mortimer had become the centre of a little circle , which for their own happiness , at any rate , if not for others , had contrived to make life take a very sunny line for themselves . There is nothing in all the world , after all , like pleasant companionship , inasmuch as it is in kindly association , in cordial friendship , in the intensity and inner being of affection ancl sympathy , that we find an Oasis for us all in this great , far-reaching ,

wide-extending desert of human being . Then it is that the secrets of our hearts are unloosed , and that we ourselves become companionable ancl conversational , amiable and available , all at the same time ; that we throw off our insular "barbarism" and reserve , and throw over the whole " current of our existence " as well as the entire pathway of our feet , all that can most charm and solace , most delight and most beguile us by the way of life . Some of the happiest moments of earthly existence are spent in that

genial gathering that is redolent ever of friendship fair ancl fast , of affection honest and true , to us and ours . Time breaks up our party , ancl sternly scatters us here and there , isolated and disjointed wanderers upon earth . But memory docs and can speak to us , " full voiced , " of union , of happiness , of sympathy , of interest , which , alas ! are for us things of the past . Each hour as it passes whispers to us of joys which can never return , of friends we never more shall confidingly greet on this side the grave . Of the friendly assembly which was wont at this time to grace Mrs . Mortimer ' s