emblem of Truth, which had in all ages owed much of its transcendent loveliness to the tyranny that sought to stifle its growth;--and when I pointed to it as a type of our national freedom, I was forced to stop,--for snowy handkerchiefs perfumed the air, and eager hands beat a rapturous 'encore;' and I was reading a written lie! for my heart was dying--puny and faded--beneath its weight. Intellect! a woman's intellect! I had rather be little Fanny Porter, with her silly, sweet face, and always imperfect lessons, than what I am. She has a father, mother, brothers, sisters, who dote upon her. Nourished upon fondness, she asks love of all, and never in vain. If I could dream my life away, I should be content. I love to lock my door upon the real world, and unbar the portals of my fairy palace--my thought-realm. Those long delicious reveries which melt so sweetly into my night-visions--and the blessed rainy days spent by Josephine in worsted work! Yet all this is injurious--I am enervating my mind--destroying every faculty of usefulness. To whom can I be useful! 'Do your duty in your home'--said the sermon last Sabbath. I have no home--no friends--I am cut off from my species. Tired of the world at seventeen! weary of a life I may not end! Seventeen! seventeen! would it were seventy or seven! I should be nearer my journey's end--or once more a happy child, nestling in my mother's bosom!" "Forgive me," said a gentle voice, "but your exercise is not finished, and it is near Signer Alboni's hour." The speaker was the owner of the adjoining desk. As their eyes met, hers beamed with sympathy and interest. Ida knew nothing of the wretchedness expressed in her features, but she felt the agony at heart, and taken unawares, she could not entirely repress the tide that sprang to her lids at this unexpected kindness. Ashamed of what she had been "schooled" to consider a weakness, she lowered her head over her writing, until the long curls hid her face. "Signor Alboni, young ladies!" called out Mr. Purcell, the principal of the seminary. Ida surveyed the unsightly sheet in dismay, but there was no time for alteration, and she repaired with the rest to the recitation-room.