“What an artless sprite it is!” said one old gentleman, who had stared at her from the instant of her entrance, in mute enjoyment, to the great amusement of his more knowing nephews. “All but the artless!” rejoined one of the sophisticated youngsters. “She is gotten up too well for that. Ten to one she is an experienced stager, who calculates to a nicety the capabilities of every twist of her silky hair and twinkle of an eyelash. Hallo! that IS gushing--nicely done, if it isn't almost equal to the genuine thing, in fact.” The ambiguous compliment was provoked by a change of scene and a new actor, that opened other optics than his lazy ones to their extremest extent. A gentleman had come in alone and quietly--a tall, manly personage, whose serious countenance had just time to soften into a smile of recognition before the black-robed fairy flew up to him--both hands extended--her face one glad sunbeam of surprise and welcome. “YOU here!” she exclaimed, in a low, thrilling tone, shedding into his the unclouded rays of her glorious eyes, while one of her hands lingered in his friendly hold. “This is almost too good to be true! When did you come? How long are you going to stay? and what did you come for? Yours is the only familiar physiognomy I have beheld since our arrival, and my eyes were becoming ravenous for a sight of remembered things. Which reminds me”--coloring bewitchingly, with an odd mixture of mirth and chagrin in smile and voice--“that I have been getting up quite a little show on my own account, forgetful of les regles, and I suppose the horrified lookers-on think of les moeurs. May I atone for my inadvertence by presenting you, in good and regular form, to my somewhat shocked, but very respectable, relatives? Did you know that I was in Congress this year--that is, Mr. Mason, my aunt's husband, is an Honorable, and I am here with them?” The gentleman gave her his arm, and they strolled leisurely in the direction of the party she had deserted so unceremoniously. “I did not know it, but I am glad to learn that you are to make a long visit to the city. I have business that may detain me here for a week--perhaps a fort-night,” was his answer to the first question she suffered him thus to honor. Then the introduction to Mr. and Mrs. Mason, their married daughter, Mrs. Cunningham, and her husband, was performed. The Member's wife was a portly, good-natured Virginia matron, whose ruling desire to make all about her comfortable as herself, sometimes led to contretemps that were trying to the subjects of her kindness, and would have been distressing to her, had she ever, by any chance, guessed what she had done. She opened the social game now, by saying, agreeably: “Your name is not a strange one to us, Mr. Chilton. We have often heard you spoken of in the most affectionate terms by our friends, but not near neighbors, the Ayletts, of Ridgeley,----county. Is it long since you met or heard from them?”