“Well, well, it is a mercy that in their confabulations they did not set you two blowing each other’s brains out; and it would have been no wonder, Julius, if such a catastrophe had happened, to punish you for your disobedience,” said the old bachelor, “now, if you had obliged me, like a dutiful nephew, by calling on your cousin, and acted a friend’s part towards Elkinton, by going to see his sweetheart, everything would have ended properly without any of this trouble. But it is too often the case that people run after all sorts of shadows, and get themselves into all sorts of scrapes, in their search after happiness, when they could find it at once by quietly attending to their duties at home.” The young ladies returned, and, through delicacy towards them, no allusion was made to the subject just canvassed, but Julius, on returning with his uncle to dinner, declared his intention of offering himself to Etty that very evening, if he should find an opportunity. This the old gentleman expressly forbade, giving him a fortnight as a term of probation; but whether he was obeyed more closely in this than in his former requisitions, was, from certain indications, a matter of doubt. At the end of the two weeks, there was a friendly contest between Rockwell and Elkinton, as to which must wait to be the groomsman of the other. It was left to the decision of Mr. Holcroft, who declared in favor of the latter, he having determined to serve in that capacity, towards his nephew himself. He did so, in the course of a few months, and though Julius has not had time to rise, as his substitute, to the height of the profession, he has carried out the original plan so far as to have furnished the Holcroft mansion with a boy, athletic enough already to ride on his grand uncle’s cane, and a girl, so ingenious as to have, occasionally, made a doll’s cradle of his rocking chair. * * * * * AGATHÈ.—A NECROMAUNT. IN THREE CHIMERAS. BY LOUIS FITZGERALD TASISTRO. Chimera II. A curse! a curse!—the beautiful pale wing Of a sea-bird was worn with wandering, And, on a sunny rock beside the shore It stood, the golden waters gazing o’er, And they were heaving a brown amber flow Of weeds, that glittered gloriously below. It was the sunset, and the gorgeous hall Of heaven rose up on pillars magical Of living silver, shafting the fair sky Between dark time and great eternity. They rose upon their pedestal of sun, A line of snowy columns! and anon, Were lost in the rich tracery of cloud That hung along magnificently proud, Predicting the pure star-light, that beyond The East was armoring in diamond About the camp of twilight, and was soon To marshal under the fair champion moon, That called her chariot of unearthly mist, Toward her citadel of amethyst.