This she had ample opportunity to reiterate--for time proved to her that the prime object of her grand effort had failed--those who comprised her select party never including her in any of theirs. More particularly did it recur to her, when, some months afterward, Mrs. Colonel Raynor, though she sometimes stopped to exchange a few kindly words with Mr. Smith at his place of business, evaded every invitation to his dwelling, while she went the rounds of sumptuous feting among the Goldsboroughs, Pendletons, Longacres & Co. SPIRIT-VOICES. BY CHARLES W. BAIRD. "Hast thou heard ever a spirit-voice, As in morning's hour it stole Speaking to thee from the home of its choice, Deep in the unfathomed soul: Telling of things that the ear hath not heard, Neither the mind conceived; Bringing a balm in each gentle word Unto the heart bereaved?" O, I have heard it in days of the spring, When gladness and joy were rife. 'Twas a voice of hope, that came whispering Its story of strength and life. It told me that seasons of vigor and mirth Follow the night of pain; And the heaven-born soul, like the flowers of earth, Withers, to live again! "Hast thou heard ever a spirit-voice, At the sunny hour of noon; Bidding the soul in its light rejoice, For the darkness cometh soon; Telling of blossoms that early bloom And as early pine and fade; And the bright hopes that must find a tomb In the dark, approaching shade?" Yes, I have heard it in summer's hour, When the year was in its strength: 'T was a voice of faith, and it spoke with power Of joys that shall come at length. It told how the holy and beautiful gain Fruition of peace and love; And the blest ones, freed from this world of pain, Flourish and ripen above. "Hast thou heard ever a spirit-voice, At the solemn noon of night, When the fair visions of memory rise Robed in their fancied light. When the loved forms that are cold and dead Pass in their train sad and slow; And the waking soul, from its pleasures fled, Turns to its present wo?" Oft have I heard it when day was o'er; And the welcome tones I knew: Like the voices of those who have gone before, The Beautiful and the True. And it turned my thoughts to that blissful time When ceaseth cold winter's breath; When the free spirit shall seek that clime Where there is no more death. THE ISLETS OF THE GULF; OR, ROSE BUDD. Ay, now I am in Arden; the more fool I; when I was at home I was in a better place; but Travelers must be content. AS YOU LIKE IT. BY THE AUTHOR OF "PILOT," "RED ROVER," "TWO ADMIRALS," "WING-AND-WING," "MILES WALLINGFORD," ETC [Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1846, by J. Fenimore Cooper, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Northern District of New York.] (_Concluded from page 98_.) PART XVII.