Few people were ever endowed with a greater capacity of receiving pleasureable emotions than Selina Seymour, and the whole tenor of her joyful life had hitherto tended to increase this inestimable gift of nature. She had been as happy at Mrs. Sullivan's ball, as it was possible for any innocent being, without a care for the present or a regret for the past; and the pleasure of her own mind was reflected back to her tenfold in the approving smiles of her father and aunt. Her delight in the gay scene was unalloyed by envy or competition. She had never been taught to estimate her _happiness_ by her height in the scale of admiration; for her fond relatives, thinking her always charming, and ever considering her felicity more than the gratification of their own pride, had not tortured her by preparations for exhibition; and, as long as she danced with pleasure to herself, they cared not _how_. The happy girl so keenly enjoyed the brilliant scene, was so grateful for the marked attention she received, that she had not time to stop to consider whether she was _admired_ or not; and, perhaps, if this query had even occurred to her mind, the answer to it might have been a matter of indifference--sufficient was it to her felicity to know she was _beloved_. But all Selina's delight would have been turned to pain the more exquisite, could one fold of the veil of futurity have been raised to show her the near approach of misery. On that night she first saw pleasure decked in her festal robe, her brow crowned with flowers, her countenance radiant with smiles, presenting her enchantments with one hand--but saw not the other beckoning to the hovering forms of disease and death, to array her in the garb of wo:--a task they too quickly performed; for alas! this scene of gaiety was but the antechamber of grief.