That bright beauty, who was not, as may be supposed, without some of those beauty airs in which she felt herself privileged to indulge, yet by no means disdained bestowing a few of her most bewitching smiles, upon the handsome, and as she had heard reported, eldest son of the wealthiest commoner of the county, and of course it was not in Trevor's nature to refuse to submit himself in some degree to the distinguished favour; besides, although Trevor and his thoughts were with his own Mary all the evening--and indeed his eyes pretty often too--yet their publicly unacknowledged engagement did not admit of his paying her that particular and undivided attention it was his wont to do on other occasions. Eugene was therefore, at the moment when Mary gave that sigh, sunning himself complacently, if not a little indolently, in the beams of that radiant beauty's smile and those still more radiant eyes. Mary had no jealous thought upon the subject; she only sighed and wished that she possessed but one tenth portion of the beauty's conspicuous charms for Eugene's sake--for Eugene's glory! "She looked down to blush, though she looked up to sigh," for surely she had caught that glance, so full of fond reassurance with which her lover tried to attract her earnest, anxious gaze:-- "Yes, lift thy eyes, sweet Psyche, what is she That those soft fringes timidly should fall Before her, and thy spiritual brow Be dark, as if her presence were a cloud-- A loftier gift is thine than she can give, That queen of beauty, She may give all that is within her own Bright cestus--and one silent look of thine, Like stronger magic, will out-charm it all. Ay, for the soul is better than its frame, The spirit than the temple-- Marvel not That love leans sadly on his bending wing, He hath found out the loveliness of mind And he is spoilt for beauty."[1] [Footnote 1: _Psyche before the Tribunal of Venus, by_ N. P. WILLIS.] A month since the engagement of Trevor and Mary had passed. Before the expiration of this period, the latter, with her lover's full consent, had written to her sisters in Scotland and in Italy, to confide to them her happy prospects, and from the former she had already received in return the most affectionate and fervent congratulations, another drop added to the already well filled cup of Mary's happiness; for before this, there had been times when she could not but feel regretfully the want of that real participating sympathy in her joy, which like as in our sorrow, those bound to us by the ties of close family relationship, can alone fully and adequately impart.