Ishmael for his part treated the old ladies with all the reverential tenderness that their age and womanhood had a right to expect from his youth and manhood. He never dreamed that the "sweet, small courtesies," which it was his happiness to bestow alike on rich and poor, had won for him such signal favor in the eyes of the old ladies. He knew and was happy to know that they loved him. That was all. He never dreamed of being their heir; he never even imagined that they had any property to bequeath. He devoted himself with conscientious zeal to his profession, and went on, as he deserved to go on, from success to success. CHAPTER XIII. LADY VINCENT'S RECEPTION. The folds of her wine-dark violet dress Glow over the sofa fall on fall. As she sits in the light of her loveliness, With a smile for each and for all. Could we find out her heart through that velvet and lace, Can it beat without rumpling her sumptuous dress? She will show us her shoulder, her bosom, her face, But what her heart's like, we must guess. --_O. M._ The evening of Lady Vincent's reception arrived. At an unfashionably early hour Judge Merlin's country house was filled. All the county families of any importance were represented there. The rustic guests, drawn, no doubt, not more by their regard for Judge Merlin and his daughter than by their curiosity to behold a titled foreigner. Mr. and Mrs. Middleton and Beatrice came very early, encumbered with several bandboxes; for their long ride made it necessary for them to defer their evening toilet until after their arrival. They were received and conducted to their rooms by old Aunt Katie. "Lady Vincent," she said, "has not yet left her dressing room." When their toilets were made, Mr. and Mrs. Middleton came to Bee's door to take her down to the drawing room. Very beautiful indeed looked Bee, in her floating, cloud-like dress of snow-white tulle, with white moss-roses resting on her rounded bosom and wreathing her golden ringlets; and all her beauty irradiated with the light of a happy love. Her father smiled proudly and her mother fondly on her as she came out and joined them. The found the drawing rooms already well filled with guests. Lord and Lady Vincent stood near the door to receive all comers. To them the Middletons first went. Very handsome and majestic looked Claudia in her rich robe of royal purple velvet, with her raven black hair crowned with a diadem of diamonds, and diamonds blazing on her neck and arms and at her waist. Strangers looked upon her loveliness with unqualified delight. Her "beauty made them glad." But friends who saw the glittering surface and the alloy beneath it, admired and sighed. Her dark eyes were beaming with light; her oval cheeks were burning with crimson fire. Mrs. Middleton thought this was fever; but Bee knew it was French rouge.