larger and fiercer half of its population. With the moneyed classes she had nothing in common, though she viewed them with perhaps more pity than she did the very poor. An overplus of cash in any one person’s possession that had not been rightfully earned by the work of brain or body, was to her an incongruity, and a defection from the laws of the universe;--show and ostentation she despised,--and though she loved beautiful things, she found them,--as she herself said,--much more in the everyday provisions of nature, than in the elaborate designs of art. When she passed the gay shops in the principal thoroughfares she never paused to look in at the jewellers’ windows,--but she would linger for many minutes studying the beauty of the sprays of orchids and other delicate blossoms, arranged in baskets and vases by the leading florists; while,--best delight of all to her, was a solitary walk inland among the woods, where she could gather violets and narcissi, and, as she expressed it ‘feel them growing about her feet.’ She would have been an extraordinary personality as a man,--as a woman she was doubly remarkable, for to a woman’s gentleness she added a force of will and brain which are not often found even in the stronger sex. Mysterious as she was in her life and surroundings, enough was known of her by the people at large, to bring a goodly concourse of them to the Assembly Rooms on the night when she was announced to speak on a subject of which the very title seemed questionable, namely, “On the Corruption of the State.” The police had been notified of the impending meeting, and a few stalwart emissaries of the law in plain clothes mixed with the in-pouring throng. The crowd, however, was very orderly;--there was no pushing, no roughness, and no coarse language. All the members of Sergius Thord’s Revolutionary Committee were present, but they came as stragglers, several and apart,--and among them Paul Zouche the poet, was perhaps the most noticeable. He had affected the picturesque in his appearance;--his hat was of the Rembrandt character, and he had donned a very much worn, short velveteen jacket, whose dusty brown was relieved by the vivid touch of a bright red tie. His hair was wild and bushy, and his eyes sparkled with unwonted brilliancy, as he nodded to one or two of his associates, and gave a careless wave of the hand to Sergius Thord, who, entering slowly, and as if with reluctance, took a seat at the very furthest end of the hall, where his massive figure showed least conspicuous among the surging throng. Keeping his head down in a pensive attitude of thought, his eyes were, nevertheless, sharp to see every person entering who belonged to his own particular following,--and a ray of satisfaction lighted up his face, as he perceived his latest new associate, Pasquin Leroy, quietly edge his way through the crowd, and secure a seat in one of the obscurest and darkest corners of the badly lighted hall.