Although this was merely common place nonsense, the girl slightly blushed before she replied—‘Nae doubt, sir, they be all frae Scotland that speaks to me, sir.’ ‘You did not know that I was descended from the noble house of—’ ‘Douglas?’ ‘No, but of—of—’ ‘Oh! the Bruce it must be—’ ‘No—stop—the—house of Monteith.’ ‘_Monteith!_’ cried she, removing herself farther from, and affecting horror at the name. ‘Yes, that noble ancestry I claim, and you shall be my bonny bride, and we will return together to Scotia’s shores, and live near the Highland cot in which you were born and reared.’ ‘With a _Monteith!_ with a Monteith, think you?’ and she stared curiously at the youth—‘take off your shoes, sir, did I ever think I should ever set my twa een upon one of that family? Tak off your boot and let us see if ye have not a cloven foot, at least?’ Blodget had sent for wine, which was procured at twenty dollars the bottle—an excellent article, however; and now conversation, raillery, repartee, and compliments flowed freely. The two girls were entirely unlike those whom we find in houses of resort in the Atlantic cities. They had evidently received a good education, more especially the dark-eyed one, and their conversation was conducted in a style more usually heard in a fashionable drawing-room than in an establishment sacred to the Paphian Goddess. This way the evening was spent, and the hour had become late. Other girls of various degrees of beauty were in the apartment. Music of a high order—added to the charm of the occasion. The men at this house were generally of the higher classes, or those who assumed to be so; and the utmost harmony prevailed. The wines sparkled—wit flew from mouth to mouth—and few things were said or done which might not have passed in the saloons of Mr. Vandewater himself. Blodget had the air of a blase, and after having talked a little, in a tone of listless indifference, with the Spanish girl, he turned to another. At the close of the evening, Monteagle found himself in conversation with the lively and intelligent Spanish maid, who told him that she came from Santiago, a city of Chile, and where, from some words that accidentally dropped from her, he was made to believe that she had moved in a circle differing, in many respects, from that with which he now found her. He became more and more interested in Maria, as she was called. With all her liveliness there was a certain delicacy about her which enchanted him; and as she moved about to different parts of the room, her rounded form and voluptuous limbs could not escape his watchful regards. His imagination exalted by rich wines and fascinated by the beauty and the manners of Maria, Monteagle was in a condition to overlook the demand of prudence, and the whisperings of conscience. Blodget certainly exhibited no regret at observing this.