"There's another chance gone!" he sighed; "what luck I have! I'm always interrupted, and the fates are leagued against me." Belle-bouche left him with a blush and a smile, and disappeared. Ten minutes afterwards the company had reassembled on the lawn, and seemed to be anxiously expecting something. This something suddenly made its appearance, and advanced into the open space with merriment and laughter. It was a party of young girls who, clad in all the colors of the rainbow, bore in their midst a pyramid of silver dishes wreathed with flowers, and overflowing with strawberries and early fruits. It was a revival of the old May-day ceremonies in London, when the milkmaids wreathed their buckets with flowers, and passed from door to door, singing and asking presents. Jacques had arranged it all--the philosophic and antiquarian Jacques; and with equal taste he had selected the beautiful verses of Marlow or Shakspeare, for the chorus of maidens. The maidens approached the company, therefore, merrily singing, in their childlike voices, the song: "Come live with me and be my love, And we will all the pleasures prove That valleys, groves, or hills, or fields, Or woods and steepy mountains yields; "Where we will sit upon the rocks And see the shepherds feed our flocks, By shallow rivers, to whose falls Melodious birds sing madrigals. "And I will make thee beds of roses, And then a thousand fragrant posies; A cap of flowers, and a kirtle, Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle; "A gown made of the finest wool, Which from our pretty lambs we pull; Slippers lined choicely for the cold, With buckles of the purest gold; "A belt of straw and ivy buds, With coral clasps and amber studs: And if these pleasures may thee move, Come live with me and be my love." As the song ended, little Martha came forth from the throng, and holding in her hand a small crook, went round with a very laughing face asking charity from the applauding company. "Only a penny, sir!" she said, motioning back a pistole which Mr. Jack Denis held out gaily. And then--the collection ended--the young girls of the masquerade hurried back to rid themselves of their pyramid. Mr. Jack Denis and Miss Lucy Mowbray, who had just arrived with her brother, bent their steps toward the grove, through which ran a purling stream; and thither they were followed after a little by Miss Martha Wayles and her admirer, Bathurst. We cannot follow them and listen to their conversation--that would be indecorous. But we may be permitted to say that two young ladies--one very young--on that morning plighted their troth to two young gentlemen--one very young. And if they blushed somewhat upon returning, it was an honest blush, which the present chronicler for one will not laugh at.