The Europeans

elling of which mention has already been made. It was on going with his daughters to return her visit that Mr. Wentworth placed this comfortable cottage at her service; the offer being the result

ture. To consider an event, crudely and baldly, in the light of the pleasure it might bring them was an intellectual exercise with which Felix Young's American cousins were almost wholly unacquainted, and which they scarcely supposed to be largely pursued in any section of human society. The arrival of Felix and his sister was a satisfaction, but it was a singularly joyless and inelastic satisfaction. It was an extension of duty, of the exercise of the more recondite virtues; but neither Mr. Wentworth, nor Charlotte, nor Mr. Brand, who, among these excellent people, was a great promoter of reflection and aspiration, frankly adverted to it as an extension of enjoyment. This function was ultimately assumed by Gertrude Wentworth, who was a pe

eceiving no other designation than the personal pronoun. Charlotte and Gertrude acquired considerable facility in ad

ractical questions that required, in strictness, no answer, and to which indeed she expected no

ed a willingness to co

politeness," Ge

olite-very polite,"

hich was habitual to him, but which was an indication of nothing w

id of you, sir," said Lizzie

n to encourage her

t care if you do

of you, Clifford," s

!" Clifford

bert," Gertrude conti

r everyone was looking at Gertrude-everyone, at least, save Lizzi

e motives, Gertrude?

," said Gertrude. "I only say she

. "Don't you, Gertrude? Of course the Baroness will thi

ousewife's pride. "She can have the large northeast room. And the French b

rtrude; "not even if you pin li

tte, perceiving a touch of ir

ress, which she had put on in honor of the Baroness, made a sound upon the ca

te she can stay in her ro

. "That would not be pleasant," she answere

laugh again. "My dear

wondered whence she had suddenly derived these strange n

been," he said; "but she certainly never can ha

g at them all. "She is the

ntworth; "and I don't know of any pala

want to do something handsome? Make them a present,

with other people's thi

" Mr. Wentworth observed dispassionately, and

, "I had an idea you were

cousin?" as

girl rejoined, with her laugh. "I thoug

e a great deal of him,"

want to keep him

Lizzie Acton, and

ve in the house with you,

I hate you!" Such was

with a smile the sweeter, as her smile always was, for its rarity; "

d. "Gertrude is the cleverest girl in the world. If I might tak

so pretty as the northea

etty. Leave her alon

e less familiar had complimented her. "I am sure she will make it pretty. It wi

r. Wentworth inquired. "Do you think it desirable

f it were a question of the poor Barones

e declared again, laying her hand

aming-table?" Charlotte a

oment, and then, "Yes, Cha

th observed, with his humorous young growl.

tch. Indeed, we must all be careful. This is a great change; we are to be exposed to peculiar influences. I don't say they are bad. I don't judge t

want to see how they will live. I am sure they will have different hours. She will do all kinds of little things differently. When we go o

nse, for the moment, it seemed to threaten to make her sister a strange person who should come in suddenly, as from a journey, talking of the peculiar and possibly unpleasant things she had observed. Charlotte's imagination took no journeys whatever; she kept it, as it were, in her pocket, with the other fur

Gertrude; "a French m

said Lizzie Acton. "There was a French maid in that play that Rob

groan. She had a vision of a wicked, theatrical person, clad in pink stockings and red shoes, and speaking, with confounding volubility, an incomprehensible tongue, flitting through the sacred p

gave her his earnest, thin, unresponsive glance again

?" she aske

low these-these occurrences to

she shook her head. "I don't think I can p

all were silent, as if in recognition

go to the other house,"

ther house," Mr. Wentworth

ings, the inefficiency of her father's design-if design it was-for diminishing, in the interest of quiet nerves, their occasions of contact with their foreign relatives. But Acton immediately complimented Mr. Wentworth upon his liberality. "That's a very nice thing to do," he said, "giving them the little house. You will hav

nd this of itself made an impression upon Eugenia's imagination. She perceived at the same time that if Charlotte or Gertrude should ask their father for a very considerable sum he would at once place it in their hands; and this made a still greater impression. The greatest impression of all, perhaps, was made by another rapid induction. The Baroness had an immediate conviction that Robert Acton would put his hand into his pocket every day in the week if that rattle-pated little sister of his should bid him. The men in this country, said the Baroness, are evidently very obliging. Her declaration that she was looking for rest and retirement had been by no means wholly untrue; nothing that the Baroness said was wholly untrue. It is but fair to add, perhaps, that nothing that she said was wholly true. She wrote to a friend in Germany that it was a return to nature; it was like drinking new milk, and she was very fond of new milk. She said to herself, of course, that it would be a little dull; but there can be no better proof of her good spirits than the fact that she thought she should not mind its being a little dull. It seemed to her, when from the piazza of her eleemosynary cottage she looked out over the soundless fields, the stony pastures, the clear-faced ponds, the rugged little orchards, that she had never been in the midst of so peculiarly intense a stillness; it was almost a delicate sensual pleasure. It was all very good, very innocent and safe, and out of it something good must come. Augustine, indeed, who had an unbounded faith in her mistress's wisdom and far-sightedness, was a great deal perplexed and depressed. She was always ready to take her cue when she understood it; but she liked to understand it, and on this occasion comprehension failed. What, indeed, was the Baroness doing dans cette galère? what fish did she expect to land out of these very stagnant waters? The game was evidently a deep one. Augustine could trust her; but

a great fancy to all their pastoral roughnesses. He had never had a greater sense of luxurious security; and at the risk of making him seem a rather sordid adventurer I must declare that he found an irresistible charm in the fact that he might dine every day at his uncle's. The charm was irresistible, however, because his fancy flung a rosy light over this homely privilege. He appreciated highly the fare that was set before him. There was a kind of fresh-looking abundance about it which made him think that people must have lived so in the mythological era, when they spread their tables upon the grass, replenished them from cornucopias, and had no particular need of kitchen stoves. But the great thing that Felix enjoyed was having found a family-sitting in the midst of gentle, generous people whom he might call by their first names. He had never known anything more charming than the attention they paid to what he said. It was like a large sheet of clean, fine-grained drawing-paper, all ready to be washed over with effective splashes of water-color. He had never had any cousins, and he had never before found himself in contact so unrestricted with young unmarried ladies. He was extremely fond of the society of ladies, and it was new to him that it might be enjoyed in just this manner. At first he hardly knew what to make of his state of mind. It seemed to him that he was in love, indiscriminately, with three girls at once. He saw that Lizzie Acton was more brilliantly pretty than Charlotte and Gertrude; but this was scarcely a superiority. His pleasure came from something they had in common-a part of which was, indeed, that physical delicacy which seemed to make it proper that they should always dress in thin materials and clear colors. But they were delicate in other ways, and it was most agreeable to him to feel that these latter delicacies were appreciabl

the Baroness expected just now it would take some ingenuity to set forth; it is enough that while she looked about her she found something to occupy her imagination. She assured herself that she was enchanted with her new relatives; she professed to herself that, like her brother, she felt it a sacred satisfaction to have found a family. It is certain that she enjoyed to the utmost the gentleness of her kinsfolk's deference. She had, first and last, received a great deal of admiration, and her experience of well-turned compliments was very considerable; but she knew that she had never

of the small house and that of the large one, facing each other across their homely gardens, levied no tax upon hourly visits. But the Misses Wentworth received an impression that Eugenia was no friend to the primitive custom of "dropping in;" she evidently had no idea of living without a door-keeper. "One goes into your house as into an inn-except that there are no servants rushing forward," she said to Charlotte. An

er to arrange herself. It had seemed to Charlotte that there would be a great many t

to come and see her. I think that is

nswering me?" Charlotte asked. "She wil

take any trouble," sai

en will

d Gertrude, leaving her sister with an

ce; and in the little salon which she had already created, wit

has had to take pity upon me," she said. "My brother goes off sketching, for hours; I can never dep

tte said that they hoped the Baroness would always come and dine with them; it would give th

ound of those crooked, dusky little apple trees, pulling the husks off a lapful of Indian corn. That will be local color, you know. There isn't much of it here-you don't mind my saying that, do you?-so one m

in. On this occasion he found that Mr. Brand had come to pay his respects to the charming stranger; but after Acton's arrival the young theologian said nothing. He sat in his chair with his two hands clasped, fixing upon his hostess a grave, fascinated stare. The Baroness talked to Robert Acton, but, as she talked, she turned and smiled at Mr. Brand, who never took his eyes off her. The two men

very clever woman,"

would seem more in keeping. It must be quite the style that we have heard about, that

ks and apple trees. "What I should like to know," he said, smiling