' Don't you see ? Because if he were a woman he could have a good cry, and case his mind a little. But he could only smoke, and when the fellows he knew made jokes, he had to try and make jokes too. Ho went with them to the beer gardens and the dancing places, and I don't suppose that any of theni ever knew the poor fellow was wretched.' 'Did he keep up visiting the old place in the mornings ?'

'He did; but she never came again She was gone.' • Then did he never see her again ?'

«Oh yes ; he saw her once. It was on the day of the Grand Duke's marriage. He posted himself in the crowd, poor fellow, to see the procession which passed through the city from the church when that confounded brute and cad, the Grand Pake, took his newly made wife round to show her to his people. The fellow thought, you know, that he would be sure to see Dorothea somewhere in the court carriages, and he longed to see her again as much as if the sight could do him any possible good. There he stood, and he saw her.' Roundell brought his clinched fist heavily down on the table as he spoke. ' In oneof thecourt carraiges, of course?' 'In the carriages of the Grand Duke, and seated by his side. She was now his wife' ' Dorothea ? 'Dorothea herself.' Eoundell rose up from his oeat in the window, and strode across the room, looked, or affected to look at the clock over the chimney-piece, re turned to the table, stood there a moment in silence; then poured himself out a glass of claret and drank it. ( Yes/ he went on, 'Dorothea was the Grand Duchess. Meta was only the cousin and companion. It was a pious fraud she had tried to practice on the poor fellow who loved her, and whom she—well, perhaps might have loved if he hadn't been a poor wretch without family or fortune, and she a German, princess.' « Did she seem him ?'

' No, she was looking away when he first saw her, and then he drew out of the crowd. He spared her that. Meta saw him, and turned pale. She was in the third or fourth carriage. He made her a formal bow, as many others did, and she returned it. But he saw by something in her eye as she glanced toward him that she knew the secret was safe. Then the fellow went home, and he left Liebesheim the next morning.' I remembered now how very suddenly Eoundell himself had left Liebesheim that time, and how he was not at the court ball for which I got the tickets, and where, as I have already said, I saw the Grand Duchess. * What became of the fellow ?' * Oh, nothing in particular. He lives. He promised to remember her, and I believe he has kept hi 3 word.'

1 Did ho ever mirry ?'

'Oh no ; he was not a marrying man, nor particularly fond of women's company. I believe he never cared for any but that one woman, and she married a brute of a Grand Duke, and now she's, dead. That's all the story.' 'I am glad to have heard it, I answered, • although it's a sad story enough. It is all the sadder to me, Roundell, now, because I find I know the fellow.' He looked at me with kindly eye. and nodded his head. 'Life has a good deal of that sort of thing, I suppose,' he said, 'if people only knew it. The fellow wasn't any worse off than many other fellovrs. But I don't much care about staying long in Germany now.'

Bertha's Mercy.

Mis. St. Symington's magnificent draw ing-room flooded with light from glittering chandeliers, furniture of soft, mossy plush, the color of the heart or a May rose ; soft sounds of a fountain splashing in the conservatory, and sweet, delicious perfume exhalingfrom aisles of rare exotics and tropical pines. That wa3 the scene, that wild January niß;ht, when the storm beat without, and cold and misery and want stalked, a grim triumvirate ; when little Bertha Agincourt nestled further down among the plumy cushions of the easy-chair she had found wheeled in front of the cheery open firr\ burning so redly behind the polished silver bars.

A grave-faced girl, shy, blushing, and modest, with womanly eyes of tender blue that mirrored her pure, sweet thoughts as faithfully as a lakelet does a flashing s>un •light. A quiet, lonely little creature, only sixteen, who had come from a dear, happy home among ISTew England hills, to take up the burden of life with brave hands, though weak and all unused to the warfare —with stout heart, for all there were times when it overflowed through the sweet, frank eyes. She had only been a week at the St. Symington's—only a week away_ from her widowed mother and the plain little home that was insufficient to give her. a living longer; only a week, and yet long enough to learn the luxury of plenty and elegance; not long enough to know how miserably inferior she was held to be, with her sweet, gentle ways, the result of innate nobleness to the large, florid, fashionable daughter of the house of St. Symington—Juanita S fc. Symington, with her coal-black hair streaming down over her bright silk dress, aud her jewels glittering with almost bar baric splendor as she sailed into _ the drawingroom that stormy January night,

followed by the portly, but less intrusive parent.

Miss Juanita's shimmering trail was sweeping over the Moquet carpet, and ceased its pleasant rustic suddenly as she saw Bertha nestling, all unobservingly, in the sacred precincts of the pink plush chair. 'Mamma! did you ever? The idea of her coming in here ! Tell her at once what she is to do, will you ?' Mrs. St. Symington shrugged her shoulders just a little denrecatingly. ' Really, I haven't the heart to, Juanifca, I can't see what harm there U, if the child wants —' I

Juanita shot her mother a glanco from her black eyes.

' Nonsense, mamma ! If you won't tell her to leave, I will.'

Like a hawk about topouueo on a dove cote. Juanita sailed across the room and looked down at the pretty bowed head of the girl, as Bertha sat leaning on her elbow looking into the mass of flame.

'Miss Agincourfc, you seem to bo ignorant of the fact that this apartment is not intended for the servants. Be so good as to retire to the school-room, your proper place, where it is understood you will pass your evenings in the future. Oh! Dr. Redmond, good evening ! How delighted we are to see you !'

And Juanita turned coldly away from the mortified girl to greet the handsome gentleman who had been admitted a mo ment before.

He bowed and took Juanita's extended hand, and then looked interestedly at the sweet, shame-flushed face of the girl who had arisen hastily from the easy chair. ' You comprehend, Miss Agincourfc ?' Juanita's imperious voice partly arrested the flying footstep, and a confused, unintelligible answer came in a low hurried tone as Bertha disappeared.

' Such impudence ! the next thing I presume cook and mamma's waiting-maid will be coming in when they're tired ! Dr. Redmond, have you heard ' The Milkmaid's Marriage Song ?' '

And while the graceful fingers went flashing over the keys of the piano, and the chpar, strong voice rose in the witching chorus of the ballad, and Guy Redmond listened gravely, little Bertha was crouching on the floor of her own dull, cold room, crying as if her heart would break.

' I'll never stay here, never ! I'll be a nursery-maid or a kitchen girl before I'll stay here and be insulted by Juanita St. Symington—insulted because I went into the drawing-room! If I'm not good enough to sit in there, am I fit to teach little Waldbery his letters ?'

Poor, innocent, ignorant child ! she had yet to learn that this was a very queer world.

' A young lady, Eose P' Dr. G-uy Redmond looked up from a ponderous volnme of medical lore he was studying—his grave thoughtful face showing its strength and beauty as the full glare of the light fell on it, when the housekeeper entered and announced a visitor.

' A young lady, sure, Mr. Gruy. Leastways, a lady, anyhow, young or old. She's all so bundled up you can't scarcely see her.'

Dr. Redmond arose as the colored servant disappeared, and went into his office where a sweet, low voice addressed him a3 he closed the door.

• Yon are Dr. Redmond ?'

He bowed and took his customary seat,

'I am troubled about my throat, Dr. Redmond, and as my living depends upon my voice, I am more than anxious to know if I am seriously threatened.'

He listened, as if half familiar with her tone, her face, then the momentary personal interest merged into customary professional solicitude.

' You are a singer, then ? Tell me the symptoms, please.' ' Oh, no, I can not sing, but I use my voice almost as much as if I were. lam a teacher —I used to be a nursery gover ness in Mrs. St. Symington's family, and I came to you because I once saw you there.'

A sudden remembrance rushed over him ; now he knew the causß of that sad momentary, half recognition. And this was the pretty, startled little girl, whose blue eyes and sweet drooping mouth had haunted him for months after he had seen and pitied her in her confusion, that January night a year agone almost. Involuntarily Dr. Redmond smiled. ' I remember —Miss Agincourt. And now you are teaching ?' She smiled in answer to his courteous, friendly way. ' Teaching —and very hoarse at times, with a continuous achmg sensation in my throat and a tendency to cough.'

Her accurate description of symptoms at once turned the current of conversation, and when, twenty minutes later, Bertha Agincourt left the office with a tiny pack age of powders in her muff, it was with a new strange light shining in her eyes? 'How good he is! He seems like a friend I have always known.' Guy Hedmond's brown eyes watched the slight, graceful figure past the window. • Poor child ! in six months she will not speak above a whisper for all future time ! I wonder what she will do ?' Gradually the acquaintance, at first purely professional, ripened into personal friendship ; then into warmer interest, until on the day when Bartha heard her fate from Dr. Reymond's kind, pitiful lips,

they had grown to be very near to each other.

' This huskiness permanent! never speak again ! O, Dr. Redmond, don't toll me thatj!' She wailed forth her complaint so piteously, as she listened with, blanching cheeks and quivering lips. 1 You know I have done all that lies in human power to do, Bertha. You know it hurts me to see you take it so to heart,, child, and yet I am not sorry.' H.s was looking eagerly at her.

' Not sorry ! Not sorry that I am worse than useless until I can learn another way of earning my bread ! Oh, Dr. Redmond, I thought—l thought—'

He had both her rebellious hands in his now, and was half-smiling in her tearful face.

' You thought what, Bertha ? I know yon never have thought what I have— what I am thinking now—what a darling liftle wife you are going to be for me! You will be, wonjt you, dear?' His wooing was quiet, but so intense that its very solemnity startled her. His wife—she—his wife ! The rapturous tears wollod to her eyes. ' Oh, Dr. Redmond !'

'Never but Guy in the future, Bertha ! Kiss me, darling and tell me you do not regret giving up your school to teach mo how to be a better man ! Little Bertha, I will make you very happy, if I may ! May I ?'

And, her breath almost hushed with ecstacy, the lonely, bravo little girl accepted. The heaven of happiaess sho had and dreamed of, she had never dared think would be her own!

* *:

' You will go down to dinner, then to day, dear P.lf you knew how much better you were looking, and how Bertie and Ora are clamoring for you.' "Dr. Redmond caressed the dolicate cheek of his wife as she leaned against the lined cushions of the easy chair—pretty, fair as five years ago, when she had married him.

She smiled as if in indulgence of his proud tenderness.

11 wonder whether the children or papa is most anxious I should go down ? Con fess, now, Guy, you begin to be jealous of this little stranger's monopoly of my time.'

She touched the pink palm of a wee baby lying cradled in a low-canopied crib at her side, and spoke in a low, hushed whisper, that had grown to be very sweet and melodious to her husband's ears— that other people thought a dreadful afflic tion, while they wondered how well Mrs. Eedmond bore it.

The doctor leaned over and kisaed his boy, then the mother.

11 do not think even young Guy Agin court could make me jealous, dear, but I do want you down stairs to-o'ay. Among other reasons, it is time you made the acquaintance of the children's nursery maid, who came the day baby did. I haven't seen her once, and I am suro if it had not been for cousin Annie's attention, Mrs. Grey son—that's her name—would have been miserably lonesome.'

'Annie is always good, and I'll go down, dear, if you think best, and make the poor woman comfortable, although I really think you ought to have seen her.' Doctor Eedmond shrugged his broad, fine shoulders.

'If you knew how busy I've been, and how miserably hidden the lady keeps herself, you'd not think so. Then, Berthas, we'll see you at two, the smart, pretty house-mother as usual.'

'It was one, when Mrs. Eedmond went down stairs, the very idol of a dainty, high-bred lady, in her elegant invalid costume, and surrounded on every side by all the luxuries money or taste could provide.

Bertie and Ora, her two little daughters, came flying to inoet her as she entered the nursery, on a visit preparatory to dinner.

A tall, plainly-dreased woman aro3o to check their exuberant delight. 'Children, don't—good heavens! are you Mrs, Eedmond ?'

Bertha smiled and bowed. 'I am Mrs. Eedmond, Mrs. Greyson. If you know me you have the advantage, although—■ although'—she paused, and the color flew to her pale cheeks —' it can not possibly be that you are Miss St. Symington ?'

' 'Yes, Juanita St. Symington, who drove you out of her mother's parlor because you were nobody but a nursery governess ! Mrs. Eedmond, this—' She almost gasped the words, in her painful suspense and bitter remembrance. Bertha laid her fair, white hand on the plain sleeve of the woman. ' Try to forget whatever happened un pleasant. Hemember that this is truly your home, Mrs. G-reyson, where 3'ou will be received and treated as an equal, by myself, husband and guests. And now, are you ready for dinner ? The bell will ring very soon.'

So, like coals of fire, was Bertha's mercy, her sweet, tender womanliness on Juanita St. Symington's head, while among the bitterest drop 3in Mrs-. Grey son's enp is the belief that by her own hand she made all the happiness of Mrs. liedmond's life—a happiness she had often hoped for for herself, but that, with many other good things, had been denied her since the day when Fate took Fortune in hand and banished her from the house where Bertha Agincourt's destiny began to shape its course.

The coat of a horse is^he gift of nature. That of an ass, often the work of a tailor.

The Gulf of Firs.

'You are ■wrong, captain, wrong ! Old women yonder,' «md as the crone spoke, casting out her wrinkled forefinger in token of disdain toward the lowland coun try at the bass of the great spurs of Etna, she looked weird enough, with her ragged gray hair and fiery eyes, for the Sibyl of Cuma—'old womon yonder, I say, may not be worth listening to. But 1 was cradled up here in the very lap of fire.' 'Well, well, mother,' I answered, soothingly, ' I am far from doubting your skill. In the three mouths of my stay I have learned something of the uncertain humors of the burning mountain, and trust me, I'll not venture ioo far from the safe track.' •Ah, Inglese! You are just like the rest of the young men,' said old Assunta, with somewhat of rude pity in her tone; ' won't be warned ! Had J. not three bold sons ? Two were coral-fishers. One fol lowed Garibaldi to Naples and Gaota. He at any rate is laid in dry earth, as a Christian should be—^not hko Boppo and ToLti. Have a care leat your grave be not a hot one !' And with a nod of her head and a wave of her hand she was gone. The old woman's words, made an impression on mo, which I vainly tried to shako off. Let me explain how matters stood. In the first place it was only under the pressure of misfortune tiiat [, George Clements, lately second officer of a first-rate clipper ship, had become a sub-inspector in tiie Royal Sulphur Works on Mou.it Etna. My ill-luck had brought me there. In an evil hour.l had been talked into investing my sarings—•some two hundred pounds—in becoming part owner in a Maltese coasting vessel, on board of which I was a mate, the skipper being a Maltese named'Antonia, a worthy odd fellow in his way, but obstinate as a mule and niggardly to a degree. So long as we met with average weather, our voyages were prosperous and we net ted dollars. But a three days storm, a rarity in the Mediterranean, sent us staggering, dismasted, leaky, and with a frightened crew, under the cliff's of Sicily. I was the one Englishman on board, and it was only by the utmost exertions that I could force the olive-skinned southerners to leave off telling their beads and invoking the saints, and keep the pumps going. As it was, the schooner laid her bones on the beach near Catania, and though no lives were lost the wreck of property was com plete. The skipper had relations in Malta who would take him in, but I, the English mate, who now owned nothing but the sailor's suit I camo ashore in, might have starved had not the British Vice-Consul kindly recommended me for the petty post I now filled, and which insured me a bare subsistence and no more. These sulphur mines, whence comes by far the greater proportion of the raw sul phur of commerce, huva always been a Government monopoly, like the salt works or the tobacco factories. Indeed, I have heard that Jling Bomba, at a critical point of the Crimean war, had thoughts of pro hibiting the export of the Sicilian sulphur, without which the powder mills of Eng land could not furnish ammunition, and the present rulers of the island could not neglect such a source of revenue. The collection of the sulphur naturally depos ited by the volcanic forces, ever restless beneath the soil, does not require much skill, but the occupation is a toilsome and unhealthy one, poorly remunerated, and not always exempt from peril. Sulphur gatherers are not as a rule, native Sicilians. The majority wore, at the time of my sub-inspectorship, emi grants from the mainland, whose antece dents it was, perhaps, quite as well not to pry into. A fierce-looking set of sallow, ragged ruffians they were, with unkempt hair and beards, and haggard faces, inno cent of the touch of soap and water, always gambling, now with a pack of greasy cards, now, in Neapolitan fashion, with dirty fingers uplifted, and quarreling as savagely over infinitesimal stakes as though a fortune had been in jeopardy. As for old Assunta, she was the widow of a charcoal burner, and still, with the help of her grand-childreu, managed to sell a few ass-loads of fuel in the city below. The family, however, bore an ill ropuie for poaching, pilfering, and, I believe, sorcery, and I am afraid that Assunta herself encouraged this last report as a source of profit. Her regard for me was | merely due to the fact that I hud prevented j some of our rough workmen, who insisted that she was a witch, and had the evil eye, from flinging her, body and bones, into the wintry torrent that rushed roaring past our huts, and ever since that day she has been patronizingly polito to H Capitan, as she called me. Mine was not, as sub-inspector, a very | desirable position. The inspector, save on j pay day, did not ofton show himself, and when he did visit the scene of his nominal duties would have been powerless to j enforce any sort of decipline among our j black sheep but for me. By the combined ; efforts of coaxing, good-humored banter, j and the occasional argument of a knock- j down blow, 1 had contrived to establish some ascendency over the wild spirits ' around xne, and was rather popular than j otherwise, although at first ray orders had j been met with scowling glances and i I fingering of knives. The work to be ! done was none of the pleasantesfc. The crude sulphur, seldom quite cold, and often ■ | glowing hot, had to be raked with hoes j and iron hooks from the brink of some of ! the numerous small craters on the crest of, the volcano, in the midst of poisonous '

I fames and eddying clouds of smoke, showers of red Lot ashes, and even ot

stones

It was necessary to convoy the sulphur, when a sutßcieu'; quantity had been gath ered, to the plains, along tracks only fife for the goat or t!ie hill-fox, by aid of rude handbarrows or sledges constructed of boughs, through dense forests and over broken and jagged rocks. Our huts were mere booths hastily built of logs and brauoues, and ill-fitted to keep out tho rough weather, the snow, hail and wind, which lash the bleak heights of the Etna, when tho lower country seems still to bask in its golden sunshine. The pay of fhe workmen was small, enough to pro vide them with the black bread, garlicky and chesnuts, with perhaps a Sunday re" past of codfish or eels, on whioh the poor of tho far South contrive to exist. Frugal as were their meals, however, coarser wine and coarser spirits were somehow offorded by them, and as I have said, of gambling for 'grani,' or perhaps for a pannikin of fiery ' aguardiente,' there was no stint.

I had boon, mado somewhat uncomforta ble by the half-enigmatical words of Assunta s warning. "The parfc of the mountain on which we were encamped was clothed with thick forests of chesnufc and live oak, with here and there a barren tract of seorso, spanned in places by what might have been mistaken for a solid stooo causeway, the remains of some ancient lava stream long cold. Here wore many small apertures, whence arose jets of steam and puffs of smoke, and around which hissed and simmered a crust of sulphur, heaving, crackling, and glowing, of every "color from pale yellow to ruby red. From these solfataras, as they were locally called, we gleaned the chief portion of the mineral, for tho sake of which we passed our time in such elevated regions.

Now, it was only for some four or five days that the charcoal burner's widow had taken to uttering her half-mystic predic tions of coming ovi], and during that space I had myself observed signs of greater activity than usual in the volcano. The smoke was blacker and more frequent. Hissing columns of sfceain rose often into the air, and were not seldom followed by a volley of red-hot stones, The earth was in many places so warm as to cause pain to the hand that touched it, and in two instances the brushwood near our camp caught fire from the falling of heated ashes amid the parched grass, and the fire was with difficulty extinguished.

Without reposiiig unlimited faith ia Assunta's croakings. I was still of opinion that we should do better to remove our temporary dwellings before the mountain, plateau grnw literally too hot to hold us, aid accordingly I only waited the inspec tor's arrival with the monthly pay to mention to my superior officer the condi tion of affairs, and to obtain his per: mission for a change of quarters.

Pay-day arrived, and with it the inspec tor, but not alone. With him. came a party of travelers, most of whom rode mules, while the guides, porters, servants, and interpreter made up an imposing cortege. None but tlio wealthy can oft'ord to bring with them so mucii paraphernalia, and I couid easily believe the inspector that the new comers were, as he said, iLLUSTRissmr Ikglesi, who had been especially recommended to his good offices by the Governor of the province.

There were several ladies of thei pary, which consisted, as I afterwards learned, of more than one family, and I think it was the sight of tlipir plumed hats and flutteiiag dr<\ss, find thn sound of their merry laughter, that made me hang back and keep nloof, ashamed of my rough garb and "weather-beaten aspect, while my chief, nothing loth, did the honors of the sulphur mine, about which he practically knew so little, descanting glibly to his fair listeners on the marvels of the place, and smirking as they grew enthusiastic conceriiins! the lovely tints of tho growing sulphur.

The weather was of the finpst, tho Spring sky was of the purest blue, and the balmy air seemed to caress the cheek it fanned. I overhfard one of the English ladies say to another that the climate seemed perfection. I wonder how she would have enjoyed the whistling wind and rattling hail of the Winter storms.

Then came the dinner—a sort of picnic on a splendid scale, for thj cooks from the Hotel Realo ai Gataiiii hud been busy in their improvised kitchen, and tho hampeis had been unpacked, and rare viands and yO"d iviuo wore handed round in lavish profusion. Ev<-n our tatterdem alion sulphur-workers were not forgotten, and the po">r tVllows co' choicer food and daintier liquor, from tho superfluity of the banquet, lhan had ever gladdened their palates.

I, perhaps from a sentiment of false pride/had held myself aloof, and had declined n good-natured invitation on the part of the travelling ' excellencies' to bw a partaker of the banquet. Bat, I scarcely know why, I hovered around the blithe party, and, myself unseen, gazed upon them from amidst the evergreen oaks and matted brushwood. Thopc wero present two or threo young ladies who were pretty and attractive, but the face.that riveted my attention, .was that ot a little child—a girl six or seven years old, with loose curls of pnlo gold, and a complexion of delicate pink and while—merely-u plump little baby-face, but so very, very like a little sister of'tny oven, long since laid to rest bt-ncit'i the daisiod turf, that I felt it haii' painful to look at her.

' Hist, Captain ! —how Ire run !—well, I've found you,' said a husky voice in the.

Evening1 Star Supplement, -Aju.g"itiSrt 26, 18TO