t 1,111 s fr ,*\ SAMUEL WRIGHT, Editor and Proprietor. VOLUME XXIX, NUMBER 36.] PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY MORNING Office in. Northern Central Railroad Con panyli Bunkling,narth-westcorner Front and IValnut streets. ' • Terms of Subscription. a ne Copy per annunt,if paidin advance, 4.4 " if not paid within three aaouthaf rem commencement of the year, 000 C3erma.tiss ea. Clop - 3r. No subscription received for a less time than six mouths; and no paper will be discontinued until all arrettrages are paid, unless at the optionof the pub iisher. IrrAloneyaanyberemittedbyatnil atthepublish ees rimk. Rates of Advertising. *-pqnstre[6llnesjone week, •' three weeks, each4ubsequeatinserlion, 10 [Mines] one week, 50 three weeks, 1 00 _ _ it enchsubsequentinsertion. 25 Largerudvertisementsin proportion. A liberaldiseount win be made to quarterly,balf yearly. oryearlyadvertisers,who are strictlyconfined o their business. gettztioitz. The Old Russian's Story. '"NEAR THE CZAR, CLOSE TO DEATR." One of my friends was hunting about a 'hundred werste from Moscow, in September, 1855. His amusement had carried him too 'far for him to think of returning home that •evening. lle was near a small house which 'belonged to an aged man of noble birth, - who had lived there for seven and fifty years. This old man had taken possession of the house in his twentieth year; but nobody knew how ho had purchased it, nor from whence he had come, nor who he was. Ile had never once quitted it—not even to go to Moscow—since the day he entered upon possession. The first ten years he lived there, he had no acquaintances, saw .nobody, and never spoke except to ask for %what was absolutely necessary to him. He Ibad never married, although his estate, containing two thousand deciatinas of land and five hundred serfs, brought him in five thousand silver roubles a year. Although this old man was said to be very inhospi table, my friend did not hesitate to ask per mission to spend the night in his house. A place at the stove no Hessian peasant ever [refuses to the stranger. The old man in sited him in, and my friend found seated at the table with his host a near neighbor of my friend. Conversation was conse quently easy, fur they were no longer strangers. The old man was a well pro served person, of five and seventy years Ilis eye was bright, but rather un .easy looking. His health was robust, and 'hie noble white hair and white board in no who .diminished his appearance of vigor. *l. wore the true Russian costume: boots which came above his knees; black velvet pantaloons, with large folds; gray frock coat and cap, trimmed with artrakan. The conversation turned on subjects of cotem porary interest. They talked freely, and this very freedom seemed a pleasure to men echo had been doomed to silence for three and-thirty years. The Czar Nicholas had died on the 18th of February previous, and the Czar Alexander II had begun his reign by words and acts which opened a future ,career to lass's. Russians had ceased to bop*. The old man—unlike most parsons .of his age who aro always regretting the I past—seemed glad to have witnessed a change of reign, and to breatheilike a free man. He seemed like a man long buried in a dungeon and set at liberty; he enjoyed light, and air, and. liberty. A'But how did it happen that a man of ; your birth should have quitted St. Peters burg in your eighteenth year, and buried himself in this obscure neighborhood for fifty-seven years?" asked my friend, en couraged by the tone of the old man's con mention to put so indiscreet a question. I 'l will tell you," replied the old host; "I was then, as you say, eighteen ;years old. I bad been for two years an ensign in Paulowsky's regiment. The regiment was quartered in the large building opposite the summer garden, and on the other side of the Campus Martius. The Czar Paul had been on the throne three years. Ho lived in the Red Palace, which was just com pleted. 'One night leave of absence was ,refused me for some slight breath of disci pline, I do not now remember which, and was forced to abandon a gay party of my .comrades who went out on a frolic. They being gone, I was almost the only officer of grade left in the barracks. I went to bed early and soon fall asleep. I was awakened from my mound slumbers by a voice (I felt its breath on my face) whispering into my Aar: .11/mktri Alexandrovitch, wake up!' opened ray eyes, and I saw a man stand ing by my bedside, who seeing me awake ' repented hie invitation to me. 'What do you want?' said I. 'Get up and follow en..' 'Follow you? where?' cannot jell you, Know it is the 4mperoes order.' A cold chill ran through me, The Emper or's order! What could he want with me, a poor ensign, of' good family it is true, but too far removed from the throne for it ,to be possible my name should ever have peached his ear. I remembered the terrible 3tussian proverb, which arose in the reign of Ivan the Terrible, 'Near the Czar, close to death' Nevertheless I could not hesi tate. I jumped up and began to dress. *hen / closely eTamined the man who had ,come to wake me. Hid as he was in his furs, I thought I recognized as old Turkish slave, who rose from being a barber to be the Czar's favorite. This scrutiny, how ever, did not last long, for it would perhaps have been dangerous had it been too long. 1 / am ready, et last,' agid I, buckling my sword around my waist to be ready for any contingency. My uneasiness increased when I saw my guide go down a small stair case loading into the cellars of the im mense barracks, instead of carrying me out by the main door. lie lighted the way by a small blind lantern. After several windings ho went to a door whose very ex istence was unknown to me before. We had not met a soul in the whole building; it seemed as if the great barracks were de serted, and yet I knew it contained several thousand men; I thought indeed once or twice I saw a shadow gliding in the ob scurity, but these faint shadows disap peared, or rathet vanished in the darkness. EEO $O3B "When, after walking for some time, we came to a closed door, my guide rapped in a certain way. The door was instantly opened. - When we entered it, I saw a man close it, and follow us; it was ho who opened it so suddenly, and he was evidently wait ing for us. The passage where we were was evidently a subterranean vault, some seven or eight feet wide; the humidity of the ground sweated through the bricks which lined it inside. About five hundred paces farther on, there was an iron grated gate, which my guide unlocked and fastened after he had lot us in. On we went. I then began to remember that I had beard there was a subterranean passage between the Red Palace and the barracks of Paulow ski's grenadiers. I supposed that we were on our way to the palace. We reached adother door, and rapped as he had rapped before; it opened as the other had done, and when wo wont through I saw a man sitting behind it. Now we walked up a staircase. It opened into the rooms on the ground floor, but the atmosphere showed that we were in a house carefully and com fortably warmed. This house soon assumed the proportions of a palace. Then all my doubts fled. 1 was led to the Emperor— the Emperor had sent for me—for me, an humble ensign in his guard. I remembered that young ensign he met in the street, and made get up behind his carriage, and raised successively, and in less than fifteen min utes, lieutenant, captain, major, colonel and general. But I dared not hope he sent for me with any such intention. We now reached another door still; a sentinel paced before it. My guide laid his hand on my shoulder, saying; 'Take care, you will be in the Emperor's presence in a minute.' lie whispered to the sentinel; the latter stood on one side. My guide, I will not say unlocked the door, but opened it by touching a secret spring, or something of that sort, so at least it seemed to me. The noise we made in entering the room made a small man, dressed in the Prussian style, with boots which camp half way up his thighs, a coat which hung down to his spurs, wearing a gigantic three-cornered hat, although he was in his bed chamber, and in full dress, although it was 12 o'clock at night; I say the noise we made caused this man to turn around. I recognized the Emperor. It was not difficult, for I saw him every day of my life. I remembered that, at our review that morning, he had looked at me, and had called my captain to him, and had, keeping his eye fixed on me the while, asked him a good many ques tions in a whisper, and then had given some order to one of his staff; and all these recol lections increased my uneasiness. 'Sire,' said my . guide, 'here is the young ensign to whom you desired to speak.' The Em peror came up to me, and, as he was of very low stature, be stood on tip-toe to look at me. lle doubtless saw that I was the same person he had selected that morning, for he nodded 'his head approvingly, and, turning on his heal, said, abruptly, to my guide, 'You may go.' My guide bowed and went out, and left me alone with the Emperor. Ido declare to you, I had rather have been left alone with a lion in his cage than with that man in his chamber. "The Emperor did not seem to pay the least attention to me at first. He walked rapidly up and down the room, stopping occasionally before a window with a move able pane in it, which he would open to breathe the cool night air. When he had inhaled it, he would return to a table where his snuff box was lying and take a pinch.— This was the window of his bed chamber, where he was afterward killed. I have heard that it has never been open since his death. I had time to examine everything in the room, each piece of furniture every chair. Near one of the windows was a writing desk, and on it a paper which was open. At last the Emperor seemed to per ceive that I was in the room; be came up to me. His face seemed to me to be fu rious; nevertheless it was merely agitated by the contraction of his nerves. Ile stood just in front and said: 'Dust, dust, do you know you are nothing but dust, dust of the earth, and that I am lord over all and mas ter of everythi.ogr He never spoke to anybody, not even to ladies, except is this way; he called everything, and treated ev erybody as if they were nothing but dust and earth and ashes. I do not know how I managed to reply; 'Aye, sire, you are the elect of Heaven, the great arbiter of men's destiny."Ah, ha!' said he, as he turned his back on me, and walked up and dawn the room again, and opened the moveable pane of glass, and took another pinch of snuff, and came up to me a second time:— 'lron know,' said he, 'that when 'command I must be obeyed without refusal, obser vations, commentary?' As we obey God, I know that, sire,' I answered. Ile stared at "NO ENTERTAINMENT IS SO CHEAP AS READING, NOR ANY PLEASURE SO LASTING." COLUMBIA, PENNSYLVANIA, SATURDAY MORNING, MARCH 19, 1859. me full in the face. There was such a strange expression in his eyes I could not return his glare. I looked another way.— He seemed satisfied with the influence he exerted on me. He attributed to respect that which was nothing but disgust. He went to his writing desk, took the open pa per, read it again, folded it, placed it in an envelope, sealed the envelope—not with the imperial seal, but with a ring on his finger. Then he came to me. 'Recollet,' said he, 'that I have selected you from among a thousand to execute my orders, be cause I believe you will faithfully execute them.' I shall never forget the obedience in all things I owe to the Emperor.' Take this letter, carry it to the Governor of the fortress, go with him wherever ho pleases to carry you, observe what he does and come back here:and tell me, "I have seenit." I took the letter and bowed. 'I have seen it, remember, I have seen it." Aye, sire' 'Begone with ye!' He himself opened the door by which I entered; my guide was• awaiting there fur mo. The Emperor closed the door, eying: 'Dust, dust, dust, remem ber!' "I stood dumb, staggered with what I had seen and heard, until my guide said to me, 'Come on!' We walked on, but by a differ ent path from that we came by. A sleigh waited for us in the court-yard, into which he and I got. The fortress gate opened on Fontanka bridge. The sleigh moved rapidly. We crossed the Campus, and crossed the Neva on the ice. The night was as dark as pitch, and the wind blew in a violent and lugubrious manner. We were soon at the fortress gate. My guide gave the soldier the password, and in it we entered. The sleigh was before the Governor's house.— The password given, we entered the Gover nor's house as we had entered the fortress. The Governor was in bed, asleep. He in stantly rose when he heard the potent phrase, 'lt is the Emperor's order!' He came to moot us, concealing his uneasiness with a smile. With a man like Paul there was no more security for gaolers than for captives, fur executioners than for victims. He looked at us as much as to say, 'What do you want?' My guide pointed to me to show that I wart the principal. He looked at me more attentively; nevertheless, he hes itated about speaking to me. My youth probably surprised him. To end his evident anxiety, I gave him the Emperor's order without saying a word! He took it to the candle, looked at the seal, saw it bore the impress of the Emperor's private signet ring; the sign of secret orders. He bowed, made an almost imperceptible sign of the cross, and opened it. He read the order once, looked at me, read it a second time, and said to me, 'You are to see it?" Yes, I am to see it: 'What are you to see?' 'You know•' 'But do you know.' I do not.' Ho remained pensive a moment, and then he said, 'Didn't you come in a sleigh?' 'Yes.' How many persons can your sleigh hold?' Three." Does this gentleman come with us?' he pointed to my guide, am to wait.' Where?"Here."What are you going to wait for?' llntil it is over.' Very well.' 'Prepare a second sleigh,' said he , speaking to an attendant; `select four strong soldiers; lot one of them take a lever, the other a hammer, and the two others, hatch ets.' The attendant so addressed instantly left the room. The Governor turned to me, saying, 'Come along, and you'll see.' He led the way. I followed him. A turnkey walked behind us. We went on until he got opposite the Exchange, as well as I could suspect, judging,from the distances! remem bered. The Goverror pointed to a door.'— The turnkey opened it, went in, lighted a lantern, and showed us the way. We went down ten steps, and found a double file of dungeons, each one side; but we did not stop here. We went chwn ten more steps, but wo did not stop here. Then we went down five other steps, twenty-five steps in all. Here we stopped. The doors were all numbered. The Governor halted before a door marked 'No. 11: Ile made a sign to the turnkey. It seemed as if in this house of graves the quick lost power of speech as well as the dead. It was a good many de grees below zero out of doors. In the depths where we were, this cold was increased by a humidity which penetrated the very b3ncs. The marrow in my bones was frozen, and yet I wiped the thick beads of perspiration pouring from off my forehead. "The turnkey opened the door. We went down six steep, slippery stops, and entered a dungeon some eight feet square; I thought I could discover by the glimmering lantern a human form moving at the bottom of the dungeon. The Governor remained on the last stop, for the floor of the dungeon was covered with a humid slime several inches deep. I heard a low and strange murmur, and I looked to see whence it came; I dis covered a loop-hole a foot long by four inches wide. The wind came through the aperture and made a current with the open ed door. I saw now what was the noise I heard: It was the ripples of the Neva beat ing against the walls of the fortress, for the dungeon was below the level of the river.— 'Get up and dress 'said the Governor. I won dered to whom be gave this order, so I told the turnkey to Light sap the dungeon. The turnkey directed his lantern's rays toward the bottom of the dungeon. then saw an old man rise from the floor. His hair and hie beard were very long, and as white as the driven snow. He doubtless had been incarcerated in this dungeon babited in the olothes he wore when arrested; but he bed lain there so long his clothes had rotted away, piece by piece, and he had nothing on him but a tattered fur coat. Through the rents in this garment I could see his naked, shivering, bony body. Perhaps (it was far from being improbable) that body bad once been covered with splendid clothes; perhaps the ribbons and stars of the noblest Orders had glittered on that famine-worn breast.— Now he was nothing but a living skeleton, which had lost all rank, all dignity, even its name being nothing now but 'Number Eleven.' He rose, wrapped his ragged coat around him without uttering a single com plaint; his body was bent double, vanquish ed by the dungeon, by humidity and cold, and time and darkness and solitude and, perhaps, hunger; but his eye was haughty, almost menacing. 'Very well,' said the Governor, 'come along.' The Governor led the way. Tke prisoner gave a last glance at his dungeon, at his stone sent, his water jug and his rotten straw. lie sighed.— Surely he could not (it is impossible!) have regretted anything there? Ile followed the Governor, passing in front of me as lie went out. I shall never forget the glance he gave me as he went out. I shall never forgot the reproaches he conveyed in that silent glance. `So young,' he seemed to say, 'and already the slave of tyranny?' I turned my oyes away; that look had entered my heart as if it had been a pogniard; f moved so that he should not touch me as he walked out from the dungeon in which ho had so long been confined. How long had he been in there? Perhaps he himself knew not! It must have been many a day since he ceased to count the revolution of the days and nights in the darkness of his dungeon. I followed him. The turnkey locked the dungeon. We found two sleighs at the door of the Gover nor's house. Ho made the prisoner get into the sleigh I had come in, and then ho and I got in; he sat by the side of the prisoner, I sat on the front seat. The four soldiers got into the other sleigh. Where were we going? I knew not. What were we going to do?— I had not the remotest idCa. We moved off from the Governor's house. I have said I sat on the front seat; the old man's legs were, consequently, between mine. I felt them shivering. The Governor was wrapped in furs; I was wrapped in my thick military cloak, and even then both of us were cold. The old man was almost stark naked, but the Governor did not offer him even it blanket to cover Min. I thought for a mo ment of taking off my cloak and giving it to him; the Governor read my thought and said: 'lt is not worth while.' So I kept on my cloak. We drove toward the River Neva. When we reached the middle of the river, our sleighs moved toward Cronstadt. The wind (it was blowing a gale) blew from the Baltic, the hail cut our faces; it was one of those terrible drifting snow storms such as are never seen except in the Gulf of Fin land. Accustomed as we were to the dark ness, we could not see ten paces from us.— When we had rounded the neck of land on the river, the drifting snow-storm burst upon us in all its violence. You cannot conceive what a terrible thing is this tornado of wind, and hail, and snow, in these wide marshes, where there is not a tree to break its vio lence. On wo went, through a moving at mosphere, but which was so filled with snow-flakes, it seemed ready at every mo ment to become solid and suffocate us be tween walls of snow. Our horses snorted and neighed, and refused to move. Our drivers could not make them budge a single step except by applying the lash most mer cilessly. They ran out of the road and came near upsetting us against the river banks a thousand times. I knew it did sometimes happen, even in broad daylight, that sleighs and horses with everybody in them, fell into the 'air-holes' of the river, which never freeze over, and disappeared forever. I thought we might cross one of these air holes and disappear in the unfathomable abyss. Good Heavens! What a night! what a night I spent! And the old man's legs trembled more and more. how he must have suffered with the cold! At last we stopped. We were some three or four miles below St. Petersburg. The Governor got out of the sleigh and went toward the one which held the four soldiers; all of therm had leaped from the sleigh. They hold the instruments they were ordered to bring with them. The Governor said to them: 'Make a hole in the ice.' I could not repress an involuntary scream of terror. I began now to comprehend the hellish tragedy. 'Ah!' said the old man, in a tone which seemed like the sneer of a skeleton, 'the Empress remembers me, eh?' What Empress did he mean? Anne, or Elizabeth, or Catharine? Ile evidently believed one of them still reigned. lle was ignorant even of the name of him who condemned him to death! What was the darkness of the night compared to that which reigned in his *ell? The four soldiers set to work. They broke the ice with their hammers, cut it with their hatch ets, pried it up with their levers. Suddenly they all leaped back, the ice was completely broken, water rose. 'Get out of the sleigh,' said the Governor to the old man. The or der was useless—the old man had gotten out before the Governor had spoken, and was kneeling on the ice engaged in silent prayer. The Governor whispered to the four soldiers; he evidently gave them an or/er; and then he returned to the sleigh and took a seat by me. I load not quitted the sleigh. The old man soon rose from his knees. 'I am ready,' said he. The four soldiers leaped on him. I turned my eyes away. Bat if I did not see, I heard. I heard a body full into the gulf of water. I involuntarily looked. The old man had disappeared. I forgot that it was not my place to give orders, and I screamed to the driver: 'Drive home! drive home!' Not yet,' said the Governor. The sleigh hud started; this exclamation made the driver stop. 'We are not through yet,' said the Governor to me, in French. 'What else is to be done?' I asked. 'We must wait.' We waited half an hour. 'The hole is frozen over, you Excellency,' said one of the soldiers. 'Are you sure of it?' asked the Governor. The soldier struck the hole with his lever; it was evident it was covered with solid ice. 'Drive home!' said the Governor. The horses bounded away at full speed. In fifteen minutes we were in the fortress.— Nly guide took the Governor's place in the sleigh, saying to the driver, as be got in, 'Go to the Red Palace!' "Five minutes afterward I was in the Emperor's chamber. He was standing in the middle of the floor, and in the same full dress he wore when I first saw him. lle came up to me. 'Well,' said lie. 'I have seen it,''replied I. 'You have seen it?—you have seen it?—you have seen it?' said he. 'Look at me, sire,' I replied, 'and you will not doubt my word•' I stood before a mir ror, in which I could see myself. But I was so pale, so haggard, so care-worn, I could scarcely recognize myself. The Emperor looked at me, and, without saying a word, be took from his desk a second paper, like the first he had taken. Ire gave it to me, saying: 'Here, I give you an estate between Troitza and Pereslaff; there are live hun dred serfs on it. Leave this city to-night, and never again, so long as you live, do you ever• set your foot in St. Petersburg. If you ever open your lips about what you have seen—beware! You know how I punish! Como, be off with you!' I quitted St. Pe tersburg that night. I have never visited it since; and this is the first time I have over told any human being what I tell you now."—Le Ironic Cristo. How a Woman Hates "I cannot think, said Auguste 3lirccourt to his friend Gustave de relshoim as they ascended the staircase of a hotel in the Faubourg St. Germain, "what you all see in Mme. de Sorel, it is inexplicable to me the admiration she excites." "Why," replied Gustave, "It appears to me the most natural thing in the world that she should be admired. She has the most beautiful figure in the world, her features are just irregular enough to please without distorting the classical symmetry of her eyes." "I admit that her eyes are the largest and brightest I hare ever seen." "11cr hair is quoted in Paris; its golden masses aro envied by every woman: then she is witty, clever, and accomplished." "And very rich," added Augusto, with a sneer; "is that the secret?" "No," replied Gustave, "though one of her special charms is the source of this for_ tune, that she is a widow." ".I have no doubt she would be a widow again if she were to marry. I can see a lurking devil in her eye that would, I am sure, worry any man out of his life." "For shame, Auguste; now I really thought that, considering your want or for tune, your want of connexion, Mme. de Sorel would be an admirable match for you." "For me, Gustave? I hate the woman." Whilst this conversation was going on, down stairs, in the apartment they had just left Mme. de Sorel was talking to her friend the Countess d'Esparre, to whom she, like the two gentlemen who had just left, was paying a morning visit. Standing before the long pier glass, Mme. de Sorel was adjusting the masses of the celebrated golden hair Gustave bed alluded to, the curls of which were rebelliously protruding from her bonnet. "What a charming young man is Auguste Mirecourt," said Dime. d'Esparre. "Auguste Dlirecourt, Eulaliel" replied Mme. ne Sorel. "I cannot imagine what you see in him, I think him affected, super eitious, conceited." "He has a right to be conceited, though he is not; he is a young man of great tal ent, and so handsome." "Handsome—do you think him hadsome? Well—" "Why, you know he is, Ursule." "Well, he is rather a good figure; he has fine features, tolerable black hair, and fine teeth; probably most people would call him handsome." "All the women in Paris spoil him; there is not one that would not be flattered by his admiration." "There is one at least, Eulalie. I hale him; I can scarcely be civil to him." "Now that is a pity, for do you know, Ursulie, I was thinking you were so exactly suited to each other, that, with woman's love for match-making, I had set my heart on bringing you together." "Bringing us together! Ridiculous! M. Mirecourt knows I hate him. Eulalic, don't you think I am dressed very unbecom ingly this morning?" "No, dearest. Besides, what does it sig nify? You don't want to make a coquest of Mirscottrt; and certainly yeu would'nt condescend to coquetry with mauoais sujet, his friend?" "Why not? I think M. Felsheim is quite as handseme as M. Mirecourt, then he bus so distingue an air; be ban but one fault— he is Mirecoures_friend." $1,50 PER YEAR IN ADVANCE; $2,00 IF NOT IN ADVANCE. "One fault, Ursulel Why Gustave de Felsheim has run through two fortunes—his own and then his mother's. He is a gam bler, and a roue besides." "Well, Enlalio, that's just the; kind of a man to take a woman's heart. lam rich and I dare say I could reform Gustave." "Reform—do you think that possible?" "Well there would he more excitement in marrying him and trying it than in marry ing such a piece of perfection as your M. Mirecourt: a man who, of high family, dropped his title because ho was poor; a man who studied at an ago when all other men were amusing themselves; a man who was never guilty of any of those charming excesses that vary life; a man whose name was never connected with a single intrigue." "Stop there!" said Eulalle; "I can at any rate correct this defect. M. Mirecourt is said to be the present chosen favorite of the celebrated queen of the vaudeville, Mine. Docile." "Just what one would expect of these model men," said tin.ule, her lip curling with scorn. "To take up with such a wo man as that! A— well, you what know she is. I hated M. Mirocourt before—l de spise him now." "Well, I may be mistaken," said Eulalie "he may only visit her on account of the play he is bringing out, which was accepted through her influence, and in which she b. to bear the principal part." "Mine. Doche, indeed! Why, she has red hair; she is not even pretty—not even young." "Ursule, this may all be true to U.l, but mon admire her universally; and you—l have soon you admire her." "On the stage, certainly, ns I do a mountebank on a light-rope, or a picture. in a gallery. I certainly shall not speak to M. Mirecourt again; I don't think any respect able woman ought to— connecting his name with that of such a woman, and taking to the stage, too, after his polytechnic honors. nal ha! it is perfectly laughable." "You area good hater, Ursalo," said Eu lalle. "I never saw you so excited. I wonder what you would do if you loved?" "Loved! I never shall love any one.— Good bye, till we meet at the. Italians to night. I have invited Gustave de Felsheim to visit us in my box." "Then M. Mirecourt will come, of course, they are inseperable." "Well, you can entertain him; I shall take no notice of him." So saying, Mme. do Sorel proceeded to her carriage, and, whispering something to her footman, who in turn whispered it to the coachman, the carriage drovo off. In about a quarter of an hour the car riage stopped in the Rue do Kocher, in front of a neat little private house; and, after in- quiring of the porter who answered the summons of the knocker whether the lady of the house was at home, Mine. do Sorel descndod from her carriage and entered the house. She walked up the well-carpeted stair through several tasteful, simple-and richly furnished drawing rooms, and was finally introduced into a small boudoir, where she was told by the respectful, neat servant, to await his mistress. lirsule looked round her with intense cu- riosity. For a woman of her class to be where she now was—in the boudoir of the most renowned belle of the demi•monde— was like tasting of the tree of knowledge; a taste which all her daughters have inher ited from Ere. The walls, hung with dark blue damask, had no ornament but a small gold moulding, one large mirror, and a beautiful copy of Guido's Cenci, supposed to bear a great re semblance to the owner of the mansion.— The light came through rose•tinted glass from above. The furniture was in dark oak of the austere fashion of Louis XIII.— On the heavy marble table in the centre was a golden vase filled with hot-house flow ers, There were no gewgaws, no picture books, no playthings for grown up people. All was simple, severe and in admirable taste. Presently the blue velvet portiere was drawn aside, and Mine. Ursula de Sorel stood in the presence of Mme. Mme. Doclie, on perceiving lirsule, with the quickness of woman's tact, immediately understood that her visitor, unlike all her other visitors, owed not her position or ele gance to her beauty, striking and excessive as it was. Dime. Doche stood for a moment gazing at her, and Ursale, spite of her good breeding, fixed her eyes curiously and searchingly upon the woman who stood be fore her. She was just above the middle height, but her round, slender, yet exquisitely propor tioned figure gave her the appearance of being taller. She was dressed in a high, tight-fitting velvetdress of thedeepestbrown, a point-lace collar was round her throat, and contrary to the fashion, the sleeves fitted tightly to the arm, having the old heavy point lace about the wrists. Iler hands were exquisite, and had literally the trans parency of alabaster. Tier complexion was as pale and transparent as her hands; there' was not a particle of color save in the full lips, which were of the deepest scarlet.— Her nose was too short for Grecian; the oval of her face was too prolonged; her forehead was low, and her hair bound in immense masses round and round her small head, was unmistakably red. But her eyes—here was the resemblance to the Cenci—they were not the light blue which accompanied; hair of bor color, but large, deep., lustrous, [WHOLE NUMBER, 1.493. sad eyes of the very darkest chestnut brown, and the black eyelashes which shaded them were half an inch long. She had no erns.- ment except a large diamond in each small, pink, transparent ear. Here all description ends. It was impossible to describe or to account for the undulating grace of her walk, the elegant turn of her white and slender throat, or the charm, (for no other word conveys it,) of her appearance and manner.* Ursula felt it, and hAr cheek turned pale. However, with the presence of mind of woman of the world, she advance•! towards her. "Madame," said she, "excuse this intru sion. lam a stranger, but I want at onoe not only to he an acquaintance, but a confi dential friend—will you consider me es such?" "Madame," replied the actress, "I am deeply touched by your confidence, by your MEM D) you know me?" "Not by name, Madame; but you know me, and I know you belong to that class that usually scorn us. Tell mo what I can du for yuu." "D. you lolow M. Mirecuurt?" "Intimately." "Intimately? Not, however, as a lover?" Do vou love hint?" "Not what you would call loving hint. I im rolaied to Mirec,oirt's guardian.— Again I avk you to forgive me; but his guardian, mailaine, has a prejudice against the stage, and—" "Against Actresses. He is quite right. I should hare, too, for my brothers and sons, if I had either." "I\l. Mirecoart is about to produce a piece under your auspices; fascinated by you, he will, so his guardian thinks, abandon his graver studies fur the light literature of the stage. If his piece were not received ho might grow disgusted; and his old guardian, his friends, are tn• o •ablo about. him; I 0 owes all to his guardian, too, for 111: Miro court is not rich." "I know it, madame," replied Mine. Docile, with a flash from her eye that gleamed and passed like lightning. "Think of his future career—lie may not love you yet—can you ten u ice I i a?" "Ile certainly does not love nie—nt least he has never told the so. Madame, for your sake ttc piece shall not be played; and I will refuse M. Mirecourt's further visits." "What excuse can you give him? I must not be known." "You shall not. As for excuses, madame, a caprice of Marie D.iclie's is excuse enough even with the Parisian public. Ho shall not know of your visit, and now, dear lady, farewell. I would not you should re main here. I have many men who visit me who might recognize you; do not come again." Tears started into Ursula's eyes as she rose. "Madame," said she, drawing off her glove, "when r came here I had intended, in return for the service I came to ask, to have offered you this diamond ring. Forgive the thought—it was an insult to you. Hero is one, a simple gold hoop, with two hands clasped. It has no value, intrinsic or artis tic, but it was given to me by my mother. Will you keep it to remember me?" "You sec," said Mine. Doche, extending her beautiful hands, "I wear no rings; yours will not be cmtarninatod; but it will do me good in some dark hour to look upon i t." As she spoke she placed the ring on her finger. lirsule, bending down, pressed her lips to her forehead, nnd then ha.tily leaving the room, retracel her stops to her ear- riago." "He will see what a woman's hate is," said she to herself, as she drove home. A few days afterwards Ursulo heard through M. de Felsheim, now her avowed s that M. Mirecourt was dreadfully disappointed that his pieze had been re jected, and that Mlle Doette had refused to play in it. "I am glad he is disappointed," said Ursale; "I cannot endure him." Sometime after this, do Felsheim told Mmo. do Sorel that Mirecourt, disgusted with Paris, and with literature. had ro t urned to his first profession, and had sue ceeded in obtaining an appointment on one of the railroads in the south of France, as engineer. "A pretty situation for the Count de Mirecourt, whose nobility is older than either yours or mine!" s.tid Ur.ulo. "boy absurd! One ought not to speak to a man who so degrades his class. Who gave him the appointment?" "Your unnle, I believe, the Minister of the 'lnterior." Early the next morning, Ursulo went to the Minister de l'lnterieur. "Uncle," raid she,-"I am come like all the people you will veo to-cloy, to ask a favor, only I nm first, and therefore, don't intend to be refused." "Giro your orders, dearest and fairest of petitionerT." "I want the place of engineer at for a most worthy man, the father of a large family. Well, hero are his credentials, and I want you to giro me the appointment." "It is promised to Mirecourt." "I don't care." "See, hero are the papers ready for me to sign; there is his name already inserted!' "That don't matter," s-id Ursula, taking a pen; "see what a nent secretary I atst; there, his name is effaced so neatly, and
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