th its ceaseless struggles.
Her pride and self-will were entirely vanquished, and she felt herself
truly the most miserable of fairy maidens. Suicide is of course a
thing strictly prohibited among immortals; but had it been otherwise,
I sadly fear that one of the lady Dewbell's spider-web silk hose would
some morning have been found without a garter, and she herself hanging
like a beauteous exhalation among the elm-leaves in the morning
sunshine. Oh, had Sir Timothy been there then, he would have found,
instead of his imperious and tantalizing coquette, the tenderest and
truest of disconsolate maidens, ready to melt into his arms between
the delicious pause of a sigh and a kiss. "Naughty, cruel Sir Timothy!
Horrid creature! to take all my nonsense for real earnest, and to go
away and leave me to be persecuted to death!" exclaimed the lady
Dewbell, with an uncontrollable burst of tears, as she threw herself,
her toilet half finished, and her hair all strewn over her face and
shoulders, upon her little praying cushion. "What will become of poor
Bell!"

"What ails my daughter?" said the sweet, soft voice of the queen
mother, as she knelt tenderly over her child, and pressed her head to
her bosom. "Tell your sorrows to your mother."

"Oh, mother, _I_ am the most wretched fairy that ever existed. I don't
want to marry that odious, red-haired stranger; and my father has made
me promise that the wedding shall take place on Halloween--and I--I
have consented. But I love Sir Timothy; and I wont marry any body but
him," sobbed the poor creature, convulsively, as she cast herself upon
the floor, and looked up to her mother, terrified and half frantic.

"But, dearest, you know you laughed at poor Sir Timothy's vows--and he
is so sensitive."

"Oh, yes, I know I did, but I'll never do so any more. _If_ Sir
Timothy will only come back and forgive me, and marry me, just this
once, I will never, never offend him again as long as I live--never,
never, never! Do, mamma, do make him come back!"

"Poor child! I will certainly do all I can. But you have promised to
be married on Halloween."

"Oh, yes, but that is a good fortnight off, and you can bring Sir
Timothy back before then, you know, and he can kill this horrid
stranger, and then every body will be _so_ happy!" and the face of the
volatile creature began already to re-clothe itself in smiles.

"I fear you are mistaken, love," said her mother, solemnly, and
shaking her head i