leasantly, and seem to emblematize the people who sing them.

"Thither, oh, thither, George! as the girl sings in Goethe's ballad.
Won't it be delightful?"

"First let us see if it be possible."

And then they began one of those discussions of ways and means which,
however, as we grow old in life, are tinged with all the hard and stern
characters of sordid self-interest, are in our younger days blended so
thoroughly with hope and trustfulness that they are amongst the most
attractive of all the themes we can turn to. There were so many things
to be done, and so little to do them with, that it was marvellous to
hear of the cunning and ingenious devices by which poverty was to be
cheated out of its meanness, and actually imagine itself picturesque.
George was not a very imaginative creature; but it was strange to see
to what flights he rose as the sportive fancy of the high-spirited girl
carried him away to the region of the speculative and the hopeful.

"It's just as well, after all, perhaps," said he, after some moments of
thought, "that we had not invested your money in the mine."

"Of course, George, we shall want it to buy vines and orange-trees. Oh,
I shall grow mad with impatience if I talk of this much longer! Do you
know," said she, in a more collected and serious tone, "I have just
built a little villa on the lake-side of Albano? And I'm doubting
whether I 'll have my 'pergolato' of vines next to the water, or facing
the mountain. I incline to the mountain."

"We mustn't dream of building," said he, gravely.

"We must dream of everything, George. It is in dreamland I am going to
live. Why is this gift of fancy bestowed upon us if not to conjure
up allies that will help us to fight the stern evils of life? Without
imagination, hope is a poor, weary, plodding foot-traveller, painfully
lagging behind us. Give him but speculation, and he soars aloft on wings
and rises towards heaven."

"Do be reasonable, Julia, and let us decide what steps we shall take."

"Let me just finish my boat-house; I 'm putting an aviary on the top
of it. Well, don't look so pitifully; I am not going mad. Now, then,
for the practical. We are to go over to Castello to-morrow, early, I
suppose?"

"Yes; I should say in the morning, before Colonel Bram-leigh goes into
his study. After that he dislikes being disturbed. I mean to speak to
him myself. You must address yourself to Marion."

"The forlorn hope always falls to my share," s