eat agitation to speak.

The table was now set in the arbour--the vase was now placed in the
middle. "Well!" said Cecilia, eagerly, "who begins?" Caroline, one of
her friends, came forward first, and then all the others successively.
Cecilia's emotion was hardly conceivable.----"Now they are all in.
Count them, Caroline!"

"One, two, three, four; the numbers are both equal." There was a dead
silence.

"No, they are not," exclaimed Cecilia, pressing forward and putting
a shell into the vase----"I have not given mine, and I give it to
Leonora." Then snatching the bracelet, "It is yours, Leonora," said she;
"take it, and give me back your friendship." The whole assembly gave a
universal clap and shout of applause.

"I cannot be surprised at this from you, Cecilia," said Leonora; "and do
you then still love me as you used to do?"

"O Leonora! stop! don't praise me; I don't deserve this," said she,
turning to her loudly applauding companions; "you will soon despise
me--O Leonora, you will never forgive me!--I have deceived you--I have
sold----"

At this instant Mrs. Villars appeared--the crowd divided--she had heard
all that passed from her window.

"I applaud your generosity, Cecilia," said she, "but I am to tell you
that in this instance it is unsuccessful; you have it not in your power
to give the prize to Leonora--it is yours--I have another vote to give
you--you have forgotten Louisa."

"Louisa! but surely, ma'am, Louisa loves Leonora better than she does
me!"

"She commissioned me, however," said Mrs. Villars, "to give you a red
shell, and you will find it in this box."

Cecilia started, and turned as pale as death--it was the fatal box.

Mrs. Villars produced another box--she opened it--it contained the
Flora--"And Louisa also desired me," said she, "to return you this
Flora"--she put it into Cecilia's hand--Cecilia trembled so that she
could not hold it; Leonora caught it.

"O, madam! O, Leonora!" exclaimed Cecilia; "now I have no hope left. I
intended, I was just going to tell----"

"Dear Cecilia," said Leonora, "you need not tell it me; I know it
already, and I forgive you with all my heart."

"Yes, I can prove to you," said Mrs. Villars, "that Leonora has forgiven
you: it is she who has given you the prize; it was she who persuaded
Louisa to give you her vote. I went to see her a little while ago, and
perceiving, by her countenance, that something was the matter, I pressed
her to tell me what it