alute his family and retinue, his
court and attendants. But this is not all. On parade he goes through the
ceremony with his officers, and a selected body of privates, who stand as
representatives of the rest, and even with the sentinels at the palace
gates. So amid smiles and handshakings, and exclamations of "Christ has
arisen!" pass on the days of the Easter festival. Ample amends are made
for the long abstinence of the Great Fast, by unbounded indulgence in the
coveted animal food, to say nothing of the copious libations of
brandy--evidences of which are visible enough in groups of amateur
street-sweepers who subsequently are seen plying their brooms in the early
morning hours. Such is St. Petersburg, when most Russian.

A LOVE AFFAIR AT CRANFORD.

I am tempted to relate it, as having interested me in a quiet sort of way,
and as being the latest intelligence of Our Society at Cranford.

I thought, after Miss Jenkyns's death, that probably my connection with
Cranford would cease; at least that it would have to be kept up by
correspondence, which bears much the same relation to personal intercourse
that the books of dried plants I sometimes see ("Hortus Siccus," I think
they call the thing), do to the living and fresh flowers in the lanes and
meadows. I was pleasantly surprised, therefore, by receiving a letter from
Miss Pole (who had always come in for a supplementary week after my annual
visit to Miss Jenkyns), proposing that I should go and stay with her; and
then, in a couple of days after my acceptance, came a note from Miss
Matey, in which, in a rather circuitous and very humble manner, she told
me how much pleasure I should confer, if I could spend a week or two with
her, either before or after I had been at Miss Pole's; "for," she said,
"since my dear sister's death, I am well aware I have no attractions to
offer; it is only to the kindness of my friends that I can owe their
company."

Of course, I promised to come to dear Miss Matey, as soon as I had ended
my visit to Miss Pole; and the day after my arrival at Cranford, I went to
see her, much wondering what the house would be like without Miss Jenkyns,
and rather dreading the changed aspect of things. Miss Matey began to cry
as soon as she saw me. She was evidently nervous from having anticipated
my call. I comforted her as well as I could; and I found the best
consolation I could give, was the honest praise that came from my heart as
I spoke of