ke it. Miss Olivia Kennyfeck had been
taught it from her earliest years,--from those pleasant days, when,
dressed like some fairy queen, she descended from the nursery to stand
beside pa's chair on company days, at dessert, and be stared at, and
kissed, and "dear-loved" by some scores of people, whose enthusiasm
for childish beauty had all the warmth that springs from turtle and
truffles, iced punch and Lafitte. She had been taught it by the French
governess, who told her to be _aimable_. The very dancing-master cried
out, "Grace,--more grace, if you please, Miss Olivia," at every step of
her minuet; and the riding-master's eternal exhortation was, "Sit as if
the whole world was watching you, miss."

These teachings go further and deeper into the heart than we suspect.
"The wish to please"--pure and amiable as the feeling can be--lies on
the frontier of a dangerous land,--the "wish to conquer." That passion
once engendered in the heart, no room remains for any other.

To return to Miss Olivia Kennyfeck,--for most ungallantly we are
forgetting she is alone all this while. Her education had but one end
and object,--to obtain a good position by marriage. The precept had
been instilled into her mind in a thousand different ways, and not only
self-interest, but pride, emulation, and vanity had been enlisted in its
support. So constantly was the theme presented to her, such day-by-day
discussion of the prizes and blanks drawn by others in the wheel
connubial, that she really felt little or no interest in any other
topic.

And yet, with all that misdirection of mind, that perverse insistence on
wrong, there was still in her heart a void, a want, that neither vanity
nor selfishness could fill. It might be, perhaps, to be found out by
one who should make it the storehouse of high and generous impulses,
of ennobling duties and tender affections; or, just as likely, lie like
some fruitful but unknown tract,--barren, waste, and profitless!

Three o'clock came! And now the house resounded with the buzz of voices
and the hurried movement of feet. Carriages and horses, too, assembled
before the door, and all the pleasant bustle of those bent on pleasure
filled the air. Olivia arose, and, screened by the curtain, watched the
scene beneath. For the first time she perceived that Lady Kilgoff was in
a riding-dress. She stood in the midst of a group before the door, amid
which Olivia's eyes peered with restless activity.

No, Cashel w