sters, if not original and of
the highest value, at least first-rate copies--caught the eye at once:
the not _too_ much, the not _too_ little, that exact point which it
requires so much skill to touch, showed that the eye of taste had been
every where; and I again thought of the dungeon in the city, and asked
myself whether it was possible that Mordecai could be the worker of the
miracle.

Naturally making him some acknowledgment for his invitation, and saying
some civil thing of his taste, he laughed, and said, "I have but little
merit in the matter. All this is my daughter's. Moorfields is _my_
house; this house is Mariamne's. As our origin and connexions are
foreign, we make use of our opportunities to indulge ourselves in these
foreign trifles. But we have a little 'reunion' of our neighbours this
evening, and I must first make you known to the lady of the _fete_." He
rang the bell.

"Neighbours!" said I; "all round me, as I came, seemed solitude; and
yours is so beautiful, that I almost think society would injure its
beauty."

"Well, well, Mr Marston, you shall see. But this I advise you, take care
of your heart if you are susceptible."

A servant announced that his mistress would attend us in a few minutes,
and I remained examining the pictures and the prospect; when a gay
voice, and the opening of a door, made me turn round to pay my homage to
the lady. I had made up my mind to see one of the stately figures and
magnificent countenances which are often to be found in the higher
orders of the daughters of Israel. I saw, on the contrary, one of the
gayest countenances and lightest figures imaginable--the _petit nez
retrousse_, and altogether much more the air of a pretty Parisian than
one of the superb race of Zion. Her manner was as animated as her eyes,
and with the ease of foreign life she entered into conversation; and in
a few minutes we laughed and talked together, as if we had been
acquaintances from our cradles.

The history of the house was simply, that "she hated town and loved the
country; that she loved the sea better than the land, and loved society
of her own selection better than society forced upon her.--On the
sea-shore she found all that she liked, and escaped all that she hated.
She therefore lived on the sea-shore.--She had persuaded her father to
build that house, and they had furnished it according to their own
recollections, and even their own whims.--Caprice was liberty, and
liberty w