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based on our needs and its difficulties-was the
Hôtel de l'Europe, in Brussels. One dark, dismal,
rainy, cold night, I arrived in Brussels, feeling very
miserable, and escorting a friend from over the
Channel, who had been extremely ill in crossing that
sweet stretch of water, and was feeling even more
miserable than I; and we comforted ourselves as
we drove through the streets of Brussels on the pros-
pect of a pleasant hotel. In the Place Royale our
cocher stopped at the hotel-door, and sent in for
the landlord. He came, in the person of the "su-
perintendent," his representative, a sleepy-looking
individual in a semi-military uniform.
He was
asked, in the purest French, if he had two good
chambers. "Wee, dew tchammbers," he said. He
was a John Bull.

twelve francs (two dollars and forty cents) a day-a price nothing less than extortionate as hotel-prices go on the Continent, and I intimated as much to him.

"You are at liberty to do just what you like," he replied, with insufferable insolence of manner, and turning on his heel left the room.

I should have quitted the town at once, but unfortunately my friend-for whom I wanted the better room-was now feeling really ill, and could not be moved. We were compelled to remain at the Hôtel de l'Europe a week. It maintained its badness to the very last. The final touch was put upon its vicious nature by that most inexcusable of all offenses, omitting to call one in the morning for an early train, after having been instructed in the matter the night before. The worst hotel has no excuse Nothing could have been more dismal than the for neglecting this duty. It costs nothing; it degloomy little entresol rooms to which we were mands no special talent; and to omit it may breed shown. There was no gas, and the dim light of the the most intolerable annoyance. So when the dunsolitary candles did not produce a cheerful effect. derhead of a "superintendent" neglected to have There was no fireplace in either room, and we could me called on the morning of my departure, I renot get warm. Weary and worn, chilled and hungry, flected that there was method in his badness; and I we dejectedly ordered a cold chicken and a bit of set deliberately about the execution of a fiendish Roquefort cheese to be served in my room, for the revenge upon him for the tortures he had made me dining-room was closed and the kitchen-fires were endure while I was an enforced tenant of his house. out, although it was not yet midnight. The chicken | The reader knows that nowadays the “attendance" came, but no Roquefort; they had only Stilton and at European hotels is charged in the bill, and it is Cheshire, the waiter said, in English. In fact, we no longer imperative to bestow gratuities on the serhad chanced upon the particular hotel in Brussels vants. As is usual in the worst hotels abroad, our where they give you the English language in lieu of departure from the Hôtel de l'Europe was witnessed comfort, and English dishes in lieu of good living. with great solicitude by all the servants who had had Not only was the "superintendent a John Bull, anything to do with us since our arrival. All these but the landlord also was English, the chambermaid | people I proceeded to fee—the chambermaid, the and the boots were English, and the table-waiters boots, the porter, the head-waiter, the waiters who all spoke the English language. The effect of all served us at table, the waiter who brought the cold this-beginning with the mispronounced French of chicken, every menial I could get my eyes on-I the English superintendent" and concluding with feed them all with an ostentatious liberality which the English cheese-was to dispel that sense of be- produced the effect I intended on the "superintending in a novel country which is pleasing to encoun- ent." He rubbed his hands, he bowed, he followed ter after a lengthy sojourn in England. We felt us to the carriage, he said “good-by" with delightthat we had exchanged the realities of good old Al- ful cordiality; and I fumbled in my pocket, looking bion for a trashy tourists' imitation of the same. It the while to see that the trunks were safely bestowed, combined the faults of both countries; and English and then conferred upon the "superintendent" the hotels have faults enough of their own. There was most contemptible coin known to the civilized world no soap on the wash-stand; this was Continental, -a copper coin of one centime-value, one-fifth of not English. "Who enters here leaves soap be- a cent! The "superintendent" turned the color of hind," I murmured, as I scrubbed my hands with a boiled lobster. water in the morning. In the breakfast-room I That custom of putting the attendance in the found my friend, looking very unhappy. bill is one of the modern concessions to American "How cross you look!" was the remark that prejudice; but, instead of being an unmixed blessgreeted me. ing, it frequently results in the traveler's paying

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"I am as cross as two sticks-and so are you, double for the service. I have found it the most if-"

"No if about it; I am cross enough to bite." The breakfast was on the table; so I said, "Bite away."

We tried to find other accommodations, of course, but all the hotels happened to be full. There was one miserable room in the hotel where Fate had taken us, which had the single advantage of being provided with a place for a fire. The "superintendent" showed me that room with the air of a man who had me in his power, and said the charge for it was

satisfactory plan, all things considered, to fee servants, railway-guards, hotel-superintendents, in short, every person who has been accustomed to perquisites of the sort, as almost everybody has, in Europe. By following this plan as a regular thing, the wheels of life are made to run much more smoothly than they do for people who will not submit to the imposition. It is really a money-saving process, and economical tourists (of course, I don't allude to people absolutely poverty-stricken, doing Europe cheaply and enduring a thousand discomforts) will be wise in making

explanation. It is an air which has nothing bold or aggressive about it; nothing so annoys a Continental servant as bluster.

up their minds to give away pennies, sixpences, francs, and even thalers, occasionally, with systematic freedom. At the same time it is exceedingly unwise to scatter one's money extravagantly and carelessly; "Monsieur," said an intelligent waiter who that breeds contempt; waiters think you a fool or a served me when in Paris, and whom I have known greenhorn, and take liberties with you. But a habit for years, “the manner of a gentleman who respects of giving small fees, carefully and graciously, will himself and considers his servant, one does not see breed in you an air which servants are quick to rec-it, one perceives it. It is as quiet, monsieur, as the ognize by one of those subtile instincts which defy perfume of a flower."

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66

TH

I.

A FOREST RETREAT.

BY CHRISTIAN REID.

HIS is the place where we stop, Hester-I hope you don't think it very rough."

"I shall get them back soon enough," answered the girl, cheerfully.

While she stood looking at the magical mingling of blue hills and fair, fertile valleys in the great

Mr. Clyde spoke a little anxiously as he descend-width of sweeping landscape before her, the curtain ed from the front of the stage-coach, and opened the of a window near at hand was drawn slightly aside, door before any one else could do so. A pale, and a face glanced out. pretty girl gave him her hand, and sprang lightly to the ground. Then she answered his remark:

"Rough, papa? No-not half so rough as I expected. You know you said ‘a mere hunting-lodge,' and this seems a very comfortable place."

"Is there any reason why a hunting-lodge should not be comfortable?" her father asked, with a smile. "Here comes our host.-Well, Mr. Young, you see I am back again, and have brought my daughter with me."

"Very glad to see you back, Mr. Clyde," answered Mr. Young, with a cordial grasp of the hand, "and happy to make Miss Clyde's acquaintance. Walk in-I'll be with you in a few minutes."

The father and daughter-one carrying a gun, the other a satchel-went in accordingly, and paused on the piazza to wait the disembarking of the other passengers. As they did so, the girl remarked: "Our host made a very natural mistake. Don't correct him, papa. I like to be called by your

name."

"And I like you to be called by it," answered Mr. Clyde. Then he walked to the end of the piazza and said, "What a view, Hester! Isn't this reviving after ten months spent among bricks and stone?"

"I feel as if I had reached paradise," said Hester, following him, and putting her hand on his arm. "Oh, what a heavenly landscape! Papa, I never did a more lucky thing in my life than to have that attack of fever."

Mr. Clyde laughed—his frank, good-humored face lighting up with amusement.

"I am glad you think so," he said.

"I know so," said Hester. "But for that, mamma would never have let me off duty to come with you; while, as it is, how charming to think that we have a whole month of freedom before us!"

"You must get back your roses by the time it ends, or mamma will think that after all she made a mistake."

A man's face, as was to be easily ascertained. If Mr. Clyde or his daughter had looked around, they would have seen one eye, an aquiline nose, and half of a brown mustache. They did not look round, however, so the eye-no doubt aided by another partly hidden-had an excellent opportunity to admire Hester Clyde's delicate profile and graceful figure, before Mr. Young approached and it was necessary to drop the curtain.

He was followed by a servant, who conducted Miss Clyde to her room, and told her that supper would be ready in an hour. "What a pleasant place!" thought Hester, looking round after the door was closed. The room was small, the floor bare, the furniture of the plainest possible description, but everything was spotlessly clean, and the view from the window magnificent. "Free for a month!" she said, again. Then she lay down on the bed, and fell asleep like a child, with the soft evening breeze blowing lightly over her.

In consequence of this siesta, Mr. and Miss Clyde were the last to enter the supper-room an hour later. The rest of the company were all assembled, and a cheerful clatter of knives and forks and voices was in progress. A gentleman with an aquiline nose and brown mustache, who was seated near one end of the table, glanced up with interest when they appeared, but bestowed his attention on his plate when Mr. Young conducted them to seats exactly opposite his own. The genial host then took his place at the end of the table and opened a conversation :

"I hope we shall be able to give you some good hunting, Mr. Clyde. We have had uncommon luck ever since the season began."

"I should judge so," said Mr. Clyde. "The venison is delicious."

"We are indebted to Mr. Ferguson for that," said Mr. Young, nodding toward him of the nose and mustache.

This was enough of an introduction for Mr. Clyde, who, however ceremonious he might be at

home, was the prince of good-fellows, and easy of approach as a schoolboy, when out on a holiday like the present.

"Let me congratulate you, Mr. Ferguson," he said, looking across the table. "Are you very much of a hunter?"

"As far as liking the sport goes, I may answer yes," replied the gentleman addressed, in the voice and with the manner of a cultivated person. "With regard to skill, I must be more modest."

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hand lifted its bold crest against the dark-blue, starstudded sky.

'I should like it," she said, "but I am afraid I am not strong enough for that quite yet."

"There are many beautiful places more easy of access," said Mr. Ferguson. "This is such a wild place that the beauties are not ticketed yet as 'Lovers' Retreats' and 'Fairy Glens'-but one likes them better for that."

"Indeed, yes," said Hester. "One may fancy, perhaps, that one has discovered them for one's self —and that sense adds to the charm of everything."

"With some people," said Mr. Clyde. "Others like their cascades and glens discovered for them, as well as their heroes and beauties. It is astonishing to consider how incapable the average human mind appears to be of originating an opinion. Its views on every subject, from logic down to fishing,' are presented to it ready-made, and adopted with facility."

In the discussion which ensued, Mr. Ferguson bore a part, while Hester, glancing down the table, decided that all the people present (not more than "Very fortunately so," said Ferguson. "There twenty) were commonplace and uninteresting. "So is only one subject on which men are generally camuch the better," she thought; "I shall not be tempt-pable of originating an opinion, and that, I think" ed to form any friendship, but shall have my time with a glance at the outline of Hester's head and entirely to myself." face "is with regard to beauty."

Ferguson, meanwhile, regarding her clear-cut profile, thought to himself: "Why is it that I have a vague remembrance of having seen that face before? It is impossible that I could have done so- nd forgotten it. The association must be in its likeness to some one else. But to whom?"

After supper, Hester said:

"Papa, where are you going-out on the piazza to smoke? May I come with you for a little while? I will not stay long, for I think of retiring early." 'Certainly you can come," answered Mr. Clyde ; "but put a shawl round you. These mountainnights are chilly."

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So, presently-having in the interval gone to her room for a shawl-Hester came out on the piazza and sat down near her father, whom she found still talking to his new acquaintance of the supper-table, with whom he had discovered many tastes in com

mon.

"Sport, however, is not the only attraction which has drawn me to this region," that gentleman was in the act of saying. "I like Nature-especially in its wilder forms-and I dislike society as one finds it at summer resorts or country-houses full of company. Now, you may readily imagine that there is little to trouble one in that line here. I spend my days among the mountains, my evenings in smoking and reading."

"What an ideal existence!" said Hester's frank, sweet-toned voice." That is how I shall spend my time, papa, during the next month-barring the smoking."

"Very good," said papa. "We shall see how long you will keep that resolution. I'll cut you an alpenstock to-morrow, and you can climb this mountain behind the house and erect your throne of contemplation there."

Hester looked at the mountain which near at

Mr. Clyde laughed as he took his pipe from his mouth.

"You couldn't have given a worse example," he said. "There is nothing in connection with which reputation has more weight. Now see!-I'll give you an instance. Suppose Hester had arrived here heralded with a flourish of trumpets as 'the great beauty Miss Clyde'—”

"O papa, pray don't be absurd!"

"How all these good people would have stared, admired, and thronged about her! I've seen it done with plainer women. As it is, some one may have thought, 'That is rather a pretty girl'-but nobody has gone beyond that, you may be sure."

66

'Papa," said Hester, "you are really becoming too personal. I must say good-night and retire.Pray, Mr. Ferguson, don't think that he usually talks in this way. I never heard him do it before."

"If I may be allowed to say so," Ferguson replied, speaking on an irresistible impulse, "he has only strengthened my opinion that men are not obtuse on that subject. It can hardly be possible that there is only one person here for whom no flourish of trumpets was necessary."

He had scarcely uttered the words before he regretted having done so, for even in the starlight he saw the change which came over Hester. The frank and graceful simplicity vanished, her face hardened, her manner grew cold.

"You see what you have brought upon me, papa," she said, rising. "It would be a pity to draw a compliment from a friend-it is something more than a pity to extort a flattery from a stranger. Good-night."

She crossed the piazza and entered the house before Ferguson found words in which to speak. Then he said to Mr. Clyde :

"Pray excuse me. It was presumptuous of me

to make such a speech, but the impulse was uncontrollable."

"It was my fault," said the older man. "I should not have spoken as I did-but it is not a matter of importance. No woman was ever offend- | ed by a respectful and well-timed compliment."

The subject dropped here, for Mr. Young came up at the moment; but, according to the fashion of such small annoyances, it lingered in Ferguson's mind, and the last reflection with which he turned into bed was, "I must apologize to Miss Clyde at the first opportunity.”

It was nearly twenty-four hours before this opportunity was found. Hester, being still somewhat of an invalid, did not appear at breakfast the next morning, and after breakfast Mr. Ferguson was one of a party who, going out on a deer-hunt, did not return until evening. Making then a hasty change of toilet, he went in to the tea-table and found Hester with a faint bloom on her cheeks, and a cluster of ferns and wild-flowers in her hair, listening to Mr. Clyde's account of the day's sport. She bowed slightly but distantly when Ferguson sat down, and went on talking to her father.

"But how odd that you should think all this entertaining, papa! If you really chased the deer, it would be another matter; but to waylay the poor thing when it is flying for its life, and shoot it down -oh, I don't see how you can feel other than cruel and cowardly!"

"I have rather callous sensibilities, I suppose, my dear," said Mr. Clyde, cheerfully. "It seems to me no more cruel and cowardly to shoot a deer than to wring the neck of a chicken. It isn't well to be too sentimental. Now, what have you been doing all day?"

"I took Mr. Young's went on a long ramble. is a divine place, papa. me here before?"

little boy for a guide, and How I enjoyed it! This Why did you never bring

"I did not fancy that it would please such a fashionable young lady.”

all."

of young people were playing a game of cards, laughing a great deal, and now and then accusing each other of cheating. Hester was not visible, so Ferguson proceeded to the piazza. Here he found her sitting alone, midway between a flirting couple at one end and a group of smokers at the other. The opportunity was favorable, and, being not at all troubled with shyness, he took advantage of it.

I have come to beg your pardon, Miss Clyde," he said, making her start by the unexpected sound of his voice. "I was presumptuous last night, and should have apologized at once for my speech if you had remained a minute longer. Do you not sometimes speak on an impulse? If so, you may understand how I was led away. I certainly meant no disrespect, and, I may add, no flattery."

There was something straightforward in this apology which at once melted all that remained of Hester's little resentment.

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'We will put the question of flattery aside, Mr. Ferguson," she said. “I am very sure that you meant no disrespect, and probably it is I who should apologize for receiving your friendly compliment so rudely. Yes, I often speak-and act-on an impulse. In fact, I may echo what some one has said, and declare that I spend half of my life in doing things, and the other half in regretting having done them."

Mr. Ferguson felt sufficiently encouraged by her tone to say, "I should never think that."

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'Why not?" asked Hester, amused by the decided tone of the remark.

"May I venture on a personal speech again without running the risk of offending you?"

"I am not very easily offended. If your personal speech is not a compliment, I think you may venture on it."

"I was only about to say, then, that, judging from your face and manner, I should think that you were too self-possessed to be impulsive."

"That is a compliment, Mr. Ferguson, and one for which I am obliged to you. You are mistaken"Now you are sarcastic, and it isn't your forte at but that does not matter. It is a favorite theory of

A few minutes later they left the table, and Ferguson said to himself: "I must certainly make that apology. What a lovely face she has! But it is of too fine a type of beauty, too gentle and frank, to be that of a fashionable young lady. No woman can be a belle without losing the candid simplicity which is the aroma of her womanhood. This girl has not lost it. But for the ease of her manner, I should fancy that she had just left school. She certainly must have lived a secluded life: one of those home existences which seem to shrine the best qualities of the feminine-"

mine that nobody really knows anybody else. We only know our own idea of the characters of others."

"I do not agree with you. The majority of people are superficial in their judgment of character as of everything else. But I believe that any one who has made it a study can read it unerringly through very slight manifestations."

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'As, for instance-?"

For instance, manners, appearances, tastes, opinions. Tell me what a man likes, and, as a general rule, I will tell you what he is.” "And a woman, too?"

"There I hesitate. But one may form a general

"Hot biscuit, sir?" said a servant, presenting a judgment according to general principles." plate.

Ferguson declined the biscuit, and rose from table. As he left the supper-room he glanced into the parlor, an apartment which he usually shunned with scrupulous care. A group of ladies were crocheting and talking in one corner, in another a party

"If people were always consistent, perhaps so. But who is? Under different circumstances one is very apt to become a different person, especially if one is impressionable and receptive."

"Are you so, Miss Clyde?"

"Is it a habit of yours to ask personal questions,

Mr. Ferguson? But I don't mind answering this one. I am. Look at that!" She extended her hand, and pointed to the great landscape, in all its majestic silence and dimness. "Does not such a scene bring all one's best thoughts and feelings uppermost? Who could be frivolous and foolish with such a strange, solemn influence at work?” Some people manage to achieve it," said Ferguson, glancing at the flirting couple.

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He laid it on the floor at her feet, and answered : "Yes. I found it during the hunt this morning in a glen five or six miles away. I thought at once that it would make a beautiful foundation for the cross of moss and ferns which you have been making."

"It will be charming," she said. Then her languor vanished. She brought the cross, and went to work to finish it. "It will be such a pleasant memento of my life in the woods!" she said, as she put

"I mean people who can feel," answered Hester, a fern here and a bit of moss there. with dignity.

II.

Then it occurred to Ferguson that he had very little idea what manner of life was hers when out of the woods, and he was on the point of making a

"PAPA," said Miss Clyde, a week later, "who is remark which might lead to some revelation on the Mr. Ferguson?”

Her father, who was engaged in cleaning his gun, looked up with a little surprise. Really, my dear," he replied, "you know as much of Mr. Ferguson as I do."

"I know that he is pleasant and cultivated, clever and decidedly peculiar," she said; “but, according to mamma's creed, man is to be considered first as a social animal, and secondly as a thinking one. As a social animal, to what class and order does Mr. Ferguson belong?"

"He is a gentleman, undoubtedly." "Yes, as far as himself is concerned; but who are his people, and where does he come from? One likes to know these things."

"I'll ask him, if you desire it. He is evidently a man who has traveled a great deal, and acquired the habit of speaking little of himself. He's a clever fellow, and I hope you are not going to make a fool of him, Hester."

"I make a fool of him, papa ?"-Hester opened her eyes like an injured goddess-"what are you thinking of?"

subject, when through the open window of a room behind them came the sound of a name pronounced by a rather high-pitched feminine voice:

"Miss Mildmay!"-Hester and Ferguson both started slightly-"what could have induced your brother to imagine that she was here? It is the last place likely to attract such a very dissipated young lady."

"I don't know," replied another voice; "but this is what he says "—a paper rustled-“‘So I understand that you have the famous beauty and belle. Miss Mildmay, among you. What do you think of her? Society wherever she goes is divided into two classes-those who rave about her, and those who deny that she has any beauty at all. It is rumored that she has retired to the wilderness in order to reflect on her numerous suitors, and decide which she will accept. One or two of the most desperate, however, talk of following her.'"

"It would be funny if they came and didn't find her!" said a third voice-evidently a very young one-with a giggle.

"Perhaps you think there might be a chance for

"Of an amusement to which you are rather par- you in that case, Mattie," said the first speaker. tial, my dear."

"That was in another state of existence. Such a thing would be impossible here. Mr. Ferguson pleases me because he suits so exactly my-my forest state of mind and feeling."

"I hope you won't delude him into thinking your forest state of mind and feeling an enduring one," said Mr. Clyde, rather dryly. Then he shouldered his gun, and walked away.

Hester smiled as she lay back in her chair, with her hands folded in her lap over the book she had been trying to read. The vine-draped lattice of the piazza framed her in a green half-light, but her gaze dwelt unimpeded on the paradise of happy valleys lying below, and the blue mountains afar, with soft cloud-shadows drifting over their wooded sides.

On this state of repose a footstep broke before long, and around the corner of the house Ferguson came, bearing a cushion of green velvet, as it seemed -but when he drew near the green velvet resolved itself into the softest and richest moss. Hester raised herself with a cry of delight.

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"But what could have put such an idea into Tom's head?" said the reader. 'So odd of him! Perhaps Miss Mildmay is coming."

"Let us hope not," said the other, devoutly. “A more unpleasant event could not possibly occur."

46

"Is she so very disagreeable, then?"

"One of the most disagreeable people!” (emphatically). "I don't know her myself, but I know what her character is. She has been so spoiled by admiration, and has such an exalted opinion of her own importance, that she is simply intolerable-especially to her own sex."

"I do hope she won't come!" said the youngest speaker.

"You may be sure there is no danger of it," returned the other. "No woman like Miss Mildmay would dream of coming here. What is there to attract her? It is absurd to suppose that she would care anything for Nature."

44

Of course not," assented the other voices.

"And she couldn't dress, she couldn't dance, she couldn't flirt-unless she brought her material for that amusement along with her-so what would induće her to come?"

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