therefore, through their milliner, procured a place in Boston, where she had now been for more than a year. Not long after their arrrival, Mrs. Fanshaw was seized with a spine complaint, which had confined her for some months entirely to her bed. "Poor mamma! she did every thing in her power for me, yet I was often very refractory," said Zephina. "She is now so kind and so patient, that it grieves me to think of it. I am obliged to leave her alone a great deal. I hope, Beulah, you will come and see her sometimes. We live in a room yes, one room - in a house No. 19 Street."

"I will come very soon," said Beulah; "but will she know me?'

"Yes, for I shall tell her you are coming, and we have no acquaintances here. But do n't tell her if you please where you are staying. Are you taking music lessons, Beulah ?"

She was;

struct her.

- her cousin had kindly offered to in

"You were my first teacher in music," said Beulah. "Do you remember the bower where you taught me so many songs ?

"O, those were the happiest days of my life," replied Zephina sorrowfully.

But the hour that she had begged was past, and she must take leave.

"Come often and see me," said Beulah.

"No, dearest, I cannot come. It would not do at all. You will move in such a different sphere, that it would only be a mortification to you to own me for an intimate friend, and it would pain me to be received in any other way."

"That is the first unkind thing that you ever said to me, Zephina. It makes no difference what spheres we move in; nothing can divide our hearts."

"The same simple, kind-hearted Beulah! exclaimed her friend, throwing her arms around her neck. "I must have one more kiss, and I will love you as well as ever, but I really have no time for paying visits, not a moment to spare from my employment and from poor mamma.'

Harriet Ann was anxiously waiting for Zephina. Her splendid dress of white satin, with a transparent gauze over-dress, must be finished, and she was in agony for fear it would not be done. Then she needed a magnificent white veil. This she asked Zephina to lend her from the shop, which was promptly refused.

"Then I must run in debt for one," said Harriet Ann, "for I have n't a dollar left of my quarterly income.'

CHAPTER XVII.

LES TABLEAUX VIVANTS.

"It is not my intention, Beulah, to take you often into society," said Mrs. Whately; "you are quite too young; moreover, it would withdraw your attention from your studies, but as you have never seen any tableaux, I am going to take you to Mrs. Markham's this evening."

"Tableaux, do n't laugh at my ignorance,-I am entirely at a loss to guess what they are."

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"I never laugh at ignorance of any kind, and this with regard to an amusement—is a mere trifle. Tableaux vivants are living pictures; - but I shall tell you no more, lest it should impair your enjoyment of the evening. You will find your dress already prepared, and laid in your room.”

Beulah flew to her room, and there lay a simple

white-muslin dress, with a blue sash. She took her purse, went down to Mrs. Whately, and, putting it into her hand, begged to her to pay for it. She refused at once, having designed it for a present.

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"I am very much obliged to you," said Beufather forbade me to accept pres

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lah, but my

ents."

"Did he?

that was so like his sturdy independence; then I must deny myself the pleasure, and take out of your purse the ten dollars that the dress cost. I should have consulted you, my dear, only I wished to give you an agreeable surprise. I am sorry that I must submit to so unpleasant a necessity."

As Beulah looked in the glass, arrayed for the evening, did she not feel a consciousness of her own loveliness? That fact never transpired. Faces have blushed at beholding their own beauty, and it is possible that hers did; but she had never been told that she had any personal charms. She was not vain, and it is just possible that she had never made the discovery.

Mrs. Markham's rooms were filled with as many as could see the pictures, and a few more who tried very hard. Expectation was on tiptoe. The curtain at length arose.

The frame for the tableaux was gorgeously gilded, the vista and lights well arranged for effect. The first tableaux was magnificent. It was a scene from Kenilworth. Elizabeth, when she discovers Amy Robsart in the grotto, attired as a nymph.

The next was Rebecca the Jewess, and Rowena. The scene was the one in which Rebecca presents the casket, and asks to see the face that had won Ivanhoe. No one could have been more completely Saxon than the Rowena, and the dress, and the lights, and the contrast with the dark Jewess, made her look very prettily; but the moment that the curtain was lifted, Harriet Ann burst into a silly, girlish giggle, and entirely spoiled the picture. The passionate Rebecca was so angry that she would not attempt the scene again, and Mrs. Markham with difficulty concealed her displeasure.

"That must have been Harriet Ann Gunn," said Beulah to Mrs. Whately.

"Very probably it was, from her behaviour," was the reply.

Several other tableaux followed, and were completely successful, delighting the young country-girl, whose love for the beautiful was