could not resist the vanity of detailing every word and action of her lover, as a triumphant evidence that Britannia was not, in reality, superior to herself in personal attractions.

The perfect shout of laughter that followed this exposé of her first flirtation, convinced Musidora in an instant of the ridicule she had brought down upon herself from her want of knowledge of the world, and tears of mortification streamed down her face, until at last her step-mother's very learned, witty brother, who happened to be there on a visit, pitying her wounded pride, came to her relief and defended her from the unbounded ridicule of the family, and declared that he was himself charmed with her frankness. Indeed, Musidora's soul was so ingenuous, her heart so sincere, so right-minded, so at variance with everything that could seem to disagree with its natural elevation, that she had no thought of guile in allowing her admirer to kiss her childish cheek, or grasp her hand, or steal one of her countless curling locks of hair, and realized more a feeling of gratitude in being at last appreciated, thar in any passionate complacency at making a conquest of a lover; so that when Britannia took her into the room to upbraid her imprudence for a whole mortal hour, Musidora felt as guiltless as an angel. Indeed, throughout life her mind was too pure to be contaminated with the sinuosities of fashionable, heartless flirtation, and to all her lovers, after this her first experience of courtship, she maintained unequivocal frankness and naturalness of conduct, and never realized the ambition of making conquests for the mere gratification of coquettish vanity.

From this day henceforward, Britannia took upon herself to lecture her for every word she said in company, which, of course, was very irritating to Musidora, as it was done with such a seeming, holier-thanthou-spirit, and from one, too, who had been placed above her all her life by the family; and who, indeed, was the only being she was jealous of in the whole world, for this peace-destroying passion had been germinated in Musidora's heart only through the odious comparisons that were always indulged in by her brothers, Halcombe and Edward, for she was too selfrespecting ever to condescend to envy the generality of her companions, for her genius was altogether superior to theirs, and she knew it.

The learned Virulan observes, "that diseases arising from emptiness, are generally the most dangerous, and the most hardly cured;" "and amongst the diseases of the mind, envy, grounded upon domestic penury, is certainly of the same nature; especially where a neighboring opulence shows what the remedy is, but not how it may be had; like the thirst of Tantalus, where the desired object was near enough and yet out of reach too."..." And in such a case envy will be sure to work and boil up to a more than ordinary height, while the envious person frets, and raves, and swells at the plenties and affluence of his abounding neighbor, and is even ready to burst with another's fulness."

Musidora, now launched into the responsibilities of life, found daily causes of humiliation to her pride, for the extent of her educational acquirements was comprised in the fact that she could read, write, spell, and

cipher. She, therefore, determined, on this foundation, to educate herself; but how was she to commence without books? She finally went to her dead mother's learned friend, the before-mentioned Mrs. Heyward, and entreated the use of her library, together with her general instructions as to what books she should read; and this princely old lady generously promised to instruct her, conversationally, one hour whenever she found it convenient to visit her. Musidora borrowed the best grammars and unabridged dictionaries, and geographies, and maps, and histories; and her delight in acquiring knowledge often made her resigned to the narrow-mindedness and malevolence of the judgments of those around her.

Where the mind is fixed on the love of knowledge, the impediments in its way often appear to operate as a stimulant to acquisition. Musidora progressed rapidly in every element she studied. The principles of syntax, definitions, etymology, and pronunciation, were all readily mastered, and she soon became an adept in the higher rules and classical applications of the language, by closely listening to the pronunciations and intonations of the learned clergymen in their pulpits, and the conversations of highly accomplished scholars whom it was her good fortune sometimes to be thrown into juxtaposition with, in her visits to her patronizing learned old friend, the said Mrs. Heyward. Every minister and every orator thus became to her a professor of pronunciation and a teacher of eloquence; and when this foundation in elementary knowledge was laid, geography, history, moral didactics, literature and poetry melted away before the noble

art of reading. But of all helps in her vigorous efforts at self-education, her visits and literary hours with Mrs. Heyward were the most efficacious and improving, for she here corrected, enlarged, and consolidated her studies. No woman ever possessed more brilliant powers of conversation than Mrs. Heyward; her sparkling sallies of wit, her biting sarcasm her absolutely fearless and whole-souled expressions of opinion about men and things, from the time of the Revolution. up to the present day-made a visit to White Hall a faithful daguerrotype on the memory of the young of their country's history. This lady had accumulated one of the largest English libraries in the State of South Carolina. Her reading was of the most extensive and appreciative character, and there was no subject that this library did not furnish ample means of investigating. She was particularly versed in English and American history, having herself lived through the vital era of the American Revolution and Indian warfare, and she would sometimes digress in this direction, giving local anecdotes of that most unequal contest with the fleets and armies of the greatest military power on earth, at a time that our whole population. numbered only three million souls.

Musidora drank in these draughts of knowledge from the lives of the mighty dead, whose works live after them, with delight; and she finally became the standard in Beaufort District in all questions relating to book-knowledge. Mrs. Heyward's majestic intellect rose superior to all envy and jealousy of her sex, and she delighted to tell of the heroism of the ladies of all ranks of society during the Revolutionary War;

for she regarded the women of South Carolina as the most chivalrous, frank, patriotic, adhesive in their sentiments and attachments, refined in their manners, and courageous in the expression of their opinions, of any women in the world; though they never dispute about women's rights, nor aspire to any more power in the country than the highest civilization, religion, and chivalry has and always will secure to them. Many of the ladies moving in the highest circles in Charleston, South Carolina, possess the whole-souled piety of a Lady Huntington or Mrs. Fletcher; for their religion is eliminated from the Bible, and not from any of the isms that intoxicate the strong-minded women of the Northern cities. Consequently, they go about doing good, as opportunity offers, to the people around their own doors; believing that if they take the beam out of their own eye first, they will then be enabled to see more clearly how to remove the mote from the eye of their brothers and sisters in the Northern States.

In South Carolina there are no noisy philanthropists or self-adoring progressionists—indeed, there is so little of the fashionable enterprise of the present times there, that not one couple, it is believed, since the first settlement of the State, has ever been divorced there by law. A sensitive lady would abhor even the idea of having two living husbands, or eloping with a coachman or pretty young overseer. But perhaps this oldfashioned, orthodox refinement and non-progressiveness has been adhered to through their never having heard of a higher law than that which they pledged themselves to abide by when they took the matrimonial Vow. And surely the Bible sustains them; for Jesus