does not offer me his hand, and with it the means to supply tastes that I
fear are terribly extravagant,'--since thus you allowed me to divine your
natural objects, and upon that understanding our intimacy has been
founded, you will pardon me for saying that the admiration you excite
amongst these grands seigneurs I have named only serves to defeat your
own purpose, and scare away admirers less brilliant, but more in earnest.
Most of these gentlemen are unfortunately married; and they who are not
belong to those members of our aristocracy who, in marriage, seek more
than beauty and wit,--namely, connections to strengthen their political
station, or wealth to redeem a mortgage and sustain a title."

"My dear Mr. Leslie," replied the marchesa,--and a certain sadness might
be detected in the tone of the voice and the droop of the eye,--"I have
lived long enough in the real world to appreciate the baseness and the
falsehood of most of those sentiments which take the noblest names.
I see through the hearts of the admirers you parade before me, and know
that not one of them would shelter with his ermine the woman to whom he
talks of his heart. Ah," continued Beatrice, with a softness of which
she was unconscious, but which might have been extremely dangerous to
youth less steeled and self-guarded than was Randal Leslie's,--"ah, I am
less ambitious than you suppose. I have dreamed of a friend, a
companion, a protector, with feelings still fresh, undebased by the low
round of vulgar dissipation and mean pleasures,--of a heart so new, that
it might restore my own to what it was in its happy spring. I have seen
in your country some marriages, the mere contemplation of which has
filled my eyes with delicious tears. I have learned in England to know
the value of home. And with such a heart as I describe, and such a home,
I could forget that I ever knew a less pure ambition."

"This language does not surprise me," said Randal; "yet it does not