Miranda or a Viola. The quiet and maiden neatness of the apartment gave
effect to the charm; and there was a poetry even in the snowy furniture
of the bed, the shutters partly unclosed and admitting a glimpse of the
silver moon, and the solitary lamp just contending with the purer ray of
the skies, and so throwing a mixed and softened light around the chamber.

She was yet gazing on the drawing, when a faint stream of music stole
through the air beneath her window, and it gradually rose till the sound
of a guitar became distinct and clear, suiting with, not disturbing, the
moonlit stillness of the night. The gallantry and romance of a former
day, though at the time of our story subsiding, were not quite dispelled;
and nightly serenades under the casements of a distinguished beauty were
by no means of unfrequent occurrence. But Lucy, as the music floated
upon her ear, blushed deeper and deeper, as if it had a dearer source to
her heart than ordinary gallantry; and raising herself on one arm from
her incumbent position, she leaned forward to catch the sound with a
greater and more unerring certainty.

After a prelude of some moments a clear and sweet voice accompanied the
instrument, and the words of the song were as follows:--

CLIFFORD'S SERENADE.

There is a world where every night
My spirit meets and walks with thine;
And hopes I dare not tell thee light,
Like stars of Love, that world of mine!

Sleep!--to the waking world my heart
Hath now, methinks, a stranger grown;