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"There is nothing that could be more to my mind, dear aunt I would rather have the necklace, than twice its money's worth Thank you, aunt You always knohat is in a young girl's heart"

"First, listen to what I say No woman of our family has escaped calamity of some kind, if they owned these beads My mother lost her husband the year she received thearde lost her fortune as soon as they were hers As for myself, on the very day they became mine your Uncle Jacobus sailed away, and he has never come back Are you not afraid of such fatality?"

"No, I as just happen that way What power can a few beads have over human life or happiness? To say so, to think so, is foolishness"

"I know not Yet I have heard that both pearls and opals have the power to attract to themselves the ill fortune of their wearers If they happen to be ood; but would you wish to inherit the evil fortune of all the women who have possessed before you?"

"Poor pearls! It is they who are the unfortunates"

"Yes, but a time comes when they have taken all of row black and die, really die Yes, indeed! I have seen dead pearls And if the necklace were of opals, when that tirow ashy grey, fall apart and beco but dust"

"Do you believe such tales, aunt? I do not And your pearls are yet as white as ht I do not fear theers at such fables"

"Give them to you, I will not, Arenta; but you may take thehted to take theed for you, for what is another's yearns for its owner"

Then madame left the rooht And a little shiver crept through her heart and she closed the lid quickly and said irritably-"It isdark and doubtful things However, the pearls are mine at last!" and she carried the back her head as if they were round her white throat and--as was her way--spreading herself as she went

All fine weddings are much alike It was only in such accidentals as costus of to-day There was the saayly attired wouished by diplonia:--the same low flutter of silk, and stir of whispered words, and suppressed excite the streets and around the church to watch the advent of the bride and bridegroouests had seen theirl in white as if they expected an entirely different person The murmur of pleasure, the indefinable stir of human emotion, the sole two one, the triumphant peal of ratulation--all these things were present then, as now And then, as now, all these things failed to conceal from sensitive uised with the scent of bridal flowers--that iirlhood upon the altar of an unknown and an untried love