"Helen, if you love me, you will not speak to that man." "But I don't love you," answered Helen angrily: "I hate you; and, if you go on like this, I shall begin to love that handsome young officer-I shall!" "Oh, Helen!" But Poor Fred said this in real agony. Helen was by this time too angry herself to heed his pain. At this moment the officer was passing by; and Helen addressed him and made her request. The officer took off his hat, bowed very low, and looked at Helen. He thought he had never seen such a lovely face before. He was fairly dazzled, and for a while seemed struck dumb. (0 the tortures which poor Randal went through during those few moments!) At length a sweet smile came over his stern face. "Mademoiselle," he said in French, "I shall be delighted to do my best. My orders are to let none but the nobility pass this way but such beauty as yours would grace the highest courts in Europe." "May I trespass on your goodness still further, by requesting you to get us a good place?" "Glad to do my best, mademoiselle." "A thousand thanks, monsieur." Poor Randal's cup of wretchedness seemed full. What could he do? Nothing but bow to his fate. The officer ordered the sledge to move on, and rode by its side, talking politely to Helen all the time. "You are English, I presume, mademoiselle?" he said. "Yes, monsieur: at least, Scotch." "Ah, I thought so: such beauty is bred nowhere but in the great Anglo-Saxon stock. Will mademoiselle allow me to ask the name of the gentleman who is so happy as to possess such a daughter?" "My father is M. Cameron of Pea Street." The officer took a card out of his breast-coat pocket, and (taking off his hat) presented it to Helen, who read the words: "Captain Ma leenovsky, Life Guards." "What a beautiful name!" she thought. Poor Frederick Randal! "I shall do myself the honour of waiting on you at your father's house," said Captain Maleenovsky, "and ripening the acquaintance thus happily begun. That is to say, if mademoiselle has no objection ?" "None whatever, monsieur: I shall be de lighted to see you; and my father will have the opportunity of thanking you for your kindness and courtesy." "Pray don't speak of thanks, mademoiselle." They had now reached the Neva; and Captain Maleenovsky placed Helen in a capital spot for seeing all that was to be seen. Then, to Randal's great relief, he retired to look after his duties; but, alas, to Randal's dismay, he soon returned, and began to point out to Helen distinguished men and women in the crowd. At this moment Helen noticed a gorgeously apparelled gentleman staring at her. Well, I daresay he, like many others, was dazzled by her beauty. But there were few who would have winked at her so unblushingly. She asked Captain Maleenovsky who he was. Fred, who did not relish the intimacy which seemed to be springing up between the young officer and Helen, begged the latter to hold her tongue. Captain Maleenovsky looked at Fred for a moment in a way which made the Englishman's blood boil, and quietly answered that it was the great Prince Boriatinsky. CHAPTER III. TO GO, OR NOT TO GO. "I prefer the golden mean Obloquy and scorn attend." CowPER: Poems. FROM what you have as yet seen of Helen, you may think she is not worth further notice. A mere beauty; a shallow, heartless coquette ! Well, even if this were my estimate of my heroine, I should not throw her away as worthless. I think that the lowest form of human life is worth studying; that, if we are wise ourselves, we may gather wisdom even from a shallow, heartless coquette. Still, if this had been my estimate of Helen Cameron, I should not have chosen her for my heroine. I believe that behind that outer crust of coquettishness there was hidden a true womanly nature which might yet come out. My faith in the ennobling discipline of life is so strong, that I do not despair of being able to say in time: "Look on this picture and on that!” I have seen a grub change into a chrysalis, and that into a butterfly so I have foolishly mourned over many a girl who has seemed to me light and frivolous, till the years have rolled by, and the sanctities. of love and wifehood and motherhood have turned her into a right glorious woman. Have patience, then, with Helen Cameron. Moreover, I believe there are few girls, placed as Helen was, who would not have fallen into the same mistakes. She had no mother to train her; no brothers and sisters to draw her out of herself, and teach her the rights and claims of others. She was beautiful beyond the common, and had early become "the observed of all observers." Wherever she went, there were plenty of young men to flatter her, and make her believe that she was a goddess on earth, to whom every one must bow. Her father and Miss Meldrum, by letting her have her own way in nearly everything, had strengthened this belief; or, rather, had laid the foundation, on which said foolish young men had only reared the superstructure. In spite of the intellectual training she had received, and the many accomplishments she could boast of, she was still, in the highest sense, a wild animal; an untamed child of |