Ye joys, for which the race of Europe pine, Ah! not for me your studied grandeur pour, Let me where yon tall cliffs are rudely piled, Where towers the palm amidst the mountain trees, Where pendant from the steep, with graces wild, The blue liana floats upon the breeze, Still haunt those bold recesses, Nature's child, Where thy majestic charms my spirit seize!

But the thought of his father's coldness, all thoughts that troubled and confused, were forgotten on his entry into Pestitz, in the eager hope of seeing Liana, his beloved, and his friend, her brother, Charles Roquairol; for neither his beloved nor her brother had he ever yet in his life beheld.

The love and the friendship were of the imagination, and the imagination was begotten of the accounts given by Von Falterle, the accomplishments-master of Albano in the village of Blümenbuhl, and of his former pupil Liana, daughter of the Minister von Froulay.

It was his wont to paste up long altar-pieces of Liana's charms, charms which her father had sought to enhance by means of delicate and almost meagre fare, by shutting up his orangery, whose window he seldom lifted off from this flower of a milder climeuntil she had become a tender creature of pastil-dust, which the gusts of fate and monsoons of climate could almost blow to pieces.

In Albano's silent heart, therefore, there was to be seen a saintly image of Liana, the ascending Raphael's Mary, but, like the pictures of the saints in Passion-week, hanging behind a veil.

When Albano entered Pestitz, eager that his dreams of love and friendship should be realised, the aged Prince of Hohenfliess had just departed this life, and Liana, intimate friend of the Princess Julienne, daughter of the dead prince, was smitten with temporary blindness, due to emotion and consequent headache.

Albano's dream was fulfilled; he loved Liana in realty as he had loved her in imagination.

On a glorious evening Albano and Liana stood on a sloping mountain-ridge; overhead was a heaven filled with a life-intoxicated, tumultuous creation, as the sun-god stalked away over his evening-world.

He seized Liana's hands and pressed them wildly to his breast; flames and tears suffused his eyes and his cheeks, and he stammered, "Liana, I love thee!" She stepped back, and drew her white veil over her face.

Liana folded her hands as if in prayer; then she raised the veil, looked at him tenderly, and said, in a low tone, "I will love thee, good Albano, if I do not make thee miserable.

Liana was in sore trouble.

The minister's lady detested Bouverot, but in desiring separation between Liana and Albano, she was her husband's ally.

The princess looked curiously at her, for Liana exactly resembled the princess's younger sister, the philanthropic Idoine, who devoted herself to the idyllic happiness of her peasantry in the Arcadian village that it was her whim to rule.

To the aged and saintly court chaplain, Spener, Liana at last brought her perplexities.

"Farewell, unhappy Liana!

At length he learned that Liana had recovered her sight, and that she was dying.

Liana's fingers ceased to play; she lay peaceful and smiling, but dead.

Would the Princess Idoine, Liana's likeness, appear before Albano as a vision and give him peace?

" As eight o'clock struck, Albano knelt in the dusk, crying, "Peace, peace!" Idoine trembled as she heard him; but she entered, clothed in white, the image of the dead Liana.

He made himself ready for a journey to France, and ere he set forth he sought out the little spot of earth, beneath a linden-tree, where reposed the gentle Liana, the friendly, lovely angel of peace.

Suddenly, with a shudder, he beheld the white form of Liana herself leaning against the linden.

Art thou Liana?" Quickly the white form looked round, and saw the youth.

"I only weep," she innocently said, "that I am not Liana.

Here, near such altar-lights, had once the oppressed Liana knelt while swearing the renunciation of her love.

After the solemn service, Idoine addressed herself to him oftener; her sweet voice was more tender, though more tremulous; her maidenly shyness of the resemblance to Liana seemed conquered or forgotten.