It was already quite dark when the carriage, with its four horses, stopped in front of the portico of the Palace of Olgogrod. Whilst the footman was opening the door on one side, a beggar soliciting alms appeared at the other, where Anielka was seated. Happy to perform a good action, as she crossed the threshold of her new home, she gave him some money; but the man, instead of thanking her, returned her bounty with a savage laugh, at the same time scowling at her in the fiercest manner from beneath his thick and shaggy brows. The strangeness of this circumstance sensibly affected Anielka, and clouded her happiness. Leon soothed and re-assured her. In the arms of her beloved husband, she forgot all but the happiness of being the idol of his affections.

On Saturday, the 1st of March, a dinner was given to Mr. Macready, by his friends and admirers, on his retirement from the stage. In consequence of the eager demand for admissions, the Hall of Commerce was engaged for the occasion, and upwards of six hundred tickets were issued. The chair was occupied by Sir E. Bulwer Lytton, who, in giving the toast "Health, happiness, and long life to William Macready,'' paid a tribute equally just and eloquent to his merits as an artist and a man. Mr. Macready, in his reply, made some excellent remarks on the duties of an actor, and on the subject of his management of the two great theatres (to which the chairman had alluded) he said:—Of my direction of the two patent theatres, on which my friend has so kindly dilated, I wish to say but little. The preamble of their patents recites, as a condition of their grant, that the theatres shall be instituted for the promotion of virtue and to be instructive to the human race. I think these are the words. I can only say that it was my ambition, to the best of my ability, to obey that injunction; and believing in the principle that property has its duties as well as its rights, I conceived that the proprietors should have co-operated with me. They thought otherwise, and I was reluctantly compelled to relinquish, on disadvantageous terms, my half-achieved enterprise. Others will take up this uncompleted work, and if inquiry were set on foot for one best qualified to undertake the task, I should seek him in the theatre which by eight years' labour he has, from the most degraded condition, raised high in public estimation, not only as regards the intelligence and respectability of his audiences, but by the learned and tasteful spirit of his productions." It is hardly necessary, to say, that Mr. Phelps, of Sadler's Wells, was the object of this just and graceful compliment.—Mr. C. Dickens in giving the health of Sir E. Bulwer Lytton, took occasion to make an interesting communication. He had (he said) the very strongest reason at this time to bear his testimony to Sir Bulwer Lytton's great consideration for evils which were sometimes attendant upon literature, though not upon him; for, in conjunction with some others who were present, he (Mr. Dickens) had just embarked with their chairman in a design for smoothing the rugged way of young labourers both in literature and the fine arts, and for cheering, but by no eleemosynary means, the declining years of meritorious age. If that project prospered, as he believed it would, and as he knew it ought to do, it would be an honour to England, where there was now a reproach upon her, and it would have originated in the sympathy and consideration of their chairman, having been first brought into practical operation by the unstinted gift of his intellect and labour, and endowed from its very cradle by his munificent generosity.—Mr. John Forster, who gave the toast of  "Dramatic Literature," said that he had been entrusted with a few lines of poetry, addressed to their distinguished guest, by the poet laureate Alfred Tennyson, with permission to read them. Being loudly called upon to do so, Mr. Forster read the following Sonnet:

This was the third time that Madame de Montespan had practised this unworthy manœuvre, unknown to the sorrowful favourite, who, as her insidious rival well knew, would believe the infidelity of the King, only on the testimony of his precious gift.

Some time since, Lord Seymour purchased the Gate House, in the High Street, Totness, at a cost of about £1000, presented it to the inhabitants, fitly furnished for a Mechanics' Institute, library, and reading-room. The principal residents of all parties and sects acknowledged the gift, on the 2nd inst., by a public dinner to the donor.

An address from the working men of Southampton was then presented. It was acknowledged by M. Kossuth with a tribute of admiration to our working men—"those men who by that great gift of God, industry, have raised their country to be the living wonder of the world."

It was very imprudent of M. Adolphe to make this declaration to a girl lying on the outskirts of a bad fever, when a very small excitement would have thrown her back into the danger from which she had just escaped. But with all his goodness—and he was dearly good—M. Adolphe was both impetuous and unreflecting, and had never accustomed himself to command an impulse, whatever it might be. However, he did not work much mischief; for Marie's happiness buoyed her up over the dangerous excitement; and, although she suffered from a temporary

Glad! His previous resolutions, his determination to owe nothing to her pitying love, all faded in the unequalled happiness of that hour, nor ever returned to cloud the life which Mary's devotion rendered henceforth blessed.

"And now, Margaret," continued Horace, "you know how dear you are to me. You know that your happiness will be my chief care, and to honour and cherish you my joy as well as my duty." Margaret's thin hands closed convulsively on each other; she bent nearer to him unconsciously—her head almost on his shoulder. "You know how much I have loved you and our fairy child there, and how this love has gradually closed round the very roots of my heart, till now I can scarcely distinguish it from my life, and would not esteem my life without it. Tell me, Margaret, you consent to my prayer. That you consent to deliver up to my keeping your very heart and soul, the treasure of your love and the passion of your life. Will you make me so blessed, Margaret,—dearest Margaret?"

The new publications of the past month, in which the interest of the war has been all-absorbing, have comprised—two small volumes on Painting and Celebrated Painters, founded on a similar work by a French writer, but adapted as a guide to the principal foreign masters in our National Gallery, by Lady Jervis White Jervis; a volume by Mr. E. Sullivan, The Bungalow and the Tent, descriptive of a visit to Ceylon; an abridgment from the French, by Mr. Bayle St. John, of Travels of an Arab Merchant; a volume of collected Dramas by Tom Taylor and Charles Reade; an annotated edition by Mr. Bell, of the Poems of Waller; a volume of sermons, by Mr. Maurice, on the Doctrine of Sacrifice; a poem in celebration of the happiness of married life, the Angel in the House; the Pocket- Book for 1855, issued by Mr. Punch; a publication, also from the collection of Mr. Punch, of some six hundred Pictures of Life and Character, by Mr. Leech, which belong to the class of pictures you read rather than see, as Charles Lamb said of Hogarth's; a volume translated and edited by Lord Ellesmere for the Hakluyt Society, History of the Two Tartar Conquerors of China, with an introduction by Mr. R. H. Major; a republication of magazine papers, Recollections of Literary Characters and Celebrated Places, by Mrs. Thomson; a volume of Haps and Mishaps in Europe, in which Miss Grace Greenwood describes what she saw and how she was entertained, as a visitor from America; a volume, by Doctor Doran, of what may be called sartorial literature, full of all kinds of pleasant anecdotes relating to tailors and their craft, Habits and Men; a learned disquisition, by Mr. Wheeler, on the Geography of Herodotus; two London Directories for 1855, Mr. Kelly's and Mr. Watkins's; a volume by Professor Ferrier, of Institutes of Metaphysic, the theory of knowing and being; a second volume of Mr. Cunningham's annotated edition of Johnson's Lives of the Poets; a description, published in Mr. Bailliere's Ethnological Library, of the Native Races of the Russian Empire, by Dr. Latham; a religious fancy, or phantasy, by Mr. J. A. St. John, called Philosophy at the Foot of the Cross; a translation of a Muscovite story, Home Life in Russia, satirising the corruption of government employés; a story in two volumes, Heart's Ease, by the author of the 'Heir of Redclyffe,' and three novels, each in three volumes, May and December by Mrs. Hubback, Herbert Lake by the author of 'Anne Dysart,' and the Curate of Overton; a small but sterling collection, by Miss Birbeck, of Rural and Historical Gleanings from Eastern Europe; a new edition, with notes by Dr. Irvine, of Selden's Table Talk; a volume on Theatres and other Remains in Crete, by Edward Falkener; a course of University Lectures on Population and Capital, delivered by Mr. Rickards at Oxford; the literary journal, or diary of the readings, of an accomplished English scholar, the author of the "Fasti Helleniei," entitled Literary Remains of Henry Fynes Clinton; a volume containing the substance of the Croonian lectures on Medical Testimony and Evidence in Cases of Lunacy, by Doctor Thomas Mayo; a new and improved edition of Mr. M'Culloch's Geographical, Statistical, and Historical Dictionary; a Commonplace Book of Thoughts, Memories, and Fancies, original and selected, by Mrs. Jameson; several cheap editions of novels, poems, and histories, in the Libraries of Messrs. Bohn and Routledge; a volume of Leaves from the Diary of an Officer in the Guards, descriptive of the Peninsular Battles; a volume on The War by Mr. Macqueen, in which the Russian view of the Eastern question is advocated; a collection of Historic Notes on the Books of the Old and New Testaments, by Samuel Sharpe; some gift-books for Christmas, among which are the Keepsake, the Court Album, and illustrated editions of Longfellow's Golden Legend and Scott's Marmion; a Manual of Mercantile Law, by Mr. Leone Levi; two handsomely illustrated volumes, by Mr. William Osburn, on the Monumental History of Egypt: a new volume of Selections, Grave and Gay, from the published and unpublished writings of Mr. De Quincey; several Children's Books, by Messrs. Grant and Griffith; an introductory Text-Book of Geology by Mr. David Page; a republication of a series of papers from 'Frazer's Magazine,' by Mr. Badham, with the title of Prose Halieutics, or Ancient and Modern Fish Tattle; Mr. Knight's British Almanac and Companion for 1855; a second series of the Romance of the Forum, or stories of celebrated trials, by Mr. Peter Burke; an account of Giotto and his Works in Padua, by Mr. Ruskin, written to accompany the outlines published by the Arundel Society; and a volume on Our Camp in Turkey and the Way to it, by Mrs. Young.

The Duke of Cambridge (respecting the state of whose health the most exaggerated accounts have been published) arrived at Constantinople on the 27th of November, from the Crimea. His Royal Highness was somewhat better, but still far from having recovered his health. He put up at Missirie's Hotel, with his aides- de-camp, Major Macdonald and Captain Clifton. While the Duke was with the army, he shared all the dangers and hardships of his division. In the camp of Sebastopol he slept in a bell tent, lived chiefly on his rations, and carried as little baggage as the youngest of his officers. He had but one suit of clothes, and when part of them required mending he had to lie in bed, until the tailor had done the job. On the 20th September, and the 5th November, he was in the thick of the fight, of which he bears honourable marks. Before he left for Constantinople, he wrote from on board the Retribution, in Balaklava harbour, the following letter of thanks to Colonel Reynardson, left in command of the Brigade of Guards: "I am personally most grateful to both officers and men for their noble conduct in the battle of Inkermann, and I feel confident their services will be duly appreciated by the country and the army. Where all distinguished themselves so much, it were wrong even if it were possible to name any one in particular. Most deeply do I deplore the heavy loss the Brigade sustained: but the victory gained has been most important, and the enemy himself sustained a loss he will not easily forget. I wish you all health and happiness during my period of absence from you." It is stated that his Royal Highness is so much recovered as to be able to return to the Crimea.

In the middle, they heard Dixon's foot on the stairs. Mr. Hale started from his languid posture in his great arm-chair, from which he had been watching his children in a dreamy way, as if they were acting some drama of happiness, which it was pretty to look at, but which was distinct from reality, and in which he had no part. He stood up, and faced the door, showing such a strange, sudden anxiety to conceal Frederick from the sight of any person entering, even though it were the faithful Dixon, that a shiver came over Margaret's heart; it reminded her of the new fear in their lives. She caught at Frederick's arm, and clutched it tight, while a stern thought compressed her brows, and caused her to set her teeth. And yet they knew it was only Dixon's measured tread. They heard her walk the length of the passage,—into the kitchen. Margaret rose up.

I tried to force some trifle on them as a gift, but they would have none of my coin. Seeing then that I looked somewhat disappointed, the little man, like a profound diplomatist as he was, smoothed away the difficulty in a moment.

"I have six ships upon the sea, and six caravans coming to me across the desert, and my shop is full, and my warehouses overflow, and my coffers are replenished, and there shall be no maiden in Cairo whose happiness shall be as great as thine; princes will ask her hand in marriage on account of her dowry, but I will not grant her save to one who shall be perfect in virtue and in science."

"Possibly!" I answered, " but about the flowers you are mistaken, ma'am, they are mine; Mr. Warden laid them where you saw them,—I had not touched them when you came in." I did not stay to see the effect of my words, but went up to my own room. There I put my treasures lovingly in water, and then sat by them thinking, and my heart softened as it had not done for many a day. I felt so grateful to Harold! Any way, it was so kind—so thoughtful to bring such lovely flowers for me! In my heart I was always most deeply grateful to him; but I do not remember that I ever thought of being so to Heaven for any of my happiness, and so my very gratitude grew to be a pain to me and a bane to him.

"A GREAT gift, a great gift you ask me for, Master Paul!" said the old man, sternly, turning away his head.

"Ralph, Ralph, do not look at me so sternly! There is no light of love in those cold eyes. If you will not indeed take this money as a gift from me—you said you loved me fondly, you know—then—take me with it, and it will be yours altogether!" Her head dropped on my knees, and a torrent of tears burst over them. One long kiss, and I raised her up; placing her on the seat beside me. I would not give way to all that I felt, nor make too sure of my happiness till I had told her all.

I was delighted to discover that iron does not enter alone into the souls and composition of the Lambeth-Marsh Mulcibers. The softer influences of kindness, brotherhood, and hearty good fellowship reign amongst them. Their hearts, and their rough hands too, are open when Charity makes her appeal. Not long before my visit, there had been a public meeting held in the fitting-shop, the occasion of which arose out of one such appeal; indirectly, but silently and spontaneously, made. A subscription had been entered into, and there was to be a presentation; not one of those fulsome ceremonies at which the donors flatter and soap and puff the recipient, in order that the recipient may return money's worth in more flattery and puffery and soft sawder, to the donors; but a hearty, unstudied tribute to worth in misfortune. The gift was neither a silver épergne servilely laid at the feet of a partner (the heads of the firm were ignorant of the proceedings until after they had taken place); nor a gold watch and appendages given to a popular foreman, nor any such compliment. It was a sensible live present, with long ears and four legs. In short, it was a Donkey.