BORN at Bridge's Creek, Westmoreland County, Virginia, on the 22nd of February, 1732. DIED at Mount Vernon, December 14th, 1799. 'Against the insidious wiles of Foreign Influence, I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens, the jealousies of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that Foreign Influence is one of the most baneful foes of a Republican Government."- Washington's Farewell Address. Page 82. (Continued from page 31.) CHAPTER II. suming girls-wiled away the time at the piano, or in playing chess. Young Howard pored over the newspaper as usual, or arranged the worsteds for the fair Laura, who, anticipating some rainy days at the Springs, had brought her work with her. Miss Stanbrook, the life of the party, sometimes played or sung; read stories from the magazines; but oftener drew a charmed circle of adorers around her, while she expatiated upon the faults and follies of the "would-be" aristocracy. Miss Stanbrook was a wit, and she knew it; at the same time she determined that her light should not be hid under a bushel, but that others should see and appreciate it. Her sarcasms were readily laughed at so long as they touched not the amour propre of the individuals with whom she might be convers THE next day was a rainy one, and to most of the company this was a sad disappointment; so many pleasant excursions had been planned the night before; and now all must be given up, and they were to be confined to a dull hotel, and thrown upon their own resources for amusement. To those who loved quiet, reading, or rational conversation, time did not pass so heavily. Beaumont groaned in spirit that he could not display his horsemanship to the admiring eyes of Cornelia Stanbrook; Miss Lavinia Thompson declared she could not eat her breakfast without drinking one glass of mineral water directly from the spring ; and the Misses Beaumont could not keep their hair in curl, it was so dreadful damp. "Trifles lighting. All are ready enough to see the follies as air," are to fashionable belles serious evils, of their neighbors-few are sensible of their when coming in competition either with their own. whims or their vanity. Miss Mellen, the elder, reclined in an old arm-chair, reading, or pretending to read, an old volume of Bacon's Essays. She would not, on any account, be seen with any work in her hands that did not produce some philosophical reflections; and Miss Corrinna Mellen bent gracefully over "Sartor Resartus," though she acknowledged, that after reading it for the tenth time, she was still unable to comprehend its meaning. She “did wish that authors were more explicit! 'The doctor' had puzzled her enough-but Carlyle puzzled her more." And where was Miss Laurence? No one seemed to miss her; no one inquired for her except Frederick Howard, whose quick eye had detected her absence immediately after breakfast, and missed the bright happy face and the dark brilliant eye which had so charmed him the preceding evening. He ventured to inquire, though with a slight tinge of color and rather hesitating voice, of Cornelia, whether her young friend was indisposed, that they were not favored with her company. "No great favor to any one, I imagine,” replied Cornelia, "since Inez is always too much The Misses Lindsay-pretty, modest, unas- in the clouds to condescend, on such a dull |