226 THE RANUNCULUS. 



beamed there spoke cheer to me ; yet I felt that 

 she was like one of the withering Ranunculus', 

 ready to sink before the next rude breath of air. 



At the window of our rural parlour, sat the fond 

 parent of this fading blossom ; and as I marked the 

 watchful gaze of an eye suffused in tears, following 

 every step of his child, I felt more than ever that 

 something must be wrong ; and my heart grew sad, 

 to think that a creature, as lovely as my flowers, 

 should be equally transient in her bloom. Our 

 abode was in a very open, yet retired spot ; and 

 its air was considered very salubrious for the sink 

 ing Lauretta. Frequently did her father drive up 

 to our gate in his pony-chaise ; and being himself 

 too much afflicted, by some rheumatic complaint, 

 to walk, he took his post at that pleasant window, 

 fronting the western sky ; while I led his feeble 

 charge to inhale the breath of flowers, and to bask 

 in the slanting rays of an orb that was soon to set 

 for ever, to her. She went to the tomb before that 

 summer had shed its latest glow ; and her father 

 survived her but a short time. Their forms soon 

 melted awav in the undefined vagueness of days 

 long since past ; but on a sweet evening, when the 

 retiring sun-beams glance on a bed of Ranunculus', 

 I often behold the vision of Lauretta and her father, 

 surrounded by the scenes that memory will then 

 call up, in all the vivid reality that makes the pre- 

 sent appear as a dream. 



