FLORAL CONVERSATION. 
5r 
charms in our Adiantum Capillus-veneris, when compared 
with the maiden-hair of Venus’s self. 
The ball was nearly over. The carriage-lamps of the 
departing guests were gleaming amid our ancient oaks, as 
though some of the planets had come down to earth, and 
my own special lamps, within their bright pictorial cases, 
were also beginning to take their departure, when, as I re 
tired to my ambuscade, on hearing voices, the guardsmar 
with Lady Alice on his arm, approached, and stopper' 
close in front of it. I saw them through the leaves, the 
handsomest man and the most beautiful woman of all who 
met there that night. It was not only that they were both 
tall and graceful in figure, with features regular and re¬ 
fined, the eyes bright, and the cheeks glowing with all the 
healthfulness and hopefulness of youth ; but there was in 
both faces that which I would term heart-beauty ; there 
was goodness, gentleness, and truth. And yet as “ these 
two, a maiden and a youth, stood there, gazing,” or seem¬ 
ing to gaze, upon an orange tree covered with its blossoms, 
I noticed upon both the expression of a strange and sad 
perplexity. For a while they were silent, and then the 
soldier said : “I am going in a few hours. I must speak 
to you. Would you — would you exchange those ” (and 
