Two old men sat together over their wine on New-Year's eve. Two old men so different rarely sit in social converse; for one was tall, and his shoulders were broad, and his loud Ha! ha!' rang out merrily every now and then, and its healthy bloom was still upon his cheek: only the first frosts of life's winter whitened his abundant hair, and a cheery, good-humored light still beamed from his bright blue eye. The other, so pale and wrinkled, so bowed down, so humble in address, in utterance so feeble and indistinct that his companion turned his ear patiently toward him in good-natured close attention. Only a few scattering locks of gray were left to stray over his furrowed brow, and his dim, half-closed eyes, burrowing under the shaggy eye-brows, wandered listlessly over the table and the floor, while his words fell hurriedly and trembling from his tongue. The two were talking over the storms that had swept over the ocean of their lives; but while one spoke of tempests safely out-ridden, and rocks and shoals well 'scaped, the other told of long fruitless wanderings in far-off lands, under scorching suns, tormenting spirits urging him on, and vain, delusive hopes smiling in mockery before him.

'Come, come, Phil,' said his entertainer; you and I are too old now to mind much the raking up of old school-boy pranks. Pray, now, what high crime and misdemeanor, or what atrocious plot against the staid decorum of virtuous society was it that drove you forth into this wilderness of the world, where, in truth, you seem to have culled a goodly bundle of sage experiences: what was it, Phil, that sent you on your travels?'

Phil Hope's nervous mouth twitched more than ever, and his hand trembled as he raised his glass and shook half the contents out upon the marble table; but he took heart when the last drop was emptied

down his throat, and again the glass flowed with the dark-red wine, and again it was drained to the bottom.

Then Phil Hope's eye was raised till it met that of his employer, and it wavered a moment and wandered off along the frescoed walls, and over rich gilded frames of great mirrors, and back again till it fixed upon the Brussels carpet.

It is hard, Mr. Willard' he began thus, low and tremulously'hard to open one's lips so late in life to a secret they have kept so long locked up within them; but there is something within me now that drives me to confess against my will, and that tears my secret from me, though I hoped it should be buried in my grave.' And his voice grew husky, and once more the heavy decanter was clutched in his feverish grasp, and a third brimming glass followed the others down his throat.

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'I was far different, Mr. Willard, from what I am now, when I went to pass my summer vacation in a lovely village among the mountains of Massachusetts. They called me a handsome young man then' here a shadow of a smile flickered over his wan visage. .' and I was in much better repute for feats of agility and skill in the athletic games of college-life than for any proficiency in science or diligence in learning. With the last dying rattle of the chapel bell flew away all thoughts of study, and cramming my favorite volume into my pocket, and choosing out the safest resting-place on the coach-top for my rod and gun, I whirled out of the narrow valley. I found employment enough in the beautiful country I had chosen, and many were the dark secluded pools I sought out, buried deep in mountain glens, where the trout lay still and secure, or played coquettishly with the gurgling ripples that poured into the deep quiet basin, or went whirling round and round in wimpling eddies.

It was early one beautiful morning, when I was following up the coy wanderings of a new stream, brushing away the sparkling dew as I stole along, stepping lightly over broken twigs, and softly pushing aside obtruding branches that I might come unawares upon my game. I had just left the meadows behind me, and had plunged into the deep chasm between opposing crags, beyond which there stretched away a long narrow ravine that formed here and there deep shaded nooks, where the grass spread out in a bright green carpet, and many-colored mosses, clinging to fallen trees, and gathering thick upon the rough rocks, made a soft and gayly-variegated bed on which to repose the weary limbs. Just before me, carelessly reclining on one of these luxurious couches, just where the stream spread out over its gravelly bed into a shallow pellucid pond, lay a graceful female form. Noiselessly stealing, with a heart bent on mischief, over the softly-cushioned earth, I peered unseen over the shoulder. But, oh! how changed were my feelings then, when I caught a glimpse, through the glossy brown ringlets, of bright eyes that danced under the shade of long drooping lashes; of red lips that parted in hurried breathing, while the white bosom, half-revealed by the negligent morning-dress, heaved, panting with exereise, and the flush upon her cheek, and the sparkle in her eyes as the lids slowly opened, showed that she had only now flung herself to rest

upon her verdant bed. The white tapering arm reposed upon a little basket, and the fingers toyed languidly with a bunch of mountainflowers.

'Amazed, and forgetful of all else, there I stood, when, with a glance, her eyes met my stupid gaze, and with a slight, half-frightened scream she was bounding away before I could think to detain her. But in her haste she fell, and her little basket rolled away, and her flowers were scattered over the ground. Recovering myself, I sprang forward to her assistance, and helping her to re-gather her lost treasures, I addressed some little word of inquiry and reassurance, and we sat down with our flowers before us to talk over the many little secrets that lurked among their petals.

'Thus began my acquaintance with her I used to call my Annie, and many a sunny hour we passed together then, and many a lesson did I learn that my heart long cherished, though all are forgotten now. Would GOD she had never taught me them! Mr. Willard, I am an old man now, and years and care have done their work upon me, and words of love may seem like strange mockery coming from lips like mine; but I loved that girl, and when I went back to college halls I threw aside the many pursuits that had distracted my attention; pored hour after hour over dusty tomes; labored with might and main to gain distinction in my class, all that I might appear worthy in her eyes, and might hope soon to earn the hand she promised me. And I believed she loved me; she told me so; and soon I fought my way to a position in which I might offer her competence and a happy home her for whom alone I ever cared to call such mine.

'And when all was ready, I went back to that little village among the mountains, and told my love that I was ready now to claim her for my own; and she blushed, and put her hand in mine, and said it should be so, and the next month she would be my bride; so I left her, to prepare a home for her where every bright and pleasant thing might help to make her happy.

'And the day before the appointed wedding-day I stood at her cottage door, and knocking there, I was met on the threshold by a group of sad, affrighted faces, and they told me that the woman I loved had gone! fled with one, they said, a wealthy, soft-spoken villain, who with cunning words and well-told lies, and many hellish arts of gallantry, had stolen from me the heart of Annie; to whom she had sold, for a few words of glowing flattery, all that ever I loved, all that ever in my whole life I prized above life itself!'

As the old man's tale went on, his voice had lost its tremulous feebleness, and the eyes, that no longer fell upon the carpet, blazed under the lowering eye-brows with frightful passion. With a sweep of his hand he had pushed away the half-emptied glass, and his clinched fist in his vehement agony seemed to sink deep into the marble slab. The listener at first had leaned forward in his eagerness to catch every word; now he fell back into his chair, his fascinated eyes still following the unconscious speaker, and cold drops stood thick upon his forehead, and rolled down his cheeks in streams.

'I rushed madly from the door; no sound but one stunning buzz was

in my ears; no sight before my eyes but one black, impenetrable cloud. I had no thought but of some crushing evil that had befallen me, and so I fled away, and knew no more till I was hundreds of miles from land, and the fresh sea-breeze was blowing upon my cheek. For years, under an assumed name, I wandered: few climes are there where I have not been, few sorrows and privations that I have not felt since then. I am wrinkled and gray, and shattered in body and mind, and my life is stained with many sins. For all that I am, sordid, and implacable, and vindictive as I am, and dead to every human feeling - for all this am I indebted to her whom once I loved. And now hear an old man's curse!' and Phil Hope stood upright, with his trembling right hand raised to heaven, the baleful fire flashing from beneath his gray and shaggy brows, his pale cheek ghastly with unearthly passion, and the thin lips writhing and curling, and bloodless with revenge. And how in the terror-stricken face opposite was reflected back that deadly ashen hue, and the dropped jaw quivered in speechless horror, and the starting eye-balls rolled and glared in dumb affright! Tenfold for all the love that ever I bore her, for all the good that ever I wished her, for all the joy and gladness I ever hoped to share with her, upon her head, if she still lives, upon her children and her children's children return hatred and scorn, and evil untold, and sorrow, and dark, unpitying despair! May all the evil that ever I endured, all the torments that ever pursued me over the world's wide waste, all the deep passions and deep corroding suspicions that have preyed upon my life, may they follow down to the grave, without end, or one moment's sweet reprieve, Annie Leslie and her damned paramour. May

'Stop! In God's name, Philip Stanley, hold! Let fall your curses on the guilty head!' and Philip Stanley recoiled at the sight of his own livid face so faithfully rendered back, as the rich merchant stood with arms out-stretched before him: It was I, villain as you call me, that found out Annie Leslie, innocent and artless, in her native valley ; I that sought in vain to gain her heart. It was I that, after every art, and device, and intrigue were exhausted, sent, under another's name, a message of sickness and distress, to decoy her away to a lonely hut far off among the mountains; it was I that awaited there her coming, and dragged her away by force, under the cover of night and the dark shadow of the forest; I that snatched your betrothed from your arms and sent you a wandering outcast through the world! Annie Leslie escaped pure and unsullied from my clutches, and returned to her home to find her lover fled and soon she laid down her young head, covered with shame and sorrow, under the willow that weeps over her grave. I-I it was who did it all!'

Up and down!-up and down through the long parlors, like some goblin's tramp, echoed the halting footsteps; the lofty mirrors sent back to each other the image of that spectral face as it turned from one to the other; and long after the mid-night bell had struck, the watchman across the street gazed in wonder at the oft-returning profile of a downcast, aged face, that for a moment was drawn so distinctly upon the curtain, and then changed, and shifted, and faded away. And when the bright beams of the new year streamed far into the rooms,

and the master of the house with a heavy groan raised his gray head from the table, there on the rich carpet, under the glaring gas, lay Philip Stanley, cold and stiff in death !^.

There still, through the long last night of the year, tramps up and down an unequal, heavy step; and year after year, though his foot never stands upon its threshold, the owner of that stately dwelling starts when the last stroke of the old year has sounded, at the wellknown faltering foot-fall of the man whom he betrayed.