-her soul sickens for want of food: it has been panting and yearning for some guidance to instruct it to a conclusion of what the next room beholds. Food there is none, and the wearied spirit can no longer hold out against the faintness and atrophy that is upon it. A moment, and she sinks to earth.

But a sound, a strange, stirring, spirit-stirring sound is heard; -the long-looked-for nourishment is come. Is it too late?a moment must decide. It hurries over her soul, which may be pictured as the sail that impels the graceful structure of her body. For an instant the fabric stoops, as the long hull of the ship gives way when first she feels her sails filling with the unexpected gale; but, as with that hull, the impression is but momentary. She rights-she rights,-Madeline is herself! and another moment conveys her to the chamber where Albert's fate has been decided.

A wondrous sight awaits her there. She enters tottering to the middle of the apartment; but her eye is steady-most steady, fixed, and resolute,-for no one but her brother does it see. There is a strange hue over his countenance-a strange light gleaming in his eyes-strange but gentle drops of blood trickle from his ears, which contract and expand as if under the movements of some new dilatation of the organ.

66

Albert, my brother!" cried the wonder-stricken girl, "what mean these involuntary movements ?"

"Can it be ?" said he; "oh, may it indeed be! My sister speaks, and I am able to track her soft, silky sounds stealing on some new sensation within my brain: it is human music, and tells me I am no longer an outcast from my fellows of the crea→ tion !"

Before a moment elapsed, the Orphans of Unwalden were fast locked in each other's arms; and Albert declared a thousand times that day, that if aught could have enhanced his joy at having his faculties established in their full rights, it was that the first information of that establishment was told in the sweet tones of his sister's voice.

"

CHAPTER XV.

But soon the eyes rendered the ears their right;
For such strange harmony he seem'd to hear,
That all his senses flock'd into his ear,
And every faculty wish'd to be seated there.

SPENSER.

I know him for a villain; one that hath lost
All feeling of humanity,-one that hates
Goodness in others 'cause he's ill himself.

MASSINGER.

Now, indeed, it seemed as if Albert's cup of joy was full as heart could wish. He no longer sat in mournful silence among the gay of spirit, and looked wistfully on their curling lips and dimpling cheeks, which told him they were pushing mirth to its height, and enjoying its mazy rounds: no longer an interloper, he was one of the party, and had his share in

Quips and cranks, and wanton wiles,
Nods, and becks, and wreathed smiles,
Such as hang on Hebe's cheek,

And love to live in dimple sleek;
Sport that wrinkled Care derides,

And Laughter holding both his sides.

His sensations were those of another being, or rather of the same being transported into an entirely new scene of action. His heart, night and day, bounded within him for excess of joy; and, in the plenitude of his delight, sleep was too tame an attendant to be allowed to touch his eyelids with her forgetful salye. When the shades of night were on the earth, and others addressed themselves to slumber, Albert would throw himself carelessly on his couch, and scan, with wakeful fancy, his soul's one thought, imbibing fresh draughts of pleasure from the mere consideration of the mighty change that one half hour had produced within him.

"Oh, my new-gained sense!" thus would he commune with

himself; "how cheaply prized till found! how dearly valued now I know thy excellence! fond fool that I was to dreamto idly dream that I was made acquainted with the world's delights; when the sweetest, the tenderest, and the heartiest of its pleasures were beyond my apprehension! In my ignorance fain would I have turned philosopher, and formed an abstract picture of what this faculty was capable of presenting. How poor the image, how feeble the portraiture! Oh, how unlike the truth was the warmest painting of my soul! With what foolish fancy did I make it this or that, something I could touch, --something I could taste, -something I could see,—or mixture undefined of all this triad, but no more like this Godappointed sense of hearing than the foul-shaped block of the savage resembles the awful presence of a world's Creator. Already I feel the greatness of my change-now I stand a man ; then I lay couchant, but a senseless moveable, with no earno capacity for soft sounds, that now come breathing over me, as fairy's whisper to the moonlight of a summer eve. Methought I knew my sister, and loved her; but oh, how poor was my estimate of her beauties! Her soul-breathing eye I could see; her grace-abounding steps I could watch; her soft and living skin, more delicate than dew that has kissed the rose, I could touch, and I loved her. But what is my feeling now that I can add to all these a perception of her chiefest excellence? What are her eye, her steps, or her fair tapering hand, to her voice, that comes like gentle drops of manna on my ear, and even, when gone, leaves a lingering vibration behind that still holds possession of my very brain! Yes, I did but love her then; now my whole existence adores her; my whole faculties, and I speak it not profanely, are prone to worship her! De Mara, too, how wrongly have I judged him! His look, that seemed to threaten and forbid; and his carriage, that pained me by its haughty bearing, are forgotten in the accents of his manly voice; each tone that comes from him bears dignity in its impress; and Nature, as well as birth, in the tongue of eloquence she has bestowed, seems to have intended to ennoble him. I will learn to think better of this man, for never could sounds of such persuasion come from a heart that was naught.” Such were the expressions in which Albert indulged in the fulness of his joy; but the delight of Madeline was scarcely less

than his own. It seemed as if she had now, for the first time, a real brother given to her; and she felt that, in persuading him to submit to this happy operation, she had in some degree made up the loss he had sustained through her quarrel with Seaton. She sat hour after hour proving his new-born sense, and weened that she could never tire in marking the progress of its apprehension.

Even De Mara was interested in the scene, which had succeeded almost beyond his hopes. He had never wished any positive mischief to the youth; all he had desired was to render him a non-entity in the prosecution of his suit with the sister. The more he considered the probable results of this new-found faculty, the more he thought it likely it would lead the possessor into a new course of thought and a fresh train of action; and, therefore, it was no wise contrary to his nature that he should rejoice in the result that had been brought about, and attend to its earlier development with a feeling of interest.

A debate just at this time occurred between De Mara and his companions, as to the comparative pretensions of music and eloquence to influence the heart of man. Madeline and Albert were present; De Mara was the champion of eloquence. At length Maravelli, who had taken the opposite side, abruptly exclaimed "Well, well, I will not dispute with you any longer, but the result will prove that I am right. There is a grand concert to be given this evening. Let us adjourn to it, and you shall soon see how its magic sound will attract Albert within its influence.

"I have no objection to that," cried De Mara; "and, after all, it is the only fair way of putting the question with respect to the individual. Only remember, if it should turn out that Albert's present vacuum is supplied by music, I by no means allow that it proves its superiority over eloquence.

One subject only will one genius fit.

And, therefore, though our young friend may be satisfied with music, still the majority would yield the palm to eloquence and poetry. At all events, I shall rejoice at the trial, and still more shall I rejoice if the experiment answers the proposed

effect; for I long to see his active and zealous mind suited with a pursuit that shall pour into it all those wonderful delights which so peculiarly belong to the intellectual nature of man."

"And I too shall rejoice beyond expression," cried the affectionate sister; "I want to see my Albert under music's influence; for I cannot doubt, but that a soul so tender, so affectionate, and so overflowing with nature's purest kindliness, will find in the soft tones of harmony the food for which it pines."

Albert, who had listened with the deepest attention to all that had passed, likewise joined in the proposition: the Chevalier, however, seemed desirous of carrying his triumph over Maravelli still further, but he was interrupted by Madeline.

"Come," cried she, "if you are not afraid of refutation, it is time for you to drop your theory, that we may give practice an opportunity of illustration. The church has long since chimed six, and we shall be too late for the concert if we do not break up this learned conclave and adjourn to the assemblyrooms."

The hint was received in good part by the company, and every body rose to make themselves ready for the movement. Little preparation was sufficient; and as the distance was but short, and the night fine, it was agreed to walk. Each had a companion save Albert-the Count, ever ready to engross to himself the attention of Madeline, placed himself by her side, and led the way: Maravelli, Altoz, and Valdi followed, deep in conversation, as the former was still unwilling to give up the thread of that argument into which he had entered so spiritedly. Each had a companion save Albert; but if he was alone, it was a spirit of self-exclusion that induced it. Huge masses of mental food had been offered to him in the course of the conversation that had been carried on, and he wanted the opportunity to digest its substance. It was the first time that he had been introduced to anything like the encounter of wits, and the setting of one man's thoughts against another; and he was, as it were, confounded between the conflicting testimony that the one or the other had brought forward to support his view of the subject. Nor was this all. His mind had been much excited;—it was natural that it should have been; for