away? The red sunset sank behind the dark olive-green of the hills; a pale, clear twilight took its place and shone over those mystic ruins that were the object of many a thought and many a pilgrimage in the far past and forgotten years; then the stars began to glimmer as the distant shores and the sea grew dark; a wonderful radiance rose behind the low hills; across the waters of the Sound came a belt of quivering light as the white moon sailed slowly up into the sky. There was an odor of new-mown hay in the night air. Far away they could hear the murmuring of the waves around the rocks. They did not speak a word as they walked along to those solemn ruins overlooking the sea, that were now a mass of mysterious shadow except where the eastern walls and the tower were touched by the silvery light that had just come into the heavens.-Macleod of Dare.

COMPENSATION.

FRANCES RIDLEY HAVERGAL.

Оn, the compensating springs! Oh, the balance-wheels of life,
Hidden away in the workings under the seeming strife!
Slowing the fret and the friction, weighting the whirl and the force,
Evolving the truest power from each unconscious source.

How shall we gauge the whole, who can only guess a part?
How can we read the life when we cannot spell the heart?

How shall we measure another, we who can never know
From the juttings above the surface, the depth of the vein below?

Even our present way is known to ourselves alone,
Height and abyss and torrent, flower and thorn and stone;
But we gaze on another's path as a far-off mountain scene,
Scanning the outlined hills, but never the valcs between.

The easy path in the lowland hath little of grand or new,

But a toilsome ascent leads onward to a wide and glorious view;
Peopled and warm is the valley, lonely and chill the height;

But the peak that is nearer the storm-cloud is nearer the stars of light.

Launch on the foaming stream that bears you along like a dart,— There is danger of rapid and rock, there is tension of muscle and heart;

Glide on the easy current, monotonous, calm and slow,

You are spared the quiver and strain in the safe and quiet flow.

For rapture of love is linked with the pain or fear of loss,
And the hand that takes the crown must ache with many a cross;
Yet he who hath never a conflict, hath never a victor's palm,
And only the toilers know the sweetness of rest and calm.

Ah, if we knew it all we surely should understand

That the balance of joy and sorrow is held with an even hand;
That the scale of success or loss shall never overflow,

And that compensation is twined with the lot of high and low.

THE SERVICE OF ART.

GEORGE ELIOT.

KLESMER made his most deferential bow in the wide doorway of the antechamber. Gwendolen met him with unusual gravity, and holding out her hand, said, "It is most kind of you to come, Herr Klesmer. I hope you have not thought me presumptuous."

"I took your wish as a command that did me honor," said Klesmer with answering gravity.

Gwendolen for once was under too great a strain of feeling to remember formalities. She continued standing near the piano, and Klesmer took his stand at the other end of

it with his back to the light and his terribly omniscient eyes upon her. No affectation was of use, and she began without delay.

We have lost all

“I wish to consult you, Herr Klesmer. our fortune; we have nothing. I must get my own bread and I desire to provide for my mother, so as to save her from any hardship. The only way I can think of-aud I should like it better than anything-is to be an actress, to go on the stage. But of course I should like to take a high position, and I thought-if you thought I could,"-here Gwendolen became a little more nervous" it would be better for me to be a singer-to study singing also."

Klesmer put his hat on the piano, and folded his arms as if to concentrate himself.

"I know," Gwendolen resumed, that my method of singing is very defective; but I have been ill-taught. I could be better taught; I could study. And you will understand my wish; to sing and act too, like Grisi, is a much higher position. Naturally I should wish to take as high a rank as I can. And I can rely on your judgment. I am sure you will tell me the truth."

Gwendolen somehow had the conviction that, now she made this serious appeal, the truth would be favorable. Still Klesmer did not speak. He was filled with compassion for this girl. Presently he said, with gentle, though quick utterance, "You have never seen anything, I think, of artists and their lives? I mean of musicians, actors, artists kind ?"

of any

"Oh, no," said Gwendolen, unperturbed by a reference to this obvious fact in the history of a young lady hitherto well provided for.

"You have probably not thought of an artistic career till now; you did not entertain the notion, the longing

what shall I say?—you did not wish yourself an actress or anything of that sort, till the present trouble?"

"Not exactly, but I was fond of acting. I have acted; you saw me, if you remember, in charades," said Gwendolen really fearing that Klesmer had forgotten.

"Yes, yes," he answered quickly, "I remember perfectly."

66

He walked to the other end of the room.

Gwendolen

felt that she was being weighed. The delay was unpleasant. "I shall be very much obliged to you for taking the trouble to give me your advice, whatever it may be," she said gracefully.

"Miss Harleth," said Klesmer turning towards her, and speaking with a slight increase of accent, "I should reckon myself guilty if I put a false visage on things-made them too black or too white. The gods have a curse for him who willingly tells another the wrong road. You are a 'beautiful young lady. You have been brought up in ease. You have not said to yourself, 'I must know this exactly;' 'I must understand this exactly;' I must do this exactly'." In uttering these three terrible musts, Klesmer lifted up three long fingers in succession. "You have not been called upon to be anything but a charming young lady with whom it is impossible to find fault. Well, then, with that preparation, you wish to try the life of the artist; a life of arduous, unceasing work, and-uncertain praise. Your praise would have to be earned like your bread; both would come slowly, scantily-what do I say?-they might hardly come at all.”

This tone of discouragement which Klesmer half hoped might suffice without anything more unpleasant, roused some resistance in Gwendolen. With an air of pique she said, "I thought that you, being an artist, would consider

the life one of the most honorable and delightful. And if I can do nothing better? I suppose that I can put up with the same risks that other people do?"

"Do nothing better!" said Klesmer, a little fired. "No, my dear Miss Harleth, you could do nothing betterneither man nor woman could do any better-if you could do what was best or good of its kind. I am not decrying the life of the true artist. I am exalting it. I say it is out of reach of any but choice organizations-natures framed to love perfection and to labor for it; ready, like all true lovers, to endure, to wait, to say, 'I am not yet worthy, but she-Art, my mistress-is worthy and I will live to merit her.' An honorable life? Yes, but the honor comes from the inward vocation and the hard-won achievement; there is no honor in donning the life as a livery."

"I am quite prepared to bear hardships at first," she said. "Of course no one can become celebrated all at

once."

"My dear Miss Harleth," he replied, "you have not yet conceived what excellence is. You must know what you have to strive for, and then you must subdue your mind and body to unbroken discipline. Now what sort of issue might be fairly expected from all this self-denial? You would ask that. It is right that your eyes should be open to it. I will tell you truthfully. The issue would be uncertain and-most probably-would not be worth much."

Gwendolen's dread of showing weakness urged her to self-control.

"You think I want talent, or am too old to begin."

"Yes! The desire and training should have begun years ago. Any great achievement in acting or in music grows with the growth. Whenever an artist has been able to say, 'I came, I saw, I conquered,' it has been at the end of