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ring-were acquired at the sale of the effects of a distant relative of mine. Three fine emeralds for a hundred and eighty! That was good, you'll own! Eve, I have truly had my money's worth of pleasure out of them, first and last. I have seen them flashing and glowing on the breast of the woman I love. Don't give me the agony of having them returned to me! I see you are trying to take them off now! Put down your hands! Eve, my darling Eve, don't give them back to me; wear them, throw them away if you must, but if you return them it will, I believe, break my heart!

MRS. GRIEVE (putting down her hands): I will

marry you.

VIOLET HUNT.

MARRIAGE IN TWO MOODS,

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Love that's loved from day to day
Loves itself into decay:

He that eats one daily fruit
Shrivels hunger at the root.
Daily pleasure grows a task;
Daily smiles become a mask.
Daily growth of unpruned strength
Expands to feebleness at length.
Daily increase thronging fast
Must devour itself at last.

Daily shining, even content,
Would with itself grow discontent;
And the Sun's life witnesseth

Daily dying is not death.

So Love loved from day to day
Loves itself into decay.

Love to daily uses wed
Shall be sweetly perfected.
Life by repetition grows
Unto its appointed close:

Day to day fulfils the year;

Shall not Love by Love wax dear?

All piles by repetition rise;

Shall not then Loves' edifice?

Shall not Love too learn his writ,

Like Wisdom, by repeating it?
By the oft-repeated use

All perfections gain their thews;
And so, with daily uses wed,
Love, too, shall be perfected.

FRANCIS THOMPSON.