younger were seated by a cage of rare foreign birds from the golden isles of Canary, half-caressing, half-teasing them—the two elder were standing beneath the verandah, seemingly in earnest discourse. It was easy to recognise in the tallest the original of the bust; but either the look she bent on the young sculptor was not such as she often wore, or else he had given its softness from his own heart, for scorn was native to those features, and disdain familiar to her keen and falcon-like eyes.
"Ah, no!" said her sister, a fair, timid-looking girl, who though in reality the elder by two years, yet appeared the junior; "I should like a home like a nest, in some quiet valley. Do you remember the fairy tale of the two lovers, who, surrounded by enemies, were saved from the terrible giant who, pursued the princess, by being turned into doves? How happily must they have dwelt in the greenwood together!"
"Yes; hunting for worms or barleycorns, hatching their eggs, and trembling at every schoolboy that came near. Give me the vest glittering with jewels; the high place at the tournament, the gaze of every knight turned upon me, till even he who fought against the one wearing my colours, felt, as he laid lance in rest, that the strife was
