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“So, Miss Maria, you have just returned from paying another visit to your beautiful little friend without any heart.”

“My little friend without any heart! Of whom do you speak? and what do you mean!”

“I speak of Miss Charlotte Henley, the nun,–she who has all of heaven about her but its love–that brilliant casket without its jewels–that woman– yes, that YOUNG woman without any heart.”

“Upon my word, sir, this is a very pretty poem you have been reciting! but in my opinion, your conclusion is wrong. As she refused to give you her heart, it is the more probable that she has it yet in that brilliant casket you speak of–“

“No–she never had one. She wants the greatest charm that nature can give to a woman–a warm, grateful, and affectionate heart.”

“And pray, sir,” said Maria, bending her eyes inquisitively toward the youth, “if she want it, what has she done with it!”

“She never had one, Miss Osgood. I will grant you that she is lovely, exquisitely lovely! pure, gentle, amiable, every epithet you may wish to apply, that indicates nothing but acquired excellence: but as to natural feelings, she is as cold as an icicle–in short she is destitute of HEART–the thing of all others I most prize in a woman, and for which I admire you so much.”

Maria laughed, but she coloured also. It had long been obvious to herself, and to the world too, that Delafield sought her society, now that he was not admitted at Mr. Henley’s, much more than that of my other young woman in the city; but she thought that she well understood the secret reason for this preference, though the world might not. How gratifying this speech was to the feelings of the gay girl, the sequel of our tale must show. The young man however did not judge her too favourably, when he supposed her to possess those kindred sensations that unite us with our fellow- beings, and he might have added a good deal of generosity to the catalogue of her virtues. After a pause of a moment she replied–

“I suppose I must thank you, Delafield, for the pretty compliment you have just paid me, but I am so unused to this sort of thing, that I really feel as bashful as sweet fifteen, though I am at mature twenty.”

“That is because you DO feel, Miss Osgood; I might have said as much to Charlotte Henley without exciting the least emotion in her, or of even bringing one tinge of that bright blush over her features which makes you look so handsome.”

“Mercy! mercy! have mercy, I entreat you,” cried Maria, averting her face, “or I shall soon be as red as the cook. But I cannot, I will not consent to hear my friend traduced in such a manner; so far from wanting feeling, Charlotte Henley is all heart. To use your own language,” she added, turning her eyes towards him archly, “it is for her heart that I most love her.”

“You deceive yourself. Early attachment, and long association, and your own generous, warm feelings deceive you. She is accustomed to show gentle and kind civilities to all around her, and you mistake habit for affection.”

“She is accustomed to do all that, I own; but to do it in a manner that adds to its value by her simple unaffected feelings. She is not, I must acknowledge, like certain people of my acquaintance, a bundle of tinder to take fire at every spark that approaches, but she loves all she should love, and I fear she loves one too well that she should not love.”

“Love one that she should not love?” cried Delafield: “what, is her heart then engaged to another! Is it possible that Miss Henley, the cold, prudish Miss Henley, can indulge an improper attachment after all?”

“Mr. Delafield,” said Miss Osgood, gravely, “I am not apt to betray what I ought to conceal, although I am the giddy creature that I seem. But I have spoken unguardedly, and must explain: in the first place, I would not have you suppose that Charlotte Henley and I talk of our hearts and our lovers to each other, like two girls at a boarding school. If I know that she has such a thing as a heart at all, it is not from herself but from my own observation; and as for lovers, though she may have had dozens for any thing I know, to ME they are absolutely strangers.–Don’t interrupt me, I am not begging one. After this explanation I will say, trusting, Delafield entirely in your honour, which I do believe you to possess in a high–“