yacht was included in the perquisites of his office. In the course of a protracted cruise devoted to the inspection of sea-side resorts this useful little vessel came to anchor off New Brighton, and her proprietor, meeting friends at the Pavilion who revived memories of his sprightly youth, placed the yacht at their disposal.

Divers projects of marine entertainment were broached and maturely considered, but the plan which gained final sanction was a moonlight trip up the North River. A sumptuous banquet on deck was to be a pleasant feature of the voyage, and afterward music and dancing would while away the summer night.

Very naturally a fête of such promise was an event in our quiet circle-indeed, the ladies would talk of nothing else. Jack and I had just joined Mattie, who was chatting with Miss Sterling and the admiral, when a gracious dame, who had been deputed mistress of ceremonies, brought a list of invited guests.

"Of course, my dear, you are coming," she said to Mattie; "we would not miss you on any account, or your delightful sarcastic husband. Admiral Sterling we have secured already. By the way," she added, archly, naming a young gentleman who had shown devotion in a certain quarter, "if Miss Gerty has no objection I shall ask Mr. Hoffman to come over from Grimes' Hill."

With that she left us. Not a word to Jack, not so much as a nod of recognition. She had merely given him one languid absent glance. An awkward silence followed her departure, until the poor fellow, reddening violently, stammered some excuse, and walked away. Whether the lad's punishment proved in the end to be greater than he could bear will appear in the progress of this history, but there is no question what

ever that the next forty-eight hours were passed in sore affliction and remorse. I had fancied a reasonable amount of contrition might have a salutary effect, but I was shocked to discover in Jack's bearing the desperate abasement of one who has been crushed by irreparable calamity. After all, neither the loss of a water-party, nor the fierce prejudice he had lately conceived against that harmless Mr. Hoffman, was adequate to explain complete abstinence from meals, a strict avoidance of old friends, and a manner of comportment generally pertaining to the social outlaw.

On the afternoon appointed for the fête, Master Jack, prowling restlessly here and there, encountered Mattie and myself calmly seated on the piazza, watching the course of the pleasurefreighted yacht, whose black hull had already dwindled to a faint speck in the offing. A great wave of joy broke over his face.

"Why, Mattie, Hal-I thought!-how does it happen you are not out yonder?"

"You couldn't suppose I meant to go!" explained my wife, with affected carelessness, which, however, did not mask the sweetness of her bright smile, "You know the least motion makes me sick, and I'm far too wise a woman to risk such a perilous voyage. I'd much rather chat with you and Hal-provided you are very good."

Jack's eye was beaming.

"I might have known I had two good friends," he said.

"Two-what nonsense!" laughed Mattie, merrily; "you've hosts of them. Hasn't he, Gerty?"

He looked round wonderingly, and sure enough, there stood Miss Gerty, with a pretty blush on her soft cheek, as she put forth a hand timidly to welcome this knight forlorn.

Now at that time there existed upon Staten Island a restaurant, established for the use and behoof of certain opu

lent youth enrolled in a famous yachtclub, and many ladies and gentlemen, sojourners in the land, were wont to avail themselves of its culinary stores. Nothing would serve but our little party must straightway repair thither, where the magnificence of Jack's order (offering scope to the chef's genius) roused in my own breast a kindred enthusiasm. It has never been my lot to assist at a banquet more blithe and joyous than was that same little feast, and I can safely aver that no envy of our yachting friends' more splendid entertainment found harborage in our contented minds. In fact, Miss Gerty was heard to commiserate her grandsire's less fortunate fate, and express a hope that some one on board the vessel would look to the admiral's welfare.

"Don't distress yourself, my dear," said Mattie, mischievously; "I'm convinced Mr. Hoffman will take good care of him."

In my judgment, repose and a cigar form the correct sequel to a good dinner, but on this point I was overruled. Various schemes of further amusement were discussed, but it was ultimately voted against my indignant protest-for the ladies seemed to concede that Jack's whims must be indulged at any hazard -that a moonlight ride (provided horses fit for the saddle could be discovered) would agreeably round off the pleasures of the evening.

It was nine o'clock when my young friend, who had scoured the country in quest of steeds, returned to hold us to the letter of our agreement. But meantime our harvest - moon, thrusting aside a fleecy veil, had tinged the heights of Bergen with a mellow sheen and cast sheets of silver on the silent bay. Not a bend of the North-shore road but disclosed some new charm in the fairy landscape, and when to the joy of the eye was joined the exhilaration of swift motion, I could not refuse to exult with

my companions that Jack's will had prevailed.

There was an influence in the scene and hour which the soberest of men and matrons were not destined to face with absolute impunity. Beguiled by a tenderness in her accents to which of late years I am all unused, I found myself, unconsciously, drawn closer to Mattie's side, until at length her hand was prisoned in my own, and I would not swear-when we plunged into clumps of pine-trees dark and fragrant as Eve's nuptial bower-that I did not- -but what giddy youth or maiden will listen with decent sympathy to the cooings of a wedded pair?

That the younger comrades of our ride were content with more rational converse I do not doubt-if, indeed, they talked at all, for the considerable advance which their steeds maintained (being sometimes out of eye-shot) might signify exclusive devotion to that purely physical exercise which I take to be the legitimate object of moonlight, as of daylight, equestrians. The fact, however, that on the homeward route, when their elders led the way, those two as persistently lagged far behind, would seem to militate against that theory.

Once turned in a direction they approved, our horses fell into a brisk canter, and we were almost within sight of the house, when a shrill scream breaking the stillness of the night was instantly echoed by Mattie, who recognized her friend's voice. Riding back in haste and no little dismay, I came on Gerty, alone, moaning piteously and wringing her hands.

"Hal, go to him!" implored the girl, wildly; "he's thrown-he's killed! Jack, dear Jack, answer me!"

"All right!" replied a cheery voice, and Master Jack speedily appeared, leading a horse that limped painfully, and showed divers marks of punishment.

A heap of paving-stones flung down in the shadow of a hedge had checked the ardor of the poor brute, who, stumbling and falling heavily, was lucky to escape broken knees. My impression is that his heartless rider, having been near enough to catch Miss Sterling's ejaculations, by no means regretted the accident which had called them forth. I remarked that he walked by that young lady's side until he reached the hotel gates, keeping one hand on the pommel of the saddle, as if her personal safety had lately been seriously endangered.

Happening to look in Miss Gerty's face, when she had dismounted and was ascending the steps, I found the foolish girl's eyes suffused with tears, whereas the smile that played about her mouth seemed to betoken anything but sorrow. But my wife had intercepted my inquisitive glance, and cut short my observations by asking sharply, why I did not go and help Jack?

results which had so far flowed from Jack's ostracism, and forecasting a woful miscarriage of that notable scheme for his discomfiture.

Not many days after these occurrences the Sterlings took leave of the Pavilion, on which occasion I need not say we all attended them to the pier, to exchange final greetings. The admiral showed himself unexpectedly gracious, for besides marked civility to me he condescended to ask Jack to come and see him at his house in town.

There was a look in Miss Gerty's eyes which seconded the invitation, and when her lips moved (as she took Jack's hand) they shaped, unless I am mistaken, something very like

"N'oubliez pas !"

T2 ple

HE frequency with which the peoof the United States are agitated by public scandals in which women are prominent parties—sometimes, as in the Sickles, Cole, and BeecherTilton cases, attaining world-wide notoriety has suggested a fear in some minds that our nation is rapidly advancing to social demoralization and dissolution; and the apprehension is greater on account of the advocacy of doctrines hostile to our ancient laws and ideas about matrimony, and urged by those who in former times were kept in silence as well as subjection. But an examina

tion of history does not reveal any remarkable contrast between now and then in regard to the sexual relations. The profligacy does not belong exclusively to the present, nor the purity to the past. There have been changes, but they are mostly in the spread of education, the multiplication of daily newspapers, the facilities for transmitting news, and the habit of submitting every important question to public opinion. When the press was powerless, governments despotic, ignorance universal, and society composed of numerous grades in which the lower was at the mercy of all

above it, all kinds of wrong were worse than now, though there was not the same facility or motive for complaint.

The female is a common object of contention among the males in the brute creation. The herbivorous stag or the king of beasts will fight to the death for his feminine companion. She will frequently indicate her unwillingness to decide between competing claimants, and after they have settled the matter by battle, she goes off with the victor, with the satisfaction not only that she has the better of the rivals, and the consciousness that she is worth fighting for, but that she is secure against further annoyance, so far as security is obtainable. Settlements of a similar kind are also frequent in savage life, but they are not adapted to the circumstances of civilized society, in which the fighting often occurs after the woman has made her choice instead of before.

The first trouble caused by woman was that little affair in Eden, when Eve brought woe into the world by plucking and biting the apple from the tree of knowledge, and giving it to Adam, who, rather than separate from her, shared her sin and punishment. Whether men have accepted this account literally or metaphorically, they have never felt any resentment against Adam for his course. We all hate bigots, tyrants, and traitors, and indeed all who bring discredit or misery on our race; but the father of mankind, as depicted in Genesis, has our full sympathy, and no unpleasant association arises in our mind when we meet men named after him. Eve may have been actuated by a weak and childish curiosity, but Adam's motive was devoted courage, and an attachment to her defying all adverse consequences. He appreciated his prize and paid well to preserve it. Between staying in Eden without the knowledge of good and evil and being turned out with it was a hard choice, but Adam's decision is satisfac

tory. It was better that he should be driven from Paradise with woman than to stay there without her. It seems hard that for his own gratification he should bring upon all his countless descendants condemnation to an irresistible tendency to sin, for that is implied in the orthodox doctrine of human depravity; but when we think that the original sinlessness of the men could, after Eve's sin, only have been preserved by perpetual separation from the women, we applaud Adam's decision.

It is vain for us to speculate about the fate of the chosen people or the development of religion, if Potiphar had not been a married man. He had a wife, and one result of Joseph's conduct toward her was that the Israelites went to Egypt. But for her, the Hebrew boy would not have been imprisoned, nor would he have been called upon to interpret Pharaoh's dream, nor would he have become a high official of the state, nor would he have brought his relatives from Canaan, nor would they have crossed the sea and the desert under the leadership of Moses. Of all the personages in ancient Jewish history, without the help of any special inspiration, Joseph shows the strongest character, and under difficult circumstances reached the highest success. To his influence, more than to that of any other man, the early organization and education of the Hebrew nation are to be credited. Later times have no parallel to his career. It may be worthy of remark, that, even among the Catholics, who attach an exceptional value to chastity, Peter, who denied his master, is venerated much more than Joseph, who denied his mistress.

In legendary and historical Greece, women were not passed without notice. Herodotus, in beginning his great rec ord of the struggle between Hellas and Persia, explains that the antagonism between his race and the Asiatics was of