I could give her a scroll in her hand, and that would do for the allegory." Miss Blanchard colored; the compliment might be ironical; and there was ever afterwards a reflection of her uncertainty in her opinion of Roderick's genius.

Mr.Leavenworth responded that with all deference to Miss Blanchard's beauty, he desired something colder, more monumental, more impersonal.

"If I were to be the happy possessor of a likeness of Miss Blanchard," he added, "I should prefer to have it in no factitious disguise!" Roderick consented to entertain the proposal, and while they were discussing it, Rowland had a little talk with the fair artist.

"Who is your friend ?" he asked.
"A very worthy man.

The architect of his own fortune--which is magnificent.