“That portion of the eye, generally of a pearly whiteness, in hers was tinted with a light shade of blue, like the bloom on a purple grape, or the sky seen through the morning mist.  Her mouth was harmony and love; her face was small and oval, with a wavy outline of ineffable grace descending to her smooth and unruffled neck, thence swelling at her bosom, which was high, and just developing into form.  Her limbs were long, full, and rounded, her motion was quick, but not springy, light as a zephyr.  As she then stood canopied beneath the dense shade of that sacred Hindoo tree, with its drooping foliage hanging in clusters round her, in every clasped and sensitive leaf of which a fairy is said to dwell, I fancied she was their queen, and must have dropped from one of the leaves, to gambol and wanton among the flowers below.  Running to her, I caught her in my arms, and said, ’I watched your fall, and have you now, dear sprite, and will keep you here!’—­pressing her to my bosom.

“‘Oh, put me down!  You hurt me,—­I have not fallen,—­oh, let me go!’

“’Will you promise then not to take flight to your leafy dwelling, in that your fairy kingdom-tree?’

“‘What do you mean?  Oh, let me go,—­you’ll crush me!’

“I gently placed her on the ground, and told her my fears.  The instant I unclutched her, she ran to her old attendant, scared like a young leveret; and this was my first embrace of my Arab maid.

“That it may not be considered I exaggerate, when speaking of the Arabs in India generally, I must refer the reader to what a recent, learned, and unprejudiced traveller says of them:  ’The Arabs are numerous in India; their comparative fairness, their fine, bony, and muscular figures, their noble countenances, and picturesque dress, intelligent, bold, and active,’ &c.

“Zela’s father was all this, and her mother a celebrated beauty brought from the Georgian Caucasus, and twice made captive by the chance of war.  After giving birth to Zela, she looked, and saw her own image in her child, blessed it, and yielded up her mortality.  Is it to be marvelled at, that the offspring of such parents was as I have described, or rather what I have attempted to describe?  For I am little skilled in words, or words are insufficient to represent what the eye sees, and the heart feels.”

We must return to these very attractive volumes.

* * * * *

THE GATHERER.

* * * * *

A Mistake.—­In consequence of some transposition by which an announcement of the decease of a country clergyman had got inserted amongst the announcements of the marriages in a country paper a few days since, the announcement read thus:  “Married the Rev. ——­, curate of ——­, to the great regret of all his parishioners, by whom he was universally beloved.  The poor will long have cause to lament the unhappy event.”