"because we really were talking on a very interesting subject-we were discussing you."

"Oh, my dear Charles!" exclaimed the lady, you flatter me; and what did he say of me?" said she, addressing me.

"That," said I, "I cannot tell you: I never betray anything that is told me in confidence."

Her looks explained that she was particularly glad to hear me say so, and the smile which followed was gracious in the extreme.

"Now," said Charles, "that you have thus strangely found your way here, I hope we shall see you often."

"And I hope so, too," said Mrs. Franklin; "I really believe sometimes that things which we blind mortals call chance are preördained. I was not coming by the coach in which I met you, nor should I have been in it, if the other coach had not been full, and then

"I should have lost the pleasure," said I, "of seeing an old friend enjoying the delights of domestic happiness."

Here Fanny gave me a look expressive of the perfect misery of her condition; and Charles, whose back was turned towards us at the instant, in coming up the room again, while her back was turned to him, made a sort of face, something between the sorrowful and the grotesque, which I shall never forget, but which indicated, most

unequivocally, what his feelings on the subject

were.

Shortly after this the happy pair began to be so excessively kind and tender to each other that I thought it was quite time to beat a retreat, and accordingly took my leave, earnestly pressed by both parties to repeat my visit as often as I could, and to let them see as much of me as possible. I returned them my warmest thanks for their kindness, but named no day for my return, and wished them good night.

I have not been there since. I called, indeed, once, and Charles called on me, but I have been little in London during the last season, and they have been much in the country. I could not have equitably maintained an intimacy with them, for I felt neutrality would be quite out of the question; thus, although the recurrence of my old friendship with Charles Franklin has been productive of no very satisfactory results as relate to ourselves personally, it has given me an additional light in my path through the world, and now, whenever I see a picture of perfect happiness presented to my eyes, affection on one side and devotion on the other, assiduity met by kindness, and solicitude repaid with smiles, instead of feeling my heart glow with rapture at the beautiful scene before me, I instantly recollect that I once travelled to London in the BRIGHTON COACH.

THE STOLEN PIECE OF LINEN.

BY S. A.

WE all may remember the wonderful stir and bustle excited in Ireland a few short years ago on the subject of Irish manufactures: much was talked and very much promised, and some present employment and temporary relief followed this ephemeral revival of industry; but like another more recent and happier movement, it soon became suspected of bearing a political tendency; the vain-glorious boasted, the narrowhearted trembled, as each imagined the effort intended to coerce English influence and cripple English resources; and vain and ridiculous as the idea may now appear, there were not wanting shrewd heads to calculate the amount of injury to be inflicted on our elder sister by rejecting the work of her hands for the sake of the manufactures of the Emerald Isle.

It were needless now to expatiate on the absurdity of an idea which soon lost its most sanguine supporters; and yet when we look back on this effort, we cannot but regret that its untrained and desultory energy should have collapsed into

lifelessness, into nearly a total abandonment of individual exertion in home manufacture; that Irish men and women should be tempted by the gay colors and low prices of the flimsy articles which are now brought within the reach of the remotest, within the means of the poorest, and have superseded the coarser but far more-enduring fabrics, the stout, tough bandle-linen, the warm, rain-defying frieze, and the bright-green or scarlet stuff-petticoat, which formed the clothing of the peasantry, and gave life, interest, and occupation to the hours of the female portion of the community in our younger days.

Our younger days,-not alone amongst the peasantry, but high up into the better ranks in those good old times, spread the ambition of producing and using home manufactures; and deficient indeed would that lady be deemed in the then necessary arts of housekeeping, however else excelling, who could not at the end of the year exhibit in many a needful article, the varied produce of spinning-wheel and loom; and thus, by example as well as precept, encourage her dependants to do likewise.

It was our fortune, in the days we allude to, to spend some time with a kind and valued relative, who, in addition to many an acquirement, many an endowment of heart and mind, added yet more that distinguishing trait of a "virtuous woman,"

"she sought wool and flax, and worked willingly with her hands." The day of our arrival was marked by another hardly less interesting: a piece of fine linen, which had for months, in its various stages, engaged the time and attention of the family, had just been brought home from the weaver, and was unanimously pronounced in excellence surpassing any piece which had ever come or gone before.

A family council was held as to its destination and distribution; each member's wants and claims discussed; many an unreasonable demand, laughingly or saucily made by the junior aspirants, just as good-humoredly met or rejected by the kind distributor, until at length all was fairly settled to the satisfaction of all concerned. But then another discussion arose ; the younger ones were for sending their property at once to the public bleach-green, where alone, they contended, it could be properly whitened and dressed for use; but the sage and experienced mother made an eloquent speech in favor of home-bleaching, brought many an instance of pieces injured and soon wearing out, spoke darkly of vitriol and other deleterious processes, and finally wound up. her objections by mentioning the fact of a papermill having been lately established by the proprietors of the bleach-green, for no other purpose, she argued, than to take advantage of the pulp