affected smile, “I perceive you have learnt the art of complimenting, since you came into France. But it is cruel to compliment children, since they mistake flattery for truth.” 

 Cavigni turned away his face for a moment, and then said with a studied air, “Whom then are we to compliment, madam? for it would be absurd to compliment a woman of refined understanding; she is above all praise.” As he finished the sentence he gave Emily a sly look, and the smile, that had lurked in his eye, stole forth. She perfectly understood it, and blushed for Madame Cheron, who replied, “You are perfectly right, signor, no woman of understanding can endure compliment.” 

 “I have heard Signor Montoni say,” rejoined Cavigni, “that he never knew but one woman who deserved it.” 

 “Well!” exclaimed Madame Cheron, with a short laugh, and a smile of unutterable complacency, “and who could she be?” 

 “O!” replied Cavigni, “it is impossible to mistake her, for certainly there is not more than one woman in the world, who has both the merit to deserve compliment and the wit to refuse it. Most women reverse the case entirely.” He looked again at Emily, who blushed deeper than before for her aunt, and turned from him with displeasure. 

 “Well, signor!” said Madame Cheron, “I protest you are a Frenchman; I never heard a foreigner say anything half so gallant as that!” 

 “True, madam,” said the Count, who had been some time silent, and with a low bow, “but the gallantry of the compliment had been utterly lost, but for the ingenuity that discovered the application.” 

 Madame Cheron did not perceive the meaning of this too satirical sentence, and she, therefore, escaped the pain, which Emily felt on her account. “O! here comes Signor Montoni himself,” said her aunt, “I protest I will tell him all the fine things you have been saying to me.” The Signor, however, passed at this moment into another walk. “Pray, who is it, that has so much engaged your friend this evening?” asked Madame Cheron, with an air of chagrin, “I have not seen him once.” 

 “He had a very particular engagement with the Marquis La Rivière,” replied Cavigni, “which has detained him, I perceive, till this moment, or he would have done himself the honour of paying his respects to you, madam, sooner, as he commissioned me to say. But, I know not how it is—your conversation is so fascinating—that it can charm even memory, I think, or I 

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