Tes ROMANCE OF A WATER-LILY.

PART I.
A FAIRY’S LOVE.

HE shades of evening fell softly upon the valley

of the Rhérie. Where the river made many

marshy islets, creeping towards the lake, a veil of

grey vapour lay lightly above the meadows, and the

tall poplars stood as ghostly sentinels against the

black rock-precipices that rise from the western
shore.

But upon the distant glaciers of Mont Blanc the
setting sun left a fiery rosiness still, and the little
village of Aigremont, far up on the sunny slope of
the fertile eastern shore, was mellow yet in the linger-
ing sunlight and the merry rest of eventide.