truth he was sorely puzzled how to approach the theme that engaged him. "I want your aid; I want your woman's wit to help me in a difficulty. Here's what it is, Dolly,' and he sat down again at her side, and took her hand in his own. "Tell me, Dolly," said he, suddenly, "is it true, as I have read somewhere, that a woman, after having made a man in love with her, will boast that she is not in the least bound to requite his affection if she satisfies herself that she has elevated him in his ambition, given a higher spring to his hope, made him, in fact, something better and nobler than his own uninspired nature had ever taught him to be? I'm not sure that I have said what I meant to say; but you'll be able to guess what I intend."

"You mean, perhaps, will a woman accept a man's love as a means of serving him without any intention of returning it?"

Perhaps he did not like the fashion in which she put his question, for he did not answer, save by a nod.

"I say yes; such a thing is possible, and might happen readily enough if great difference of station separated them."

"Do you mean, if one was rich and the other poor?"

"Not exactly; because inequalities of fortune may exist between persons of equal condition."

"In which case," said he, hurriedly, "you would not call their stations unequal, would you?"

"That would depend on how far wealth contributed to the habits of the wealthier. Some people are so accustomed to affluence, it is so much the accompaniment of their daily lives, that the world has for them but one aspect."

"Like our neighbours here, the Lyles, for instance?" said he.

Dolly gave a slight start, like a sudden pang of pain, and grew deadly pale. She drew away her hand at the same time, and passed it across her brow.

"Slightly: it is seldom quite free of pain. You have chosen a poor guide, Tony, when there is a question of the habits of fine folk. Ñone know so little of their ways as I do. But surely you do not need guidance. Surely you are well capable of understanding them in all their moods."

With all her attempts to appear calm and composed, her lip shook and her cheeks trembled as she spoke; and Tony, more struck by her looks than her words, passed his arm around her, and said, in a kind and affectionate voice, "I see you are not well, my own dear Dolly; and that I ought not to come here troubling you about my own selfish cares; but I can never help feeling that it's a sister I speak to."

"Yes, a sister," said she, in a faint whisper-" a sister!"

"And that your brother Tony has the right to come to you for counsel and help."

"So he has," said she, gulping down something like a sob; "but these days, when my head is weary and tired, and when -as to-day, Tony-I am good for nothingTell me," said she, hastily, "how does your mother bear your going away? Will she let me come and sit with her often? I hope she will."

"That she will, and be so happy to have you, too; and only think, Dolly, Alice Lyle-Mrs. Trafford, Í mean-has offered to come and keep her company sometimes. I hope you'll meet her there: how you'd like her, Dolly!"

Dolly turned away her head, and the tears, against which she had struggled so long, now burst forth, and slowly fell along her cheek.

"You must not fancy, Dolly, that because Alice is rich and great you will like her less. Heaven knows, if humble fortune could separate us, ours might have done so.'

"My head is splitting, Tony, dear. It is one of those sudden attacks of pain. Don't be angry if I say Good-bye; there's nothing for it but a dark room, and quiet."

"My poor dear Dolly," said he, pressing her to him, and kissing her twice on the cheek.

"No, no!" cried she, hysterically, as though to something she was answering; and then, dashing away, she rushed from the room, and Tony could hear her door shut and locked as she passed in.

"How changed from what she used to be!" muttered he, as he went his way; "I scarcely can believe she is the same! And, after all, what light has she thrown on the difficulty I put before her? Or

was it that I did not place the matter as clearly as I might? Was I too guarded, or was I too vague? Well, well. I remember the time when, no matter how stupid I was, she would soon have found out my meaning! What a dreary thing that life of a governess must be, when it could reduce one so quick of apprehension and so readywitted as she was to such a state as this! Oh, is she not changed!" And this was the burden of his musings as he wended his way towards home.

"Here it is at last, mother," said Tony, holding up the "despatch," as he entered the cottage. "The order for the examination, Tony!" said she, as she turned pale.

"No, but the order to do without it, mother dear!-the order for Anthony Butler to report himself for service, without any other test than his readiness to go wherever they want to send him. It seems that there's a row somewhere or several rows-just now. Heaven bless the fellows that got them up, for it gives them no time at the office to go into any impertinent inquiries as to one's French, or decimal fractions, or the other qualifications deemed essential to carrying a letter-bag, and so they've sent for me to go off to Japan."

"To Japan, Tony-to Japan?" "I don't mean positively to Japan, for Skeffy says it might be Taganrog, or Timbuctoo, or Tamboff, or some other half-known place. But no matter, mother; it's so much a mile, and something besides per day; and the short and long of it is, I am to show myself on Tuesday, the 9th, at Downing Street, there to be dealt with as the law may direct."

"It's a hasty summons, my poor Tony"

"It might be worse, mother. What would we say to it if it

were, 'Come up and be examined'? I think I'm a good-tempered fellow; but I declare to you frankly, if one of those Dons' were to put a question to me that I couldn't answer and I'm afraid it would not be easy to put any other-I'd find it very hard not to knock him down! I mean, of course, mother, if he did it offensively, with a chuckle over my ignorance, or something that seemed to say, 'There's a blockhead, if ever there was one!' I know I couldn't help it!"

"Oh, Tony, Tony!" said she, deprecatingly.

It

"Yes, it's all very well to say Tony, Tony; but here's how it is. It would be 'all up' with me. would be by that time decided that I was good for nothing, and to be turned back. The moment would be a triumphant one for the fellow that 'plucked' me-it always is, I'm told-but I'll be shot if it should be all triumph to him!" "I won't believe this of you, Tony," said she, gravely. "It's not like your father, sir!"

"Then I'd not do it, mother-at least if I could help it," said he, growing very red. "I say, mother, is it too late to go up to the Abbey and bid Sir Arthur good-bye? Alice asked me to do it, and I promised her."

"Well, Tony, I don't know how

you feel about these things now, but there was a time that you never thought much what hour of the day or night it was when you went there."

"It used to be so!" said he, thoughtfully; and then added, "but I'll go, at all events, mother; but I'll not be long away, for I must have a talk with you before bedtime."

"I have a note written to Sir Arthur here; will you just give it to him, Tony, or leave it for him when you're coming away, for it wants no answer?"

"All right, mother; don't take tea till I come back, and I'll do my best to come soon."

It was a well-worn path that led from the cottage to Lyle Abbey. There was not an hour of day or night Tony had not travelled it; and as he went now, thoughts of all these long-agos would crowd on his memory, making him ask himself, Was there ever any one had so much happiness as I had in those days? Is it possible that my life to come will ever replace to me such enjoyment as that?

He was not a very imaginative youth, but he had that amount of the quality that suffices for small castlebuildings; and he went on, as he walked, picturing to himself what would be the boon he would ask from Fortune if some benevolent fairy were to start out from the tall ferns and grant him his wish. Would it be to be rich and titled and great, so that he might propose to make Alice his wife without any semblance of inordinate pretension? or would it not be to remain as he was, poor and humble in condition, and that Alice should be in a rank like his own, living in a cottage like Dolly Stewart, with little household cares to look after?

It was a strange labyrinth these thoughts led him into, and he soon lost his way completely, unable to satisfy himself whether Alice might not lose in fascination when no longer surrounded by all the splendid appliances of that high station she

adorned, or whether her native gracefulness would not be far more attractive when her life became ennobled by duties. A continual comparison of Alice and Dolly would rise to his mind; nothing could be less alike, and yet there they were, in incessant juxtaposition; and while he pictured Alice in the humble manse of the minister, beautiful as he had ever seen her, he wondered whether she would be able to subdue her proud spirit to such lowly ways, and make of that thatched cabin the happy home that Dolly had made it. His experiences of life were not very large, but one lesson they had certainly taught him-it was to recognise in persons of condition, when well brought up, a great spirit of accommodation. In the varied company of Sir Arthur's house he had constantly found that no one submitted with a better grace to accidental hardships than he whose station had usually elevated him above the risks of their occurrence, and that in the chance roughings of a sportsman life it was the born gentleman-Sybarite it might be at times-whose temper best sustained him in all difficulties, and whose gallant spirit bore him most triumphantly over the crosses and cares that beset him. It might not be a very logical induction that led him to apply this reasoning to Alice, but he did so, and in so doing he felt very little how the time went over, till he found himself on the terrace at Lyle Abbey.

Led on by old habit, he passed in without ringing the bell, and was already on his way to the drawing-room when he met Hailes the butler.

In the midst of a shower of rejoicings at seeing him again-for he was a great favourite with the household · Hailes hastened to show him into the dining room, where, dinner over, Sir Arthur sat in an easy-chair at the fire, alone, and sound asleep. Roused by the noise of the opening door, Sir Arthur started and looked up; nor

was he indeed very full awake while Tony blundered out his excuses for disturbing him.

"My dear Tony, not a word of this. It is a real pleasure to see you. I was taking a nap, just because I had nothing better to do. We are all alone here now, and the place feels strange enough in the solitude. Mark gone- the girls away-and no one left but Lady Lyle and myself. There's your old friend; that's some of the '32 claret; fill your glass, and tell me that you are come to pass some days with us."

"I wish I was, sir; but I have come to say good-bye. I'm off tomorrow for London."

"For London! freak, Tony?"

What! another

"Scarcely a freak, sir," said he smiling. "They've telegraphed to me to come up and report myself for service at the Foreign Office." "As a Minister, eh?" "No, sir; a Messenger."

"An excellent thing, too; a capital thing. A man must begin somewhere, you know. Every one is not as lucky as I was, to start with close on twelve hundred a-year. I wasn't twenty when I landed at Calcutta, Tony-a mere boy! Here the baronet filled his glass, and drank it off with a solemnity that seemed as if it were a silent toast to his own health, for in his own estimation he merited that honour, very few men having done more for themselves than he had; not that he had not been over-grateful, however, to the fortune of his early days in this boastful acknowledgment, since it was in the humble capacity of an admiral's secretarythey called them clerks in those days he had first found himself in the Indian Ocean, a mere accident leading to his appointment on shore and all his subsequent good fortune. "Yes, Tony," continued he, "I started at what one calls a high rung of the ladder. It was then I first saw your father; he was about the same age you are now. He was on Lord Dollington's staff.

Dear me, dear me! it seems like yesterday;" and he closed his eyes, and seemed lost in reverie; but if he really felt it like yesterday, he would have remembered how insolently the superb aide-de-camp treated the meek civilian of the period, and how immeasurably above Mr. Lyle of those days stood the haughty Captain Butler of the Governor-General's staff.

"The soldiers used to fancy they had the best of it, Tony; but, I take it, we civilians won the race at last;" and his eyes ranged over the vast room, with the walls covered by pictures, and the sideboard loaded with massive plate, while the array of decanters on the small spidertable beside him suggested largely of good living.

"A very old friend of mine, Jos. Hughes-he was salt assessor at Bussorabad-once remarked to me, 'Lyle,' said he, a man must make his choice in life, whether he prefers a brilliant start or a good finish, for he cannot have both.' Take your pleasure when young, and you must consent to work when old; but if you set out vigorously, determined to labour hard in early life, when you come to my age, Tony, you may be able to enjoy your rest"and here he waved his hand round, as though to show the room in which they sat-" to enjoy your rest, not without dignity."

Tony was an attentive listener, and Sir Arthur was flattered, and went on. "I am sincerely glad to have the opportunity of these few moments with you. I am an old pilot, so to say, on the sea you are about to venture upon; and really, the great difficulty young fellows have in life is, that the men who know the whole thing from end to end will not be honest in giving their experiences. There is a certain 'snobbery'-I have no other word for it-that prevents their confessing to small beginnings. They don't like telling how humble they were at the start; and what is the consequence? The value of the whole lesson is lost! Now, I have