fair play in this matter, as it had been for some time evident to him that there existed a sort of conspiracy against Dane in the parish. As Dane must in any case appear before the magistrates, he wished him to have an opportunity of clearing himself thoroughly from all suspicion.

This letter made Mr. Ethelston extremely angry.

'Would any one have believed,' he said to Margaret, 'that a fellow like Landor could have set to work deliberately to make bad worse, as he has done here? Did you ever read such a fool of a letter? Why, he accuses me of conspiracy! I could almost summon him for libel. Like a parson, isn't it?' and Herbert laughed.

'I don't know why you should say that,' said Margaret. Mr. Vernon would never have done anything so foolish. It is foolish, indeed. But, Herbert, of course poor Mr. Landor does not mean you. He means the keepers, and many other people in the parish who have never liked Dane. Though, even then, he ought not to have used the word conspiracy.'

'Mean me! No, I should think not,' said Herbert.

'We have not

quite reached that point yet. But he is like his mother. I dare say she put him up to this, by the by. She pelted old Slater with hard words that night, he told me. People like that have no self-control. Well, somebody will have heavyish costs to pay, owing to this last romantic step of Landor's. He is a regular Don Quixote, fighting with windmills.'

Mr. Ethelston did Mrs. Landor injustice for once. She knew the world better than her son did, and had more command over her temper, though it was quick like his. She was vexed at what he had done about the lawyer, and told him it was a foolish thing and a great pity. But Tom did not agree with her. He thought Ethelston was behaving badly and hardly, and was resolved to do all he could to bring Harry off scot free. From that day till the Petty Sessions in the following week, Tom and Herbert saw nothing of each other.

Hetty wondered what was going on, but heard nothing, for she could not mention the subject to Herbert again, or to his relations, and she did not see Mrs. Landor.

At last one morning she saw Harry Dane, down-looking and depressed, walking up the hill into Eastmarsh. Afterwards she saw Mr. Landor, very much flushed and walking at a great pace; and then Slater and two or three other men talking and laughing, and then Herbert himself, driving up in his dog-cart, cool and fresh and unconcerned, taking off his hat and smiling as he caught a glimpse of her at the window.

Colonel Page drove up immediately afterwards. The other magistrates who sat at Eastmarsh lived in the opposite direction.

Hetty found herself so anxious that she was obliged to take Conny into her confidence, though she naturally told her nothing of the appeal

to Herbert and its failure.

Conny was sorry for the poor man, but

supposed Mr. Ethelston must be right.

'One of those people who are never wrong,' she said; and Hetty did not trouble herself to detect any hidden satire in the words. She knew Conny was always disrespectful, and felt sure that she had not less respect for Herbert than Aunt Eva, though she seldom talked about it.

'I wonder how the case will end,' Hetty said several times that day.

You wonder! Did anybody ever get the better of Mr. Ethelston?' exclaimed Conny.

Hetty was troubled. Was it disloyal to feel that the news of Herbert's defeat would not be quite unwelcome? Poor Harry Dane's blessing kept always coming into her mind; she felt sure he could not be a bad man. It would have been impossible, she confessed to herself, to tell Herbert about that. She watched the window more or less all day. The magistrates generally had little to do, and might be seen driving home about one or two o'clock; but to-day hour after hour went by, and they did not come.

After tea Constance suggested walking up into the town; she wanted to change a book at the library. The Eastmarsh bookseller was a very intelligent man, and besides establishing a box from Mudie, had opened a reading-room adjoining his shop, which was a good deal made use of by people from the neighbourhood. The shop was in the middle of the street, opposite the town-hall, where all public business went on. The two girls walked up the shady side of the broad, irregular street, with its old nodding gables and new square fronts picturesquely mixed together. The shadows were sharp and dark, the sky above the houses was a deep clear blue; it was just the time when the old town looked its best. A glance along the street, as soon as they turned from their climb up the hill, showed them that the magistrates were still sitting; there was the usual scattering of untidy loungers about the steps of the town-hall, and one or two carriages were driving slowly up and down. Herbert's groom looked at them and touched his hat.

'What a long day the magistrates are having, Mr. Green!' said Constance to the fair little bookseller. 'Has the town been worse than

usual this last fortnight?'

6

'On the contrary, I under

'Not at all, miss,' replied Mr. Green. stand there are no Eastmarsh cases. It is a poaching case from Alding,' with an apologetic side-glance at Hetty, and Mr. Cantell is employed in it. That is why the magistrates are detained so long. You are not the first ladies who have been here to inquire. Mrs. Landor is in the reading-room.'

Hetty went forward to the reading-room door, while her cousin lingered to ask more questions. Mrs. Landor was sitting there in a corner, looking flushed and grave. She was gazing at the window

which commanded those of the town-hall. But they were so high that she could see nothing of what was going on inside, except men's heads moving now and then. She was not at once aware of Hetty's coming into the room, till the girl went up and stood before her.

Oh, my dear! had you better speak to me?' said Mrs. Landor. 'Wait till this thing is decided, at any rate. Mr. Ethelston is angry with us, you know; and we are not particularly pleased with him.'

Still, I don't know why you should give me up!' said Hetty.

For your own good,' said Bessie, smiling in spite of herself. How. ever, we can settle that afterwards. You will have your orders, I dare say, if you have not had them already. For the present I am perfectly wild with impatience. I walked about in the garden at home, watching for Tom, till I could bear it no longer. So I walked off to Eastmarsh, and here I am. I do wish Tom had not employed that man Cantell-not that-why, here is Harry coming out quite independently! I believe we have beaten you after all. I am sure we did our best, though, to avoid this altogether.'

'And so did I,' Hetty felt inclined to say, but for her own sake and Herbert's she kept the words back.

They are coming out now, Hetty,' said Conny, hurrying into the

room.

Mrs. Landor had got up and gone to the window on the first glimpse of Harry Dane at the door. Conny went and stood beside her. Hetty, with strangely mixed feelings, sorry for what she guessed must be Herbert's vexation, yet glad that the right had conquered, and sure that some day he would be glad too, turned away and stood by the fireplace.

It was a fact. Harry Dane walked off down the street with one or two friends of his, the loungers getting up a sort of cheer as he went, which he acknowledged by a nod. Presently there were stray groans and hisses as Slater and his fellow-witnesses appeared one by one, and marched off with rather a sulky air. Then the loungers subsided into their usual state of staring vacancy, and made no farther demonstrations as the magistrates came out, shook hands with each other, and drove away.

Herbert Ethelston was one of the last, and Tom Landor came out with him. Tom lifted his eyes, and saw his mother standing at the bookseller's window opposite. His momentary glance and smile were lost on Mr. Ethelston, who looked perfectly undisturbed, and not even tired with the long day's listening.

'Let me drive you home,' he said to Tom, as he got into his dogcart.

In the reading-room they heard the words quite plainly, for the windows were wide open, and his voice was strong and distinct. They sent a thrill of pleasure through Hetty Stewart's heart.

"Thank you very much,' said Tom heartily; but my mother is in the town, and I am going home with her.'

Then Mr. Ethelston caught sight of Mrs. Landor and Conny at the window. He looked that way rather fixedly for a moment, and took off his hat. Then he turned to Tom again.

'Are you satisfied?' he said, in a lower voice, and a quite friendly

manner.

'Well, yes,' said Tom.

'Of course.

'And so are you, I hope.'

You see, though, you might have spared us Cantell. The fellow would have got off just the same, and with less time and trouble.'

After this little conversation they shook hands, and Herbert dashed away down the street. Tom went across to Green's, and Hetty and Conny walked with him and his mother as far as their own door. He seemed rather subdued by his success, and not ready to give them many particulars of the case. He only said that Slater's evidence against Dane had turned out to be worth nothing when Cantell pulled it to pieces. There was, in fact, nothing now against Dane but suspicion, and as old Colonel Page told him, he must live that down.

'It has all been a fuss about nothing, then,' said Conny. Like the old stone

'Yes, Miss Lydiard; a fuss about nothing,' answered Tom.

He was thoroughly tired by the long hot day's confinement and anxiety, and beginning to feel the reaction from the excitement which had kept him up during the last days. He was weary and lowspirited, and after the girls had left them he told his mother that after all he believed the lawyer part of the business had been a mistake.

'Poor old Ethelston! It made the thing needlessly disagreeable for him,' he said. 'He was very jolly just now-offered to take me home. There is nothing small about him, certainly.'

'I should think him a very mean fellow if he bore malice against you,' said Mrs. Landor. 'But why didn't he examine more thoroughly into the case himself, before he let Slater take out the summons. Just prejudice. The man's name was Dane, and therefore he must be goodfor-nothing. I wouldn't say it before those girls, but Mr. Ethelston deserved a little snub, and he has had it. Whether he will profit by it is quite another thing.'

(To be continued.)

VOL. 4.

38

PART 24.

STRAY PEARLS

FROM THE

MEMOIRS OF MARGARET DE RIBAUMONT, VICOMTESSE
DE BELLAISE.

CHAPTER XXIV.

1 HAVE gone on with the Aubépine side of the story, but while these two devoted wives were making exertions at Bordeaux so foreign to their whole nature, which seemed changed for their husbands' sake, I was far away at the time, even from my son.

It was in March that we received a letter from my brother, Lord Walwyn, bidding us adieu, being, when we received it, already on the high seas with the Marquess of Montrose, to strike another blow for the King. He said he could endure inaction no longer, and that his health had improved so much that he should not be a drag on the expedition. Moreover, it was highly necessary that the Marquess should be accompanied by gentlemen of rank, birth, and experience, who could be intrusted with commands, and when so many hung back, it was the more needful for some to go. It was a great stroke to us, for besides that Sir Andrew Macniven went on reiterating that it was mere madness, and there was not a hope of success-the idea of Eustace going to face the winds of spring in the islands of Scotland was shocking enough.

'The hyperborean Orcades,' as the Abbé called them, made us think of nothing but frost and ice and savages, and we could not believe Sir Andrew when he told us that the Hebrides and all the west coast of Scotland were warmer than Paris in the winter.

After this we heard nothing-nothing but the terrible tidings that the Great Marquess, as the Cavaliers called him, had been defeated, taken by treachery, and executed by hanging-yes, by hanging at Edinburgh! His followers were said to be all dispersed and destroyed, and our hearts died within us; but Annora said she neither would nor could believe that all was over till she had more positive news, and put my mother in mind how many times before they had heard of the deaths of men who appeared alive and well immediately after. She declared that she daily expected to see Eustace walk into the room, and she looked round for him whenever the door was opened.

The door did open at last to let in tidings from the Hague, but not brought by Eustace. It was Mr. Probyn, one of the King's gentle