oblige her. These tête-à-têtes waxed positively mysterious to the on-lookers-of whom Major Pollock sneered the ugliest sneers, and Iris smiled without a grain of anxiety because of her grandmother's great fancy for poor, rude,

sober, agitated Sir William.

Sir William's agitation increased under the pressure put upon him, and the notions deliberately and persistently introduced into a mind which, though very far from weak, was at its best single rather than subtle, and was narrowed by defects of education and absence of experience. His assailant, on the contrary, was as rich in the experience that served her purpose as she was destitute of misgivings and scruples.

Sir William, still drinking water, grew practically an intoxicated man, dazed, to begin with, in his intoxication, but at every moment liable to a violent outbreak of his disordered faculties. It was at this point that he started for London with the acknowledged intention of spending three or four weeks there; but he was pledged to return to Whitehills at the end of June, in time for Lady Fermor's ball.

Any one interested in the manœuvre could detect that Sir William went with Lady

Fermor's permission, if not at her instigation. The last conclusion was the more likely, since she had been heard to dwell with some testiness on the stupidity of lawyers, even those in greatest repute, and their common failure in securing for clients the very advantages of which they stood most in need, which would be really available to them.

But what did Lady Fermor send Sir William to London for? Did she wish her protege to revisit some of her old haunts, and bring her back the last news? Did she fancy that knowledge of life and the world, the seamy side of life and the world of evil, so often taken to represent true life and the true world, especially where men are concerned, was imperatively called for to finish Sir William Thwaite's halting education? Greenhorns of young squires were wont to be sent up from the country to have their eyes opened, and learn how few people they could trust, and what a precious difficult' task it was to take care of themselves. It was a base kind of euphrasy which was squeezed on their eye-lids. When the young squires returned to their native fields, over head and ears in debt, wasted with riotous living, it was often doubtful-however

knowing the men showed themselves in the future-whether the game were worth the candle. Were such places of resort as Lady Fermor was likely to recommend, with the questionable introductions which she could procure, together with rides in the park, and visits to Lord's, and running the risk of being black-balled by a West-end club, judged the proper materials for lending a speedy polish to Sir William's original style? Did Lady Fermor's intention of bestowing her granddaughter on the gentleman induce her to intrust him, of all people, with the delicate responsibility of buying a birthday cadeau for the heroine of the ball? Left to such taste and judgment what might it not be? A hideously set necklace, fit for a South Sea Islander; a brooch and ear-rings as big as a plate and a pair of cups and saucers; a new watch, which could be worn by an alderman?

CHAPTER XII.

A HAND IN NEED.

THE simple truth was that Lady Fermor had counselled Sir William to run up in a hurry to London, and, though it was the season, to live as quietly as he could manage it, not even calling at Messrs. Miles and Dickinson's office, unless he felt bound to do so, for he would have little enough time for the business he had in hand, which was to take private lessons from a dancing master. Lady Fermor would furnish him, by the aid of a friend, with the address of the best man for his purpose. While he was about it, he might as well go to a riding master and get a little training from him also. With regard to the last obligation, Sir William had the liking for a horse which reigns in the bosom of ninety-nine out of a hundred young men. Sir John, as a matter of course, had kept up a good stud at

Whitehills long after he was incapable of taking exercise on his cob, or having anything farther to do with horses than being driven out for a carriage airing. It had been one of the first of his possessions of which Sir William availed himself, and to the credit of his courage and natuaal instincts, he had neither come to serious grief nor made a notorious spectacle of himself. His seat and hand might not be all that could be desired; there might be traces of swallowing a ramrod in the saddle as elsewhere; still Sir William did not look amiss on horseback, while his attainments in this respect were deserving of cultivation.

There is no one to tell what heart Sir William carried to his studies in the freshness of early summer in London. Whether he did not attack the first, mostly with spasms of shamefacedness and self-ridicule? Whether he were not often tempted to abandon it, and find manlier and nobler teaching in that great, wonderful world of stone and lime, which he had not known hitherto, except in the most cursory, one-sided fashion?

Only this is certain, that a strong, sweet inducement was beckoning him on to submit to what was like the binding and teasing of

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