thought I should-that day I listened to you in the garden. What made you come there? And-and-" Her whole face quivered with eagerness-"Who was with you ?"

"An acquaintance of mine, Mr. Ulverston."

"Ah!" She sunk back with a long, long sigh. "Did you know Mr. Ulverston ?"

"Oh, no, no! Don't talk about him," she added, restlessly; "it does not interest me. I never heard the name." And she closed her eyes, sighing once again, so bitterly!

Mrs. Forsyth's heavy footstep was heard on the stairs. Rachel roused herself, clasped Ninian's arm till her long slender fingers felt like rings of iron, and whispered,

"Before she comes back, listen. You remember I once told you a name? That was a great sin, because I had promised not. I never shall utter it more, until—” Here her countenance looked heavenly with its momentary rapture. "Therefore, Mr. Græme, if you have any recollection of that name—”

"It is, and always will be, as though I had never heard it," said Ninian, firmly. "Be satisfied; all is safe." She cast upon him a look of wild gratitude; nay, she even snatched and kissed his hand. Mr. Græme felt quite uncomfortable: he did not understand the romantic impulses of such a creature as Rachel Armstrong. But in walking homeward-for he had left as soon as Mrs. Forsyth returned to the room-he pondered over the matter, and his common sense told him it was nothing but what might have been expected from such a youth as hers had been. Entirely shut out from the world, her mind had evidently formed itself from the struggling life within, aided by some single influence from without. But whether her mysteries were, as Mrs. Forsyth implied, only " playing-acting," or whether they were indeed reality, Ninian could not satisfy himself. He felt a relief when he passed from the excitement which seemed an atmosphere ever surrounding poor Rachel Armstrong, into the serener airs which breathed around his own fireside.

It was a clear starry winter night as he walked up the little avenue which led to The Gowans; for the house boasted an avenue, a lawn, and a garden, though all had long lain in a state of desolation. One would hardly believe there was such a solitary old-fashioned place so near the centre of a city like Edinburgh. Ninian, who

had a fancy for all quaint, quiet nooks, scanned his new home, and gloried in it.

All was so still and deserted, it might have been Hood's immortal "Haunted House," but for dim rays of light that came through cracked window-shutters, showing for certain that the ghosts were holding revelry. Ninian walked in, smiling to think that his family had already become so ruralized as to keep unlatched doors; and there, with the light snow lying in white sparkles on his hat, coat, and hair, he stood before them-an apparition of delight.

For, jumping round him like very children, came Tinie, Edmund, and Charlie. "Oh, brother! we have been waiting for you a whole hour, because-because-"

Here Ninian's quick eye, glancing over the circle, discovered one addition-a girl, very small and childish-looking, who rose from her seat in the corner and courtesied with an air decidedly prim. Mr. Græme bowed; and there they stood, until Tinie's merry laugh broke the awkward pause.

"Oh, what fun! Here's a surprise! It was so to us at first; but she has been three hours in the house, and we've found out we need not have been afraid of her in the least! Guess, brother-guess who she is."

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Tinie," said Esther, as the stranger began to color, and Ninian to look rather uncomfortable: "Tinie, I'm ashamed of you. Why can't you say at once that it is Miss Ansted?" Who mistook the date you fixed, and has come a week too soon; but not too soon for our cordial welcome,” added Lindsay, kindly. Hope Ansted courtesied once more—to Miss Græme this time—and then, touching Ninian's offered hand with the tips of her fingers, subsided into her old corner, guarded on either side by the twins, who, shy themselves, seemed unaccountably to sympathize with this —the shyest young lady that ever was known.

Ninian, perfectly confounded at the appearance of his ward in a character the very opposite of what they all expected, took the earliest opportunity of stealing apart with Tinie.

"Did you ever see such a girl!" broke out the voluble "pet of the family." "And an English girl, too, who has lived all her life in London! I'm sure she looks as if she had never been outside the walls of her boarding-school. Every sentence she speaks-and she has not spoken a dozen-she brings in something about 'Mrs. Watson Jones.' And at the mere name she looks round as if Mrs. Watson Jones stood behind her. Poor thing! I'm sure she has been frightened out of her seven senses, and all the spirit crushed out of her. Her very face shows that."

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'Probably so," said Ninian. He was thinking that somewhere or other he had seen the face before.

"It's a pretty face, too," Tinie went on; "only there's no life in it. And she's not a bad figure, but for that odious brown merino dress and white linen collar. I hate linen collars; don't you, brother ?"

"How should I judge?" answered Ninian smiling. He had all at once recollected where he had seen that fair, still face, with the downcast eyes. It was the same which Mr. Ulverston had so rudely stared at when they were at the railway terminus. He determined not to allude to the fact, as probably such a very, very quiet girl had never noticed either him or his companion; of whose companionship on this occasion Mr. Græme did not feel altogether proud.

"She seems quite a child, too; is scarcely seventeen-for we asked her. And yet she has such a prim, old-fashioned air about her. She'll turn us all into icicles. I don't know how we will manage to get on together!" continued Tinie, in such a comical despair that her brother was quite amused. Well, my wee thing" -wee thing was one of Tinie's pet we must all do the best we can with her, making allowances for her manners and education." "Education! Why, she can't speak the Queen's English correctly! She drops her h's sometimes."

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names-"

"Then we'll teach her better. And we must remember what a dreary life she has led; her father abroad-with no mother, or sisters, or elder brothers."

"No elder brother-ah, Ninian!" murmured Tinie, lovingly pressing close to him; then adding, in her willful way, "Hurrah for Mr. Græme of The Gowans, guardian, schoolmaster, and general philanthropist !"

some.

"Hush!" said Ninian laughing. But his little fairy of a sister had put him into such a good-humor, that when he re-entered the parlor he looked quite radiant and handAt least so Tinie declared, and was wicked enough to ask the shy guest if she did not think so? Whereupon Hope Ansted lifted her great eyes, dropped them again, pursed her lips, and said nothing. She was evidently terribly afraid of Mr. Græme.

The whole family tried to amuse and encourage herall except Reuben, from whose stern, woman-hating cynicism no civility was ever expected. Edmund ventured a few remarks of a poetical nature, but found that she had, as he expressed it, "no soul;" so contented himself with a cold admiration of her beautiful nose and mouth. Tinie attacked her with fun and harmless jokes, but she never laughed, and looked quite shocked sometimes. She only seemed to feel at ease with the twins and their Berlin work, which, she said, "she was very fond of at school." So she buried herself among wools and patterns; under which salutary influence her hands unbent from their frigid fold on her lap, and once or twice she was heard to speak in a very precise and timid way. But this was only when the rest were talking so loud that nobody listened, save Ninian; and when she unfortunately caught his eye, she once more grew formal and frightened. In fact, the whole family soon set down Hope Ansted as a common-place school-girl; which was, indeed, the sole character she could lay claim to-except on account of her beauty, then only dawning, and probably visible but to few eyes.

The evening passed somewhat heavily; after a time, the young Græmes fairly grew tired of amusing their

guest, and left her alone. Ninian tried to address some few remarks to her, but her mind was apparently so unformed, or so dull, that even he gave her up in despair; until at last, bidding her good-night, he did so with a cheerful air.

"You must try to consider yourself quite like one of the children here; but I dare say you feel strange at first.” "Yes and no doubt you are quite alarmed at our brother," added Tinie, hurrying Miss Ansted through the hall; "isn't he a grave, formal creature the darling! Every body thinks him solemn as a judge, the first time of seeing him. Did you?"

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I had seen him before," said Hope, a faint smile creeping in at the corners of her mouth.

"Where-where ?" And all the girls clustered round

her.

"At the railway this afternoon. He had with him a gentleman ?"

"What sort of a gentleman ?"

'Very handsome; the handsomest I ever saw, with such a beautiful fair mustache !"

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Well," cried Tinie, bounding back to the parlor in a hearty fit of laughter; "our demure little maiden has found her tongue, and her eyes too; she has just been telling us how she met you, brother Ninian, and with you a gentleman,' the handsomest she ever saw.'"

"Mr. Ulverston again!" thought Ninian. But he only said, "Indeed!" patted Tinie's shoulder, and told her to run away to bed.

CHAPTER IV.

"YOU'LL come with us to hear Mr. Forsyth preach tonight, before he leaves for his manse in the Highlands ?" said Ninian to Miss Ansted.

"Yes," answered Hope, who in the course of a few weeks had learned to do every thing that Mr. Græme de