protest. I cannot for one moment admit that the favours are all on one side. Is it no privilege for me and for my little boy to be admitted into so kindly a home,-and at the same time, if I may say so, into the inner temple of Art? It is true. that a man of my simple tastes might live anywhere; but I hope I am not such a Visigoth as to be insensible to the elegance of that home to which I have been so genially welcomed, and even I may say pressed. Doubtless I can come to some arrangement with my friend Sir Rupert-but no more on that head. It may be that my work will now be better appreciated; that it may even receive some recompense for I do not claim to be above pecuniary considerations—but I am as slow to put faith in the patronage of the public as in that of princes. I have but one thing more to say. Let me thank you in my dear girl's name for your good wishes. I hope that I have done my duty to her-not without generosity. But I will not dilate upon a subject of so sentimental a nature. Let me merely end by asking you all who have listened to this unambitious rhetoric, this little tea-cup speech, to join with me in drinking to our excellent hostess's health a cup of her own unrivalled tea."

Capital!" cried Bonamy as the orator sank smiling faintly into his chair. Miss Lindley tapped her saucer with her spoon, and gently murmured, "hear hear." The others also muttered in a complimentary manner; and everybody bowed to Lady Lappin over a tea-cup.

Maestro," said Stephen as he followed Mr Fernlyn into the window, "is not the editor of this eclectic magazine one of your friends?"

"One of my greatest friends."

"I see that precious scheme of yours, my master."

"Trust your young eyes for seeing through millstones," said Andrew gravely, but his old eyes were laughing.

"It seems to me," said Stephen after a pause, during which the two friends looked silently westward-" it seems to me that there was more in my cousin Cynthia than I thought."

"Indeed!" exclaimed Mr Fernlyn with mock amazement.

"In fact I have been thinking about this a good deal lately; and I am half inclined to believe that I ought to have fallen madly in love with Cynthia."

"Indeed!"

"Yes. You see, I have taste.

earnestness, vigour, passion."

What I want is

Upon this Messer

Andrea gave himself to laughter. Afterwards he said gravely, "To have loved her would have been the making of you."

'Well, I must e'en make myself," said Stephen. Andrew was about to comment on this presumptuous speech when the door flew open, and little Fabian rushed in like a whirlwind followed for once by Cecco, who had acquired a British taste for muffins. Lady Lappin held out her arms to the child; and Hugo Deane found a new pleasure in the thought that this brilliant boy was his.

Time had passed gaily in the large apartment where Lady Lappin dispensed her succulent hospitality; but it fled twice as fast in the little room where Philip sat by Cynthia and foretold the years to come for her delight. "It is a beautiful life," he said with enthusiasm; and she looked bravely back into his eyes trusting the world and him. "But you must not spoil me," he said; "I will care for you before all things; I will think of you always first."

"Oh no," she answered; "you shall do something for the world, and I will help you - O Philip, do you think that I can help you really, that I can help you as I know—as I am sure that my mother helped my father long ago?

THE END.

PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS.

JOHN-A-DREAM S.

New and Cheaper Edition, small 8vo, 3s. 6d.

EXTRACTS FROM REVIEWS.

ATHENÆUM.

"A pretty love-story, interspersed with as many appreciative sketches of character as might have furnished forth several novels of the orthodox length."

SUNDAY TIMES.

"John-a-Dreams' is a distinct outcome of the day.

more vivid picture of the age in which we live has seldom been afforded, and men of the day can scarcely do better than contemplate their own presentment as it is now held up to their view. No man who knows anything about Oxford can dispute the fidelity of the following description. The set now described, it must be borne in mind, is the higher-æsthetical, and how strong an element in Oxford that is, those who have resided there know. Long as is this extract, we would gladly have made it longer, so clever and true to nature is the conversation."

STANDARD.

"Drawn by a firm and delicate hand working under the inspiration of a poetical mind."

PALL MALL GAZETTE.

"The real merit of the tale, which is very considerable indeed, lies in the style, and in the flying shafts of scorn and wit which range through all the scenes.'

SCOTSMAN.

"It is, in many respects, far above the average of the fiction of the day. The style is light and graceful, and the writer has an exceptional knack of portraying the whole scope of a character in a few sparkling sentences."

CONTEMPORARY REVIEW.

"The book is to be read for the many epigrams and thoughtful and happy touches we come upon in its pages.'

THE WEEK.

"It is long since we have read any book of the kind with so much pleasure, and we shall look for Mr Sturgis's next work with particular expectation."

WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS, EDINBURGH AND LONDON.