love, staying at home for once, I am sure; and if Mr Pollaxfen will take pity on two lonely women

"I-I don't my

Of course Mr Pollaxfen was charmed. self care to be always on the gad-about, you know," he said, candidly. In his own mind he thought it would be a great deal nicer to be sitting comfortably in the cosy little drawing-room with his bird in his hand, chuckling over its capture, than even displaying so fair a prize to curious beholders. All things thus in training, the gentleman was presently dismissed his company being superfluous that afternoon, in the press of business which followed. Marjorie was also abandoned, since the day was to be devoted to shopping, and Lady Olivia affirmed that it would not be good for the child to sit still in the carriage outside, whilst she and Alice were making purchases within, and that coming in and out of the heated shops would be still more likely to give her a chill.

Undoubtedly she was right, and her restriction was only prudent; but to the little one's ear, already excited and suspicious, it seemed as if the blight of Bertha's prophetic utterances had already fallen.

Nor was she altogether mistaken. True, she was still sent for, and still taken out if the day were fine, if nothing particular were in hand, and if Lady Olivia thought of it. But she was no longer indispensable,—Mr Pollaxfen was everything.

He would return with the ladies from their drive-Lady Olivia usually came home to her own afternoon tea now; and whilst no one else was to be admitted, since she required a good rest before entering on the fatigues of the evening, and would sometimes even slip away up-stairs,making that plea an excuse,-Mr Pollaxfen was no intruder. He was not to go because she did; and he liked to stay all the better when she was not there.

In the gay evenings which followed, his highest aspirations were gratified.

He saw himself in the long mirrors of the ball-rooms dancing with his girl as other men danced with theirs. He saw her admired, looked at, and longed after, by other hungry outcasts like unto himself as he had once been, and he heard her refuse the hand of a heavy dragoon.

Life could yield no more-so far.

Perhaps if he had known all, he need not have felt that glow of triumph, that thrill of ecstasy. For the simple truth

was, that Alice, who had never been properly taught to dance, was mortified to find that when chance gave her a partner who excelled, she not only could not get on with him, but felt convinced that he could not get on with her. She found him tardy in beginning again after a halt. Moreover, the idea of taking up the thread of the dance was not alluring to herself, for being unaccustomed to the rotatory motion, it made her giddy, and Mr Pollaxfen seemed to be the only person to understand this, and to see that a little jog up and down, and a good deal of standing about in different quarters of the room, was the proper thing to do.

This was as much as Alice cared to undertake, at all events; and feeling peculiarly light-headed and uncomfortable at the moment of being assailed by the monster in scarlet and gold above alluded to, he met with a flat refusal, to the unconcealed delight of Pollaxfen. From that moment she had him.

"And it is really too bad of you, you cruel girl," Lady Olivia would exclaim, "to rob me of my own particular production, my discovery! Mr Pollaxfen is quite my discovery; no one here knows anything about him, or with a shrug of her shoulders. "Before you came, you mischievous creature, he was quite my slave, my tame cat; ran, fetched, and carried for me. Now, I never have a word from him,-never. But don't be too vain, my dear Alice; your reign, too, may be cut short, chérie. He is much struck by that second daughter of Colonel Bartlett's-the tall, handsome one. He told me last night that she was much admired; and that always means that a man himself admires."

She certainly had the art of managing, where too much delicacy of treatment was not required. Even had Pollaxfen been aware of her tactics, so enamoured was he of all she did, that instead of rebelling, he would, in all probability, have plumed himself on having so fine a woman on his side. The aid of an earl's daughter in his love affair was not to be thought lightly of. With her for his mother-in-law,-dash it, he would surely be allowed to call her so?-and her son, the great Captain Evelyn, in the Life Guards, for his brotherin-law, he would be able to snap his fingers at those grinning dragoons. A Guardsman was worth a score of dragoons.

Confound them, they would laugh at the other sides of their mouths when they saw him arm in arm with a swell! They would know how to keep civil tongues in their heads

when they found that the lady, whose dress one of them had sworn at him for trampling upon, was his own affianced bride!

This last incident had taken place shortly before. Alice, with her head upon an epauletted shoulder, had been swung past Pollaxfen, who had stepped eagerly forward to arrest her progress, and deliver Lady Olivia's message that time was up. Lady Olivia, by the way, had also seen Miss Newbattle and Captain Defour, and it was in consequence of the sight that time was up.

In his haste, or awkwardness, her messenger had got his foot entangled in the lady's train, and she had fallen on the floor. We, who are aware of Miss Newbattle's anti-waltzing proclivities, may have a suspicion that the sudden stoppage, and withdrawal of her partner's supporting arm, had at least as much to do with the accident as the detention of a flimsy muslin skirt; but the gallant Defour thought otherwise, and it being after supper, the comments of that inflamed champion of the sex were neither reserved in quality nor stinted in quantity.

That his orbs of vision were partially to blame was also obvious, since they mistook Pollaxfen for a servant, and induced their valiant owner to address him as a "fellow," to order him out of the room, and to implore his lovely partner to disregard all such "impernent int-ference."

Pollaxfen did not come the worst out of the affair.

He said not a word, but picked up Miss Alice, put her hand within his arm, and marched her off, despite the stuttering imprecations and threatening gestures of his rival.

But he could not forget, however much he might affect to disregard these. He had been called by an opprobrious title, and no one about had seemed at all surprised. Was it because they had the impudence still to look down on him? Something whispered that no amount of champagne would have blinded Captain Defour into taking Lady Olivia's son for a menial.

Well, since it was so, he burned to have Evelyn on his side.

Of this unknown being his ideas were of the vaguest, but they were exalted to a pitch surpassing the veneration he had ever before felt for mortal man; and he now told himself that, backed by such a personage, he could resent suitably the insult he had received. Without revealing the

whole to one who had not been present, and who therefore needed not to be informed of aught that was offensive to the speaker, he could easily introduce the name of Defour, and could then proceed by degrees to poison the mind of his future relative against the drunken scoundrel. It would be a fine thing to do, and he ruminated with impish satisfaction upon divers things that people might be said to have said, and whispered, and nodded about. He thought he could put quite enough matter together to settle the dragoon conclusively, if only he could gain Evelyn's ear and aid.

The chief point was, would Evelyn abet him, and take his part? If he would, and would be as kind, gracious, and jolly as his mother, there was nothing that he would not do for Evelyn. In return for being pushed on, and held up, he would make the grandee welcome to the best of everything he possessed. By turns he saw himself enacting the part of town and country host: in London waiting-and keeping a whole circle waiting for the honoured guest who should grace his best dinner-parties; later on in the season, escorting his visitor over fields of stubble to the hottest corner; swearing at his keepers for empty bags, if needful; if not, pooh-poohing good ones as the inevitable result of having so renowned a shot in their company. Evelyn should have his own rooms both in Palace Gardens and in Lincolnshire. He should ask whom he chose, and they should be free to come and go. Gad! he should be master, and more! The idea was intoxicating, and possessed him completely. The more he reflected upon it, the more he revelled in it, the more he thirsted for the hour of his triumph.

Dash those epauletted boobies, he could twirl and pirouette as well as they if he chose, and he would like to see their faces when it came out what he could do besides. He could bring down his bird.

And it was about time he let fly.

CHAPTER XVIII.

HOMELY PLEASURES IN THE OLD FARMHOUSE.

"Those joys clasp us with a friendlier arm, which steal upon us when we do not look for them."-FELTHAM.

Untoward winds, however, now set in from a new and unexpected quarter.

On the very evening when Pollaxfen's clumsiness in the ball-room called forth the abusive contempt of the heavy dragoon, and when subsequently he made up his mind to be revenged, and that speedily, on the ill-nurtured sot,-on that very night, a little later on, Lady Olivia penned him a note forbidding him the house.

The ladies, on their return from the ball, had been confronted on the staircase by a florid little elderly gentleman, who had rapidly explained that he had been summoned to the house during her ladyship's absence, by the alarming illness of one of the young ladies.

Both Lady Olivia and Alice had at once thought of Marjorie.

It was Bertha, however, who, persistently ignored as a rule, had on this occasion contrived to give herself prominence. She had caught the scarlet-fever, which, unknown to Lady Olivia, was unusually prevalent in the town, more especially about such parts of it as had been more than once visited of late by Mademoiselle and her charge; and after several days of unacknowledged misery, the child had all at once become so ill as to terrify her governess. It had been easy to pooh-pooh, and prescribe for de leetle chill which the foolish petite had caught by forgetting her neckerchief on the so cold afternoon; but it was not so trifling a matter when the shivering girl refused all food, had a skin like fire, and began to wander in her speech. Inquiries and future supervision must be endured; the doctor must be sent for, and the verdict he gave was, that the case was tolerably severe, and that the house must be put into immediate quarantine.

"Of all the tiresome things!" cried Lady Olivia, inwardly; and as for Mademoiselle, she had a reprimand which, though far short of what she deserved, was the