gone from her; and in the fulfilment of her uttermost desire she seemed to have come into the possession of all the gravity and all the sadness that manhood and womanhood bring with them.

There were a few hasty words of parting, and directions, and injunctions on both sides, and shaking of hands here and there, and then a bell rang, and the prosaic call to those about to go ashore was shouted along the decks and Montana kissed his wife, and she found her father helping her down the ladder into the tender, and the tender presently made for the shore, and the vessel went on her seaward way. Melissa slept that night in her old bedroom in her father's house as if she were a girl once more and nothing had happened, and felt with every pulse and breath that nothing was, or ever could be again, what it had been to her before.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

'IN THE DEEP BOSOM OF THE OCEAN BURIED.'

A VOYAGE has commonly three stages. There is first the stage of mere confusion and constraint when no one knows his own place or his neighbour; when everyone finds the others in his way and feels sure he shall not like them, and the general conviction is that the voyage will

be very miserable, and that it will last for ever. Then comes the more satisfactory stage, when the passengers are getting used to the waves, and to their berths, and their neighbours, and the rocking dinner-tables; when friendships are rapidly formed and flirtations are sweet and easy to be had, and everyone is disposed

to make the best of everything in a voyage which still, even to the happiest, presents itself as destined to be long. Then comes the third stage, when it is suddenly discovered that the voyage is nearly over, and people are looking back upon it with a gentle regret as on something already past, and are even anxious to put off the moment which is to take them from the free and happy indolence, the easy friendships, the cheap enjoyments of the deck to the cares of business and the crowd of cities again. Then the mind turns back, even to those early days of confusion and constraint, with a feeling of sweet regretful pleasure, like to that with which as men advance towards the evening of life they think of the very struggles and discomforts of its morning hours.

The voyage of Montana and Clement had reached this later stage. Another day or two would see the steamer in New York Bay. The time had passed very quickly with

Clement. It had passed almost too quickly; and he felt his heart throbbing with a positively painful excitement as they approached the shores of the New World in which he was to try for a new career. Montana had been very friendly with him all the way over; had kept aloof from the other passengers, and had spent most of his leisure hours with Clement. The nights were growing a little chilly, and few of the passengers cared to remain long on deck; but Montana and Clement tramped there for hours after the others had gone below. One night they thus walked the deck and talked together, and Montana began contrasting the conditions under which Clement was seeking the New World with those under which he himself had at such an age made a like adventure. His manner was especially encouraging and friendly.

Everything seemed to be against me, then,' he said; and everything is in your

favour now. You ought to feel very happy. I almost envy you your youth and your destiny.'

• But you have realised your destiny,'

Clement answered. You have made a name; you are a man of the time. I have all the struggle before me; and shall probably fail; at least,' he added hastily, 'I shall probably fail in what I most would wish to do; and what is the good of anything if a man has not his heart's desire?'

True enough,' Montana said. Most of us have known that. But I shouldn't think you would fail even in that.' He looked keenly into Clement's face for a moment.

'I don't believe in forecasting people's destinies, in the fortune-teller's sense, that is,' Montana went on to say, 'but I think a man who opens his eyes and watches quietly can tell in advance a good many things. I think I could forecast your destiny easily enough. Shall I do so?'