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might have an opportunity of confiding | to her, as being an old friend, and all that all her perplexities to her friend.

"I suppose," said Von Rosen, "that I suffer for my own folly. I might have known. But for this day or two back, it has seemed so great a chance to me of getting her to promise at least to think of it and the prospect of having such a wife as that it was all too much. Perhaps I have done the worst for myself by the hurry; but was it not excusable in a man to be in a hurry to ask such a girl to be his wife? And there is no harm in knowing soon that all that was impossible."

Doubtless it was comforting to him to go on talking. I wondered what Bell was saying at this moment; and whether a comparison of their respective views would throw some light on the subject. As for the Lieutenant, he seemed to regard Bell's decision as final. If he had been a little older, he might not; but having just been plunged from the pinnacle of hope into an abyss of despair, he was too stunned to think of clambering up again by degrees. But even at this time all his thoughts were directed to the best means of making his presence as little of an embarrassment to Bell as possible.

"This evening will pass away very well," he said, "for everybody will be talking at dinner, and we need not to address each other; but to morrow if you think this better that I remain with you- then you will drive the phaeton, and you will give Mademoiselle the front seat - for the whole day? Is it agreed?"

"Certainly. You must not think of leaving us at present. You see, if you went away we should have to send for Arthur."

A sort of flame blazed up into the face of the Lieutenant; and he said, in a rapid and vehement way

"This thing I will say to you - if Mademoiselle will not marry me - good. It is the right of every girl to have her choice. But if you allow her to marry that pitiful fellow, it will be a shame and you will not forgive yourself, either Madame or you, in the years afterwards. that I am quite sure of!"

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stupid nonsense; and I know that she has
a strange idea that she owes to him
The Lieutenant suddenly stopped.
"No," he said, "I will not tell you what
she did tell to me this afternoon. But I
think you know it all; and it will be very
bad of you to make a sacrifice of her by
bringing him here ·

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"If you remain in the phaeton, we can't."

"Then I will remain."

"Thank you. As Tita and I have to consider ourselves just a little bit amid all this whirl of love-making and reckless generosity I must say we prefer your society to that of Master Arthur."

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"That is a very good compliment!" says Von Rosen, with an ungracious sneer

for who ever heard of a young man of twenty-six being just to a young man of twenty-two when both wanted to marry the same young lady?

Bell

We overtook our companions. and I walked on together to the hotel, and subsequently down to the station. An air of gloom seemed to hang over the heavy forests far up amid the grey rocks. The river had a mournful sound as it came rushing down between the mighty boulders. Bell scarcely uttered a word as we got into the carriage and slowly steamed away from the platform.

Whither had gone the joy of her face? She was once more approaching the sea. Under ordinary circumstances you would have seen an anticipatory light in her blue eyes, as if she already heard the long plash of the waves, and smelt the sea-weed. Now she sat in the corner of the carriage; and when at last we came in view of the most beautiful sight that we had yet met on our journey, she sat and gazed at it with the eyes of one distraught.

That was a rare and wild picture we saw when we got back to the sea. The heavy rain-clouds had sunk down until they formed a low dense wall of purple all along the line of the western horizon, between the sea and the sky. That heavy bar of cloud was almost black; but just above it there was a calm fair stretch of lambent green, with here and there a torn shred of crimson cloud and one or two lines of sharp gold, lying parallel with the horizon. But away over in the east again were some windy masses of cloud that had caught a blush of red; and these had sent a pale reflection down on the sea — a sort This of salmon-colour that seemed the compleright 'ment of the still gold-green overhead.

"But what have we to do with Bell's choice of a husband?"

"You talked just now of sending him to join your party."

for

"Why, Bell isn't bound to marry everyone who comes for a drive with us. Your own case is one in point."

"But this is quite different. wretched fellow thinks he has an old

The sunset touched faintly the low | dans Fránsais mon cher Mamma le pony est trai mountains about the mouth of the Dee. bien et je sui mon cher Mamma,

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"Voter aimé fils,

"TOM."

"COWLEY HOUSE, TWICKENHAM, July, 1871.

A rose-red glimmer struck the glass of the window at which Bell sat; and then, as the train made a slight curve in the line running by the shore, the warm light enMy dear Papa, Tom has written Mamma tered and lit up her face with a rich and I beautiful glow. The Lieutenant, hidden a letter in French and Doctor Ashburton says must begin to learn French too but Tom says it in the dusk of the opposite corner, was regarding her with wistful eyes. Perhaps is very dificult and it takes a long time to write he thought that now, more than ever, she a letter with the dixonary and he says my dear looked like some celestial being far out of Papa that we must learn German Too but please may I learn German first and you will give my his reach, whom he had dared to hope love to the German gentleman who gave us the would forsake her strange altitudes and poney he is very well my dear papa and very share his life with him. Tita, saying noth-fat and round and hard in the sides Harry ing, was also gazing out of the window, French says if he goes on eeting like that he and probably pondering on the unhappy will burst but me and Tom only laughed at him climax that seemed to put an end to her and we rode him down to Stanes and back which friendly hopes. is a long way and I only tumbled off twice but once into the ditch for he wanted to eat the Grass and I Pooled at him and slipt over his head but I was not much Wet and I went to bed until Jane dryed all my close and no one new of it but her Pleese my dear papa how is Auntie Bell, and we send our love to her, and to my dear mamma and I am your affexnate son,

Darkness fell over the sea and the land. The great plain of water seemed to fade away into the gloom of the horizon; but here, close at hand, the pools on the shore occasionally caught the last reflection of the sky, and flashed out a gleam of yellow fire. The wild intensity of the colours - the dark was almost painful to the eyes blue-green of the shore-plants and the seagrass; the gathering purple of the sea; the black rocks on the sand; and then that sudden bewildering flash of gold where a pool had been left among the seaweed. The mountains in the south had now disappeared; and were doubtless away in that mysterious darkness wreathing themselves in the cold nightmists that were slowly rising from the woods and the valleys of the streams.

Such was our one and only glimpse of Wales; and the day that Bell had looked forward to with such eager delight had closed in silence and despair.

When we got back to the hotel, a letter from Arthur was lying on the table.

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"JACK.

"P.S. All the monney you sent as gone away for oats and beans and hay. Pleese my dear Papa to send a good lot more."

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INN, OAKHAM, Friday Afternoon. You will see I have slightly departed from the route I described in a telegram to Bell. Indeed, I find myself so untrammelled in driving this light dogcart, with a powerful little animal that never seems fatigued, that I can go anywhere without fearing there will not be accommodation for a pair of horses and a large party. I am sure you must often have been put to straits in securing rooms for so many at a small country inn. Probably you know the horse I have got it is the cob that Major Quinet bought from Heathcote. I saw him by the merest accident when I returned from Worcester to London - told him what I meant to do

- be offered me the cob with the greatest goodnature and as I knew I should be safer with it than anything I could hire, I accepted. You will see I have come a good pace. I started on the Tuesday morning after I saw you at Worcester, and here I am at Oakham, rather over ninety miles. To-morrow I hope to be in Nottingham, about other thirty. Perhaps, if you will allow me, I may strike across country, by Huddersfield and Skipton, and pay you a visit at Kendal. I hope Bell is well, and that you are not having much rain. I have had the most delightful weather.

"Yours sincerely,

"ARTHUR ASHBURTON." "It is a race," said the Lieutenant, "who shall be at Carlisle first."

"Arthur will beat," remarked Bell, looking to my Lady; and although nothing

could have been more innocent than that observation, it seemed rather to take Von Rosen down a bit. He turned to the window and looked out.

when anyone is attacked. Well, one of the party humbly recalls that circumstance. He asks in what way Major Quinet has changed within the past two days. Tita looks up, with that sort of quick, triumphant glance which tells beforehand that "she has a reply ready, and says

"I think it was very foolish of Major Quinet to lend him that beautiful little bay cob to go on such an expedition as that,' said Tita. "He will ruin it entirely. Fancy going thirty miles a day without giving the poor animal a day's rest! Why should he be so anxious to overtake us? If we had particularly wanted him to accompany us, we should have asked him to do so." "He does not propose to accompany you," I say. "He is only coming to pay you a visit."

"I know what that means," says my Lady, with a tiny shrug; "something like the arrival of a mother-in-law, with a carriageful of luggage."

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"My dear," I say to her, "why should you speak scornfully of the amiable and excellent lady who is responsible for your bringing up?

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"I was not speaking of my mamma," says Tita, "but of the abstract mother-inlaw."

"A man never objects to an abstract mother-in-law. Now, your mamma- - although she is not to be considered as a

mother-in-law-"

"If Major Quinet has committed a fault, it is one of generosity. That is an error not common among men - especially men who have horses, and who would rather see their own wives walk through the mud to the station than let their horses get wet."

"Bell, what is good for you, when you're sat upon

? "

"Patience," says Bell: and then we go out into the old and grey streets of Chester.

It was curious to notice now the demeanour of our hapless Lieutenant towards Bell. He had had a whole night to think over his position; and in the morning he seemed to have for the first time fully realized the hopelessness of his case. He spoke of it-before the women came down - in a grave, matter-of-fact way, not making any protestation of suffering, but calmly accepting it as a matter for regret. One could easily see, however, that a good deal of genuine feeling lay behind these brief words.

"My mamma never visits me but at my own request," says my Lady, with some- Then, when Bell came down, he showed thing of loftiness in her manner; "and I her a vast amount of studied respect; but am sorry she makes her visits so short, for spoke to her of one or two ordinary matwhen she is in the house, I am treated with ters in a careless tone, as if to assure evsome show of attention and respect." erybody that nothing particular had hap"Well," I say to her, "if a mother-in-pened. The girl herself was not equal to law can do no better than encourage hypocrisy - But I bear no malice. I will take some sugar, if you please."

any such effort of amiable hypocrisy. She was very timid. She agreed with him in a hurried way whenever he made the most "And as for Arthur," continues Tita, insignificant statement, and showed herturning to Bell," what must I say to him?"self obtrusively anxious to take his side "Only that we shall be pleased to see him, I suppose,” is the reply.

The Lieutenant stares out into the streets of Chester, as though he did not hear.

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when my Lady, for example, doubted the efficacy of carbolic soap. The Lieutenant had no great interest in carbolic soaphad never seen it, indeed, until that morning; but Bell was so anxious to be kind to him, that she defended the compound as if she had been the inventor and patentee of it.

"It is very awkward for me," said the Lieutenant, as we were strolling through the quaint thoroughfare - Bell and my Lady leading the way along the piazzas formed on the first floor of the houses; "it is very awkward for me to be always meeting her, and more especially in a room. And she seems to think that she has done me some wrong. That is not so. That is quite a mistake. It is a misfortune that is all; and the fault is mine that I did not

understand sooner. Yet I wish we were again in the phaeton. Then there is great life-motion-something to do and think about. I cannot bear this doing of nothing."

Well, if the Lieutenant's restlessness was to be appeased by hard work, he was likely to have enough of it that day; for we were shortly to take the horses and phaeton across the estuary of the Mersey, by one of the Birkenhead ferries; and any one who has engaged in that pleasing operation knows the excitement of it. Von Rosen chafed against the placid monotony of the Chester streets. The passages under the porticoes are found to be rather narrow of a forenoon, when a crowd of women and girls have come out to look at the shops, and when the only alternative to waiting one's turn and getting along is to descend ignominiously into the thoroughfare below. Now, no stranger who comes to Chester would think of walking along an ordinary pavement, so long as he can pace through those quaint old galleries that are built on the roofs of the ground-row of shops and cellars. The Lieutenant hung aimlessly about just as you may see a husband lounging and staring in Regent-street, while his wife is examining with a deadly interest the milliners' and jewellers' windows. Bell bought presents for the boys. My Lady purchased photographs. In fact, we conducted ourselves like the honest Briton abroad, who buys a lot of useless articles in every town he comes to, chiefly because he has nothing else to do, and may as well seize that opportunity of talking to the natives.

Then our bonny bays were put into the phaeton, and with a great sense of freedom shining on the face of our Uhlan, we started once more for the north. Bell was sitting beside me. That had been | part of the arrangement. But why was she so pensive? Why this profession of tenderness and an extreme interest and kindness? I had done her no injury.

"Bell," I say to her, "have you left all your wildness behind you- buried down at the foot of Box Hill, or calmly interred under a block of stone up on Mickleham Downs. Where be your gibes now? your gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set my Lady frowning at you as if you were an incorrigible Tom-boy? Come, now, touching that ballad of the Bailiff's Daughter - the guitar has not been out for a long time" A small gloved hand was gently and furtively laid on my arm. There was to be no singing.

"I think," said Bell, aloud, "that this is a very pretty piece of country to lie between two such big towns as Chester and Liverpool."

The remark was not very profound, but it was accurate, and it served its purpose of pushing away finally that suggestion about the guitar. We were now driving up the long neck of land lying between the parallel estuaries of the Dee and the Mer-, sey. About Backford, and on by Great' Sutton and Childer Thornton to Eastham, the drive was pleasant enough - the windy day and passing clouds giving motion and variety to the undulating pasture-land and the level fields of the farms. But as we drove carelessly through the green landscape, all of a sudden we saw before us a great forest of masts grey streaks in the midst of the horizon- and behind them a cloud of smoke arising from an immense stretch of houses. We discovered, too, the line of the Mersey; and by and by we could see its banks widening, until the boats in the bed of the stream could be vaguely made out in the distance.

"Shall we remain in Liverpool this evening?" asks Bell.

"As you please."

Bell had been more eager than any of us to hurry on our passage to the north, that we should have abundant leisure in the Lake country. But a young lady who finds herself in an embarrassing position may imagine that the best refuge she can have in the evening is the theatre.

"Pray don't," says Tita. "We shall be at Liverpool presently, and it would be a great pity to throw away a day when we shall want all the spare time we can get when we reach Kendal."

Kendal! It was the town at which Arthur was to meet us. But of course my Lady had her way. Since Von Rosen chose to sit mute, the decision rested with her; and so the driver, being of an equable disposition, and valuing the peace of mind of the party far above the respect that ought to have been shown to Liverpool, meekly took his orders and sent the horses on.

But it was a long way to Liverpool, despite Tita's assurances. The appearances of the landscape were deceitful. The smoke on the other side of the river seemed to indicate that the city was close at hand; but we continued to roll along the level road without apparently coming one whit nearer Birkenhead. We crossed Bromborough Pool. We went by Primrose Hill. We drove past grounds apparently surrounding some mansion, only to find

the level road still stretching on before us. | by both hands. The horse went back anThen there were a few cottages. Houses other step. It was a perilous moment, for of an unmistakably civic look began to ap- there is no railing to the board which pear. Suburban villas with gardens walled forms the gangway to those ferry-steamers, in with brick studded the road-side. Fac- and if the animal had gone to one side or tories glimmered grey in the distance. An the other, he and Von Rosen would have odour of coal-smoke was perceptible in the been in the water together. But with a air; and finally, with a doleful satisfaction, "Hi! hoop!" and a little touch of a whip we heard the wheels of the phaeton rat- from behind, the horse sprang forward, tling over a grimy street, and we knew we and was in the boat before he knew. And were in Birkenhead. there was Bell at his head, talking in an

There was less to do with Castor; that prudent animal, with his eyes staring wildly around, feeling his way gingerly on the sounding board, but not pausing all the same. Then he too had his nose-bag to comfort him; and when the steamer uttered a yell of a whistle through its steam-pipe, the two horses only started and knocked their hoofs about on the deck for they were very well employed, and Bell was standing in front of their heads, talking to them and pacifying them.

There was some excuse for the Lieuten-endearing fashion to him as the Lieutenant losing his temper- even if he had not ant pulled the strap of the nose-bag up; been in rather a gloomy mood, to begin and one horse was safe. with. The arrangements for the transference of carriage-horses across the Mersey are of a nebulous description. When we drove down the narrow passage to Tranmere Ferry, the only official we could secure was a hulking lout of a fellow of decidedly hang-dog aspect. Von Rosen asked him civilly enough, if there was any one about who could take the horses out, and superintend the placing of them and the phaeton in the ferry. There was no such person. Our friend in moleskin hinted in a surly fashion, that the Lieutenant might do it for himself. But he would help, he said; and therewith he growled something about being paid for his trouble. I began to fear for the safety of that man. The river is deep just close by.

Bell and Tita had to be got out, and tickets taken for the party and for the horses and phaeton. When I returned, the Lieutenant, with rather a firm-set mouth, was himself taking the horses out, while the loafer in moleskin stood at some little distance, scowling and muttering scornful observations at the same time.

"Ha! have you got the tickets?" said our Uhlan. "That is very good. We shall do by ourselves. Can you get out the nosebags, that we shall pacify them on going across? I have told this fellow-if he comes near to the horses-if he speaks one more word to me - he will be in the river the next moment; and that is quite sure as I am alive."

Then we steamed slowly out into the broad estuary. A strong wind was blowing up channel, and the yellow-brown waves were splashing about, with here and there a bold dash of blue on them from the gusty sky overhead. Far away down the Mersey the shipping seemed to be like a cloud along the two shores; and out on the wide surface of the river were large vessels being tugged about, and mighty steamers coming up to the Liverpool piers. When one of these bore down upon us so closely that she seemed to overlook our little boat, the two horses forgot their corn and flung their heads about a bit; but the Lieutenant had a firm grip of them, and they were eventually quieted.

He had by this time recovered from his fit of wrath. Indeed, he laughed heartily over the matter, and said

"I am afraid I did give that lounging fellow a great fright. He does not understand German, I suppose; but the sound of what I said to him had a great effect upon him-I can assure you of that. He retreated from me hastily. It was some time before he could make out what had happened to him; and then he did not return to the phaeton."

But there was no one who could keep the horses quiet like Bell. When they were taken down the little pier, she walked by their heads, and spoke to them, and stroked their noses; and then she swiftly got on board the steamer to receive them. The Lieutenant took hold of Pollux. The The horses bore the landing on the animal had been quiet enough even with other side very well; and, with but an the steamer blowing and puffing in front occasional tremulous start, permitted of him, but when he found his hoofs strik- themselves to be put-to on the quay, amid ing on the board between the pier and the roar and confusion of arriving and the steamer, he threw up his head, and departing steamers. We were greatly strove to back. The Lieutenant held on helped in this matter by an amiable police

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