supposing, then, that I did not?"
"Did not what?"

"Hit on the right man."

66

said

"It is the most ridiculous thing," said | dence, you know, you are always telling her brother, and Teddy did not relish me that I am not so prudent as I ought to ridiculous things in connection with him- be, so I intend to make an effort in future, self and his belongings, "it is the worst piece of luck that could have happened, that baby coming. Puts us all in the stupidest position. Just as if you and I were not laughed at enough already, the way we go on. Oh, I know, I know well enough. They say we're a queer lot, and that sort of thing; and it will be worse than ever after this. I say, you know, we must do something; it's no use staring at each other, and doing nothing to help ourselves. We shall be quizzed all over the place."

"So we shall." Matilda looked him in the face without the shadow of a smile. "What are we to do? Come, advise me, brother. Think of something quickly, please."

"Ah, but that's it. It's easy to say, 'Think of something;' but what the dickens am I to think of? There is only one way out of the scrape that I see, and that is for you to marry again, and cut the whole concern here."

"I have been married enough already," rejoined his sister. "Try again, my dear. Your prescription does not suit the complaint, doctor."

"Complaint! Well, I am glad to hear you have the sense to complain at least. 'Pon my word, it's too bad. However, all I can say is, you marry again."

And all I can say is, I have been married once too often as it is."

"You women have no logic about you," burst forth Teddy impatiently. "Can't you see, now, that having had one bad husband at the start, it's long odds but you get a better to go on with? Can't you see that? Bless me! it's as plain as a pike-staff. It stands to reason."

"Very true; to be sure, it stands to reason. But, my dear brother, 'better' is a vague term. How much better,' I should like to know? And then you evidently contemplate my taking a course of husbands, increasing in excellence as I 'go on' with them. Pray, how many will be required?"

"Good gracious! you are unreasonable. I never said such a thing. Why, you might hit on the very man for you the very next time."

"I might, certainly." "And then-there you are.' "True; then there I am." "Well, but," proceeded Lady Matilda, with infinite gravity, "supposing, Teddy, -just supposing, for the sake of pru

I

'Well, of course of course,' Teddy, slightly flustered, as was natural, by the suggestion, "of course, you know, you must take your chance. tell you it's long odds in your favor, but I can't say more than that. can say more than that. If you marry again

"In the abstract. Yes."

No man

"In the abstract? Yes." He had not a notion, poor boy, what she meant, for Teddy was simple, very simple, as perhaps has been already gathered. 66 In the abstract, if you like. You marry again, anyway; and then - there we are."

Then there we are," repeated Lady Matilda, with the same cheerful enunciation and the same immovable countenance as before; "but, pardon me, dear Ted, explain a little how?"

"Don't you see how? I'll soon show you, then. When you marry, I can come and live with you, and we can live anywhere you choose, — I am sure I don't care where, so long as it isn't here

("Abstract husband, no vote," sotto voce observed Matilda.)

"We could go far enough away," proceeded her brother; "we could now, if we had a little more money if we had not to hang on to Overton. I can't make out sometimes," with a little puzzled expression, — “I can't quite make out, Matilda, how it is that we haven't more money between us. I thought you had married a rich man."

"Oh, never mind- never mind that; we know all about that." Lady Matilda spoke rather hastily. "Money is not interesting to either of us, Ted, and I want to hear more about your plan. Tell me what we should do when we had gone away from here, and where to go, and why go at all?"

"As to what we should do! We should do very well. I don't know what you mean by that. And then it's easy enough settling where to go. There are heaps of places, very jolly places, that I could get to know about, once I was on the look-out for them. Places always crop up once you are on the look-out; any one will tell you that."

"And now, why should we go at all?" "Why?" Teddy opened his eyes, and stared at his sister." Why? Have I not

66

been telling you why all this time? I do
believe you think I like to talk on, for
talking's sake." (She did, but never let
him know as much, listening patiently till
the stream had run dry; but on this occa-
sion Teddy was too sharp, and the subject
was too engrossing.) Why? To get
quit of it, of course," he said.
"Of it! Of what?"
"That disgusting baby."

"Are you speaking of my grandson, sir? Are you talking of a hapless infant only a few hours old, you unnatural monster? Shame upon you! fie upon you, young man! Pray, Mr. Edward Sourface, reserve such epithets in future for other ears; and be so good, sir, at the same time, to draw off some of the vinegar which is visible in your countenance, and let me have it presently as a fitting accompaniment to the oil which we shall see exhibited in that of my trusty and well-beloved son-in-law - since one will counteract the other, and thus shall I better be able to digest both. Why, Teddy, what an idiot you are!" said Lady Ma tilda, dropping all at once her mocking accents, and speaking gently and playfully; "what an ado you make about the simplest and most natural thing in the world! I am married at eighteen, so of course Lotta improves on the idea, and marries before she is eighteen. I have a daughter, she has a son: in every way my child has followed the lead given her, and indeed eclipsed her mother from first to last."

"Fiddlesticks! Eclipsed her mother! Lotta!" cried Teddy, with undisguised contempt. "Lotta!" he said again, and laughed.

"Oh, Teddy, Teddy, you are not a good uncle. How can you laugh in that unkind way? Be quiet, sir, be quiet, I tell you; I won't have it. From a grand-uncle, too! Grand-uncle! Think of that, Teddy, love. Dear, dear,'tis really vastly surprising, as the old ladies say."

Vastly something else," muttered Teddy.

Mr. Grand-uncle," began the teasing voice.

try, I may be permitted to entertain some hopes that I shall not be converted into a great-grandmother with the same delightful celerity with which I have al ready been turned into a grandmother."

Then there was a pause, during which
the brother looked gloomily out of the
window, while the sister found apparently
a more agreeable prospect in her own
thoughts, for she smiled once or twice
before she spoke again. At last she rose
from her seat. "I shall go over this
afternoon, of course," she said.
"Over to Endhill?"
"Yes."

"Over to see that baby?"
"Yes."

"What on earth do you really mean it? Are you really going to waste a whole afternoon slobbering over a wretched baby?"

"Only about ten minutes of it, dear; don't be cross; I shall not ask to see Lotta, as she had better be quiet

"When is she ever any else?" "So we can just ride over, come back through the town, see what is going on, and have a fine gallop along the cliffs afterwards."

Now if there was one thing in the world Teddy Lessingham loved, it was to see what was going on in the old county town near which he had been born and bred; and if there was another, it was a gallop along the high, chalky downs when the tide was full, and the sea-wind was blowing the waves right up over the beach beneath. Still he made a demur; he looked at the sky, and looked at Matilda, "We shall get wet, of course."

"Of course. Old clothes. It will do us no harm."

"I don't mind, I am sure, if you don't. What time then?" For though the young. man had not been formally invited to go, let alone being consulted as to the expedition, it was assumed, indeed it was as much a matter of course that he was to be Matilda's companion as the horse she rode. To be sure he was. Where could he have gone but where she went? What could he have done that she would not have a part in? He never had a purpose apart from hers: her will was his law; her

"Oh, shut up, can't you? Grand-uncle!" said Teddy, with such distaste that it seemed he loathed the very term, inde-chariot-wheels his chosen place. pendently of its adherence to himself "grand-uncle! Was there ever such bosh? It really

"What I was going to say was," pursued his sister merrily, "that as the baby is a boy, - and youths under twenty do not usually affect matrimony in this coun

Nor was the widow less ardently attached to her young brother. She, the quickest-witted woman in the neighborhood, never lost patience with, never wearied of, her poor foolish Teddy, who, as was pretty well known, was not quite, not quite like other people, and yet was

heard like a Red Indian, when it suited him.

Then perhaps when such smartness was particularly mischievous in its results, and Teddy would meet with the mildest of rebuffs from those whom he had so wantonly maltreated, he would be very highly aggrieved indeed. Perhaps the rebuff might never even come to be spoken, but a something in the air would show that all was not well, and this was enough; he was out of favor, and he was bound to show resentment; nor, when he thus took the bit between his teeth, could all the united efforts of Overton and Matilda dislodge it. He was not to be either cajoled

so very little wrong, wanting in such a very slight degree, that it was almost a shame to mention it, and yet, if the truth were told, it was perhaps even more awkward and trying in some ways than if there had been more amiss. For Teddy considered himself to be a very knowing and remarkably wide-awake fellow. On his shoulders, he felt, rested a heavy weight of responsibility, and cares manifold devolved on his far-reaching mind. For instance, who but he kept up the whole credit of Overton Hall in the eyes of the world? Did he not entertain strangers, remember faces, do the civil to the neighborhood generally, whereas Overton | and Matilda never thought of such things? or coerced out of his mood. Silence, Overton was "a very good brother, a pre obstinate, unyielding, leaden-weighted cious good brother, and he was not saying silence, would be his refuge; and while a word against him; " but without saying the fit lasted, which it might do for days a word against him, it is certain that the at a time, neither the earl nor his sister speaker felt and was scarcely at pains to had much peace of mind. Vague misgiv conceal his sense of his own superiority. ings would creep into their bosoms and Overton, he would complain, had no idea betray their presence by uneasy whispers of keeping things up to the mark - had and glances, if Teddy's whereabouts were no nous, no go in him; whereas Matilda, unknown for any length of time: if he poor Matilda (here he would wag his head lingered out of doors after the great bell with sombre sagacity) — poor Matilda, had sounded from the tower at luncheonwas such a flighty, here-there-everywhere, time or dinner-time, one would be at happy-go-lucky, devil-may-care sort of the staircase window, and another look. creature, that if it were not for him,ing casually out of the front door. They oh, it was no wonder Teddy had a serious would watch him disappear across the aspect, all things considered.

Perhaps Matilda was at times diverted and at times provoked; but at any rate she took care that no one else should be either one or the other in her presence. In everything she supported and fortified her brother. He lectured her, and she listened dutifully. He put forth his wisdom, and it was met by gentle raillery or grave assent. His wildest assertions, his most pitiful arguments, were softened, smoothed, and helped tenderly out of the conversation, -so that even those who liked the fair Matilda least-and they were women, we may be sure - even those allowed that she was wonderfully, extraor dinarily “nice” with Teddy.

park, and when once the tall, handsome figure was out of sight, and Teddy could have no suspicion that he was being spied upon, one or other would be pretty sure to follow, and be merely strolling about in the same direction, if by chance they were obliged to let him see he was not alone. He would not address the intruder on his solitude. He would look angrily away, mutter to himself, and pass on. The servants would understand that Mr. Edward was in a "temper," and avoid him; his very dog would make no efforts to engage his notice.

But this is Teddy at his worst. These ugly days are few and far between,Now Teddy could be irritating. There thank God they are, or what might they were times when he would be sharp, sharp not lead to? They come but seldom, and as a needle, and sharp inevitably at the go as they come, unquestioned, unblamed. wrong moment and in the wrong way. Gradually the cloud begins to roll away, The thing that it was particularly desira- a softer look steals back to the face, the ble that he should not see, and should lips part in a smile, the whistle to Gruff know nothing about, he would perceive brings Gruff rampant to his master's side, by intuition and that, however absent- and it is plain that all is to be right minded and dull and stupid he might again. have seemed but the moment before. There was no evading his penetration, and no putting him off the scent once he struck it: he saw like a lynx, and

Overton nods to Matilda, and she nods back. Overton addresses Teddy as though nothing had happened, and Matil da takes it for granted that he will join her

and through his head without stopping -in at one ear and out at the other, before any good or bad comes of it. If it weren't for Lady Matilda" — and the old man shook his head.

It was in this light that the Hon. Edward Lessingham was looked upon by the inmates of Overton Hall.

CHAPTER II.

in some little jaunt or other, previously all right enough; but it just goes through arranged and ready to be brought forward, and they both talk away to him and take his arm, and pat him on the back, just as if he had not persistently avoided their company as much as he could for the last thirty or forty hours, and had not, when compelled to endure it, maintained an unbroken, sullen, affected unconsciousness of their presence. That is past, and he may be approached again. He looks a little anxious, a little ashamed: a vague feeling of having been naughty oppresses the lad as it would a child, and his spirits gratefully rise as he perceives he is not to be punished for his misbehavior. If Overton were cold to him, or, worse still, were Matilda to quarrel with him, all Teddy's happiness in life would be gone, for these two beings people his world, and in their unfailing forbearance and affection he basks as in sunshine.

"YET YOU USED TO SEEM HAPPY."
A coronet, my lord goes by,

My lady with him in the carriage,
You'd never guess from that proud eye
It was a miserable marriage."

ANON.

AND now we must more formally introduce our readers to Overton Hall itself, and to the three representatives of the Overton family now alone remaining, since they were, one and all, so far from being unremarkable, that in any rank, among any associates, they must still have attracted notice. As it was, as the first people of

of gossip, conjecture, and comment in a particularly barren and unfruitful neigh borhood. Providence had been kind to the parish in bestowing on it such a patron as Lord Overton, and such a pair as Teddy and Matilda for his brother and sister. No three people could have done more for the dull, out-of-the-way, old-world part they lived in, and that involuntarily; for, truth to tell, it was not all the money they gave away, the schemes they organized, the example they set, which was half so much valued among the villagers as their freaks and fancies, their whims and vagaries, their doings and sayings, their goings and comings, these were the real benefit, the real, actual, positive benefit, which was conferred, and for which gratitude was due.

-

"Yet Mr. Edward talks sensible enough," avers the old major-domo of Overton, who has known Mr. Edward from his cradle. "I've seen folks as the place, they were an unfailing source taken as they could be with Mr. Edward, I can tell you; and my lord not being married, nor looking that way, there's many would jump at the young one on the chance. Lord bless you, he ain't far wrong, not by no means! he is just a bit simple and foolish like; but who's to know that that sees him in company?-such a fine, well-set-up young gentleman to look at, a-talking here, a-talking there, always quite easy and comfortable, and dressed there ain't a better-dressed gentleman in London. For one coat of my lord's Mr. Edward have half-a-dozen; and as to trousers, Joseph here tells me he wouldn't like to give a guess even at what his trouser bill is. My lord, he pays: bless you, he don't say nothing to nobody, but he just pays and keeps the receipts. He ain't as poor as Mr. Edward thinks, d'ye understand? 'Twould never do to let Mr. Edward have every suvering he wanted, or we should soon be in the workhouse; but he gets his little bit of money that his father left him, just to make believe, d'ye see? He gets it paid regular down, and he fusses over it, and thinks it's all he have to live upon, and to be sure he can see well enough 'tis but a trifle, so that just keeps him down nicely. To hear him sometimes telling folks how poor he is! But he forgets, you know, - he forgets, does Mr. Edward. Lor'! you may talk to him by the hour to gether, and he don't know nothing at the end. Tell him a thing, and he takes it in

---

Overton Hall, far from the busy world at least as far as it is possible to be in England in these highly strung and terribly communicative days-four miles from a small and sleepy wayside station, in plainer terms, was sunk in a hollow (though Lady Matilda would never allow as much)

was, at any rate, far down the slope of a long, low Sussex hillside; and although pleasant enough as a summer residence, was looked upon by all but its inhabitants as absolutely unendurable after the fall of the leaf. When October had once fairly set in, the park would be a series of swamps, over which faint blue mists hung incessantly; the red walls of the old Elizabethan mansion would be visible for