"Oh, I am sure it would do her good. It is always said that a doctor cannot live nor die at Mallett. People are never ill here."

"I shall tell her that as a certain inducement."

"Yes, do," she said, stopping half way down the lane before a black painted wooden gate. "Here we are. This is Sharrows, and there is papa," and she pointed to a rather stout-looking figure in a short jacket and broad Panama hat.

"Papa! papa! He doesn't hear me he is a little deaf; but I'll soon make him look up," and, to Sir Stephen's great amusement, she put her two fingers into her mouth and gave a long shrill whistle. "Shocking," she said turning to her companion, with a little shrug at herself, "but he sees us now;" and, waving her hand, they descended the path towards which Captain Carthew had turned to meet them. As soon as they were within speaking distance Hero called out

"Papa, who do you think I have brought to see you? This is Sir Stephen Prescott."

"Sir Stephen! God bless my heart, you don't say so!" and Captain Carthew, hurrying forward, seized the long-expected visitor by both hands, giving them a grip they were totally unaccustomed to, as he said heartily

"Welcome, very welcome. So you've found your way to Mallett at last. Well, I'm very glad to see you. Why, you've regularly stolen a march upon us. When did you come?"

"This afternoon." "And," broke in Hero, "he was going back to Dockmouth, because nothing was ready at Combe. Mrs. Tucker expected that he intended writing again, as we all

did."

Hero ran off by some shorter way, and the Captain, putting his arm in Sir Stephen's, the two proceeded towards the flat upon which the house stood.

Sir Stephen had intended making an elaborate apology for the unceremonious way in which he had accepted Hero's invitation; but somehow he quite forgot about it, and before an hour had elapsed he found himself chatting away to Captain Carthew as if he had known him all his life. When he casually spoke of leaving Mallett the next day the Captain would not hear of it.

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No, no," he said, "now you are here don't run away directly. I want you to take an interest in the place and the people, and you'll never do that until you've seen a little of them. Why, there are no such sailors in the world as the Mallett men fine, hardy fellows, true to the backbone, rough and ready to shed their last drop of blood for those they're bound to. Then the place; I've been half over the world, but I never saw anything to touch Mallett. Talk about foreign scenery, pshaw! stuff and nonsense! Look at Winkle; go to Silver Sands. Why, when you've been here a month you won't know yourself for the same man. Except of old age people can't die at Mallett; when they come here they get a fresh lease of their lives. So don't talk of running away-and what's the use of going back to Combe? No, no; I shall send for your traps, and you just take up your quarters here, and then I can lay an embargo upon you whenever I see any signs of weighing anchor."

And so finally the matter was settled. Sir Stephen demurred at first, and put forward several feeble objections, which - as he was nothing loth to remain - he was not sorry to have overruled. The "Now," said the Captain, "didn't I tell end was that he consented to remain, and you she had best set to and get every-owned himself very much obliged to Capthing square at once. I expected from tain Carthew and his daughter for asking the first that you'd come and catch us all him. napping; but these women folk make as much fuss over setting their chairs and tables straight, and getting their sheets out of lavender as we should in rigging out a 'seventy-four.' But there, there; it's an ill wind that blows nobody good, and since we've got you down here I won't say any more. Run round to Betsey, Hero, and say she must give us the best dinner she can. Get her steam up," he added, with his hand to his mouth and a jerk of his head towards Sir Stephen, "by telling her who's going to eat it."

By the morning of the next day there was not a man, woman, or child, in all Mallett but knew that Sir Stephen had come, and was staying with "the Cap'en at Sharrows. Ann House had been up with some whiting pout which her man had caught the night before. Ned Wallis had picked out the finest of the shrimps that he was taking to Dockmouth market, and left them with his duty. Mrs. Carne would be bound that Betsey was put to it for butter, and sent her boy Johnny up with a fresh pound and pot of cream. The general thought was how they could

assist the "Cap'en " in duly entertaining his distinguished guest. Nor was it in the village alone that this feeling existed. Mrs. Thompson remembered that Hero had said some days before that their stock of jam was nearly exhausted, so she must supply that default. Miss Stevens routed out some choice ginger that her brother the chaplain had brought from China. Old Mr. Jamieson, the paymaster, thought he'd take down a bottle of his old Constantia (he'd only four or five left) that the Captain might give Sir Stephen a taste of something he did not get every day. And so all through the small community each drew on his or her little store of dainties, trying to assist their neighbour in setting before his guest those things which his hospitality would prompt, but his resources they knew would not supply.

CHAPTER III.

AT SHARROWS.

"THERE is one thing which must be done," said Hero, as Sir Stephen, on the second morning after his arrival stood waiting for Captain Carthew to accompany him to Combe; "so it is of no use talking about your going away. Stay you must, for it is your duty to.""

"And, pray, what is my duty?" "Well, your duty to your neighbour, in this instance, is that you remain, and I invite all Mallett and its environs to tea, and to meet Sir Stephen Prescott."

and pictured himself doing the agreeable to them at a tea party, the idea tickled him more than he would have cared for his present friends to see.

"It is of no use laughing," said Hero, trying to look grave. "I really mean what I say; they would be so disappointed if they were not properly introduced to you, just as we should have been, if you had stayed somewhere else, and had gone away without our seeing anything of you. People have so looked forward to your visit, and they are really all so good and kind-hearted that I fear if you went away and did not meet them, they would feel hurt, and fancy you took no interest in the place. If you think you can stay, you would be granting me a favour by doing so."

"My dear Miss Carthew, say no more. I would do a great deal more than that to please you; beside which you and your father are so good to me, that, unless I was absolutely obliged to get back to London, I doubt very much whether you would not experience considerable difficulty in getting rid of me."

"Then you really will stay?"
"Of course I will."

"That is kind of you - thank you so much. I shall invite all I can for to-morrow evening. They know my heart is good to ask everybody, but as papa says, our stowage is not large enough."

"Now I have a brilliant idea," said Sir Stephen, "if you will oblige me by helping to carry it out."

"What is it?"

"Why, this; instead of asking them here, ask them all to Combe-Mallett; the rooms are already dismantled, the people have nothing to do, and I'll send my man off to Dockmouth to order some supper."

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Sir Stephen laughed outright. The whole thing was to him so irresistibly comic; in fact, during the last few days, his life had been so entirely altered from its usual routine, that, after the fashion of the ancient dame who fell asleep on the king's highway, he had asked himself, over and over again, "Can this be I?" Why, we could have a dance," exA man accustomed to a certain amount claimed Hero, twisting round in an imagof luxury, amusement, and society, found inary waltz; "what a glorious idea! himself suddenly domesticated among Everybody can be invited there, can't comparative strangers, who, though they they? They will be so delighted; oh, did their best to entertain him, could of- thank you, Sir Stephen; I am so much fer him nothing beyond the simple en-obliged to you. You don't know how joyments of their homely life. kind every one will think it."

Hero's light-hearted face and merry gossip, Captain Carthew's quaint stories, the primitive, out-spoken village folk whom they met on their rambling investigations all combined to amuse him wonderfully, and somehow the days had seemed very short. But when he called up some of the queer-looking old men and antiquated ladies who had been pointed out to him as of Mallett gentry,

"There is really no great kindness in it from me, not one quarter as kind as you were going to be; see to what trouble you intended putting yourself."

"Trouble! oh, I do not call that trouble; you should see us at Christmas time. We always give two parties then; one to our friends, and one to the village; although they nearly all come to each. The whole house is turned upside down,

"Indeed, I am not; you must not "Well," laughed Hero, "it is somethink because I have not shown my hoof, what startling to contemplate just now, that it is my wont to be as cheerful and but it comes on one by degrees, and happy as I have felt since I came here. oh, yes, if it was my fate, I should not be I cannot make my contented self out, and very miserable under it; the worst to me can only put it down to the influence of would be the partings and the long septhe atmosphere by which I am surround-arations," and she gave a little sigh. ed. You are all so good and happy that you diffuse it to those less fortunately constituted."

"But I mean husbands and wives," | which she was the happy bearer, would said Hero, getting a little red.

"So do I," said Sir Stephen; "but I have known husbands and wives not at all sorry to part, after they discovered they could not live happily together."

Yes, I know that. Of course all do not get on well; in the village some of the married people disagree terribly. They come up here with such stories of each other, and quarrel and fight constantly, But even then, I suppose, a sort of regard exists between them; for if any one else takes sides or interferes, they are sure to leave off and fall upon the unlucky interloper. Papa can always separate two men or two women, but he says he shears off when it's a matrimonial squabble." "What an influence your father has in the village!" said Sir Stephen; "I quite envy him his popularity."

"Come and live here then, and you'll soon share their favour."

give.

"So thoughtful, I call it," said Mrs. Jamieson, turning it over in her mind as to whether her best cap would do. "You know, my dear, it is not every young man in his exalted position who would care to know us simple folks."

"It's all your doing, Hero," said Mrs. Thompson, "and sorry I am my Terence isn't here to enjoy it with us."

"Yes, I wish he was; and that Leo was here too. He knows my step so well; nobody dances as well as Leoat least think so."

Mrs. Thompson shook her head. "I often wish now," she said, "that you didn't think quite so much of Leo Despard, Hero. I'd far sooner see ye listening to Jack Pringle, poor boy; and he hanging on your words like the bee does to the flower, and finding nothing but honey in it. Leo thinks too much of himself, and not enough of other people; and you and Aunt Lydia just tickle him with a feather out of his own tail. I suppose she'll hardly venture so far in the

"More unlikely things than that might happen," said Sir Stephen gravely; "sometimes one's life seems to remain stagnant for years, then suddenly an opening is made for new hopes, resolves, and inter-night air.” ests. Perhaps this visit which I have "No," said Hero, "thinking it best to paid without even telling my mother that I intended coming, may be a turning point in my life—who knows?"

"It would be the making of the Mallett people if you did come to Combe," said Hero; "you might find it dull at first, though we would do all we could to make you like the place. Papa! papa!" she called out, seeing her father pass the window. "I want to speak to you. Only think, Sir Stephen says I may ask all the people to Combe instead of here. Won't it be nice? I must go to the Joslyns, and ask them; Alice must come, you know!"

"Oh! that means the boat and Bunce, I suppose?"

"The

"No, I'd rather go with Jim." The Captain shook his head. wind is sure to drop in the afternoon," he

let the remarks on Leo go unanswered; "I am going to her next, but it is not at all likely that she will come; she is so afraid of taking cold; " and after some discussion regarding the dress Mrs. Thompson meant to wear, Hero left for the cottage where the late rector's sister, Miss Despard, or Aunt Lydia, as she was more generally called, resided.

As had been anticipated, the old lady would not hear of it being prudent that she should accept Hero's invitation; although she was equally obliged to Sir Stephen for asking her, and it was only like the Captain to offer to fetch her and see her home. "But I don't feel equal to it, my dear; more particularly as Leo is not going to be there."

"You'd go to see him, wouldn't you, Aunt Lydia?" Hero said, with a look which made Miss Despard take the girl's hand and press it in token of their sympathy on that point.

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"Ah, dear fellow! that I would," she replied, with a burst of pride. "Sir Stephen, or fifty Sir Stephens, I know there'll not be one equal to my Leo in that room. You are right to be very proud of being his choice, Hero, for I don't know where you'd go to find his equal."

Hero smiled approvingly; she liked to hear Leo's praises sung, for though there

worries which cankered all his happiness, because his false pride had rebelled against his originally acknowledging his true position; and having commenced his career by announcing a cleverly concocted falsehood, he had now to keep up the fraudulent statement.

All this was unknown to his Mallett friends, who based their opinions of him on the foolish way in which he rebelled against the small economies which Aunt Lydia, in common with her neighbours, had to practice; and he often vexed Hero by seeming to be ashamed of the unpretending mode of living, and the small house to which he had to return. Knowing nothing of such feelings herself, she had no sympathy with them, and she tried to assure herself that in time she should make Leo forget them, and teach him to love Mallett as she loved it.

was no openly-acknowledged engagement | soldier, Leo was in due time gazetted to a between them, everybody knew that regiment, where his hardest task was trythere was to be as soon as his ardently ing to keep pace with his brother officers, longed-for promotion came. most of them men more monied than Not a few of Hero's friends shook himself. Few, if any, of his associates their heads disapprovingly over this ar- guessed that their pleasant, popular comrangement, and hoped that something panion imposed upon himself cares and might happen to prevent a marriage of which they did not heartily approve; for Leo was not universally popular in Mallett. He did not belong to the place, nor the county, but came from London, which was like belonging to no place, and next to being a foreigner; then there was a little air of mystery about him, inasmuch as no one knew for certain who he was, or who his parents were before him. He had come to Mallett some twenty years before with Mr. Despard, the late rector. Two or three different stories had been given out at odd times about the boy, whether true or false nobody could undertake to say, for Mr. Despard himself was a stranger to Mallett, and held the living because he had been a friend of the former baronet, Sir Bernard Prescott, in whose gift it was. When Leo was sent to Dockmouth grammar-school, the rector gave him his own name in place of the one he had heretofore borne, announcing to Mallett that he meant from henceforth to adopt the boy as his own son, and that they were in future to call him Leo Despard. These circumstances, combined with an undue reticence on the rector's part, and a confusion in his sister's manner whenever the relationship was alluded to, led to the conclusion that perhaps the less said about Leo's birth and parentage the better. On one point every person was agreed that no parents could have shown more tender love towards the boy than did the shy reserved rector and his ailing spinster sister. By them Leo's wishes, his likes and dislikes, were regarded as those of a genius who ought not to be trammelled with the ordinary rules by which youth is usually governed; and it naturally came to pass that this blind affection strengthened the faults that should have been curbed, and killed the unselfishness and thoughtfulness for others, which in most characters is the result of early training, and accumulated small self-denials.

"If he were but at home now to meet Sir Stephen and hear his admiration of the place and the people, it would be more likely to do him good than anything else." But unfortunately that was impossible, so she must trust to the impression which her repetition of all that her new friend said and did would produce; and with this thought uppermost in her mind, she bade Aunt Lydia good-bye, and proceeded to deliver her round of invitations.

The news" that doings was to be up to Combe" very soon spread through the village, and infected the humbler inhabitants with a general air of excitement. All who could be of any service volunteered their help to Mrs. Tucker, the steward, Betsey, and the Captain, until Sir Stephen, infected by the unwonted stir and bustle, declared that there must be two gatherings, and that, if Captain Carthew would assist him and give him quarters for a day or two longer, they would contrive to get up something for the village people, whose cheerful alacrity he considered was really deserving of recognition. This idea so delighted the Captain that he could scarcely contain his joy until he got down to the water's edge, and no sooner had he reached there, than he roared out to the men gathered

It had been Mr. Despard's wish that Leo should follow his profession, and, after him, take the Mallett rectorship; but to this plan the boy would not listen, he would be nothing but a soldier; and, as most people agreed that such a hand-about the quay some young fellow seemed made for a

"Here, listen to me, my men. Sir