to Stubbing's field, the place of rendezvous. She did not believe he would be there; most likely at the last moment he had sent some excuse; but, if not, how would he meet her? She must school herself not to betray any sign of agitation before people, and not to evince emotion at whatever might take place during the day.

A large elm-tree hid the field from view, but no sooner was that passed, than she saw Leo leaning against the gate, and in an instant he was walking rapidly towards her.

No, no; her basket I mean. I fancy I see Betsey mounted up there!" added Hero, laughing.

"Awh, do 'ee?" said Betsey, who, assisted in carrying her burden by her faithful swain, Joe Bunce, had come up at this point, "then you'm keener at pictering than I be. Lor bless the man," she exclaimed suddenly, addressing Joe,

"Hero," he exclaimed hurriedly, taking possession of both her hands, "can"why don't 'ee set the things down, you forgive me? I have not dared to 'stead o' gaping at the dunkey? Folks come and ask, and I was ashamed to 'll think you've met with a relation." write to you. Say yes before we get up to the others, for I am so miserable!" and his handsome face wore an expression of most becoming despondency.

"You must forgive me too, Leo. We ought, both of us, to have known from the first that neither meant what was said."

"You will be quite afraid of me, now that I have betrayed my horrid temper," he went on dolefully. "You never knew before what a jealous beast I am. I feel that you must despise me, Hero?"

This speech having the desired effect of turning the laugh against Joe, Betsey recovered her good temper, and began to take her place as head and chief of the commissariat department.

Forgive him! why, in a moment, she felt she had nothing to forgive. All her A picnic, or merry-making of any kind, anger vanished, and she answered, in a which entailed a tolerable amount of prepquivering voice, while tears of joy trem-aration and bustle, was a source of much bled in her eyes gratification to Betsey, who was never more delighted than when pooh-poohing in a triumphant way the eulogiums which her bill of fare, her cookery, and her general arrangements in the substantial matters of comfort, drew forth. Her presence and surveillance were deemed essential to secure a perfect success; and certainly, she contrived in some mysterious way that everything should be remembered. Although she invariably demanded, "Whatever is the use of having that Joe?" she would have been highly offended if he had not been asked to assist her; for it was her boast that she and Joe had "bin on and off for the last twenty years," and it was universally understood that some day when Joe got a coast-guard, and gave up the flesh and the devil in the shape of a weakness for an occasional over-glass of rum and water, Betsey would condescend to take him in hand, and be the saving of him.

“Óh! I do,” she replied, looking laughingly into his face; her sweet brown eyes betraying her love and happy trust.

Of course, a great deal of banter was levelled at them from the party assembled in the field.

"Ah, me!" sighed Mrs. Thompson, "what it is to be young. Now, girls, make the most of your time; for, take my word, it won't last for ever. There wasn't a more devoted lover in the world than my Terence. His sighs and groans would have melted an iceberg- and just to look at him now!"

And she turned admiringly round to her little, fat, merry-looking husband, who, in a nankeen costume, much favoured in the West Indies, was standing, breathless from the exertion of stowing the donkey-cart with the necessary baskets and hampers of provisions.

"Sure the women are hard to please now," he got out, after a great effort; "for ain't I still puffing and panting like a grampus, and doesn't that and sighing both come under the same category?"

Joe was the mildest of giants, as well as the smartest of sailors; as easily pleased and amused as a child, and quite proud of the state of subjection in which his ladylove kept him. His severest trial was that, during his stay on shore, Betsey insisted on his accompanying her each Sunday evening to chapel. Through the whole service she kept an eagle eye on poor Joe, fearing that his attention should wander, or that he might he tempted to doze. During the sermon, each allusion that was made to the especially wicked,

or more than ordinarily miserable sinner, | ter," she said, clinging more closely to was followed by a significant nod of her his arm, and regarding with pretty pride head, or a vigorous nudge of her elbow his handsome face; "but still it is very to the unfortunate Joe, who thus became the centre of attraction to both parson and people.

Betsey, in common with most of the Ebenezer brethren, rejoiced in having had a call; one of the privileges of which was, that it enabled her to securely congratulate herself that she was not like Leo smiled upon her condescendingly, other 66 men, more partickelary they as if such small anxieties never troubled Bunces;" for Joe's family were not shin- him, although the first thing he had done ing lights in the village, and it soothed was to consider what would be the most her immensely to listen to the vivid de-effective shooting costume, and he had scriptions of the yawning pit, and the already written off proposing an arrangegnawing worm the certain doom of ment with his tailor, by which means he such reprobates as laughed at Mr. Pether- hoped to obtain what he had decided wick as a ranter, and called his followers upon. blue lights.

very well on it," said Hero cheerfully. | partiality towards her late husband's first "Why, look at the Blakes, they have nothing but his pay."

Dockmouth great guns and the county people will call upon them?"

"Call! of course they'll call," replied the Captain; "why shouldn't they? The Prescotts are as good a family as any about here. You may depend upon it that every one in the neighbourhood will do what is right, and contrive, I hope, to give them a hearty welcome. Here, Joe," he called out, turning round, "just you pass the word in the village for the place to be kept well holy-stoned, and tell 'em not to be backward with the tar-brush. We'll show the Dockmouthers that when we choose we can stand muster with them any day."

66 'Ay, ay, sir,” replied Joe.

"And, p'raps too, you'll mind that charity begins at home," sarcastically chimed in Betsey, delighted to get a sly hit at "they Bunces," whose neglect of the scrubbing-brush and dislike to soap and water was one of her favourite topics. "Come, come, Betsey," said Hero, "keep your proverbs to yourself, or shall let Joe into a secret, and tell him that we are always in danger of breaking our necks over your brooms, and falling over your buckets."

66

Oh, well," retorted Betsey, "if he ain't to die till he kicks the bucket in his own home, you'd better get 'un to lease his life upon your houses, Miss Hero, he'll be a Methusalem that way, any how." "Never mind, Betsey," said Leo, "I'll take your part; what stunning pies you do make!"

"Ah!" laughed the Captain, "Sir Stephen found that out, didn't he, Betsey? Why, he'd never heard of pasties until Betsey made him some; and then, Rule

Britannia! didn't he walk into them!"

"Awh, come," said Betsey, modestly refusing to take more than her share of credit, 'twarnt all Betsey there. If I made 'em, Miss Hero filled 'em, and pinched 'em fitty, and he knew that fast enough."

"Nonsense, Betsey," Hero exclaimed, "I'm sure he knew no such thing," and she stole a furtive glance to see if Leo had taken notice of the insinuation. Apparently he had not, or if so, he was evidently not annoyed by it, for leaning across he whispered

"When you are ready, we'll go for a

stroll."

From the Athenæum.

THE BATH ARCHIVES.*

SEVENTY-TWO years ago, a lad, only sixteen, George Jackson, suddenly left Westminster school, and found himself unpaid attaché to the special mission of his brother to Paris, while Lord Cornwallis was at Amiens negotiating the short-lived peace. Mr. Jackson's father was one of the Canons of Westminster Abbey, and an otherwise extremely wellendowed clergyman. George, it was hoped, would imitate his sire in his successes; but the Westminister Canon departed this life, and young George, rapidly adapting himself to altered circumstances, gave up all thoughts of saving souls, and looked for better luck in serving ministers.

Fifty-seven years of diplomatic service at home and abroad earned for him a knighthood and a retiring pension, the latter in 1859. In the way of pension, Sir George did not cost his country much, - he died at Boulogne-sur-Mer in 1861. Last year, Sir George's widow edited two volumes of her husband's diaries and letters, which illustrated his personal services and the life around him, from his boyish start in a manly career to the year 1809. In that work were included the part he took in the mission to Paris, 18012; his residence, with similar mission, at Berlin, until 1806; and, subsequently, at the King of Prussia's head-quarters, from the battle of Jena to the Peace of Tilsit; ending with Jackson's correspondence with his family in England while he was engaged as a Secretary of Legation under Mr. Frere, who represented England at the head-quarters of the Spanish Junta, 1808-9.

The volumes, in which so much of public history and of the manners of contemporary life was illustrated, surpassed* in interest and in ability most previous works in connection with diplomatic services. Young Jackson, in fact, had an old head on young shoulders, with a heart quite as youthful as his years. He was as much a wit as he was a philosopher; whatever he did he did it heartily, whether he passed the night in copying despatches or in waltzing. He was a young man with the most acute observation, and this was directed to the most opposite subjects; now, measuring the characters

The Bath Archives. A Further Selection from the Diaries and Letters of Sr George Jackson, K.C.H., from 1509 to 1816. Edited by Lady Jackson. 2 vols. (Bentley & Son.)

of the most astute and exalted of men, anon, dissecting in his own mind the Cynthias of the minute, and, while subdued voluntarily by their magic, keeping himself, by the same impulse of his will, fancy free.

landed at Annapolis, "after a pleasant passage of fifty-three days!" Soon after, he was installed at Washington, which, he said, "resembles Hampstead Heath more than any other place I ever saw." In 1809, Washington consisted of scat

The preliminary volumes left our mem-tered houses, intersected with heath, ber of the British Legation in Spain only four-and-twenty years of age. The later two volumes, now before us, relate the incidents of six years more of the diplomatist's busy life. They are, as they might be expected to be, greatly superior to those detailing the earlier passages of Jackson's career. The observation is acuter than ever, the power of expression is heightened, the wit is still more brilliant, the philosophy more profound and more attractively expounded. In a word, the later volumes are more entertaining even than the first; and if Jackson's powers to amuse and interest strengthened with his years, we hope that we have not yet nearly done with him, and that the leave we take of him in 1815 is only temporary. The first volume of the second series opens at the old Glo'ster Coffee-House, Piccadilly, in December, 1809. Frere's mission to Spain had come to an end. Lord Wellesley was returning to England to receive the Seals of the Foreign Office, and he assured Jackson that he was well disposed to further Jackson's wish to obtain a renewal of the appointment in Spain, in preference to the Secretaryship of Legation at Washington, to which he had been named. George's elder brother Francis was then Mr. Canning's Minister Plenipotentiary to the Government of the United States, with which, since 1807, differences had existed, arising out of the encounter between the Leopard and the Chesapeake. George Jackson, trusting, we are told, in the belles paroles of the Foreign Office, tarried in London, and had ample leisure to discover what such ware was worth.

wood, and gravel-pits. Francis put up a covey of partridges "about three hundred yards from the House of Congress." On his presentation to President Madison, a plain little man, of simple manners, the two had a long conference, " during which a negro servant brought in some glasses of punch and a seedcake." Our minister did not dislike this unceremonious ceremony, although it was in strong contrast with audiences he had had of "most of the sovereigns of Europe." Of Mrs. Madison, then about forty, and growing stout, Francis says, She must have been a comely person when she served out the liquor at the bar of her father's tavern, in the State of Virginia." Francis admired the American ladies generally, but he distinguished between the swaggering Yankee and the true American gentleman. His wife lamented that her diplomatic husband, who had been accustomed "to treat with the civilized Governments of Europe," had now the misfortune to have to negotiate "with savage democrats, half of them sold to France." The minister himself wrote to his brother George that "to be upon tolerable terms with the Americans, we must show that it is indifferent to us, whether we are so or not." While the coarseness of Transatlantic legislators was disgusting Mrs. Jackson, an exceptional case in our House of Commons had rather startled the general sense of propriety. A member, Fuller, for using outrageous language, was committed to the custody of the serjeant-at-arms." By way of farewell, Fuller called the Speaker "a damned puppy," and snapped his fingers in his face.

The diplomatist out of place looks very much like the gentleman waiting for But we must confine ourselves to the an audience in Meissonier's well-known doings and surroundings of George Jackmasterpiece. That is to say, hopeful yet son, who was what is significantly, if disappointed, ready to serve and impa- roughly, called "kicking his heels," in tient to be employed; but, after all, with England. He was ever in the "best comas much relish for the amusements of the pany," though that was not always of the day as for the duties of office. Through- purest quality. He had a contempt for out the first volume, George Jackson is the Prince of Wales, and he called Mrs. chiefly engaged in dancing attendance Fitzherbert and the Princess of Wales on ministers or cotillons in ball-rooms; his "two wives," which, indeed, they keeping, the while, his diplomatic hand were. The latter, in 1809, was going off. up to its cunning by correspondence with "He need not be so jealous of his wife's his brother Francis, the Plenipotentiary popularity" (George wrote to his mother). in the United States. Francis hadShe makes herself perfectly ridiculous,