立 everybody concerned-not even except- | for those who might be mortified, but who A few weeks afterwards, Pleasance com- "I suppose I must be mistress of the. Pleasance needed the little time that she had gained to recover herself. It was all very well to have preached to herself tolerance and amnesty in time past, and to have recalled her own offences and bidden herself be charitable towards her fellow-offenders. It was equally simple to say that outward familiarity had deadened the pain, and almost taken away the consciousness, of looking upon the woman of her own blood who had yet been so pitiless to her youth and to Anne's, and whose pitilessness had been the cause of Anne's death and of all the confusion and suffering which had followed. Mamma, this is Mrs. Archie Douglas, your long-lost niece as it proves, who has turned up so opportunely for herself, and so inopportunely for us; but is there not a proverb, it is not lost that a friend gets? Cousin Pleasance, we must renew our friendship in a fresh form. I am sure you will forgive me, if I do not take. to it at first so aptly as to the old." "Yes, my wild girl anticipated matters, it seems, by breaking down barriers and insisting on knowing you," said Mrs. Wyndham, making an effort, and looking with her cold, dark eyes into Pleasance's agitated face. "Romantic people would say it was the mystic tie of blood that impelled me," said Rica, "but I am not romantic, and I should not think the mystic tie would extend to cousins, that would be making it too cheap." "How long it is since I have lost sight of you!" said Mrs. Wyndham again, with a very slight shade of awkwardness, but rather in an accent of lofty reproach. 'Why did you not seek to communicate with me again? I had nearer relations and many engagements, but you were not so engrossed. You, my brother Frederick's child, ought to have made some attempt to revive my recollection of you and to win my regard." It was another thing for Pleasance, not only to be brought face to face with her aunt, but to have that aunt come to the niece whom she had relentlessly turned" back to her proper place, as Pleasance instinctively felt Mrs. Wyndham must have come, an appealing suppliant. And if Pleasance grew giddy and sick with the reversal, what were Mrs. Wyndham's feelings? What were the feelings of Rica, who had been twice superseded, and who, when only partially acquainted with the facts, had sought in her philosophical fashion to amuse herself with her humble supplanter in Archie Douglas's favor? "You forget, Mrs. Wyndham," said Pleasance with returning spirit, "that in the only letter we, Anne and I, had from you, we were told that you had done with us, and forbade us to approach you in future." "But I had received provocation," Mrs. Wyndham prepared to defend herself. "You might have had," said Pleasance. "You were two very rash, foolish, I must say rude girls; you were badly advised by your friends." Pleasance with her quick sympathy put herself in her aunt and cousin's goaded and galled places, bearing her own burden all the while, and could have sunk into the earth under the double consciousness. It was only when she began to recover that she became sensible with a faint gleam of humor flickering across her pain, that she was feeling for all three. However sorely and grievously disappointed, intensely chagrined, even considerably alarmed, Mrs. Wyndham and Rica might be, they were still cool and confident mistresses of the situation. It was Pleas- "We had better not speak of her," said ance, who was hot and cold and quiver- Pleasance, drawing her breath faster and ing, distracted and penetrated with shame | making a restless movement. In reality "We had no friends," said Pleasance with a sad, fleeting little smile. "I must take all the blame that is due.' "I do not wish to reflect upon your poor sister." Pleasance had a great fear of herself, lest she should be driven to retaliate on the enemy who was in her power. "Indeed I do not desire to pain you, Mrs. Douglas," said Mrs. Wyndham, suddenly recalling the motive of her visit. "I believe that in family quarrels there are generally faults on both sides." Having made the liberal admission, she smiled with a kind of stony graciousness, settled the folds of her rich dress, and looked the beauty she had been before Pleasance was born: "For that reason the past is better let alone, don't you think so? I am glad that you have managed to do well for yourself, in spite of omissions which we may still be able to effect something to remedy." "In short, now that mamma has found you, she is prepared to be proud of you. I do not say that it is your reward for captivating and fixing for a sufficient length of time a parti understood to be so fastidious and capricious-in spite of his deceptive good nature - as Archie Douglas. I am afraid that we should never have discovered and made the best of you, even for that great merit, had it not been for the last strange turn of affairs which we feel to our cost, and which has made cultivating you our best policy. I am honest, Mrs. Archie Douglas, or cousin Pleasance, let it be which you prefer, but I mean it to be a mutual benefit," said Rica with her bold bravado. "My dear Rica!" protested her mother, but with unfailing indulgence, "Mrs. Douglas, my niece, had need to be acquainted with your naughtiness, which passes all bounds." 66 Mamma," interposed Rica again, "I don't think that it is any compliment to your niece, as you have grown fond of calling her within the last ten minutes, though we had scarcely heard that you had a niece till five or six weeks ago, to suppose her such a goose as not to comprehend that we cannot help ourselves. We have been completely sold by the impropriety - according to our side of the question of grandpapa's having let himself be played upon by Uncle Fred, to make what is for us so fatal an alteration in his will, and by the drivelling imbecility of that old wretch Mott, who ought to be hanged for his part in the transaction. But the abominable will is right and good, and we are forced to throw up the game, and make what terms we can with the winners. I hope you admire my frankness, Mrs. Douglas." "I think I estimate it at what it is worth," said Pleasance. "Rica, Rica, do not interrupt me perpetually, child, and increase my difficulties a hundredfold by making game of this disaster as of everything else; of course you are in jest, and Mrs. Archie Douglas sees it. But let me speak, let me do what I am come here for," began Mrs. Wyndham again, with a submissive patience and self-abnegation, where her own child was concerned, that went near to touching Pleasance. "I do not attempt to conceal," continued Mrs. Wyndham, with a return to her dictatorial pomposity, "that this discovery of a later will of my father's, devising away Heron Hill, now that it is become far more valuable than Redmead, is a very serious matter to us. And as my father never could have contemplated benefiting you and your sister whom he had not seen or heard of until a few days or weeks before he made this will, at the expense of his other grandchildren whom he knew and loved, it strikes me that circumstance should be taken into account in the decision. But the lawyers will not hear of it." "It is the chance of war," said Rica. "Neither could my father's father have contemplated our reverses," said Pleasance. "I grant there may be some truth in what you say," admitted Mrs. Wyndham; "but only think of it, make it your own case," she urged with increasing warmth. My children have been brought up in luxury, with warrantably high expectations. My son, whom you have never met" ("That pleasure is in store for you, and you two are safe to agree," said Rica with the utmost gravity), "my only son," Mrs. Wyndham resumed the lead in the conversation without suffering herself to be put out, "has never done anything that his mother could find fault with," she added proudly, "though I might have wished that he had gone into Parliament, where I have no doubt he would have made a figure, or married and settled down quietly at Sefton Hall, his father's place, or at Redmead, mine ("What a pity you are married, cousin Pleasance!" said Rica in another audible aside). such has not been his inclination, and as he has had the expensive tastes and pursuits of his age and class, both properties have become a good deal burdened. There was no occasion for him to save, with the Heron Hill rents always increasing and coming in to supply all deficiencies. I need not say that it was with my entire consent he borrowed money on Red mead." "But Rica looked what she would fain have | has had in its life, while Nelly has grown said, but still had the grace left to refrain desperate." from saying that her brother was the most selfish, unscrupulous man upon the turf, who ever ran through family possessions, and impoverished and encumbered his widow mother, whose estate was not nominally his, in her lifetime. "Rica and I don't require much," proceeded Mrs. Wyndham, with a sort of haughty humility; "even if we should never be able to afford another season in town, we can keep house here, or at Redmead, when Tom does not want it, quietly enough. Only it goes to my heart to look forward to my child's being deprived of the advantages to which she is entitled, and of all proper opportunities of settling in life." "Don't mind me, mamma," observed Rica carelessly. "I was getting sick of seasons in town, when the proper man was never spoony upon me, and I had begged off from the last. I should not mind trying the village-maid dodge, seeing how it prospers." "My elder daughter Nelly," Mrs. Wyndham spoke on, standing in the breach, and waxing long-winded for the honor and profit of her family, "has married into the ancient and noble. Roman house of Barbarelli, compared with which the houses of our English nobility are only of yesterday. It was a connection that would have been a source of satisfaction to any Talbot or Howard among us, since our insular prejudices are not proof against the superior culture of the higher classes. My son-in-law, Count Pietro, is a noble fellow in himself; while Nelly's palace in Rome has such gems of art, such pictures, cabinets, and tapestry, and the grounds of her country-house have such cypresses and citron-trees, as put our poor sign-painters' daubs, upholsterers' hangings, and ribbon-bordered gardening to shame. But only a few of the old Italian nobles retain much beyond their palaces, and lands which are not profitable in a commercial sense, and the Bar-just and gentle where our claims clash; barelli are not among the few." but I had rather that you would say plainly what you expect from me, and I shall comply if I can." "That is to say," explained Rica, "that my thrice-noble brother-in-law, count of the Roman empire, as far back as it will go, and as fiercely proud as a paladin, is as poor as a church-mouse. Poor Nelly in her palace is constantly begging mamma to send her cheques to furnish her and the little counts and countessinas with necessaries not to say to defray Count Pietro's display on the Corso, and his losses at cards." "Rica's playful exaggeration is a version of the truth," allowed Mrs. Wyndham with a sigh. "Nelly, in spite of her promotion, is forced to seek help from her family, until the death of Count Pietro's father." "Until doomsday," asserted Rica coolly. "the penurious old count standing in the gap, does more than prevent the settlement of present claims, he stops the incurring of fresh debts, which will go on apace when he sleeps with his fathers. Count Pietro is so used to insolvency, that it is like native air to him; even his pride does not prevent his flourishing upon debt, like a child, who neither knows how to spend nor how to spare the first money it "You do not understand - - a dear, thoughtless, unworldly girl cannot measure such losses," said Mrs. Wyndham, in melancholy comment on Rica's impertinence. "Will you excuse me for asking you a direct question?" said Pleasance to Mrs. Wyndham. "As far as I have been able to follow, you have described the advantages, with their attendant disadvantages, that your children have enjoyed; but why tell it all to me? Indeed, I seek to be "Thanks, I could not for a moment imagine that you would be utterly unreasonable. I did give you credit for a little tact. It was impossible for me to suppose you could be guilty of refusing to meet and consult with me as a friend on our mutual position," acknowledged Mrs. Wyndham with the most comfortable selfsatisfaction, instead of the most uncomfortable gratitude. "I told you that the benefit was to be mutual," said Rica nodding. Pleasance did not see the mutual nature of the benefit, but she possessed her soul in patience and was silent. "My dear-you will allow me to call you so?" said Mrs. Wyndham with increased condescension. "Call me what you please," said Pleasance; "but surely we are, to say the least, stranger kinswomen to each other." "That fault will soon be amended," announced Mrs. Wyndham, with what sounded like a ponderous copy of Rica's airiness. "I am afraid that I must approach a delicate subject in explaining myself farther to you. I do not pretend | lately. Shall I say that I am not to be yet to my niece's confidence, but I must bought, and neither am I to be laughed allude to an incompatibility of temper be- out of any favor that I can confer? For tween her and your husband, which has anything more, you are freely welcome to resulted in a separate maintenance. I the best terms that your lawyers can make must refer to the fact that the Douglas - I have written to that effect - or to family have not taken you up, or given any other worldly benefit that I can render you the least countenance beyond the you, for I agree with Mrs. Wyndham that permission to reside here, which is only the case is a hard one for you in the end, one way of getting rid of you." as for me and mine in the beginning. But you must consent to take any favor as a gift as your right if you will but not as your purchase. It is not only that I refuse to barter such small power as has fallen into my hands, and that I profess to be incorruptible, but that literally you can offer me nothing. I will not enter into your world, I do not own your standard." "Mrs. Wyndham," said Pleasance with burning cheeks, "if you mean to insult me after all, which I can hardly conceive under present circumstances, I decline to be insulted by the truth which you have spoken. But what have my personal affairs to do with this discussion?" "A great deal, if you were not too brusque to suffer me to finish what I had to say," retorted Mrs. Wyndham ; you must get rid of this brusqueness, if you would have me make anything of you. Mrs. Archibald Douglas, you must be aware that you will be, even with the inheritance which you propose to take I do not say unwarrantably, I allow naturally, when it is in your power from my children, a young woman in a very difficult position. You will need not only all your newly-acquired fortune, but all the friends you can win to support you, in order that you may get a proper introduction into society and standing in the world." "And mamma and I will undertake for a trifling consideration-plain speaking is best, is it not?- for some compensation to Tom and the rest of us, and for mamma and me, the use of your townhouse, or opera-box, or of your carriagehorses when we don't have our own bagatelles of that kind, simply to tame you, coach you, and introduce you into the great world under our all-powerful auspices. What do you say to it? I assure you I am quite in earnest," declared Rica coolly. "Ah," said Rica quickly, ". your disinherited prince who has come into his own again, or your beggar millionaire is apt to be tête exaltée at first; but wait a bit, till the gates, not of heaven, but of the pleasantest places of the earth, don't fly open to his 'Open sesame,' as he in his conceit has fancied, but grate on their hinges for want of a little of the oil of oldestablished proprietorship, convenance and savoir faire, he is fain to come down a flight, and accept the obliging aid which he spurned before. I don't despair of being your Mentorina and right-hand woman yet, cousin Pleasance." Mrs. Wyndham had been staring blankly. "I am ready to excuse a great deal that is odd and unpleasant, I am ready to encounter and conquer it, if possible, for the sake of my children, and of my niece to whom I had hoped that my experience and influence might have been of use," she said almost speaking to herself in her amazement and incredulity. "Of course no knowledge of the world; no good-breeding even, was to be expected. Still, you do not mean that you reject the good offices of the only relations you have in the world, Mrs. Douglas; relatives who, I may say it without partiality, would be a priceless boon to any débutante or nouveau riche, and who have shown you a worthy example in ignoring the painful rivalry involved in your claim?" "I do not mean to fail in magnanimity," said Pleasance, inclined to laugh again. In her excitement, indignation, affront, and sense of ludicrousness combined, Pleasance did not cry that it was too much; when she found that her forgiveness was to merge into her being suborned and bribed, she startled her newly-found relations by laughing tremulously. "I beg your pardon," she said, abashed at her own untimely mirth; "but you are quite mistaken in my aims and expecta- "Impossible! you cannot understand," tions, and I am utterly incapable of profit- persisted Mrs. Wyndham, "Frederica and ting by your kind intentions. I was not I had talked the matter over, and we had even aware that I required an introduction agreed that you should spend the next or standing in the world, which I entered winter in Rome; Nelly's palace has suites very nearly twenty-two years ago, and in of spacious rooms at the command of viswhich I have made my own way till very litors." ("Especially if they be heiresses. The Roman palaces have no end of accom- | unblushing overture was made with the modation for heiresses. I should not open purpose of retrieving a portion of wonder if they would lodge you in the their losses Vatican itself," commented Rica.) Her mother went on without attending to the comment, "Nelly and the count will dispense to you a princely hospitality. You will see the best Roman society at and from their house. You will acquire a good foreign style, which is generally admired, and which will conceal the deficiency in early training that is much to be regretted now, as events have happened; but who could have foreseen them?" asked Mrs. Wyndham with a tragic emphasis. "A good foreign style, like charity, covers a multitude of sins," put in Rica. "Indeed, Mrs. Douglas, you will be a great fool not to take our embassy in good part, and make the most of it. It has just struck me that the position is like that of Cinderella, who, I have no doubt, married her two usurping sisters to gentlemen about court, that they might be conveniently at hand to supply her with little hints for her behavior as a princess. Do think of Cinderella, and not of 'The Mysteries of Udolpho,' or 'The Romance of the Forest' (I know you read novels); believe me the Italian bravo with his stiletto is quite out of fashion. We have not the slightest intention of making away with you, in recommending you to spend a little time with Nelly at Rome." "I do not think you have," replied Pleasance; "but I must refuse what I cannot avail myself of." "Never mind, mamma," said Rica, "beggars should not be choosers. A truce is established. Mrs. Archie Douglas is to deal with us poor usurpers leniently. Ah! I forgot that the Christian charity was to be all on our side; but so it will come about eventually, and until then we shall bide our time;" and Rica drew away her mother before she had done more than express a tithe of her astonishment at Pleasance's continued refractory attitude after all these years and changes. Not all Mrs. Wyndham's devotion to her children's interests could, for the moment, stifle her displeasure at the reception given to her fine stroke of diplomacy. When her visitors were gone, Pleasance's ill-timed laughter passed into a few quiet, but bitter, tears of pain, wrath, and ruth over her nearest relations in the world, as Mrs. Wyndham had said, who were worse than strangers to her, and over what seemed the mockery of forgiving offenders who would not be forgiven, who saw no occasion for forgiveness, and whose From Fraser's Magazine. THE ASTRONOMY OF THE FUTURE. A SPECULATION. WE venture to express an opinion that popular knowledge on the subject of astronomy is still in a very old-fashioned, conventional, Newtonian condition. Men are still too apt to allow themselves to be guided by the literal evidence of their senses and the superficial appearances of things, a misleading condition and influence against which it is the purpose of true philosophy to guard our minds. Modern ideas in chemistry and electricity are, moreover, necessary; for one form 'of science cannot afford to dispense with the aid and illumination of another. In manuals of astronomy our youth are taught that the sun is a dark globe inclosed in a photosphere or luminous envelope, partly composed of divers metals in a state of intense incandescence and of gases blazing away furiously. We are told that observers can really see the surface of this "luminary" in a terrible condition of turbulent combustion, that the vapor of molten metals can be detected in its rays, and that its light and heat have been calculated to a mechanical nicety, almost as far as figures can be conceived by the ordinary human mind. It has also been made a subject of estimate how long the sun can exist at its present rate of combustion and self-consumption, as this "central fire" of the solar system is said to give out in each second of time heat equivalent to that produced by the burning of eleven thousand six hundred millions of millions of tons of coal! We are also told that the incandescent metals in the sun, revealed by the spectroscope, differ from what is apparent in the light of the stars. We do not doubt the existence of the phenomena so clearly shown by scientific men, but we are tempted to dissent from the conclusions deduced; and we think the time has arrived when the notions which have been so systematically repeated to us should be thoroughly re-examined, and, we are inclined to say, discarded. In this essay we merely propose to draw the outlines of what appears to us to be an improved system; and though other writers, unknown to us, may have antici |