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become as a house to us, should we not strike fairly northward? These circles round the south would resemble the swinging of a stone in the sling before it is projected; and, once we were started on this straight path, who could tell how far we might not go?

"Then," said I,-for our thoughts at this time were often directed to the great masses of men who were marching through the wet valleys of France, or keeping guard amid cold and fog in the trenches around Paris,-" suppose that by July next the war may be over, young Von Rosen says he means to pay us a visit, and have a look at England. Why should not he join our party, and become a companion for Bell?

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I had inadvertently probed a hornet's nest. The women of our household were at that time bitter against the Germans ; and but half an hour before Bell herself had been eloquently denouncing the doings of the Prussians. Had they not in secrecy been preparing to steal back Alsace and Lorraine; had they not taken advantage of the time when the good and gentle France was averse from war to provoke a quarrel; had not the King openly insulted the French Ambassador in the promenade at Ems; and had not their hordes of men swarmed into the quiet villages, slaying and destroying, robbing the poor and aged, and winning battles by mere force of numbers? Besides, the suggestion that this young lieutenant of cavalry might be a companion for Bell appeared to be an intentional injury done to a certain amiable young gentleman, of no particular prospects, living in the Temple; and so Bell forthwith declared her detestation not only of the German officers, but of officers in the abstract.

"I hate those tall men," she said in her impulsive fashion, although there was always a smile lurking about the blue eyes even when she showed herself most vehement, "with their legs like hop-poles, their heads smooth and round like turnips, their whitish-yellow hair cropped and shining above a red neck, their eyes green and starting out

like two gooseberries. And even worse is the short and fat officer-all neck and stomach, like a flying duck-with his feet turned out like the two steps of a dog-cart-with a fierce array of grey hair and moustache, like a terrier looking at a cat

"Bell, Bell, will you cease those perpetual farm-yard metaphors of yours? You know that Von Rosen is like none of these things."

"I can remember him at Bonn only as a very rude and greedy boy, who showed a great row of white teeth when he laughed, and made bad jokes about my mistakes in German. And I know what he is now-a tall fellow, with a stiff neck, a brown face, perhaps a beard, a clanking sword, and the air of a swashbuckler as he stalks into an inn and bawls out, Kellnare! eene Pulle Sect! und sagen Sie mal, was haben Sie für Zeitungen-die Alljemeene?""

Ordinarily, our Bell's face was as fair, and smooth, and placid as a cornfield in sunshine; but sometimes, you know, the cornfield is swept by a gust of wind, and then it lays bare the blood-red poppies beneath. She was now in a pretty turmoil of half-affected anger; and Queen Titania merely looked on with a cold, indulgent smile. I ventured to point out to Bell that she might alter her opinion when Von Rosen actually came over with all the glamour of a hero about him; and that, indeed, she could not do better than marry him.

Bell opened her eyes.

"Marry him, because he is a hero? No! I would not marry a hero, after he had become a hero. It would be something to marry a man who was afterwards to become great, and be with him all the time of his poverty, and his struggles, and his expectations. That would be worth something-to comfort him when he was in despair, to be kind to him when he was suffering; and then, when it was all over, and he had got his head above these troubles, he would say to you, 'Oh, Kate, or Nell, or Sue,' as your name happened to be, 'how good you were during the old time

when we were poor and friendless!' But when he has become a hero, he thinks he will overawe you with the shadow of his great reputation. He thinks he has only to come, and hold out the tips of his fingers, and say, 'I am a great person. Everybody worships me. I will allow you to share my brilliant fortune, and you will dutifully kiss me.' Merci, monsieur! but if any man were to come to me like that, I would answer him as Canning's knifegrinder was answered 'I give you kisses? I will see you"Bell!" cried my Lady, peremptorily. Bell stopped, and then laughed and blushed, and dropped her eyes.

"What is one to do," she asked, meekly, "when a quotation comes in?"

"You used to be a good girl," said Queen Titania, in her severest manner, "but you are becoming worse and worse every day. I hear you sing horrid musichall airs. You draw caricatures of old people who ought to command your veneration. The very maid-servants are shocked by your wilful provincialisms. And you treat me, for whom you ought to show some respect, with a levity and familiarity without example. will send a report of your behaviour

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And here the look of mischief in Bell's eyes-which had been deepening just as you may see the pupil of a cat widening before she makes a springsuddenly gave way to a glance of imploring and meek entreaty, which was recognized in the proper quarter. Tita named no names; and the storm blew over.

For the present, therefore, the project of adding this young Uhlan to our party was dropped; but the idea of our northward trip remained, and gradually assumed definite consistency. Indeed, as it developed itself during those long winter evenings, it came to be a thing to dream about. But all the same I could see that Titania sometimes returned to the notion of providing a companion for Bell; and, whatever may have been her dislike of the Germans

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in general, Lieutenant von Rosen was not forgotten. At odd times, when

"In her hazel eyes her thoughts lay clear As pebbles in a brook,"

it seemed to me that she was busy with those forecasts which are dear to the hearts of women. One night we three were sitting as quietly as usual, talking about something else, when she suddenly remarked

"I suppose that young Count von Rosen is as poor as Prussian lieutenants generally are?"

"On the contrary," said I, "he enjoys a very handsome FamilienStiftung, or family bequest, which gives him a certain sum of money every six months, on condition that during that time he has either travelled so much or gone through such and such a course of study. study. I wish the legacies left in our country had sometimes those provisions attached."

"He has some money, then," said my Lady, thoughtfully.

"My dear," said I, "you seem to be very anxious about the future, like the man whose letter I read to you yesterday. Have you any further questions

1

to ask?"

"I suppose he cares for nothing but eating, and drinking, and smoking, like other officers? He has not been troubled by any very great sentimental crisis?"

"On the contrary," I repeated, "he wrote me a despairing letter, some fortnight before the war broke out, about that same Fräulein Fallersleben whom we saw acting in the theatre at Hanover. She had treated him very badly-she had——"

1 This is the letter:

"To the Editor of the Hampshire Ass.

"SIR,-If the Republicans who are endeavouring to introduce a Republic into this great country should accomplish their disgusting purpose, do you think they will repudiate the National Debt, and pay no more interest on the Consols?

"I am, Sir, "Your obedient Servant, "A LOVER OF MANKIND.

"BOGMERE, Jan. 18, 1870."

"Oh, that is all nothing," said Tita, hastily and here she glanced rather nervously at Bell.

Bell, for her part, was unconcernedly fitting a pink collar on a white cat, and merely said in her frank and careless way,

"How affecting must have been their meetings! Ah, da bist du ja mein Käthchen, mein Engel!' and 'Ach Gott, wie mir das Herz klopft!' Then I suppose she knitted him a comforter, and gave him a piece of sausage as he started for the war, with her blessing."

Bell sighed plaintively, and continued her work with the pink collar.

"On the contrary," I remarked again, "he left her in paroxysms of anger and mutual reproach. He accused her of having"

"Well, well, that will do," says Queen Titania, in her coldest manner; and then, of course, everybody obeys the small woman.

That was the last that was heard of Von Rosen for many a day; and it was not until long after the war was over that he favoured us with a communication. He was still in France. He hoped to get over to England at the end of July; and as that was the time we had fixed for our journey from London to Edinburgh, along the old coach-roads, he became insensibly mixed up with the project, until it was finally resolved to ask him to join the party.

"I know you mean to marry these two," I said to the person who manages us all. "It is not true," she replied with a vast assumption of dignity. "Bell is as good as engaged-even if there was any fear of a handsome young Englishwoman falling in love with a Prussian lieutenant who is in despair about an actress."

"You had better take a wedding-ring with you."

"A wedding-ring!" said Tita, with little curl of her lips. "You fancy hat every girl thinks of nothing but that. My belief is that every weddingring that is worn represents a man's impertinence and a woman's folly." "Ask Bell," said I.

CHAPTER II.

A LUNCHEON IN HOLBORN.

"From the bleak coast that hears The German Ocean roar, deep-blooming, strong, And yellow-haired, the blue-eyed Saxon came. No more fitting point of departure could have been chosen than the Old Bell Inn in Holborn, an ancient hostelry which used in bygone times to send its relays of stage-coaches to Oxford, Cheltenham, Enfield, Abingdon, and a score of other places. Now from the quaint little yard, which is surrounded by frail and dilapidated galleries of wood, that tell of the grandeur of other days, there starts but a solitary omnibus, which daily whisks a few country people and their parcels down to Uxbridge, and Chalfont, and Amersham, and Wendover. The vehicle which Mr. Thoroughgood has driven for many a year is no magnificent blue and scarlet drag, with teams costing six hundred guineas apiece, with silver harness, a post-boy blowing a silver horn, and a lord handling the reins; but a rough and serviceable little coach which is worked for profit, and which is of vast convenience to the folks living in quiet Buckinghamshire villages apart from railways. From this old-fashioned inn, now that the summer had come round, and our long-looked-for journey to the North had come near, we had resolved to start; and Bell having gravely pointed out the danger of letting our young Uhlan leave London hungry-lest habit should lead him to seize something by the way, and so get us into trouble-it was further proposed that we should celebrate our setting-out with a luncheon of good roast beef and ale, in the snug little parlour which abuts on the yard.

"And I hope," said Lady Titania, as we escaped from the roar of Holborn into the archway of the inn, "that the stupid fellow has got himself decently dressed. Otherwise, we shall be mobbed.

The fact was that Count von Rosen, not being aware that English officers rarely appear when off duty in uniform, had come straight from St. Denis to

Calais, and from Calais to London, and from London to Leatherhead, without ever dreaming that he ought not to go about in his regimentals. He drew no distinction between Herr Graf von Rosen and Seiner Majestät Lieutenant im -ten Uhlanen-Regimente; although he told us that when he issued from his hotel at Charing Cross to get into a cab, he was surprised to see a small crowd collect around the hansom, and no less surprised to observe the absence of military costume in the streets. Of course, the appearance of an Uhlan in the quiet village of Leatherhead caused a profound commotion; and had not Castor and Pollux been able to distance the assemblage of little boys who flocked around him at the station, it is probable he would have arrived at our house attended by that concourse of admirers. Bell was unjust enough to remark in private that he knew well enough; and that he only came down in uniform that he might appear in the character of a hero. As for my Lady, she only expressed a dignified hope that he would. not render us conspicuous by his costume or his manner so long as he chose to accompany us.

You should have seen the courteous and yet half-defiant way in which the women received him, as if they were resolved not to be overawed by the tall, browned, big-bearded man; and how, in about twenty minutes, they had insensibly got quite familiar with him, apparently won over by his careless laughter, by the honest stare of his light-blue eyes, and by a very boyish blush that sometimes overspread his handsome face when he stammered over an idiom, or was asked some question about his own exploits. Bell remained the most distant; but I could see that our future companion had produced a good impression on Queen Titania, for she began to take the management of him, and to give him counsel in a cold and practical manner, which is a sure mark of her favour. She told him he must put aside his uniform while in England. She described to him the ordinary costume worn by English gentlemen in

travelling. travelling. And then she hoped he would take a preparation of quinine with him, considering that we should have to stay in a succession of strange inns, and might be exposed to damp.

He went up to London that night, armed with a list of articles which he was to buy for himself before starting with us.

There was a long pause when we three found ourselves together again. At length Bell said, with rather an impatient air

"He is only a schoolboy, after all. He has the same irritating habit of laughing that he used to have at Bonn. I hate a man who has his mouth always open-like a swallow in the air, trying to catch anything that may come. And he is worse when he closes his lips and tries to give himself an intellectual look, like-like

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"Like what, Bell?"

"Like a calf poising itself, and trying to look like a red deer," said Bell with a sort of contemptuous warmth.

"I wish, Bell," said my Lady, coldly and severely, "that you would give up those rude metaphors. You talk just as you did when you came fresh from Westmoreland-you have learnt no

thing."

Bell's only answer was to walk, with rather a proud air, to the piano, and there she sat down and played a few bars. She would not speak; but the well-known old air spoke for her, for it said, as plain as words could say:

"A North Country maid up to London had strayed,

Although with her nature it did not agree; She wept, and she sighed, and she bitterly cried, 'I wish once again in the North I could be!'

"I think," continued Tita, in measured tones, "that he is a very agreeable and trustworthy young man-not very polished perhaps; but then he is a German. I look forward with great interest to see in what light our English country life will strike him; and I hope, Bell, that he will not have to complain of the want of courtesy shown him by English women."

This was getting serious; so, being to some small and undefined extent master in my own house, I commanded Bell to sing the song she was petulantly strumming. That "fetched " Tita. Whenever Bell began to sing one of those old English ballads, which she did for the most part from morning till night, there was a strange and tremulous thrill in her voice that would have disarmed her bitterest enemy; and straightway my Lady would be seen to draw over to the girl, and put her arm round her shoulder, and then reward her, when the last chord of the accompaniment had been struck, with a grateful kiss. In the present instance, the charm worked as usual; but no sooner had these two young people been reconciled than they turned on their mutual benefactor. Indeed, an observant stranger might have remarked in this. household, that when anything remotely bearing on a quarrel was made up between any two of its members, the third, the peacemaker, was expected to propose a dinner at Greenwich. The custom would have been more becoming had the cost been equally distributed; but there were three losers to one payer.

Well, when we got into the yard of the Old Bell, the Buckinghamshire omnibus was being loaded; and among the first objects we saw was the stalwart figure of Von Rosen, who was talking to Mr. Thoroughgood as if he had known him all his life, and examining with a curious and critical eye the construction and accommodation of the venerable old vehicle. We saw with some satisfaction that he was now dressed in a suit of grey garments, with a wide-awake hat; and, indeed, there was little to distinguish him from an Englishman but the curious blending of colour-from the tawny yellow of his moustache to the deep brown of his cropped beard-which is seldom absent from the hirsute decoration of a Prussian face. He came forward with a grave and ceremonious politeness to Queen Titania, who received him in her dignified, quaint, maternal fashion; and then he shook hands with Bell with an obviously unconscious air of indifference.

Then, not noticing her silence, he talked to her, after we had gone inside, of the old-fashioned air of homeliness and comfort noticeable in the inn, of the ancient portraits, and the quaint fireplace, and the small busts placed about. We had not been in the snug little parlour a couple of minutes before he seemed to have made himself familiar with every feature of it; and yet he spoke in a light way, as if he had not intended to make a study of the place, or as if he fancied his companion would care very little what he thought of it. Bell seemed rather vexed that he should address himself to her, and uttered scarcely a word in reply.

But when our plain and homely meal was served, this restraint gradually wore away; and in the talk over our coming adventures, Bell abandoned herself to all sorts of wild anticipations. She forgot the presence of the German lieutenant. Her eyes were fixed on the North Country, and on summer nights up amid the Westmoreland hills, and on bright mornings up by the side of the Scotch lochs; and while the young soldier looked gravely at her, and even seemed a trifle surprised, she told us of all the dreams and visions she had had of the journey, for weeks and months back, and how the pictures of it had been with her night and day until she was almost afraid the reality would not bear them out. Then she describedas if she were gifted with second sight -the various occupations we should have to follow during the long afternoons in the North; and how she had brought her guitar that Queen Titania might sing Spanish songs to it; and how we should go down on river-banks towards nightfall, and listen to the nightingales; and how she would make studies of all the favourite places we came to, and perhaps might even construct a picture of our phaeton and Castor and Pollux-with a background of half-a-dozen counties-for some exhibition; and how, some day in the far future, when the memory of our long excursion had grown dim, Tita would walk into a room in Pall Mall,

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