a subject is an offence to a woman, and her colour rose and her breath came quick, without any will of hers. As for the Major, he abandoned the broader general question and went back to the detail, as was natural to the man.

"If you only have the lines all safe," he said, "if you would but make sure of it. I confess old Sommerville's death was a great shock to me, Mary, the last surviving witness; but Kirkman tells me the marriage lines in Scotland are a woman's safeguard, and Kirkman is a Scotchman and ought to know."

"Have you been consulting him?" said Mary, with a certain despair; "have you been talking of such a subject to”. "I don't know where I could have a better confidant," said the Major. Mary, my darling, they are both attached to you -and they are good people, though they talk; and then he is Scotch, and understands. If anything were to happen to me, and you had any difficulty in proving'

66

Hugh, for Heaven's sake, have done with this. I cannot put up with any more," cried Mrs. Ochterlony, who was at the end of her powers.

no more, no more." As she lifted her hands with an impatient gesture of horror, and towered over him as he sat by, having thus interrupted and cut short his speech, a certain fear went through Major Ochterlony's mind. Could her mind be going? Had the shock been too much for her? He could not understand otherwise how the suggestion which he thought a wise one, and of advantage to his own peace of mind, should have stung her into such an incomprehensible passion. But he was afraid and silenced, and could not go on.

"My dear Mary," he said mildly, "I had no intention of vexing you. We can speak of this another time. Sit down, and I'll get you a glass of water," he added, with anxious affection: and hurriel off to seek it; for he was a good husband, and very fond of his wife, and was terrified to see her turn suddenly pale and faint, notwithstanding that he was quite capable of wounding her in the most exquisite and delicate point. But then he did not mean it. He was a matter-of-fact man, and the idea of marrying his wife over again in case there might be any doubtfulness about the first marriage, seemed to him only a rational sugIt was time for the great coup for which gestion, which no sensible woman ought to his restless soul had been preparing. He be disturbed by; though no doubt it was anapproached the moment of fate with a cer- noying to be compelled to have recourse to tain skill, such as weak people occasionally such an expedient. So he went and display, and mad people almost always, as fetched her the water, and gave up the subif the feeble intellect had a certain right by ject, and stayed with her all the afternoon reason of its weakness to the same kind of and read the papers to her, and made himdefence which is possessed by the mind self agreeable. It was a puzzling sort of diseased. "Hush, Mary, you are excited," demonstration on Mary's part, but that did he said, "and it is only you I am thinking not make her the less Mary, the dearest of. If anything should happen to me - -I and best of earthly creatures. So Major am quite well, but no man can answer for Ochterlony put his proposal aside for a his own life-my dear, I am afraid you more favourable moment, and did all he will be vexed with what I am going to could to make his wife forget it, and say-but for my own satisfation-for my behaved himself as a man naturally would peace of mind-if we were to go through behave who was recognized as the best husthe ceremony againband and most domestic man in the regiment. Mary took her seat again and her work, and the afternoon went on as if nothing had happened. They were a most united couple, and very happy together, as everybody knew; or if one of them at any chance moment was perhaps less than perfectly blessed, it was not, at any rate, because the love-match, irregular as it might be, had ended in any lack of love.

Mary Ochterlony rose up with sudden passion. It was altogether out of proportion to her husband's intentions or errors, and perhaps to the occasion. That was but a vexatious complication of ordinary life; and he a fidgety, uneasy, perhaps over-conscientious, well-meaning man. She rose, tragic without knowing it, with a swell in her heart of the unutterable and supremefeeling herself for the moment an outraged wife, an insulted woman, and a mother wounded to the heart. "I will hear no more," she said, with lips that had suddenly grown parched and dry.

"Don't say

CHAPTER II.

MRS. OCHTERLONY sat and worked and another word. If it has come to this, I listened, and her husband read the papers will take my chance with my boys. Hugh, to her, picking out by instinct all those lit

was a special providence," said Mrs. Kirkman, who was the Colonel's wife: for, to be sure, to be romantically adored by a foolish young subaltern, was embarassing for a woman, however perfect her mind and temper and fairest fame might be. It was he who originated the name, perhaps with some faint foolish thought of Petrarch and his Madonna Laura: and then he died and did no more harm; and a great many people adopted it, and Mary herself did not object to be addressed by that sweetest of titles. And yet she was not meek enough for the name. Her complexion was very fair, but she had only a very faint rose-tint on her cheeks, so faint that people called her pale-which, with her fairness, was a drawback to her. Her hair was light-brown, with a golden reflection that went and came, as if it somehow depended upon the state of her mind and spirits; and her eyes were dark, large, and lambent, not sparkling, but concentrating within themselves a soft, full depth of light. It was a question whether they were gray or brown; but at all events they were dark and deep. And she

tle bits of news that are grateful to people who are far away from their own country. And he went through the births and marriages, to see "if there is anybody we know," notwithstanding that he was aware that corner of the paper is one which a woman does not leave to any reader, but makes it a principle to examine herself. And Mary sat still and went on with her work, and not another syllable was said about old Sommerville, or the marriage lines, or anything that had to do with the previous conversation. This tranquillity was all in perfect good faith on Major Ochterlony's side, who had given up the subject with the intention of waiting until a more convenient season, and who had relieved his mind by talking of it, and could put off his anxiety. But as for Mary, it was not in good faith that she put on this expression of outward calm. She knew her husband, and she knew that he was pertinacious and insisting, and that a question which he had once started was not to be made an end of, and finally settled, in so short a time. She sat with her head a little bent, hearing the bits of news run on like a kind of accompaniment to the quick-was, perhaps, a little too large and full and flowing current of her own thoughts. Her heart was beating quick, and her blood coursing through her veins as if it had been a sudden access of fever which had come upon her. She was a tall, fair, serene woman, with no paltry passion about her; but at the same time, when the occasion required it, Mary was capable of a vast suppressed fire of feeling which it gave her infinite trouble to keep down. This was a side of her character which was not suspected by the world in general-meaning of course the regiment, and the ladies at the station, who were all, more or less, military. Mrs. Ochterlony was the kind of woman to whom by instinct any stranger would have appropriated the name of Mary; and naturally all her intimates (and the regiment was very "nice," and lived in great harmony, and they were all intimate) called her by her Christian-most Christian name. And there were people who put the word Madonna before it," as if the two did not mean the same thing!" said little Mrs. Askell, the ensign's baby-wife, whose education had been neglected, but whom Mrs. Ochterlony had been very kind to. It was difficult to know how the title had originated, though people did say it was young Stafford who had been brought up in Italy, and who had such a strange adoration for Mrs. Ochterlony, and who died, poor fellow!-which was the best thing he could have done under the circumstances. "It

matronly in all her proportions to please a youthful critic. Naturally such a woman had a mass of hair which she scarcely knew what to do with, and which at this moment seemed to betray the disturbed state of her mind by unusual gleams of the golden reflection which sometimes lay quite tranquil and hidden among the great silky coils. She was very happily married, and Major Ochterlony was the model husband of the regiment. They had married very young, and made a runaway love-match which was one of the few which everybody allowed had succeeded to perfection. But yet There are so few things in this world which succeed quite to perfection. It was Mrs. Kirkman's opinion that nobody else in the regiment could have supported the Major's fidgety temper. "It would be a great trial for the most experienced Christian," she said; "and dear Mary is still among the babes who have to be fed with milk; but Providence is kind, and I don't think she feels it as you or I would." This was the opinion of the Colonel's wife; but as for Mary, as she sat and worked and listened to her husband reading the papers, perhaps she could have given a different version of her own composure and calm.

They had been married about ten years, and it was the first time he had taken this idea into his head. It is true that Mrs. Ochterlony looked at it solely as one of his ideas, and gave no weight whatever to the

death of old Sommerville, or the loss of the | had taken no pains for her own safety, and marriage lines. She had been very young had not an idea what registrars meant, nor at the time of her marriage, and she was marriage laws, nor "lines." All that she motherless, and had not those pangs of knew was that a great many people were marwounded delicacy to encounter, which a ried at Gretna Green, and that she was maryoung woman ought to have who abandons ried, and that there was an end of it. All her home in such a way. This perhaps these things came up and passed before her arose from a defect in Mary's girlish unde- mind in a somewhat hurrying crowd; but veloped character; but the truth was, that Mary's mature judgment did not disapprove she too belonged to an Indian family, and of the young bride who believed what was said had no home to speak of, nor any of the to her, and was content, and had unbounded sweeter ties to break. And after that, she faith in the blacksmith and in her bridehad thought nothing more about it. She groom. If that young woman had been ocwas married, and there was an end of it; cupying herself about the register, Mrs. and the young people had gone to India Ochterlony probably, looking back, would immediately, and had been very poor and have entertained but a mean opinion of her. very happy and very miserable, like other It was not anything she had done. It was young people who begin the world in an in- not anything special, so far as she could see, considerate way. But in spite of a hun- in the circumstances: for hosts of people dred drawbacks, the happiness had always before and after had been married on the been pertinacious, lasted longest, and held Scottish border. The only conclusion accordout most steadfastly, and lived everything ingly that she could come to, was the natural down. For one thing, Mrs. Ochterlony conclusion, that it was one of the Major's had a great deal to do, not being rich, and notions. But there was little comfort in that happily quite preserved her from the that, for Mrs. Ochterlony was aware that danger of brooding over the Major's fidgets, his notions were persistent, that they lived and making something serious out of them. and lasted and took new developments, and And then they had married so young that were sometimes very hard to get rid of. neither of them could ever identify himself And she sighed in the midst of the newsor herself, or make the distinction that paper reading, and betrayed that she had more reasonable couples can between "me" not been listening. Not that she expected and "you." This time, however, the Ma- her husband's new whim to come to anyjor's restlessness had taken an uncomfort- thing; but because she foresaw in it endless able form. Mary felt herself offended and repetitions of the scene which had just insulted without knowing why. She, a ended, and endless exasperation and wearimatron of ten years' standing, the mother ness to herself. of children! She could not believe that she had really heard true, that a repetition of her marriage could have been suggested to her and at the same time she knew that it was perfectly true. It never occurred to her as a thing that possibly might have to be done, but still the suggestion itself was a wound. Major Ochterlony, for his part, thought of it as a precaution, and good for his peace of mind, as he had said; but to Mary it was scarcely less offensive than if somebody else had ventured to make love to her, or offer her his allegiance. It seemed to her an insult of the same description, an outrage which surely could not have occurred without some unwitting folly on her part to make such a proposal possible. She went away, searching back into the far, far distant years, as she sat at work and he read the papers. Had she anyhow failed in womanly restraint or delicacy at that moment when she was eighteen, and knew of nothing but honour, and love, and purity in the world? To be sure, she had not occupied herself very much about the matter

Major Ochterlony stopped short when he heard his wife sigh—for he was not a man to leave anything alone, or to practise a discreet neglect and laid down his paper and looked with anxiety in her face. You have a headache,” he said tenderly; "Isaw it the moment I entered the room. Go and lie down, my dear, and take care of yourself. You take care of everybody else," said the Major. "Why did you let me go on reading the paper like an ass, when your head aches?

"My head does not ache. I was only thinking," said Mrs. Ochterlony: for she thought on the whole it would be best to resume the subject and endeavour to make an end of it. But this was not the Major's way. He had in the meantime emptied his reservoir, and it had to be filled again before he would find himself in the vein for speech.

"But I don't want you to think," said Major Ochterlony with tender patronage : "that ought to be my part of the business. she Have you got a novel? —if not, I'll go

over and ask Miss Sorbette for one of hers. | protect and pardon and put up with. PerLie down and rest, Mary; I can see that is all you are good for to-day."

the conclusion that it was all one of the Ma- this history any clear account of an Indian jor's notions. This was the easiest way of get- bungalow, or the manner in which life goes ting rid of it, and yet it was aggravating on in that curious kind of English home: enough that the Major should permit his so that it would be vain to attempt any derestless fancy to enter such sacred ground, tailed description of Mary Ochterlony's and to play with the very foundations of life at this period of her career. She lived their life and honour. And as if that was very much as all the others lived, and gave not enough, to talk at the end of it all of a great deal of attention to her two little sending Hugh away! Perhaps it would boys, and wrote regularly by every mail to have been good for Mary if she had taken her friends in England, and longed for the her husband's advice and lain down, and days when the mail came in, though the insent over to Miss Sorbette for a novel. terest of her correspondence was not abBut she was rebellious and excited, and sorbing. All this she did like everybody would not do it. It was true that they else, though the other ladies at the station were engaged out to dinner that night, had perhaps more people belonging to them, and that when the hour came Mrs. Ochter- and a larger number of letters, and got lony entered Mrs. Hesketh's drawing-room more good of the eagerly-looked-for mail. with her usual composure, and without any And she read all the books she could come betrayal of the agitation that was still by, even Miss Sorbette's novels, which were smouldering within. But that did not make indeed the chief literary nourishment of it any easier for her. There was nobody the station; and took her due share in more respected, as people say, in the sta- society, and was generally very popution than she was and to think that it lar, though not so superior as Miss Sorwas possible that such a thing might be, bette for example, nor of obtrusive piety as that she should be humiliated and pulled like Mrs. Kirkman, nor nearly so well off down from her fair elevation among all as Mrs. Hesketh. Perhaps these three these women! Neither the Major nor any ladies, who were the natural leaders of man had any right to have notions upon a society, liked Mary all the better because matter of such importance. Mary tried she did not come in direct contact with hard to calm herself down to her ordinary their claims; though if it had ever entered tranquillity, and to represent to herself how into Mrs. Ochterlony's head to set up a disgood he was, and how small a drawback af- tinct standard, no doubt the masses would ter all were those fidgets of his, in compari- have flocked to it, and the peace of the son with the faults of most other men. station might have been put in jeopardy. Just as he represented to himself, with But as no such ambitious project was in her more success, how trifling a disadvantage mind, Mary kept her popularity with everywas the "little temper" which gave him the body, and gained besides that character of privilege, now and then, of feeling tenderly" She could an if she would," which goes superior to his wife. But the attempt was a great deal farther than the limited repunot successful that day in Mrs. Ochterlony's tation of any actual achievement. She was mind; for after all there are some things very good to the new people, the young too sacred for discussion, and with which people, the recent arrivals, and managed to the most fidgety man in the world cannot make them feel at home sooner than anybe permitted to play. Such was the result body else could, which was a very useful of the first conversation upon this startling gift in such a society; and then a wife who subject. The Major found himself very bore her husband's fidgets so serenely was tolerably at his ease, having relieved his mind naturally a model and example for all the for the moment, and enjoyed his dinner new wives. and spent a very pleasant evening; but as "I am sure nobody else in the station for the Madonna Mary, she might have could do so well," Mrs. Kirkman said. prejudiced her serene character in the eyes "The most experienced Christian would of the regiment had the veil been drawn find it a trying task. But then some peoaside only for a moment, and could any-ple are so mercifully fitted for their posibody have seen or guessed the whirl of tion in life. I don't think she feels it as thoughts that was passing through her un- you or I should." This was said, not as imeasy mind.

CHAPTER III.

THE present writer has already lamented her inability to convey to the readers of

THIRD SERIES. LIVING AGE. VOL. XXXII.

plying that little Mrs. Askell- to whom the words were ostensibly addressed - had peculiarly sensitive feelings, or was in any way to be associated with the Colonel's wife, but only because it was a favourite way

1458.