either Meredith or Algernon.' I remember brown eyes dancing with youthful glee, and the smile on her sweet face, as she spoke, the black curls stirred with the summer as freshly as if I saw it now.

"We were married, Meredith Carter and I, quite privately and quietly, and we remained at Carters Court, where our presence could not, indeed be, dispensed with. I was still a young woman, when I married my old friend, and he was not a young man; but the difference between us was only nominal, as we were perfectly well matched. Meredith Carter was a lieutenant-colonel when we were married, and shortly afterwards he retired from the service.

wind.

66

Algernon wrote again and again to Arthur, but he never heard from him, and no inquiries which were made prospered. Old Mr. Dallas survived his daughter but a short time, and Algernon brought his mother-in-law to live at Carters Court. When time had softened Algernon's grief, and he felt that he could bear our absence, Colonel Carter and I went into Gloucestershire, to Oakridge, where the property which he had inherited from his mother, was situated. I had never seen this place, "My story is nearly told, Margaret, but but I knew that my husband had bequeaththe few incidents that remain are full of ed it to me by his will, which he made sorrow. The first news of Arthur Dallas when he abandoned the hope of children. that reached us after my marriage was that I never wished for a child, Margaret, and I his son was dead. They were living in an have often reproached myself that I symunhealthy climate, the child was naturally pathised so little with his disappointment, delicate, and it faded and drooped away. which never exhibited itself in any unkindThere had been plans for sending the little ness or coldness to me. I know you wish creature home, when it should be old to ask me if I was happy, Margaret, and I enough to bear the journey, but that time cannot exactly tell you. Every one forms had never come. In the course of the fol- some particular theory of happiness, and lowing year Helen died. So gradually, so if his life does not exactly fit it, he thinks gently, so happily, with so much resignation he is unhappy. But our daily life is a posiand hopefulness, with such sweet Christian peace, that her departure scarcely seemed terrible, and her dead face looked like that of a child-angel. I have seen some mortals, Margaret, who have seemed to put on immortality before their time, and Helen was one of these.

"Algernon Carter wrote to Arthur Dallas, telling him of the affliction which had come upon us all, but he never received a reply. After some time he went to London, and on his return he told Colonel Carter, who very gently and feelingly communicated the intelligence to me, that Arthur's career had been for some time unprosperous, and that his wife had disgraced and left him. We had never learned much about this lady, except that she was very handsome, and about his own age, and that she had met him at Calcutta, but of her family or antecedents we knew nothing. I felt this most acutely, far more than his marriage. All my heart turned to him in his trouble.

tive thing, and our theories are all unsubstantial, and really affect it or us very little. In every particular, my lot was different to that I had pictured to myself in the waking dreams dreamed on that stone terrace at Woodlee.

"My husband and Algernon were my only friends. My father, my brother John, and Helen were all gone; of John's widow and children I knew nothing, and James was nothing to me. Colonel Carter's ample means enabled me to use my own income as I chose, and I chose to spend a large portion of it on James's children, before and after his death. He never expressed any desire to see me, and we were quite unaware that the effects of his former illness were again manifesting themselves, until his condition had become hopeless. I had not seen him for more than ten years before his death, which, by a strange coincidence, was almost simultaneous with that of his hated rival, and our beloved brother, Algernon.

"Colonel Carter was not a man of senti- I had few intimates in my girlhood, and ment, but he had honest and kindly feel- fewer in my middle age; my husband and ' ings, and he sincerely compassionated the I visited our neighbours, indeed, in Glou'poor boy,' as he persisted in calling Ar-cestershire, and duly went through the thur. And, indeed, I think we all regarded somewhat ponderous hospitalities in fashion him very much in the same light. I found in the county, but we were quiet people, it hard to picture him to myself as a world- and had no intimates but our brother and worn, sunburnt man; I always saw the each other. The years which succeeded

our marriage were very peaceful and very lonely, and I do not think I ever felt vividly interested in anything.

"No communication of any kind reached us from Arthur Dallas, we never had any clue to the ultimate fate of his guilty and unhappy wife, and his mother died in the conviction that her beloved son had perished in some unknown region of that foreign land, which seemed doubly strange and distant, even in those little removed days. My nephew James, your husband, was just fifteen when his father died, and the same post which brought us the intelligence, summoned my husband to Carters Court by the alarming news of Algernon's sudden illness. He had been with us a little time before, and it had been arranged that we should spend the winter at Carters Court. The Carters were a short-lived family, but I had remarked to my husband that I hoped he and Algernon would break the charm or spell, and live to the old age that had been denied to their forefathers but this was not to be.

"Loneliness had been decreed as my lot, and the last fiat soon went forth. I accompanied Colonel Carter to Somersetshire, and we found Algernon rapidly sinking under a bad type of fever, which had been for some weeks awfully prevalent and fatal in the neighbourhood. He could just recognise us, and died on the third day after our arrival. On the evening of his death my husband was taken ill, and within a fortnight I was alone in the world, and Carters Court had passed into the possession of strangers."

So this was Aunt Anne's story- this was the solution of the mystery of the picture and her emotion. When she had concluded, she sat silent for a time, leaning on the table, and covering her face with her fair slender hands. After a little I said, " And you, Aunt Anne, did you, too, think Arthur Dallas was dead?"

had been made, but the whole green earth would have looked like that spot, to me sacred and beautiful - for that somewhere in its bosom he slept. But I knew he was not dead; and now, since yesterday, all things are changed. I have received his message; I have accepted his trust. His child is my child; my home is hers. I wonder if he knew that I had bought Woodlee; but no doubt Winifred will be able to tell us that."

The practical nature of Aunt Anne's mind was at once beginning to exhibit itself. She did not dwell upon this point, but put it away from her as a matter to be decided in its time and turn, and left it there.

My husband and I sat up very late that night, talking over the story of Aunt Anne's early life, and discussing the strange occurrences of the last few days. Mrs. Carter had given me permission to relate the main incidents of her narrative to James, but she had said with dry significance, "You had better be rather vague about my brother, Margaret. De Mortuis you know in all cases, but particularly where people in law are concerned, is always safe." I acted on the suggestion, and as my dear James is not vehemently curious, and has a lazy liking for tak.ng things for granted, he did not receive any other impression from the story than one of sympathy with Aunt Anne, in her life-long sorrow, and admiration of the tranquil fortitude with which it had been endured.

When we had said our say on all that regarded her, we began to think and talk of Arthur Dallas's daughter, the "Miss Winifred" of Mrs. Devlin, the beautiful young lady who had started up so suddenly and unaccountably, to fill henceforth, no doubt, an important place in our lives, and materially to influence the destinies of ourselves and our children. James asked me to describe her again, and when I had done so, he said, with something rather sad in his tone:

"And what did Aunt Anne exactly say were her intentions with regard to her?" "She did not exactly say anything, James," I replied; "but the general terms in which she spoke, said much. I have told you her words his child is my child, my house is hers.""

She removed her hand, and turned her placid face to me as she answered, "No, Margaret, I did not. I never had the rest, the inward quiet, which would have come with such a conviction. My dear, one is very peaceful when one's beloved are gathered into the fold; while they are wandering where the wolves may come and the storms must, love is restless and uneasy, separation is torturing, and apprehension terrible. God had given all my beloved I watched his face rather nervously; I sleep but him. I felt that, or I should have knew what he must be thinking of; but I mourned for him with a solemn peace and did not like to acknowledge that such thankfulness, as I mourned for them. I thoughts were natural, were inevitable even might never have known where his grave in my James's noble and disinterested heart.

Did I not share them? did I not remember | are the last person in the world, Margaret, our walk and our talk of the foregoing to take a small view of things naturally, and evening, and the last words my husband had you do so in this instance only because you said about taking care of Woodlee, and im- think I had a hankering after Woodlee, and proving the property for Jamie? To be perhaps I had. But I do not grudge Aunt sure I shared his thoughts. Of course a the first true happiness her possessions have sharp and unconquerable pang of disap- brought her, coming so late, too, at the pointment passed through my heart as I eleventh hour. And this orphan girl, I bade all such hopes and plans a final adieu; could not be envious of her finding a home but I did not shrink from acknowledging in and a provision, even if it does interfere myself what I could not endure to discern with our Jamie. We must remember, thankin him. I know myself to be interested and fully, that our children will not need to find little-minded, and to have a keen eye to the a refuge with strangers." main chance; I am perfectly aware that I regard wealth and good fortune of every kind as the desert of my husband and children; that I consider them a right indeed, only alienable by an oversight of Providence, aided by human injustice, and that I am incapable of anything like large generalizations; but then I am accustomed to my own littleness, and I never expect to be greater. But James-such an heroic being as James-such an entirely exceptional and unheard-of attorney! I watched him, I repeat, nervously, as he gazed out into the summer night, and his fingers moved dreamily upon the table, as though they still held the habitual pen.

"Maggie," he said at length, rather suddenly, I hope Aunt Anne is not going to do anything foolishly precipitate about this young girl. It would be very sad if any further disappointment were in store for her." I looked at him curiously, but with a sense of relief. He was not, then, thinking of how this matter would affect us, but of how it might influence her. I could not emulate, but I did admire him.

66

Maggie," he said, "I must speak to Aunt Anne myself. This is a case in which she ought to be advised, and when I have ascertained her mind about it, I think I shall propose to go and call on the solicitor who managed Captain Dallas's affairs, and investigate this young lady's position thoroughly, before Aunt Anne sees her, or commits herself in any way."

I agreed with my husband that this would be a fit and proper proposition for him to make, and then I asked him, rather hesitatingly, if he did not feel a little disappointed about the disposition of Woodlee.

"We counted our possessions, in anticipation, a little too confidently, James,", I said; "who could have supposed that, so soon after our conversation, all our hopes would have been dissipated by so strange a chance; and that chance brought about, indirectly, by myself, too."

James smiled, and said, quietly, "You

There was something so calm and strong and peaceful in his tone, that I felt almost rebuked and held my peace.

On the following day, James had a long interview with Mrs. Carter, at which I was not present. She deputed him to call on Captain Dallas's solicitor, Mr. Newman, in Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, and promised to dine with us, and receive his report. She had few traces of her illness left, and the weather was exquisitely fine, so there was not risk in her leaving the house. Aunt Anne arrived before James, and she and I had a long talk while we waited for him. Nothing of importance was said, however; we merely discussed over and over again the story she had told me, and I learned the particulars of Aunt Anne's conversation with Mrs. Devlin. Our good little friend had been greatly delighted and affected when Mrs. Carter told her that Miss Winifred's father had been her friend in early youth, and that her young favourite should be in future her especial care. circumstances, Mrs. Devlin had considered herself privileged to add all in her power to Mrs. Carter's sources of information, and had brought her all the books left in her charge by Captain Dallas's daughter, and the photograph which I had seen. dead man's name was written by his own hand in each of the volumes, and many were enriched with notes also in his writing. These were principally books of Eastern travel, and works on ethnological subjects.

Under the

The

It

"I could trace a good deal of his life and most of his studies by their silent witness, my dear," said Aunt Anne, “and I am glad to think he liked and took an interest in the distant lands he lived in. must have been easier for him to bear all the troubles of his life, when he cultivated his mind, and concentrated it upon his business and its associations."

There was" no nonsense" about Aunt Anne. She was capable of entertaining, and indeed had nourished one engrossing and abiding sentiment throughout her life, never suffer

"Not on you, ma'am," she answered; | Aunt Anne to her own society and her own "but there was a young gentleman here thoughts, and so I did not visit her during asking for Miss Winifred. I was busy in James's absence, though I longed to do so, the shop, and Hannah never came for me, and found the time hang heavily on my but just gave him her address, and he went hands. I do not think the children had off, and said nothing more." ever been so "fractious" and troublesome as on that particular day, which Nurse also selected for enjoying an incapacitating fit of toothache, so that I had them, in the fullest sense of the term, "all to myself." I was thankful when the evening had come, and they were in their little beds, and I had leisure to sit down and think of James and his mission, and wonder how he had fulfilled it.