"Who's the doctor you've called in?" he said to Robin. "They spoke to me about a Mr. Martin; is that him? I shall send off at once for Gull, and I'll go myself for Sir William Jenner; he's the one you ought to have had, he's seen him before. And who was it that gentleman in the train was speaking of, Mr. Cameron, as being so clever? Ah, yes, Lambthat was the name; we'll have him." "But he's a homoeopath!" said Mr. Cameron.

"I don't care what he is, so long as he cures my son ! "

"You know in the profession they don't agree!"

"Then let 'em fight it out! I shan't ask the reason why, provided they'll set him on his legs again. I'll have every doctor in London, no matter who they are or what they call 'em: it's all one to me, so long as they can make a cure of him."

The old bluster was coming back. The belief in his luck, and that things always came round right with him, was returning; he put his hands deep down into his pockets, opening and shutting his palms on the imaginary gold that he would shower on the fortunate restorer of his son's health. Mr. Cameron, looking at him, sighed, and then he cast a glance at Robin.

"You seem very tired," he said gently. "I am afraid you have not had much rest."

The remark attracted Mr. Blunt's notice.

"That was a nurse, wasn't it, I saw up there?"

"Yes, there is a nurse; but until somebody came I wouldn't leave him alone with her."

think. Whatever brought it on? Can you form an idea, eh?"

"The carriage we came in from Whitby was so cold and draughty," said Robin; "that was the first of it. He was very unwell then for more than a week, but he was so anxious to go and get lodgings and find out about you. Oh, I can see it all now!" she exclaimed, bursting into tears suddenly. "His coat was so thin, and the day was bitterly cold, and the omnibuses were so full, that he had to go outside two of them."

"Outside! Outside a 'bus! My son ! Mr. Blunt staggered a full pace back, staring at her.

"And he was away almost the whole day long," she continued, "without having anything proper to eat."

Why he must have been mad clean gone out of his senses; and you too, to have let him! !"

She shook her head.

"You forget how anxious we were to go away from here. He knew how little money there was left, and a long bill owing."

Mr. Blunt dropped down into a chair as if he had been shot at.

"My God!" he cried, "I've killed him! He'll die he'll die! I know he will. O Lord, what shall I do, what shall I do? what will become of me?" And hiding his face in his hands, the wretched old man burst into tears.

Robin jumped up and stood gazing at him with alarm. Mr. Cameron, with a ready guess at the remorse which had seized him, went over and put his hand upon his shoulder.

"Th' Almighty's going to punish me by taking him from me," he went on brokenly; "I holding out, and he wanting. O Lord, spare him! only spare him, and I don't care what else comes to me!"

him. Their engagement had become an acknowledged fact now, and the wonder and amazement of it past, no one except Mrs. Temple troubled themselves about Mr. Blunt had to confess himself staggered, and did not feel easy until he had trumpeted forth his penetration, and how he had hinted as much to her mother.

"Not," he said, "that then I took it by any means for granted, you know; but she was happening to be mentioning a certain gentleman who had popped off in a hurry after getting his congee," and he nodded his head and winked his eye meaningly; " and I asked her if it mightn't have something to do with a certain Mr. C, who didn't live fifty miles off from here."

Robin was close by, and Georgy for a moment felt a little confused before her. What would she think of this story, her mother had gone about telling, that she had refused Jack? Looking at Robin, she said frankly,

Snatched from the very jaws of death, Christopher had been brought back to Priors. Again he and Robin were living under the same roof as his father.

.It was Robin herself who made the proposal. Mr. Blunt had not dared to, and though Christopher was filled with an unspeakable yearning to be back in his old home, with its quiet and comforts around him, he forebore to let drop even a hint that might influence Robin in any way; but the one wish of her heart now was to make amends to Christopher. She wanted him to see, by her devotion, how she had learned to value his generosity. For far beyond anything it is possible to put into words had been his tenderness towards her so enduring and so great that the confidence between them was complete; and saving only where the knowledge would now give him pain, nothing was hidden by her. In this offer to return to Priors with his father, Robin saw another opportunity; and in the joy with which Christopher received it, the pleasure and satisfaction he evinced, she was amply rewarded for any sacritice it had cost her.

Still far too weak to be able to receive ordinary visitors, Mr. Cameron, and with him Georgy Temple, came daily to see

It was Robin's turn now to grow red, Christopher's to come to the rescue.

"But every one knew," he said, "that Mr. Dorian-Chandos meant always to go. I remember the very first time I saw him he spoke of his intention to travel."

"And he did go once," said Mr. Cameron, "and came back again. Oh, how I did dislike that fellow that night! and the odd thing was, I couldn't think why, for it hadn't struck me then about being in love with Georgy, you know."

The laugh turned against him gave the conversation a little diversion, and it wandered away from Jack into a discussion on the prospects of marriage, and hopes entertained by Mr. Cameron regarding a living. How pleasant it was to lie there and listen to the banter which went on between them! Many times Christopher found himself laughing quietly, more especially when, after a time, Robin had been drawn in and was led away to be as merry as it was her wont to be.

That night, walking home, Mr. Cameron gave Georgy the history of the probation their two friends had gone through, and how close the recent trial had drawn them together.

"I love that girl," he said, speaking of Robin; "and you, Georgy, you must love her too."

"I want to get over," she said, "the little awkwardness there seems to be in talking about him. Some day he will return, and then what are we to do?"

So to Robin when alone, or if together with Christopher, she began speaking of Jack, telling them where he had been, what he had seen, what he was doing.

"He had just reached Calcutta when he wrote last," she said, on one occasion.

"It must be a great pleasure to see his mother," Robin ventured to say.

"H'm!" and Georgy puckered up her face. "I can't say; from the tone of his letter it did not particularly strike me that he would break his heart over their part ing. But I know her at least I know her through my father, and that is quite enough for me.' "Does he intend to stay long?" asked Christopher.

"Not with her. I don't think he does. I don't think he quite knows what he means to do; sometimes he speaks of returning, sometimes of going on. Papa wants him to come home at once, but I don't know whether he'll do so. He hasn't asked my advice, or I'd settle his plans in the twinkling of an eye."

"Why, what advice would you give him?" said Christopher. "I'm curious

to know."

"In the first place, I should tell him to come back for reasons that make it important he should be here; and secondly I should recommend him to settle down and take a wife to look after him he'll have to marry - he must! Who's the estate to go to? Jack marry! Jack have a wife! The thought rushed upon Robin as if such an idea had never presented itself to her before. She felt obliged to move, to alter her position. She put down the work

"

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Christopher, I want you to get strong; you must make haste, and be as quick as ever you can, and let us get away from here and go to some place where it is sunny and warm, and you will get well. I am longing to be off with you again."

"Oh, you may depend upon me! I'm not going to waste my time; I'm going to put my back into it, I can tell you!"

He spoke cheerily, although his heart was not in what he said. Far rather than go anywhere away, would he remain where he was. Already the invalid dread of travel and bustle possessed him, while each day seemed to increase the sweet repose which had come to him since he had been here. Surely never before had the place looked so lovely, the fields so green, the sky so blue; in every passing change of nature a fresh beauty seemed opened to Christopher's eyes. The budding trees, the bursting blossom, all seemed to him to speak of that hand which made these things so fair to see.

"What are you thinking of, Christopher?" Robin would ask, as he lay there with his eyes fixed, silent, lost in thought; and brought back to earth, Christopher would say,

"I don't think I was thinking at all. I was only wondering, when all is so beautiful here, what can heaven be?"

Although removed from immediate danger, Christopher's recovery was anything but complete. The doctors who had seen him dwelt much on the benefit to be derived from a milder climate, and the efforts of those around him were directed towards building up strength sufficient for him to undertake the journey. Since his return to Wadpole his improvement had been so marked as to justify hopes being entertained for a speedy departure.

"It'll be a hard matter for me to bear up when he goes away," Mr. Blunt had said to Mr. Cameron; adding in answer to the curate: "Oh, they won't want me;

you."

A slight flush came into Christopher's

son.

Here, you give it to him," he would say to Robin, when he had been at much pains to procure something he fancied Christopher might like. "He'll take it from you eat it, if you ask him."

Little did Robin ever guess the sting it gave him to say those words. Mr. Blunt had suffered a martyrdom before he had been brought to confess that she might have a precedence before himself.

Since Christopher had been mending, except in an indirect way to Mr. Cameron, Mr. Blunt had never reverted to the circumstances which had caused his son's illness. Finding when he came home that every one attributed it to the draughty carriage in which he had travelled from Whitby, Mr. Blunt adopted the reason which the curate had circulated; but compunction was still the mainspring of all his actions, and often when sitting silently by, as those around thought dozing, he would be going over that six months' struggle, every detail of which, in those first few days of the illness, he bad made Robin relate to him.

With Christopher he had never approached the subject: to hint at it in any way he found impossible. Actions, not words, must tell Christopher how sorely he repented.

To every one his changed manner to his son was visible, and it established their good opinion of him that he continued to show so much feeling and delicacy. Among others, the rector noticed it; and one day, paying a visit to Christopher, in token of his interest he said,

face.

"Sometimes," he said, "I think I may never want one."

66

Come, you must not talk like that," said the rector encouragingly. "I trust before long we shall see you on your legs again."

Christopher smiled.

"Oh, so do I," he said. "But I asked Cameron, the other day, to tell me the truth, what they said about me." "Well?"

"Yes, he told me. I knew I must be in a very critical state; not without hope yet not without danger. It's best to know, isn't it?"

"It's best that you should think so, my good fellow; " and the rector sighed softly.

"Yes; because, too, of anything one would like to do. I should like to have a church built. If I could persuade my father, Mr. Temple, would you help me?" I, Christopher?"

"Yes;

because I want it built at Uplands; and it's your parish, you know." "Those two, Georgy and Colin Cameron, have been talking to you, I can see." The rector shook his head a little gravely.

"Not to me they haven't; but I have heard them laughing_together when they were sitting with Robin. It was she principally who told me about it, and we both said what a nice thank-offering it would be."

Mr. Temple's face brightened.

"Well, yes it would," he said; "but I know you, Christopher. You had a little thought of Cameron and Georgy all the time."

66

Knowing about them didn't present any objection."

"Ah, so I fancied." And he sat, thoughtful, for a little time. "No, no," he said, shaking his head; “it's too much to hope it will ever come to pass. They'll have to wait for something else to turn up my toes, most likely. I'm not as young as I used to be, and it's a comfort to me to think, if anything should happen, that Jack would be certain to pass on the living to Georgy's husband."

"Should we have to get his consent about Uplands?" I suppose we should. I'm not very well up in such matters, but of course he'd have to be asked; he's patron of the living and lord of the manor too."

Mr. Temple hesitated.

"I don't know that I have any right to say no; but the cost would be very great, and your father

"Oh, leave my father to me." He laid his hand on his heart. "Something here tells me," he said, "that when I see my way to asking him he won't refuse me."

Neither will I, then. Make your mind easy; I'll write to the squire for you."

CHAPTER XL.

THE same mail which took out Mr. Temple's letter to Jack, took one also from Georgy.

"... Every one is wishing you back," she wrote. "The other night, at Priors, with the Christopher Blunts, we were all talking of you. Have you heard how ill he has been not expected to recover, but now mending, and ordered abroad immediately? They will start as soon as he can go, and I do not know when it is likely they will be back again. Perhaps I may as well say I have grown much more lenient to your once-upon-a-time weakness for Robin; the truth is, I know her now, and my verdict on you would be, 'He couldn't help it.' You have no idea

how devoted to her husband she is

quite different to anything we used to The love is by no means all on one side now, as I once feared it might be.

see.

"I have no separate news to tell, and,

as papa is writing, you shall be spared repetition. He will let you know how much you are wanted at home, but by no

one more than me; so come back, Jack, do! Your would-be cousin, Colin Cam eron, still continues spasmodically jealous of you. Yet my cry is, come soon, by return of post if you can; only

come! come! come!"

come

Who shall separate love from jealousy? Jack crushed up the letter in his hand, as if it contained something he could not bear to see. Then he said,

"Well! why not? What good is there in staying away? If they are not there, I may as well go." And he stood hesitating, frowning, measuring the attraction to return with the temptation which had driven him away.

When a man has come out of such a furnace as Jack had passed through, he dreads the heat of the fire, although it is afar. But subtle as love's power is, most men have interests in life in which it plays no part. On these, of late, Jack

He had done with love forever, so he said; and, saying it, he would straightway fall to dreaming about Robin, recalling bitterly the time when, knowing her love was solely his, he had held it but cheaply. "If I had but spoken to her then! Ah, little if, how great a part you play in many a lifelong tragedy!

Besides these two letters from Georgy and Mr. Temple, there were several others of more or less importance, all bearing on the advisibility of return.

The country was in an agitated state; the county member was an old man; there was a very general feeling in Waddole that his mantle would fall befittingly on the shoulders of Mr. Dorian-Chandos.

But how could it reach him when so far away? Moreover it was highly essential to the Liberal interest that a popular representative ready to step in should be near. Then on the estate the tenants that, like his uncle, Jack did not mean to were dissatisfied; a fear was spreading live among them.

go

"I must go back," he said; "I can't farther on, that's plain. And if what Georgy says is true, it ought to make my

task easier. After the first I need not there I need not see much of them. At live there altogether; and when they are all events the thing has to be done, and I

must do it!"

makes us feel lighter. Jack gathered up For the moment decision generally his correspondence, spread out Georgy's

letter, folded it up, and with the rector's put those two separate together. "I can't make out what he means about Uplands, and the Blunts building a church there." been rather vague; he was somewhat in And in truth the rector had intentionally doubt himself whether it might not prove a sick man's fancy. Every one could see that Christopher's state was critical; but then he had always been delicate, and those creaking doors were proverbial for lasting out those that looked stronger. However, if it never came to anything and raising it on old Blunt's gratitude was very much like a foundation of sand long as it helped to bring Jack home he did not mind. Mr. Temple had a keen relish for politics; and since this distant rumor of a dissolution he had been anxious beyond measure that Jack should return. The half of his letter had been filled with what this one thought, and that one said; and these expressions of his

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