If she had been attended to at once? I do not know. At any rate the scandal went abroad that she had died in consequence of the doctor's neglect. The scandal became louder when it was known that the train Jack had been so anxious to catch was to take him to London so that he might start early next morning for the Derby.'

Her eyes drooped for the first time, and she whispered to herself, 'Oh, Jack!'

'He came back two days after with a shamed face and repentant enough, for he had lost a large sum of money. He had received what they call the "straight tip" from Sir Montague Lewis's trainer, and he had been secretly betting heavily on the event. His anxiety to learn the result overcame all prudence, all sense of duty, and all remembrance of his promise to

me.

The disgrace was too much for me, and it was impossible for him to remain here after such conduct. No one would trust him-even I could not. I was angry, perhaps too angry. I paid his debts, gave him fifty pounds, and told him to go, and I desired him neither to see me nor write to me until he had atoned for the past by, working his way to some position of trust and respectability in his profession or anything else. He was sullen, as I thought then, and made no answer. He did not even say he was sorry for the disgrace he had brought upon me. Now, I think his silence was owing to remorse; he felt that there was no excuse for his conduct, and he did not attempt to make one. He went away without speaking, without coming to say good-bye, although I waited for

him here-God knows with what an aching heart. Then, when I knew that he had gone, without giving me one sign of regret or repentance, I felt angry-indignant. I heard that he had enlisted under an assumed name, and that was all for five years.

Poor lad, poor lad, he was not bad at the bottom.'

He went to the window and now looked out upon utter darkness.

She drew a long breath; there was sadness but no tears in her gentle eyes. She looked down at the photographs, and did not speak. Glancing at him, without raising her head, she could make out that the old man's broad shoulders were moving strangely. By-and-by he turned towards her again. His face was not so ruddy as usual, neither was his voice so firm.

'Do you know, Madge,' he said, with an attempt to smile so pitiful that it made her breath come quick'Do you know, I sometimes think that we are often harshest to those whom we love most.'

'Perhaps it is because we expect so much more from them than from others.'

'Maybe,' he answered weariedly. Then he gave himself a shake, like a Newfoundland dog who has just stepped out of the water, and he spoke in something like his ordinary tone. 'We won't talk any more about this; you understand it all now, and talking about it only puts me out. In future let us be silent on this subject. Close the book.'

She did so, and his face seemed to brighten as if the unhappy thoughts were shut out with the photographs. 'I wonder if dinner is ready-I'm hungry.'

IV.

JOHN AYLMER was bold in his advances-in fun; but he was shy to a degree when in earnest. The considerations of his position which had controlled him at first had imper

ceptibly disappeared, and all his future hopes seemed to circle round the sun-hope of winning Madge. But for the life of him he could not tell her his real feelings. That graceful calmness, that sweet smile which seemed always to welcome him, and seemed always friendly, still seemed to keep him at a long distance from her,

Once he had solemnly taken her hand in his, and, holding it up as if he were disposed to kiss it, he said,

'What a pretty little hand you have got.'

'Yes, sixes fit me easily.'

She always brought him back to the earth with some common-place like that, just when he thought courage and opportunity to speak had been granted to him.

Some outlet for his feelings was necessary; so, as he tramped along the by-paths of the roads, crushing out the pleasant odour of the autumn leaves at every step; he was constantly writing imaginary letters to her.

May I tell you, Madge (that is the name by which I always think of you -may I use it?); may I tell you, Madge, how you have taken possession of me-heart and soul? May I tell you how amidst all our chaffing I am painfully in earnest? I love you. It is wrong. I have duties to perform; I am poor, and cannot offer you a home at once. It is wrong to ask you to wait, but, oh Madge, my darling!

Well, I don't want to go into rhapsodies if I can help it; but the thought of your hand resting in mine makes me feel as strong as a giantaye, two giants-and ready to meet any mortal difficulty that might turn up. The thought of losing you, of you going away to somebody else, makes me feel as weak and hopeless as that poor old man in the lower village who is in the last stage of typhoid fever. And

But he didn't like that professional simile, and on consideration he began another letter as he tramped onward

through the green fields and up to the farm where he had to see a patient.

Dr. Humphreys saw quite well what was going on in the mind of his young colleague. He was sorry to see him take the affair so much to heart, as was apparent to friendly eyes, in spite of his show of mirth. Mrs. Humphreys was nervous and did not like the affair. Then the doctor laughed and said:

'Why, wifie, we married on nothing a year,, and it didn't turn out such a miserable business after all.'

Then Mrs. Humphreys looked straight in the eyes of a human being, for once in a way, and smiling, rested her frail faded little hand in his large palm.

'Very well, we'll leave them to settle it between themselves,' said the Doctor, cheerily.

At the foot of the garden there was a substantially built summer-house, in which one was secure against rain, and a large willow which shadowed the entrance afforded considerable protection against wind. The interior was large enough to hold ten or a dozen people, and besides the usual seats at the sides, there was a little table and a wirework rocking-chair. Here, in his few hours of leisure, the Doctor was fond of sitting in the chair, rocking himself slowly, while he read the Lancet,' or some new medical work. He used to say that he was as quiet here as if he had a lodge in some vast wilderness,' for which he had often pretended to sigh.

Madge, too had discovered that when the sun was shining, the hut was a very pleasant place indeed, in which either to work or to read, even in autumn. She had a fancy for being alone at times, and she found that here she was rarely disturbed. was not afraid of cold, but she had the practical turn of mind which induced her to take plenty of warm wraps with her when she went out to the hut on these cold days.

She

There John Aylmer found her at noon on the day after her conversation with the Doctor. The sky was aglow with heat, and misty exhalations were slowly rising from the earth. The trees were beginning to look bare, and brown was the predominant colour of the foliage around; but the bower was covered with ivy, and it presented to the eye a fresh green, sparkling in the sunlight.

She was imitating the Doctor as far as rocking herself to and fro, in the wirework chair might be considered an imitation; but the book she had taken out to read lay on her lap unheeded. Dreaming, dreaming, and she saw nothing of the fading leaves and the brilliant colours they displayed all around her, glancing and flashing with strange beauty as the rays of the sun fell upon them.

For a moment she did not see Aylmer as he stood in the doorway.

'May I come in?' he said, laughing at her abstraction.

She started and hastily snatched up her book as if she meant to pretend that she had been reading, but she met his merry eyes, and she laughed with him.

'Certainly, come in, Mr. Aylmer. I was away sweeping cobwebs off the moon-sun, I ought to say, perhaps, at this time of day.'

'Day dreams, and what sort of dreams were they and what about?'

6

Very pleasant, and about-nothing.'

'Do you often dream about nothing?'

'Very often,' she answered, with that quiet smile which made her appear to Aylmer angelic, and yet kept him so far away from her.

'I dream, too, but then it is always about something.'

He was still standing in the doorway, and half unconsciously he caught one of the willow branches and broke it off.

'That must be a great satisfaction.' 'What?'

He

Well, once upon a time there was a poor young man. But he was an ambitious young man and he wanted to make his way in the world. was always repeating to himself the axiom "What man has done, man may do," and he wanted to do a great deal. He had a mother who had helped him forward by much self-sacrifice, and he wanted to repay her. So he resolved that he would never, never marry under any temptation. But it came to pass that he saw a beautiful princess, and his heart went away from him, and he was no longer master of himself.'

He paused there was a quiet earnestness in his voice and manner, which became more and more intense as he proceeded.

She rocked herself gently in the chair, a smiling expression as of wonder and amusement on her face, her eyes looking straight into his.

'Well, when he saw the princess?' 'Ah, then he did not know what to do. He reasoned with himself;

he told himself again and again that it was madness to imagine that the beautiful princess would ever cast a look of favonr upon him; he recalled the serious duties he had to perform, the debt he owed to his mother, and he sternly resolved to escape from this folly. But whenever he saw the lady, reason forsook him, and his love made him blind to all consequences. Was it not a mad love?'

'Decidedly: why did not his friends send him to an asylum?'

'He was very cunning-or thought he was, and his friends did not know of his madness. But he did think of putting himself into an asylum or of running away on board a man-of-war just to escape her fascination-fascination which altered the whole course of his life.'

'Was she so very terrible?'

Madge felt her heart beating quick, for she began to understand, although she pretended still to believe that he was only telling a story.

'She was very terrible to him, because of his fear that he could never win her. Night and day her eyesstrange, quiet, tender eyes-her face, her form haunted him. He was often near her always yearning to tell her how he loved her-and yet he dare not.'

Madge gradually ceased rocking the chair, and her smile was slowly giving place to a look of anxiety. She would have been glad to escape if she could have done so without causing him pain.

He suddenly altered his tone from that of earnestness to one of heroic burlesque. But she saw quite clearly that the burlesque was only a very transparent mask.

'One day he found her alone—as it might be here, in this arbour. She was very kind and gracious-just like you-and he could restrain himself no longer. He felt that he must speak or go raving mad. So, he dropped down on his knees just like this-very ridiculous, isn't it?-and he cried, "MADGE, I LOVE YOU.'

She would have sprung back from him, but he had clasped her round the waist and held her in such a passionate grasp that she could not move.

'Mr. Aylmer!' she gasped in a degree of terror for which the circumstances did not seem to account.

He released her instantly, and rose, at the same time picking up the willow branch which had fallen on the floor.

She, too, rose, but quietly, although there was a wild startled look in her eyes.

'I beg your pardon, he said huskily, and somewhat incoherently. I did not know-I thought-or rather, I hoped--but that's no matter now. I beg your pardon.'

She was trembling as if with sudden cold; her book had dropped upon the floor. He stooped, and placed it on the table. She seemed to be suffering pain as great as that of Aylmer.

Forgive me,' she said in a low voice, her hands resting, or rather clutching the back of the chair, her eyelids with their long dark lashes screening her eyes.

'Forgive you!' he said sadly: 'I cannot forgive you for being beautiful; cannot forgive you for being the woman who would have made my life complete and happy. There is no forgiveness needed for that. By-and-by I shall think of you as a sweet vision which inspired me with new strength and new courage to dare the worst that I might encounter in the world. Just now!-Oh, Madge, let me tell you what you have been and are to me.'

'No, no!' she cried, excitedly; 'do not speak any more, do not tell me any more. Forgive me, forgive me if I have done anything to mislead youI am married and my husband lives.'

He

The ghastly whiteness of his face showed that the pulsation of his heart had stopped for an instant at that confession which killed all hope. dropped the willow branch on the floor; he bowed in silence, and walked hurriedly away.

MARRIED!

V.

He did not care to inquire to whom? or when or where? The one fact was enough for him; and a kind of superstitious horror seized him at the idea that he had fallen headlong in love with the wife of another man! But how was he to know?

He did not blame her. No doubt she had good reasons for concealing her position; and looking back on all her conduct towards him, he at once acquitted her of anything like coquetry. She had never led him on; she had never played any of those tricks which in mere fun women are apt to play in order to enjoy the triumph over the man they have attracted. On the contrary, she had been always severely practical; and he was able to see now the many kindly ways in which she had endeavoured to warn him off.

And he had thought it was just her way, and that when she knew how much he loved her, she would pity him, and, by-and-by, come to love him in return. How he had dreamed about that how he had hoped !

And now!—

Miss Richardson did not appear at dinner, the excuse being a severe attack of cold and headache.

There was silence at the meal, except when the Doctor, in the course of carving, told one of his old jokes, which he enjoyed more thoroughly than anybody and always laughed as heartily as if he had never heard it before.

Mrs. Humphreys left the table as soon as possible in order to see what she could do for Miss Richardson. The Doctor was eating apple and cheese at the time. Aylmer was cracking a walnut with singular deliberation. In the midst of the operation he suddenly spoke.

'I am going to give you a surprise, Doctor.'

'Don't spoil my digestion, what

His unusually grave face and manner puzzled the kindly Doctor.

'It's lucky we are not busy just now, or this would have put me about.'

'I would not have gone so suddenly if you had been busy. But I want to spend a few days with my mother, and I lose the appointment if I don't start in a fortnight.'

'At any rate, you'll stay to drink my health to-morrow night at dinner, and you can take the late train up. Come, now, there's a good fellow,' he added, seeing Aylmer hesitate, 'Don't deny me that favour.'

'I cannot, when you ask me that

way.'

That's right. We'll square ac. counts in the morning; dinner shall be early, so that we can have as long an evening as possible, and I'll ask Brown to take a turn for me if I happen to be wanted. But is there nothing about Madge in this?'

Again hesitation, and then reluctantly :-'Yes.'

'I thought so; but I see you don't care to explain, and I won't press you, although I suppose the whole thing is, that she has refused you.'

Aylmer nodded.

'I am sorry, for she will make a