'Heartlessness, nay worse, cruelty, malevolence, greed-but I fear I am shocking you.'

'It is certainly painful to me,' said the Curate slowly, to learn that you have so bad an opinion of the man whom Sir Robert-whom we all love and respect-delights to honour. I will confess to you at once that Mr. Walcot is not a personal favourite of mine; but such imputations

'My dear Mr. Dyneley, I impute nothing,' put in the other, laughing; 'I only give you my own opinion of the gentleman; he may be the kindest and most disinterested creature upon earth-only if he is, I'll eat him. am detaining you, however, from your errand.'

τ

'Not at all. I am glad to have seen you,' said the Curate, though his tones were far from glad. He seemed almost unable to rouse himself from some unpleasant reflections. I shall be back by luncheon time,' he added, as he mounted his horse, and I hope with some good news. Good morning.'

And the two young men shook hands with much cordiality.

In less than an hour after they had parted, Mr. Ferdinand Walcot was in possession of the fact of their inter

view which seemed to have some significance for him, to judge by the manner in which he received it from the lips of Gilbert Holm.

·

'He comes to the Curate, does he, instead of his friend Gresham, to repose this confidence?' was the muttered reflection. Now, why is that, I wonder?' He paced for some minutes the little garden before the farmhouse ere he thought this out, and even then his furrowed brow, in place of becoming clearer, grew dark as night. So, so, he loves her, this salt-water fool, and believes Gresham his rival; that has sundered friendship. So much the better; when the fagot is unbound, the sticks are snapped the easier.'

As a matter of fact, however, Walcot saw some cause for disquiet in the

fact of this intimacy between Frederick Mayne and the Curate, both of whom as he well knew, were hostile to him; but like other men of strong will and self-dependent habits, he never admitted, even to himself, that matters were going against him.

In the country, persons of both sexes are often fond of their own free will to drive ten miles and back to a dinner party; the motive (for the attractions of the banquet can never account for it) is gregariousness. Their own company and that of their family has become intolerable, and they put themselves to this enormous inconvenience, as Sir John Plumpudding did, who hung himself one morning 'for a change.' At the same time they are not unaware of the discomforts they thus incur; the little outbreaks of temper on the road out, from hunger or other causes, the exhaustion on their return journey, and the snatch of sleep rudely broken by the jolt at their own hall steps. Therefore, neighbourly folks in the country often ask their friends to spend what (with some secret doubt, perhaps, of having much means of amusement at command) they call a 'long day' with them. Mr. and Mrs. Raynes had received an invitation of this kind from Lady Arden. Perhaps it had not been given altogether with the philanthropic motives I have hinted at. The fact is her ladyship was very particular as to the social proprieties, and the guests in question were not quite in a position to be asked to meet the county families at dinner. Nobody knew where Mr. and Mrs. Raynes had sprung from they had taken the only gentleman's residence there was upon Mirton Moor, about ten years ago, which in the eyes of county society is but the life span of a mushroom; and though they had wonderfully adapted themselves, as it were, to the soilMr. Raynes was, on the one hand, very popular as an employer of labour, and on the other, was the Rector's churchwarden at Mirton-still there was

something about them that the drawing-room folks of these parts described as peculiar.' The gentleman quoted Shakespeare, but was quite ignorant of the usual topics of general conversation, to which he listened with a good-natured face, that was occasionally convulsed by the most comic of grins. The boys and girls were enchanted with this peculiarity, but their elders disapproved of it, and one of them had even contemptuously nicknamed him the Cheshire cat.

His lady spoke still more seldom, but she had a beaming face which gave every one who talked to her the impression that she was entranced by their conversation, unless they happened to cross-examine her about it, when to their chagrin they found she had not understood one word of it. Of her genuine kindness of heart, however, there was no doubt, and the manner in which, though forty-seven and fat, she tripped in the children's dance always given at 'The Lilacs' at Christmas would alone have guaranteed it. 'Hung upon wires,' was, indeed, an observation that had been applied to her mode of progression at all times, which, in connection with Mr. R's contortions of countenance, had caused this honest pair to be known among their intimates as 'the Marionettes.

They were, nevertheless, of the most genuine flesh and blood, and were warmly appreciated by those who had any sense of proportion, and could forget eccentricities of conduct and appearance in the presence of real worth-among whom I need not say was Sir Robert Arden.

His greeting to them on the present occasion was only less warm than that of Frank who had been always welcome to The Lilacs,' and whose greatest 'chum' was their son and heir, Master Richard Raynes, at present at a boarding-school at Cheltenham. It was to that school that his own hopes had turned, as an escape from the vengeance of John Groad and Son, before

they were nipped in the bud by Mr. Ferdinand Walcot's veto.

The luncheon party was a large one, the great Baba, having, at Mrs. Rayne's request, who doted on babies, honoured it by his august presence, and the Curate being also among the invited, though he did not join the company till they had sat down. At first the conversation, led, of course, by his Serene Diminutiveness, to whom every one listened as to a pocket oracle, turned upon the approaching Fifth of November, on which certain fireworks were to be displayed, and was, therefore, of an historical character.

The great Baba would have it that Guy Fawkes (as to whom he felt he would be indebted for the entertainment in question) was by no means censurable, a position from which the whole strength of the company failed to dislodge him. Even when convinced of the heinousness of his attempt to blow up his Sovereign with gunpowder, he hazarded the idea, but perhaps he was a nasty King,'which was incontrovertible.

At the moment of his triumph the Curate entered.

'This is unlike you, Dyneley,' remonstrated Sir Robert, with his usual stickling for punctuality.

'And unlike the Church,' added Gresham; his reverence did not know there were oyster patties.'

'I have been over to Archester,' said the Curate simply; 'and as it has turned out, on a very pleasant errand.'

'I did not know she lived at Archester,' observed George with an involuntary glance at Elise.

But the Curate took no notice of this ribald behaviour.

'I am glad that you are all together,' he said gravely; and especially that Mr. and Mrs. Raynes are with you, because it is my pleasant duty to clear the character of a certain young gentleman-dear to all of us, and especially to you, Lady Arden-which has suffered under an unjust suspicion.'

Here Lady Arden's eyes began to glisten and her face to glow with pleasure; for she (and one other present) alone knew what was coming.

'You remember, Sir Robert, that a certain tale of Master Frank's about his having met a giant with six legs, on his return home from "The Lilacs" one evening, a year or so ago, was much discredited. Now I am in a position to prove that he was really favoured with that spectacle.'

Mr. Walcot looked at his brotherin-law and smiled an incredulous smile.

'I did see that giant,' said Frank vehemently; and he had six legs, just as I told you all.'

It is quite true,' continued the Curate; although it would probably never have been found out but for Mr. Mayne here.'

Every one turned to the person thus indicated. It It surprised them. that the key to this household problem should be discovered by a comparative stranger.

Nay, no praise is due to me,' said Mayne; only when I was told of Master Frank's strange experience, I thought it worth while to inquire if a giant-whether with six legs or tenhad been in these parts at all, at the time in question. From an investigation in the old files of the county newspaper in your library, Sir Robert, I found that this was the case. A caravan, with a giant in it, was located at Mirton at the date of this alleged occurrence. He was, no doubt the monster that Frank saw.'

'I don't quite see the sequitur,' observed Mr. Walcot, drily.

'I shall, however, have the pleasure of showing it to you,' replied the Curate, with some curtness. 'Armed with the information obtained from Mr. Mayne, I rode over to Mirton this morning, and made enquiries

respecting this giant's habits. It was his custom it seems-in order doubtless that he should not be seen for nothing to take his exercise after dark; and being, like most caravan giants, very weak in the legs, two men accompanied him, to serve as supports, when necessary, on either side of him. It was thus no doubt that Frank fell in with him; and in the twilight, it was natural enough that the four legs of his companions should have seemed to the boy to belong to this Goliath as well as his own two; while his head so far over-topped the others (which, indeed, were mere props under his arms) that they escaped observation altogether.'

I like that 'tory,' exclaimed the great Baba, drumming on the table with his silver fork and spoon with great enthusiasm; now tell Baba another about another giant, Dyney.'

But, for once in his life, an observation of the little household god passed unheeded. Everybody was crying out, Good boy, Franky,' and expressing their pleasure that his innocence of the imputed falsehood had been thus established.

'I told you the other day, my lad,' said Mayne,

"That ever the right comes uppermost,
And ever is justice done."

And here you see an example of it.'

Frank said thank you,' gratefully, and as soon as he could escape from the embraces of his family took Mr. Mayne's outstretched hand; but still he looked far otherwise than one who is enjoying a moral triumph. That notion of justice being always done to people chilled his blood. Moreover, he felt that Mr. Walcot's eye was piercing him like a bradawl.

Even when his stepfather beckoned to him and gave him a kind caress, his pale thin face wore as much pain as pleasure.

6

'I am afraid you have not quite forgiven us all,' said Sir Robert, for having done you wrong so long, Frankie.'

'The poor boy means he is quite upset with everybody's kindness, Arden.'

'Good lad, good lad,' said Sir Robert, and he stroked his stepson's head with tender approval.

Curiously enough, not only he, but Lady Arden herself, was persuaded that Mr. Walcot's explanation of Frankie's tears was correct; the scene had been certainly enough to upset the nerves of any sensitive boy.

But Mr. Walcot's glance of warning had been caught by another beside him to whom it was addressed.

'The boy is afraid of him,' mused Mr. Mayne to himself. He has got the whip-hand of the poor child in some way, as he thinks he has of me. I'll take the whip out of your hand,' he muttered, his lips pale with passion, and then if I don't lay it about your own shoulders, Ferdinand Walcot, call me a land-lubber.'

It is a mistake made by many persons of too masterful a disposition to only consider the wrong they do in relation to those they wrong. There are natures capable of being roused to very active antagonism by tyrannies committed against others, and with which they have no sort of business.

CHAPTER XXIII.

SOME INDOOR GAMES.

HE afternoon was wet, so that

The party at Halcombe were

thrown upon its internal resources for amusement. In ordinary cases of the kind the males would have repaired to the billiard-room, and, perhaps, even

enlisted a fair recruit or two; but on the present occasion it was felt that 'Fifie' (as the girls called Frank, when in especial favour or in trouble) was deserving of especial honour; and it was decided with the consent of the good-natured visitors that he should choose his own game, and be the Lord of Misrule until dinner-time.

For myself I love children, but I hate their games; my knees are too stiff to take a share in their athletics; I can't rise from the ground when at full-length without touching anything,' even to oblige a lady of the most fairy-like description; as to that 'Here we go round, round, round,' the very remembrance of the exercise as practised by others gives me the vertigo; while the notion of weighing sacks' is to a person of my build both dangerous and preposterous. Bad as these things are, the 'sitting down' games of children are infinitely worse; they require a readiness of mind which has long deserted me, and an indifference to public criticism which I have not yet acquired. The propositions of the little Misses, however, are on the whole much more alarming, because more subtle and exacting, than those of their playmates of the other sex, and the party at Halcombe Hall might well congratulate itself that it had placed itself so unreservedly at least in the hands of a male.

Frank decided on 'Robber King' as the amusement for the afternoon, a choice which might, perhaps, have been appealed against by the young ladies as being somewhat of a hoydenish-not to say rompish-nature, had not the Great Baba at once expressed his approval of the idea, which was necessarily final.

'I ike wobber kings,' he shouted, 'and murders and ghostisses-tum along.'

Sir Robert, though he too liked 'playing at ghostisses' as we have reason to know, was excused on the score of indisposition; Uncle Ferdinand,' we may be certain, did not re

ceive an invitation; and Lady Arden, protesting it was one of her bad days,' retired to the drawing-room sofa and the last novel of fashionable life. But the rest, even including the Curate who was impressed (not willingly) by Mayne on the ground that it was his duty to convert the Robber King-were all included in the proscription. This game consists in all but one person going to hide, and remaining perdu till discovered by the King, who carries them off to durance, where they remain till rescued by some member of the party who has not been discovered, and who steals out of his hiding-place with the noble intention of releasing the captives.

The prison was a painted oriel in the great hall which threw warm gules' and other mellowed hues upon its tenants, who were immured behind a curtain of tapestry.

This medieval retreat was found, singularly enough, to be generally inhabited by but one pair of victims at a time; and that pair were for the most part Mr. and Mrs. Raynes (who remained in captivity for such long intervals, that they were dubbed Baron and Baroness Trenck), and George Gresham and the German Governess.

'It is a most extraordinary thing,' observed Mayne to the Curate, who found themselves for once thus incarcerated together, 'that I have relieved Gresham and Miss Hurt from this blessed dungeon about half a dozen times.'

'So have I,' replied the other gravely.

Then it is my opinion they get caught on purpose. Perhaps he wishes to improve himself in the German tongue.'

'Perhaps,' said the Curate; 'I always find them talking together.'

'I suppose it's quite understood that he and Miss Nicoll are engaged to be married,' observed the other.

'It is understood so,' returned Dyneley, upon whom a crimson light had suddenly descended, though he was

Nay,' said Milly, breathlessly, her bright face aglow with exercise, and her hair streaming behind her like a comet. 'You frightened me; I am not accustomed to come upon such batches of prisoners it's like "La Force" in the French Revolution. I generally find only George and Miss Hurt, who -here is another Deliverer !'

There was indeed one and a half, for it was Evelyn with the Baba on her shoulder, whom she carried perched there with the same ease and grace with which Moorish, and other pictorial maidens, bear their pitchers to the well. This little pitcher had not only ears, but a very active tongue, and (since silence was an imperative necessity of the game) it took all Evelyn's