Grace, who was sitting quite still, in a dejected attitude, in the corner of the sofa, her elbow on the sofa-cushion, and her cheek resting on her hand.

"The worst loss is to you, I know, dear love; but there is no use in sitting still and grieving. It will be better to do something; and I should not like even Gertrud and Frieda to see pink in my cap. Will you, dearest, be so very good as to put black ribbon in my Irish-lace morning cap? You will find some in the white box on the top shelf of my wardrobe; and then, dear, you must arrange one of your old black dresses for yourself, and something for Mab. You see, dear Maurice, the widow and the fatherless are obliged to exercise some ingenuity to present the appearance due to their position."

"I feel so desolate, as if we had lost our only friend," she sobbed, as soon as she had shaken hands with Balfour. "No one else took the same interest in Grace and my dear Randal; and I do hope she Balfour murmured an inarticulate ashas, as poor Mr. Byrne suggests, remem- sent, while Grace rose and silently left bered them in her will. Not that that the room. would be any consolation for the loss of "Poor child! it is a great blow to her," one we loved so well," continued Mrs. | said Mrs. Frere. "She was so devoted Frere, with the simple, transparent world- to Lady Elton that, latterly, I felt a little liness which was one of her characteris-jealous - most unnecessarily I dare say; tics"and Max might well spare some of her wealth too but it would be nice to know she thought of them, the cousin he used to be so fond of."

Balfour listened; and an odd feeling of disappointment stole over him, chilling the warmth and ardor which quickened the blood in his veins a few minutes before. What if this death altered the family fortunes? - what if Mrs. Frere wished to promote a marriage between her daughter and her nephew? If so - but he would not think about it. This was not a day to intrude his feelings upon Grace, uncertain as he was about hers, lest he might add to her trouble. Meanwhile, Mrs. Frere was talking.

"Though dear Lady Elton was such a clever, superior woman, she was unwise on some points. I was always frightened at the way she used chloroform, and those sort of things. I even ventured to remonstrate with her, which she took in very good part. She was too well-bred to do otherwise; but had she heeded me, she would be alive now. do not pretend to be wiser or cleverer than my neighbors; still, if my advice were followed occasionally, much might

be saved."

Grace and Balfour preserved a respectful silence; and after wiping away her tears, and looking out a place in the prayer-book where she had inserted a marker, Mrs. Frere resumed, addressing

for I am sure no mother could be more loved and cared for than I am. But Lady Elton's views were scarcely orthodox and I always feared that Grace might catch something of her ideas. It is very awful to be cut off thus unprepared."

"Very," returned Balfour. "I must say it has been a great shock; and I see Grace is deeply affected by it."

"I wonder if she has left all her money to Max," resumed Mrs. Frere; "it would have been but natural. Still she ought to remember how my dear girl's youth is spoiled by poverty.'

"Not spoiled, Mrs. Frere!" exclaimed Balfour; "a little crippled, perhaps. But what can be brighter or happier than Grace's life?"

"Dear child! she is wonderfully content; but I am not content that she should always pine-no, not pine; she does not pine at all-but be lost in obscurity; and I know Lady Elton thought so too. I could see she was anxious Grace should marry well; indeed," lowering her voice, "I observed, or thought I observed, in our very last conversation, that she rather wished a marriage between Max Frere and Grace. Certainly in many ways it would be desirable, though I have a great objection to marriages between cousins. Still, I could see Lady Elton thought Max was attached to Grace, and then his proposed visit looked like it."

Balfour listened intently, his heart

sinking lower and lower as she spoke. | softness and deference which distinguish Yes, it was indeed a marriage desirable a German maiden, etc. in many ways. Consanguineous unions were not objectionable in his eyes. And Grace! was it possible that her aversion to the proposed visit arose from some of those unaccountable back-eddies which, as he had read, characterized the peculiar contradictions of a woman's first love?

one, so many have gone to the Fest at the Stift."

"How sorry I was yesterday not to have an invitation," said Grace, turning with him in the direction of the park; "and what a change to-day!"

They strolled on in silence; Balfour revolving in his own mind whether he should speak of his own affairs or not, resolved to defer the expression of his feelings until after the next post at all events, as he thought if there was any truth in Mrs. Frere's anticipations they would soon know. And he shrank from the idea of seeking a woman so much more richly endowed than himself, especially as the words which had fallen from Grace continually repeated themselves in his mind, "I should not mind giving all I had to the man I would marry, but I do not know that I should like him to take it." No; if Grace was to have any large slice of Lady Elton's fortune, it was all over for him. Nevertheless, he would tell her, and while he reflected, Grace suddenly asked,

"What news have you had to-day, Maurice? Better than ours, I hope."

"Much better than I had hoped," he returned. "Darnell writes that I shall receive official notice of my appointment in a day or two, and gives me some details which show that it will be the best I have yet had. Darnell himself comes out with me. He is the junior partner, you know, in the great contracting firm of Denny, Calthorpe & Darnell, and goes out to manage the works."

"And whereabouts is this line to be made?"

Through a rather remote district Yauda I think it is called, in New South Wales."

We should always have missed you, Maurice; but it will be doubly hard to let you go now."

"While I dread the good-bye so much that I almost wish I had never come," returned Balfour earnestly, but looking away from his companion.

you must have left Zittau; only it need not have been for the antipodes.'

"Grace," exclaimed Balfour, "suppose Lady Elton has left you her heiress, how do you think Max Frere will like it?"

"I do not think he would mind much. Max is not greedy of money, at least I think not; but do not believe the dear mother's fancies. Lady Elton will not leave me anything. I do not see why she should think of it; you know I was out of her favor for a long time."

"I suppose Mr. Frere will soon answer your mother's letter and then we shall know."

Grace made no answer; and having reached the end of the long stretch of grass, trees, flower-beds, and shrubs, which on this side of the town had replaced the fortifications, they paused to look at the view of mountain and forest before returning. A faint golden haze hung over the intervening fields, and down the gentle incline of the park the vista was broken by the pointed roof of the first humble little church which Lutheranism had ventured to rear in the frontier town, and a short, sturdy round tower, still bearing the marks of Frederick the Great's cannon-balls. All was silent and peaceful.

"How sweet and quiet it is!" said Grace, with a slight sigh; "it is a charming view! Do you remember the sunsets over the sea at Dungar, Maurice? Nothing was ever more beautiful! Oh, how I loved that place and love it still! Yet I suppose I shall never see it again."

"At your age all things are possible," returned Balfour.

And then their talk flowed freely, each recalling to the other pleasant innocent memories, sweetened by the sense that they were mutual, as they strolled slowly to and fro, enjoying the charm of voice and look and sympathy and silent comprehension an hour long to be remembered, to which the heart would revert clingingly through many a change, and which would bear the diminishing effect of time's reversed telescope. At length they returned to Bergstrasse.

"Will you not come in?” said Grace, as they paused at the door.

No, thank you; I have letters to write, and I dare say Mrs. Frere would rather be alone."

They parted. And Balfour walked slowly away to his hotel, wondering why Well, at all events," said Grace hur- it was that the light and hope which had riedly, "you must have gone somewhere! illumined the first hours of the morning

had been effectually overcast by what seemed but an insufficient cause.

From The Nineteenth Century.
THE YELLOWSTONE GEYSERS.

"WAL, sir, I tell you that that thar Yellowstone Park and them Geysers is jest indescribable. Yes, sir, that's what they are, sure," said all the packers, teamsters, and prospectors we consulted on the subject. A greater measure of truth characterized this statement than is usually contained in eulogistic reports of scenery. We were advised at Ogden that pack trains or wagons could be hired at various points of the "Utah Northern " branch of the Union Pacific Railway. In order to economize time my companion preceded me, to contract for transport, whilst I remained in Ogden to conclude arrangements in connection with the commissariat department. These completed, I followed him. He met me at Dillon with a history of woe. At so short a notice no "outfits" were to be obtained anywhere but at this place, and here the demands for them were exorbitant. No regard was taken of current rates. We were looked upon as so much quartz to be crushed and smelted. I ventured to expostulate with one teamster:

"What you ask is absurd. It would pay you in three weeks more than your 'outfit' cost."

Dick was energetic in his endeavors to engage an outfit."

Say you, look here," he would explain to a native; "these 'ere men don't want none of your - snide outfits, but jest good bronchos and a wagon and strong harness."

"Wal, can't yer find no wagons? "Wagons! ! Wagons 'nough for a whole army, you bet. But it, these fellows all propose to make independent fortunes in a single day. Why, they want jest as much to hire out one broncho for a week as 'll buy a whole team."

Swearing is prevalent amongst these fellows. Our teamster was rather gifted with talent in this direction. He was to be heard at his best in the early morning whilst engaged in catching the hobbled mules and horses. Amongst the more harmless titles conferred by him on members of our stud were the "yaller one-eyed cuss," "the private curse," "the bandylegged, hobbling, contrary son of etc., etc.," here following contumelious references to both the animal's remote ancestors and immediate progenitors. But I do the man injustice. It is impossible to render in its pristine vigor, upon paper, the eloquence that distinguished his morning exhortation to the mules. Frantic with rage, he usually concluded by imI am afraid, to use a miner's expres-ploring us to assist him in hanging them sion, that we did not “pan out" quite so well as their previous experiences of an English "prospect" led them to anticipate. Eventually a little diplomacy secured us the services of a Mormon teamster and his boy, a wagon, and twelve mules and horses, on very moderate terms. We engaged a cook, and with Dick (the guide we had brought from Ogden), the "outfit" was complete.

"Oh, horses is dear in this country!" "Not as dear as that amounts to." "Wal, it ain't much for them as has the means and wants to go in."

Dick was an old soldier, and a first-rate fellow. True, the Dillon whisky proved almost too much for him at starting, but ordinary poison would be a mild beverage in comparison with it, and we were so glad that it did not kill him outright that we excused his temporary indisposition. Besides, even then he displayed the most charming urbanity and the greatest anxiety to get under way.

or driving them into the river with the view of drowning them. Brown, our cook, one of the quietest, gentlest, and best old fellows in the world, rather enjoyed the scene. The teamster criticised his cooking, an insult that the meekest cook cannot forget.

Yes," " he said one day, as he turned the antelope steaks in the frying pan and listened to the voice of the teamster softly swearing in the distance; "yes, Mormons always do swear ter'ble, and the women as well, and the children too, and smoke. I guess they smokes more and stands for the swearingest people as there is any where. And they're all alike."

We took no tent, but trusted entirely to fine weather and buffalo robes. For the first few days the track lay through a gameless and uninteresting alkali country.

B.

Well, Piscator, what luck?" inquired

The

"Why, these here durned fish don't piscate worth a cent. Guess I'll go and catch some with a pole and a 'hopper or thar won't be any fish for supper.' identification of trout was one of sundry points on which the teamster and I begged to differ. Trout vary considerably in markings in these mountain streams; still a trout is unmistakable.

Every one, myself excepted, was disagree- | about an hour, and then returned with ably affected by the water. Even the little more than the winch and the butt dogs were unwell. The dryness of the end of the rod. atmosphere was remarkable. Moist sugar became as hard as rock; discharged powder left nothing but a little dry dust in the guns, our lips cracked and our finger-nails grew so brittle that it was impossible to pare without breaking them. As we proceeded the scenery grew wild, and in places fine. On many slopes the pine forests had been lightly swept by fire, and skeleton trunks, from which the bark had fallen away, stood out in ghostly array against the yellow, red, and russet undergrowth, or looked with ascetic asperity on the bright belt of light-leaved willow bushes whose boughs danced gaily in the sunlight on the foot-hills.

At length we surmounted a low divide leading from the Centennial Valley and caught our first glimpse of Henry's Lake. In the purple haze of an autumnal sunset it stretched out before us, and the ripples that dwelt there, waked from their midday slumbers by the evening breeze, sparkled and glittered and tossed and laughed whilst they restlessly compared their blue and gold and violet reflections and chased each round the shores of emerald islands out on the silver bosom of the waters. Time was when only the sun came up over the hills and looked in upon the solitude of this beautiful sheet of water, dreaming its days away in the still heart of the mountains. At most perchance an occasional Indian wandered thither to hunt antelope on its grassy shores, wild fowl in its reedy fringe, or spear by torchlight the noble trout that haunt its crystal depths. Now it is in a fair way to become a "summer resort." Already a log hotel has been tried there. Jam-pots and empty meat-tins lie around it in profusion. Fortunately for some reason it has been deserted. So the pelicans, the swans and geese that dot the lake's wide surface, the ducks and flocks of teal that sail there in fleets or skim in close order to and fro, the grouse in the willow thickets, and the wary regiments of antelope, have yet a respite of comparative security to enjoy, before civilization drives them from their patrimony.

We frequently camped near a trout stream. The trout, although proof against the persuasive influence of the artificial fly, were generally amenable to the seductions of the grasshopper, the butterfly, or grub. Dick's disgust at fly-fishing was amusing. One day B. lent him a rod and I gave him some flies. He was absent

"That's a pretty trout," said I, one

day.

"He ain't no trout. That thar's a chub, that's what he is."

"How do you know that - from observation?"

"No, chap he told me so the other day."

"I should call it a trout."

*

"Wal, I reckon they call him a chub down at the terminus, and the boys they know something there. Anyway he's a chub in this country."

With this conclusive argument Andrews always annihilated me. We were at issue upon several questions of this and other natures. Only one, however, threatened to result unpleasantly. Andrews had a boy. He was a surly, flatfaced boy, with a nose like a red pill. His name was Bud, or Buddy. The father thought all the world of Bud. Bud was one of "the smartest boys in the States." (There are a good many of them.) His proud spirit brooked no restraint. On all subjects he was the best informed person in the party. He was twelve years of age. He was also a Mormon! His education was complete. He possessed, together, with great experience, implicit self-reliance, a shot-gun, a rifle, and a racing pony. Bud at once assumed command of the expedition. He seemed to labor under an impression that we had come from England to accompany him.

When the track was well travelled he would drive our spare stock a few yards ahead of me, in order that I should be thoroughly annoyed with the dust. This pleased him; but I was forced to insist on his taking his pleasure in some other way. Bud declared that "he would be dog-durned if he was a-going to run his interior (he called it by some other name)

The "terminus" is any village on the railway line that the speaker happens to frequent.