"I hope Miss Temple will like me. I have taken quite a fancy to her." felt it more particularly the evening be- not "Do you mean, because of the difference in outward appearance between you?" he asked simply. Mr. Cameron laughed and rubbed his hands together delightedly; and Robin, encouraged by something in his face or the movement, and relieved by the sense that Mr. Blunt was not there, spoke openly of her having had, so far as companions went, a lonely childhood, that she had known but very few girls and had never formed an intimacy with any of them. This led to Christopher speaking of his bringing-up; in turn Mr. Cameron told them of his early days, and somehow I suppose it is - I don't know, though, the hearts of the three seemed opened that it had occurred to me before to think out to each other, and they went on chat-so; still if it's natural to give more admiting until the clock striking eight made ration to the oak than to the bramble, Mr. Cameron jump up in haste to go. why not to a tall, handsome, well-made "I didn't know I was stopping so late," fellow rather than — such as I." he said. "I have to go to the rectory yet." "Well, yes, for one thing-that is a great stumbling-block in the way." 66 "Or I," put in Christopher, laughing at what he looked on as a change in the And then Christopher, having gone pronoun. "Depend on it," he added, with him to the door and across the ter-"that good looks go a long way with race to the steps, in his frank, outspoken women as well as with us men.' way he said, holding him by the hand, - "And yet I don't know." Mr. Cameron seemed quite interested in the question. "I like her-like her very much indeed; she's nice-very nice! I believe that your marriage will prove a blessing to you, and that you both will be very happy." Christopher's sensibilities were still sore, and the touch, gentle though it was, made them smart again. "I only hope that I may be able to secure happiness to her," he said a little despondingly; and looking at him, Mr. Cameron perceived that his face was troubled. "Is it with your father that you fear a little difficulty?" he asked, with that perception, many who minister hold, of at once placing the finger on the cause of sorrow. Christopher's silence told him that he had guessed rightly. Oh, but you must not let that come between you little outside crosses should only, so it seems to me, serve to draw closer together two who love each other. You must take courage and show confidence in yourself, that she is ready to bear anything for you." The latter part of the sentence had been called forth by Christopher's doubtful shake of the head. "Oh," he said, "when I look at her it always strikes me in the same way, so impossible that she should ever care for me as I care for her." More than this little outburst with his father, was a certain chill between him and Robin, not the result of it, for he had "I have been thrown more particularly before I came here-among many who were counted, by everybody who saw them, beauties, and yet they never attracted me." "That I can believe it happens to us all; until the one particular she comes, whose face our heart reflects, and then we feel no other can compare with her." "Mrs. Blunt is considered by everybody very lovely, isn't she?" People always appear to admire her, it seems to me and his attention caught by Mr. Cameron's earnest manner of inquiry, he added, "Why?" "Oh nothing, nothing, I only wanted to know. Good-bye now, good-bye," and shaking hands he went off hurriedly, leaving Christopher standing watching him as he disappeared down the avenue. "He's an odd fellow," he soliloquized, "but I can speak more openly to him than any one I know; no matter what it's about, he manages to give me sympathy. I feel better now, although it's not from what he has said to me. Love isn't much in his line, I fancy; he'd find it hard, I dare say, to win any woman he wanted to marry." Mr. Cameron hastening down to the lodge gate, out of it, and along the lane, was saying to himself as he went, what an odd thing it was that to him no face ever seemed able to bear comparison with Georgy Temple's; even by the side of and while With a little look at Jack, whose attention was concentrated on his supper, Georgy came to the rescue. this beautiful Mrs. Blunt Robin was talking he had been particularly attracted by her beauty — he should give the preference to Georgy. After church that morning, there had been a very general discussion of Robin's appearance, with a universal verdict in its favor. Every one who spoke of her pronounced that to look at she was charming. Georgy was the only one who in any way dissented. Nothing about Robin seemed to please her, and, astonished at such an unaccountable prejudice, Mr. Cameron determined at once, by seeking an introduction, to find out if there was any reason why she should imply that she did not mean to be intimate with her. More than favorably impressed by the visit he had made, he was now hurrying to the rectory, delighted at the good re. port he should have to give to Georgy, and bent upon using all his influence to dispose her to take a warm interest in their new neighbor. "Is Have they finished?" Not able to decide the nature of the Sunday meal, which he hoped was over, he found it easier to turn the question. The domestic who opened the door, without committing herself, indicated that they were all in there. At this Liberty Hall, Sunday was a day of liberty: servants went out or stayed at home, as they felt inclined, and the family got what they could when they could, and went without what had not been provided for them. Opening the door of the dining-room, for the curate was too frequent a visitor for it to be thought needful to announce him, Mr. Cameron found everybody still seated at the table, towards which he advanced with the certain assurance of being welcomed, when overcome by amazement he stopped. His eyes did not deceive him, there sat the squire! abroad "Why-you! I thought you had gone to stay ever so long." "Yes; did you?" said Jack, with a happy ignoring that it was any one's business to wonder what had brought him back. "If I move a little nearer to you, Georgy, Mr. Cameron will find room by Dora.' But Mr. Cameron did not seem disposed to accept the place proposed for him. แ "No, don't disturb yourselves," he said, without moving or taking his eyes off Jack. "Well, you do surprise me to find you here," and though he did not make the demand in words, his face asked for some explanation. "When I know her, perhaps I shall," said Georgy with a little scornful screw of her mouth; "but I thought I had made it plain to you that I had no intention of knowing her." A glance at Jack showed her his attention was arrested. He looked at them both, quickly, from one to the other. "But you told me that you intended to call," he said. 66 Certainly, I shall have to call with mother, but that binds me to nothing. I need never go again." "That seems a little strange - rather unneighborly?" Glad of an ally, Mr. Cameron had drawn up his chair and sat down. He was looking at Jack assentingly. "My dear Jack," and Georgy's straightforward gaze sought his, "I am just as free to choose my friends as you are yours, and, if you remember, you distinctly announced your determination of cutting the Blunts altogether." "My dear Georgy, permit me to remark that I often say a great deal more than I mean, and therefore I warn you against taking me au pied de la lettre." "It was a pity you tried to influence me, then." "I never presumed to suppose you would be guided by my opinions." Really! And we two - as Miss Boothby remarked to mamma, to-day cut out so exactly by nature, as it were, for each other? Mrs. Temple coughed noisily, as if a crumb had gone the wrong way. She thought Georgy was showing her hand too openly, and wanted to attract her attention. "That will do, mother; I see you frowning at me. Mother fears I am wearing my heart too much on my sleeve," she said, turning to Mr. Cameron. "Does she?" he said absently. He could not make Georgy out to-night, and he could not make himself out either. Coming along he had felt so happy and jolly, now he felt miserable and discontented. "I suppose, after all, it will be the right thing to do, sir, to call on these Blunts?" Jack was addressing the rector, who, apart from the others, was deep in a paper, puffing out volumes of smoke and drinking deeply of cold tea. Notwithstanding his seeming abstraction, he had heard, as he always did, every word that was going on around him; only, until actually appealed to, he never troubled himself to enter the list of argu ers. "Call on them; of course you'll call. You're not the chap you used to be if you're going to visit the sins of a vulgar old brute of a father on the head of his inoffensive son." Jack smiled his thanks for his old friend's good opinion. "I'm afraid I've made it a little awk ward by being rather stiffnecked over this dispute about the thicket land," he said. "You must try, if you can, to help me out in the matter, sir. Tell them I hadn't a fairy godmother to bestow 'on me the gift of good temper.'" This was an allusion to a story the children had been reading to him. "Leave that to me," said the rector confidently. "You don't know old Blunt yet. He'll be ready to lick the dust off your boots if he can only once get you inside his door. But that's not the case with his son. Christopher's a gentleman, whatever his father may be." "He has managed to get a very pretty girl for a wife," put in Mrs. Temple with a certain degree of asperity; "and if she is at all a lady, he ought to consider himself a very fortunate young man, for of course no one about here would have had him." "Well, they hadn't the chance," said Georgy, "seeing he never asked them." "You don't know that he never asked them?" "I know he never asked me." "Perhaps you wish he had?" said Jack teasingly. "No, I don't. But perhaps you do." "I?"! Knowing what Georgy did, Jack a little overdid his astonishment. "What possible motive can you have for saying that?" But without making any answer, Georgy moved from her seat and went over to the other end of the room. Could she be jealous of Robin's good looks? Jack wondered. This sudden prejudice seemed a mystery — one which that night, however, Georgy was not disposed that he should unravel, for she fetched a chair and sat down, so that she could lend her aid to the singing of the hymns which had been commenced by the children and her sister. Jack, in the mean time, returned to the subject of this visit he wished to pay; and Georgy, who kept one ear at their disposal, heard him and her father enter into the arrangements for going to the Blunts' the next afternoon. "It will lessen the awkwardness," said Jack, "if there are others there beside me. I can seem to have called at that time by accident. They need not know that we arranged to go together." CHAPTER XXVIII. THE next morning Mr. Temple so arranged his plans that a seemingly chance meeting brought him face to face with Mr. Blunt. | "The very man I was thinking of," said the rector, with a shake of the hand more than usually cordial. "I was wondering as I came along whether I shouldn't meet you." Mr. Blunt's face beamed with satisfaction. It was just what he desired, to be greeted in this neighborly way; and to add to his satisfaction, on bearing that he was going into Wadpole, Mr. Temple altered his route, in order to go as far as the green with him. "Have you heard that the squire is back again?" he began, after they had gone on some way chatting on indifferent subjects. No; Mr. Blunt had heard nothing of the kind, and the words in which he said so were spoken rather huffily. "Yes; he seems to have altered his plans-it's the fashion with these young people. We didn't do it, did we, in our day? He has come back and intends stopping, so he says." Mr. Blunt made no remark; he was turning over in his own mind how he should give the rector his opinion of Mr. Dorian Chandos's behavior. "What's he swelling himself out like a bloated frog for?" thought the rector Mr. Blunt when attacked by rising choler had the habit of expanding all the loose flesh about his person "something's brewing in the fellow; I'd best have my say before he begins." "He was with us last night," he went on aloud; "most days he spends half his time with my girls and me he was so much among us in bygone days that it only seems natural to see him there. He's a good fellow; little hot-headed, but it's soon over. By the way, you and he had a little dispute about that thicket land down there, hadn't you?" Ah, now they were coming to it. Mr. Blunt had his statement all ready, but before he could speak the rector ran on with, 66 Yes, I thought so; he was saying as much to me. Ah, well you mustn't let that interfere with your living good neighbors. I needn't tell you what he said about it; but I told him that he didn't know you, and I did, and if he liked to pay his respects to your daughter-in-law this afternoon, my people were going, and he could go with them, and I'd be guarantee for you giving him a good reception." Mr. Blunt's face became perfectly iridescent in the rush of pride which swamped his anger. Coherent words failed him, and he could but stutter out something about acting the part of a gentleman, on which ground people would always find him ready to meet them. The rector nodded his complete assurance, and his task ended, he speedily found an opportunity of remembering an engagement which would take him in an opposite direction. care, but so long a time had gone by since he used them, that he had even forgotten where they lay buried. That morning Mr. Blunt did not waste much time in Wadpole. he was all anxiety to get back and make his announcement to Christopher and Robin. Mr. Dorian Chandos according to his showing to Christopher - Robin was not present had come to his senses, and though the rector had gone a roundabout way to manage it, had as good as asked if a visit from him would be agreeable. "The Temples are coming this afternoon" the Boothbys the day before had intimated as much. "Oh, you'll see, we shall have them all here before long," and he rubbed his hands delightedly - at length he should see Christopher among the county society. And going into the drawing-room he walked about, looking here and there, oppressed with the idea that some one ought to be bustling about setting things in order. Repose of mind or manner is very difficult to attain by persons of Mr. Blunt's order. Wishing to prepare Robin for the probable state of excitement in which she would find his father, Christopher went in search of her. She was in the little morning-room, sitting close by the window, looking out; her work lay beside her. At sound of Christopher's entering, she caught it up, and while he told his news she sewed industriously, her needle flying, seeming to keep time to her heart, which was beating violently. "I expect, if the truth was known, it's Miss Georgy Temple that's bringing him back," said Christopher, who had gone on talking, without waiting for an answer. Everybody says they are cut out for each other, and that they'll marry some day." Hand and heart seemed paralyzed; the needle was in the work, but Robin could find no strength to draw it out. He disliked Mr. Blunt heartily, and oddly enough for he was ever lenient" to failings judged him hardly. That seeming readiness to put his self-respect into his pocket, his eagerness to elbow his way into the society of those who looked down upon him, drew forth the contempt of the rector, who, had Mr. Blunt assumed no other position than the one his own energy had helped him to, would have respected him, have given him the hand of good-fellowship, and have been delighted to bear him company. The struggles endured, the resolution maintained by those who have climbed, step by step, Fortune's ladder, have a wonderful fascination for most men, more especially for indolent natures such as Mr. Temple's. The rector knew well that talents had been committed to his own "You ought to get on well with this Mr. Chandos," continued Christopher; "he has lived a great deal abroad, they tell me: you and he perhaps will be able to talk in French and Italian together. You'll like that, won't you?" Bending more over her work Robin gave a nod of the head in reply. "Come, put down that old work, do," said Christopher persuasively," and have a turn in the garden with me. We sha'n't dare to propose a longer walk now we know these people are coming to see you," and going nearer to her he stooped down, | after us; he did not know what had haptrying to catch sight of her face, telling her pened to him, nor that I was married to as he did so that he had thought her look-you." ing pale that day. Christopher," tossing aside her work Robin had sprung to her feet—“I want to say something I've something to tell youI know this Mr. Chandos, who is coming here he used to be called Dorian; he knew papa and me too." No one could call her face pale now. Up to the temples the crimson color had rushed, brought there by the sudden impulse which had stamped her resolution. In the midst of that whirlpool of disap. pointment, pain, pleasure—all so mixed together that she did not know the cause for either there had suddenly leaped up the feeling that she must tell Christopher tell him all-and when he knew, ask him to take her away. "Knew you! knew your father !" Christopher's calm, astonished air fell as a chill on Robin's hot resolves. "Yes," she said, "in old days we were constantly together." The trembling within was so great that unless she spoke slowly he would hear her teeth chatter. Perhaps, after all, though, you may find he is not the same man?" Christopher spoke hopefully. "Yes he is, I met him on Saturday." "On Saturday here?" "In the wood by accident, and he told me that now his uncle was dead, and he was the squire here." Christopher looked pained. "You wonder why I did not tell you," she went on. "I meant to I wanted him to know you, but, perhaps because of his quarrel with uncle, he"-and she stopped. "Oh, I can well understand," Christopher said, only too pleased that his father should be the cause of hesitation, "in the morning when we passed him, I saw he wanted to avoid us.' "He knew no more of my being here then, than I did about him." What ease it had given her this speaking to Christopher! He was going to Venice to look "No; didn't he? Is it then so long since you saw him?" "Oh, it seems ages ago to me" — and she paused for a moment, looking dreamily, "but really it was but a short time before you came to us that he left Venice.", Completely disarmed of suspicion,. Christopher said, "And you met this friend, and you were not going to tell me? I think I ought to scold you, you know." "I wanted to tell you all the time,” she said earnestly. Christopher gave her a little shake of the hand. "Now I see," he said, "what it was that upset you while we were away." "Yes. It has brought so much of the past back to me. I knew him when I was a child; he told me so many things that since then you have told me, Christopher," and raising her eyes swimming with tears, she added, "Except you, I never knew any one but him talk to me about doing things that are right and good." "He sowed the seed then," he said, looking at her tenderly. "No; you did that. He tilled the ground perhaps," and she smiled back at him. She could smile now- that fit of madness which for a time had swept over her, had passed away. Christopher's presence> and attentions were no longer oppressive: if he touched her, she did not shrinkaway, but sat with her hand in his, telling, him about Jack, what he had been to her, what he had been to her father; and as they talked, the great burden of her discontent seemed to melt, and not knowing enough of her woman's weak nature to discern that it was the sun of that presence which was drawing near, she cheated herself into the belief that her happiness was restored solely for the reason that she had confided in Christopher. "I shall never keep a secret again from you," she said "never." "That is all I can ask of you," and he sighed to think how far his wishes outstripped his words. "It is only as it should be with hus bands and wives they ought to trust each other, shouldn't they?" "They ought to; I should like to think you could always trust me." "I mean to. Oh, Christopher, you are very good," she said, looking at him se riously. "I used to think he― Jack |