There was another girl with her whom Walter knew but slightly, but who justified the plural pronoun. Walter held up his hand to stay this | are no longer just the old Walter whom torrent. He colored high with a curi- we have known all our lives." ous sentiment of proprietorship and the shrinking of pride from hearing that which was his discussed by strangers. He scarcely knew the names of them, and their histories not at all. He put up his hand: "I would rather find out the mysteries for myself," he said. "On the contrary, I was going to say, when you interrupted me. "I am so sorry I interrupted you." "That though I did not know who I was in the face of the world, I was always the old Walter, etc. A man, I believe, can never lose his Christian name." "Oh," cried Underwood, "if you are standing on your dignity, my lord, as you like, for that matter. I am not one to thrust my company upon any man if he doesn't like it. I have stood your friend," and I would again; but as for forcing myself upon you now that you've come to your kingdom "Underwood," cried the other, touched in the tenderest point, "if you dare to insinuate that this has changed me, I desire never to speak to you again. But it is only, I suppose, one of the figures of speech that people use when they are angry. I am not such a cad as you make me out. Whether my name is Methven or Erradeen I don't seem to know very well which it is "It is both," the other cried with a great laugh, and they shook hands, engaging to dine together at the hotel that evening. Underwood, who was knowing in such matters, was to order the dinner, and two or three of "the old set were to be invited. It would be a farewell to his former comrades, as Walter intended; and with a curious recurrence of his first elation he charged his representative to spare no expense. There was something intoxicating and strange in the very phrase. As he left Underwood and proceeded along the High Street, where, if he had not waved his hand to them in passing with an air of haste and preoccupation, at least every second person he met would have stopped him to wish him joy, he suddenly encountered July Herbert. She was going home from the vicarage, out of which his mother had politely driven her; and it seemed the most wonderful luck to July to get him to herself, thus wholly unprotected, and with nobody even to see what she was after. She went up to him, not with Underwood's eagerness, but with a pretty, frank pleasure in her face. "I have heard a fairy-tale," she said, "and is it true "I suppose you mean about me," said Walter. 66 'Yes, I am afraid it is true. I don't exactly know who I am at present." "Afraid!" cried July. Ah, you know you don't mean that. At all events, you 66 "Nor a woman either," said July. That is the only thing that cannot be taken from us. We are supposed, you know, rather to like the loss of the other one. "I have heard so," said Walter, who was not unaccustomed to this sort of fencing. "But I suppose it is not true." "Oh," said July, "if it were for the same reason that makes you change your name, I should not mind. But there is no peerage in our family that I know of, and I should not have any chance if there were, alas! Good-bye, Lord Erradeen. It is a lovely name! And may I always speak to you when I meet you, though you are such a grand personage? We do not hope to see you at the cottage now, but mamma will like to know that you still recognize an old friend." "I shall come and ask Mrs. Herbert what she thinks of it all," Walter said. July's brown eyes flashed out with triumph as she laughed and waved her hand to him. She said, "It will be too great an honor," and curtseyed; then laughed again as she went on, casting a glance at him over her shoulder. He laughed too; he was young, and he was gratified even by this undisguised provocation, though he could not help saying to himself, with a slight beat of his heart, how near he was to falling in love with that girl! What a good thing it was that he did not - now!" As for July she looked at him with a certain ferocity, as if she would have devoured him. To think of all that boy had it in his power to give if he pleased, and to think how little a poor girl could do! CHAPTER VI. MRS. METHVEN was conscious of a new revival of the old displeasure when Walter informed her of the engagement he had formed for the evening. She was utterly disappointed. She had thought that the great and beneficial shock of this new life would turn his character alto- | felt afterwards that it would have been in better taste had he postponed this for a night. But he was very impatient and eager to shake himself free of them, and enter upon his new career. So gether, and convert him into that domestic sovereign, that object of constant reference, criticism, and devotion which every woman would have every man be. It was a wonderful mortification and en- Something of the same disappointed lightenment to find that without even the and disapproving sentiment filled Mrs. interval of a single evening devoted to Methven's mind when she heard of his the consideration of his new and marvel- visit to the cottage. She knew no reason lous prospects, and that talking over why he should take a special leave of July which is one of the sweetest parts of a Herbert; if he knew himself a reason, great and happy event, he should return which he did not disclose, that was an- to what?to wallowing in the mire, other matter. Thoughts like this embitas the Scripture says, to his old billiard-tered the preparations for his departure, room acquaintances, the idlers and unde- which otherwise would have been sirable persons with whom he had formed agreeable. She had to see after many associations. Could there be anything things which a young man of more wealth, more unsuitable than Lord Erradeen in the or more independent habits, would have midst of such a party, with Underwood, done for himself—his linen, his portmanand perhaps worse than Underwood? It teau, most of the things he wanted, except wounded her pride and roused her tem- the tailor part of the business'; but it was per, and, in spite of all her efforts, it was not until the last evening that there was with a lowering brow that she saw him any of the confidential consultation, for go away. Afterwards, indeed, when she which her heart had longed. Even on thought of it, as she did for hours to- that last day Walter had been very little gether, while Cousin Sophia talked, and indoors. He had been busy with a hunshe languidly replied, maintaining a con- dred trifles, and she had begun to make versation from the lips outward, so poor a up her mind to his going away without a substitute for the evening's talking over word said as to their future relations, as and happy consultation she had dreamed to whether he meant his mother to share of Mrs. Methven was more just to her any of the advantages of his new position, son. She tried always to be just, poor or to drop her at Sloebury as something lady. She placed before herself all the done with, which he did not care to burden reasons for his conduct. That he should himself with, any more than the other entertain the men who, much against her circumstances of his past career. She wish and his own good, yet in their way did so little justice to the real generosity had been kind to, and entertained him, of her son's temper in the closeness of was natural. But to do it this first even- her contest with him, and the heat of pering was hard, and she could not easily sonal feeling, that she had begun to make accept her disappointment. Afterwards up her mind to this, with what pain and she reminded herself with a certain stern bitterness it is unnecessary to say. philosophy that because Walter had owned a touch of natural emotion, and had drawn near to her and confessed himself in the wrong, that was no reason why his character should be changed in a moment. There were numbers of men who on occasion felt and lamented their misdoing, yet went on again in the same way. He had been no doubt startled, as some are by calamity, by the more extraordinary shock of this good fortune; but why should he for that abandon all the tastes and occupations of his former life? It was she, she said to herself, with some bitterness, who was a fool. The fact was that Walter meant no harm at all, and that it was merely the first impulse of a half scornful liberality, impatience of the old associations, which he had tacitly ac knowledged were not fit for him, that led him back to his former companions. He She had even begun to make excuses for her own desertion in the tumult of endless thought upon this one subject which possessed her. She would be just; after all, was it not better perhaps that she should be left in the little house which was her independent home, for which she owed nothing to any one? If any unnecessary sense of gratitude made him offer her reluctantly a share in his new life, that would be humiliation indeed. If, as was apparent, her society, her advice, her love were nothing to him, was it not far better that both should recognize the situation, and view things in their true light? This the proud woman had made up her mind to, with what depth of wounded tenderness and embittered affection who could say? She had packed for him with her own hands, for all his permanent arrangements were to be made 50 S 1 5 after he had left Sloebury, and to change | thought it was beautiful to hear his lord- tears. Walter came in when the packing was just about concluded. He came half-way up the stairs and called, "Mother, where are you?" as he had often done when he was a boy and wanted her at every turn, but as he never did now. This touched and weakened her again in her steady resolution to let him see no repining in her. "Are you packing for me?" he called out again; "what a shame while I have been idling! But come down, mother, please, and leave that. You for get we have everything to settle yet." "What is there to settle?" she said, with a certain sharpness of tone which she could not quite suppress, coming out upon the landing. The maids who were going to bed, and who heard all this, Mrs. Methven on her side was very tired, and tremulous with the exertion of packing. It would have been impossible for her to banish that tone out of her voice. She stood in the subdued light upon the stairs looking down upon him, leaning on the banister to support herself; while he, with all the light from below upon his face, ruddy with the night air, and the applauses, and his own high well-being, looked up gaily at her. He had shaken off all his old irritability in the confidence of happiness and good fortune that had taken possession of him. After a moment he came springing up the stairs three at a time. "You look tired, mother, while I have been wasting my time. Come down, and let us have our talk. I'll do all the rest to-morrow," he said, throwing his arm round her and leading her down-stairs. He brought her some wine first of all and a footstool, and threw himself into the easy task of making her comfortable. Now," he said, "let's talk it all over," drawing a chair to her side. 66 All this was quite new upon Walter's part- or rather quite old, belonging to an age which had long ago gone. "Isn't it rather late for that?" she said, with a faint smile. "Yes, and I am ashamed of myself; but, unfortunately, you are so used to that. We must settle, however, mother. I am to go first of all to Kinloch-houran, which Milnathort says is not a place for you. Indeed, I hear"-here he paused a little as if he would have named his authority, and continued "that it is a ruinous sort of place; and why I should go there, I don't know." "Where did you hear?" she said, with quick suspicion. "Well, mother, I would rather not have mentioned his name; but if you wish to know, from Underwood. I know you are prejudiced against him. Yes, it is prejudice, though I don't wonder at it. I care nothing for the fellow; but still it comes out, which is rather strange, that he knows these places, and a good deal about the Erradeens." comfort to have me with you at all? "MOTHER?" the young man cried. He got up suddenly from where he was sitting beside her, and pushed away his chair, and stood facing her, with a sudden "Is that, then," cried the mother quick-paleness and fiery eyes that seemed to ly, "the reason of his being here?" "He never said so, nor have I asked him," answered Walter, with something of his old sullenness; but then he added, "The same thought has crossed my own mind, mother, and I shouldn't wonder if it were so." "Walter," she said, "a man like that can have but one motive-the desire to aggrandize himself. For heaven's sake, don't have anything to do with him; don't let him get an influence over you." You must have a very poor opinion of me, mother," he said, in an aggrieved tone. dazzle her. He had almost kicked her footstool out of his way in his excitement and wounded feeling. "Do you inean to say you want to have nothing to do with me?" he said. I "Oh! my boy, you could not think so. I thought that was whatyou meant. wish only what is for your good." "Would it be for my good to be an unnatural cad?" said the young man, with rising indignation "a heartless, ill-conditioned whelp, with no sense and no feeling? Oh, mother! mother! what a poor opinion you must have of me!" he cried; and so stung was he with this blow that sudden tears sprang to his eyes. "All because I'm a fool and put everything off to the last moment," he added, in a sort of undertone, as if explaining it to himself. "But I'm not a beast for all that," he said fiercely. She looked at him with a curious gaze, silenced, as it seemed. She loved him more than anything in the world, and thought of him above everything; and yet perhaps in that wrath with those we love which works like madness in the brain, it was true what he said that she had a She made him no reply, but sat and poor opinion of him. Extremes meet, as gazed at him with a remorse and comthe proverb says. However, this was a punction, which, painful sentiments as mystery too deep for Walter to enter into. they are, were to her sweet as the dews "Don't let us waste words about Un-from heaven. Yes, it appeared that derwood," he said. "I care nothing for the fellow; he is vulgar and presuming as you always said." Partly, no doubt this avowal was made with the intention of pleasing his mother; at the same time it proved the great moral effect of promotion in rank. Lord Erradeen saw with the utmost distinctness what Walter Methven had only glimpsed by intervals. And it is impossible to describe how this speech pleased Mrs. Methven. Her tired eyes began to shine, her heart to return to its brighter hopes. "The thing is, what arrangements you wish me to make," said Walter. "What are you going to do? I hear Mulmorrel is a handsome house, but it's November, and naturally it is colder in the north. Do you think you would care to go there now, or wait till the weather is better? It may want furnishing, for anything I know; and it appears we've got a little house in town." through all her passionate and absorbing tenderness she had had a poor opinion of him. She had done him injustice. The conviction was like a new birth. That he should be Lord Erradeen was nothing in comparison of being as he thus proved himself, good and true, open to the influences of affection and nature. She could not speak, but her eyes were full of a thousand things; they asked him mutely to forgive her. They repented, and were abashed and rejoiced all in one glance. The young man who had not been nearly so heartless as she feared, was now not nearly so noble as she thought; but he was greatly touched by the crisis, and by the suggestion of many a miserable hour which was in her involuntary sin against him and in her penitence. He came back again and sat close by her, and kissed her tremulously. "I have been a cad," he said. " I don't wonder you lost all faith in me, mother." "Not that, not that," she said faintly; and then there was a moment of exquisite silence, in which without a word, every. thing was atoned for, and pardon asked | air of easy indifference as if it were the and given. most natural thing in the world: while his mother on her side could have cried for pleasure and tenderness. And then began perhaps the happiest hour of Mrs. Methven's life, in which they talked over everything and decided what was to be done. Not to give up the house in Sloebury at present, nor indeed to do anything at present, save wait till he had made his expedition into Scotland and seen his new property, and brought her full particulars. After he had investigated everything and knew exactly the capabilities of the house, and the condition in which it was, and all the necessities and expediencies, they would then decide as to the best thing to be done; whether to go there, though at the worst time of the year, or to go to London, which was an idea that pleased Walter but alarmed his mother. Mrs. Methven did her best to remember what were the duties of a great landed proprietor and to bring them home to her son. "You ought to spend Christmas at your own place," she said. "There will be charities and hospitalities and the poor people to look after." She did not know Scotland, nor did she know very well what it was to be a great country magnate. She had been but a poor officer's daughter herself, and had married another officer, and been beaten about from place to place before she setB tled down on her small income at Sloebury. She had not much more experience than Walter himself had in this respect; indeed if the truth must be told both of them drew their chief information from novels, those much-abused sources of information, in which the life of rural potentates is a favorite subject and not always described with much knowledge. Walter gravely consented to all this, with a conscientious desire to do what was right; but he thought the place would most likely be gloomy for his mother in winter, and that hospitalities would naturally be uncalled for so soon after the death of the old lord. "What I would advise would be Park Lane," he said, with a judicial tone. “Milnathort said that it was quite a small house." "You must not mind me, Walter; we must think what is best for yourself," she said, as proud and pleased as if she had twenty carriages. "Nothing of the sort," he said. “We are going to be comfortable, and you must have everything that is right first of all." What an hour it was! now and then there will be given to one individual out of a class full measure of recompense heaped and overflowing, out of which the rest may get a sympathetic pleasure though they do not enjoy it in their own persons. Mrs. Methven had never imag. ined that this would come to her, but lo! in a moment it was pouring upon her in floods of consolation. So absorbing was this happy consultation that it was only when her eyes suddenly caught the clock on the mantelpiece, and saw that the hands were marking a quarter to two, that Mrs. Methven startled awoke out of her bliss. "My poor boy! that I should keep you up to this hour talking, and a long journey before you to-morrow!" she cried. She hustled him up to his room after this, talking and resisting gaily to the very door. He was happy too with that sense of happiness conferred, which is always sweet, and especially to youth in the delightful, easy sense of power and beneficence. When he thought of it he was a little remorseful, to think that he had possessed the power so long and never exercised it, for Walter was generous enough to be aware that the house in Park Lane and the carriage were not the occasions of his mother's blessedness. "Poor mother," he said to himself softly. He might have made her a great deal more happy if he had chosen before these fine things were dreamt of. But Mrs. Methven remembered that no more. She begged pardon of God on her knees for misjudging her boy, and for once in her life was profoundly, undoubtingly happy, with a perfection and fulness of content which perhaps could only come after long experience of the reverse. After such a moment a human creature, if possible, should die, so as to taste nothing less sweet: for the less sweet, to be sure, must come back if life goes on, and at that moment there was not a cloud or a suggestion of darkness upon the firmament. She grudged falling asleep, though she was very tired, and so losing this |