those terrible thirty pieces were Ro- | said, at parting; "I never felt so queer man, he says they probably weren't. before. Do you think a chill could I couldn't understand all about the possibly affect one's head a little, denarii and shekels, but he says the darling ?" Temple tax was always paid in Jewish money, so the priests were more likely to have only Attic coinage in their possession. So I don't mind now, Harry dear wear the little thing as long as you like." I was a good deal surprised not to see him for another week. I had a hurried note or two from him, telling me he was unable to get over to the rectory, and lamenting the separation. There were words of passionate fondness always, yet the language was so unlike Harry, somehow so abrupt and almost disconnected, that I should have felt a little anxious about him, only that I told myself it was silly to worry over trifles, and I heard he had been over to the Stockton races on the regimental drag, and to a pigeonmatch with some of the officers. I hate pigeon-shooting, and I was a little sorry to hear of that, and rather astonished at his having gone; and Cousin Dick, when he came back from Stockton, asked me if Curzon were out of sorts, or what? He had been very hilarious at the races, but seemed in a queer sort of temper as well. It was like one of Cousin Dick's amiable remarks, and so was his suggestion that the 2nd Wiltshire brewed extra-powerful champagne cup; so I treated him and his relation with silent scorn, though I couldn't help being a little unhappy too. However, one's powers of fretting are considerably dulled by the rosecolored mist of a happy love-dream, and Harry's devotion atoned for everything in the one hurried visit he paid me that week. It was in the evening, and he said he had heaps of work and couldn't stay long; but he was so full of self-reproach for Stockton and the pigeons, and so caressing and fond in his contrition, that I was quite happy, and only remembered afterwards that there had been a certain something unlike himself. "I haven't been a bit the thing since that chill I took the other day," he "I'll ask papa what he thinks," said I, being used to consider my father's judgment infallible. "Good heavens, Kit! What can a parson know about one's liver? They meddle enough already with things that don't concern them. Don't incite them to further efforts." It was so like his speech that day on the moor that I shrank back a little, half-startled. "Then see a doctor about it," I said, a little coldly, in spite of myself. "I will, I think. Good-night, my darling;" and with a fervent embrace he was gone. My dear old father was to preach at the Dewsbury garrison church on the Sunday a duty in which he took a simple delight, for he had been an army chaplain in the Crimea, and dearly loved a red coat. I begged hard to go with him, for I loved the garrison church with its band and the hearty singing from a thousand warriorthroats-and then I knew Harry was to help take the men there, and I did so enjoy seeing him in uniform; but I had a little cold, and it threatened rain, so my father would not let me go. I was watching for him when he returned, and ran to help him off with his macintosh, for the rain had fulfilled its threat. He was very silent and absent as I undid the fastenings; but as I took the dripping thing to hang it on its peg, he suddenly drew me close to him, macintosh and all, and kissed me. It was so seldom he did that, except for good-night and good-morning, that I looked up surprised, and met his eyes fixed on me with a troubled and tender look which filled me with a vague alarm. "Poor little Kathleen ! poor little girl!" he murmured, half to himself; and then he walked hastily away to his study, and shut himself in. I looked in bewilderment at Cousin Dick, who had come home with my father to luncheon, as he often did on Sundays, and saw that he was regard- | your happiness would be safe in the ing me with a gaze in which there was hands of a young man who has let a certain exultation. himself be overtaken as Harry Curzon "What on earth is the matter?" I has to-day. If I should find him in asked. 66 clined to intemperate habits, my duty, re-fear, would be very clear to see." 'Oh, nothing astonishing," sponded Dick, with affected indifference. Only what any one might have expected, if they'd only listened to me. Curzon was roaring drunk at churchparade this morning, and insulted my uncle to his face - that's all." I "Oh, papa, papa! don't break my heart! You know - every one can tell you-how steady Harry is !" "That was my earnest belief, or I should never have agreed to your engagement. But Richard tells me there have been some strange stories about him of late so strange that I have been asking Maylands, as we walked part of the way home together, whether there was any mental weakness in the family. But Maylands declares there was never anything of the kind, and he is in a position to speak with confi With one arm about my shoulders as I knelt by his side, my burning face pressed against his knee, he told me very gently, very tenderly, that it was the dreadful truth. Every one had no-dence." ticed how strange my poor boy looked "But oh, we may all do wrong once, when he first arrived at church, and all | papa dearest; and if every one turns through the service he had seemed from us, how can we ever atone ?” hardly able to sit still; but when the sermon began he had suddenly burst out into loud and scornful laughter, and rising from his seat, sauntered out, whistling under his breath. "Heaven forbid I should deny any one a chance, little girl. Harry Curzon' is young, and there is ample time to amend. But your future must not be risked. We will wait and see how matters stand before I can let things proceed further. Meanwhile I cannot let you see too much of each other." "At least I may write ?" I implored. "I prefer you should not do so. I will see him on Tuesday evening at the barracks, when I am with Colonel Maylands, and will explain my reasons to him for insisting on at least a fortnight's probation. What? — does that seem too hard? A fortnight is not a lifetime, little girl it is soon past." But oh, that fortnight never came to its end, for Tuesday evening saw the shipwreck of all my future life. 66 'Yes, no doubt for that very reason he would be more readily affected than another man. Drunk? Oh, there can't be a doubt of it! Put it to yourself, Kathleen, my child: Would an officer and a gentleman conduct himself in such a manner in the house of God if he were sober? I am very greatly distressed, on your behalf, my little girl. Colonel Maylands may perhaps hush up this matter in consideration for It seems that he and Colonel Maythe son of his old friend, but it con- lands were sitting in the ante-room cerns me deeply to consider whether after mess, and talking it all over. My dear father came home from barracks looking ten years older; and when he told me that all was over, his voice broke so that in my agony I failed to understand, and it was long before I could clearly gather all that had taken place. Colonel Maylands had just told my I think I was too heart-broken to refather of his severe reprimand to Harry sist. I let papa pack up all my little for the affair on Sunday, and how Harry treasures—the ruby ring, the few short had seemed overwhelmed with shame notes, the curly lock of raven hair; only and bewilderment, but had annoyed I kept the glove he kissed that night him by obstinately declaring that he we parted at the rectory gate, and a had not touched a drop of anything few withered flowers, and the dancing stronger than coffee that morning, card of the militia ball, where the when he heard a noise of furious voices" Henry Curzon " stood out boldly and from the mess - room, and throwing firmly so many, many times. open the door they found Harry engaged in a violent quarrel with Mr. Vyvian. It seems they had been sitting smoking, when Mr. Vyvian, who is only a boy, and hadn't heard of Harry's and my engagement, began remarking on my Cousin Dick's foolish behavior about me, which all the world could see. Harry grew very angry, and told Mr. Vyvian to hold his tongue, and Mr. Vyvian laughed, and very foolishly and impertinently said something about my preference for Dick, and the probability of my marrying him. Harry with a dreadful exclamation caught him by the throat, and just as my father opened the door he had seized a knife from the mess-table and would have stabbed Mr. Vyvian with it, had not Colonel Maylands just grasped his arm iù time. My poor, poor Harry! he seemed utterly stunned and bewildered, and stood staring at them, flushed and horrified at what he had been about to do, - for Mr. Vyvian and he were firm friends, and Harry could not have hurt a fly when he was sober, and yet he had hardly touched a glass of sauterne at dinner that night. I Ah, it could not be passed over! knew it, I knew it! Even Colonel Maylands's affection for Harry, and the desire of every one to spare a son of their old commanding officer, could not hush up a thing like this. Mr. Vyvian, terribly shocked at what had happened, most generously begged the colonel to -overlook it; but the mess-waiters had seen it, and it could not be hidden. All Colonel Maylands could do was to desire Harry to retire from the service before any steps could be taken-my poor, poor Harry, who loved his profession so, and took such pride in it! แ They would not let me write a single line of farewell; and when a note came for me from Harry, blotted and scrawled - my poor, poor fellow ! mamma put it in the fire, and never told me. She did not mean to be cruel, I'm sure; but mothers never feel for their daughters quite as much as fathers do, somehow, it seems to me. That night, Dick, coming in, met Harry hanging about the gate, in the darkness and the rain, looking, as the groom told mamma's maid afterwards, more like a ghost than hisself." Oh, my poor boy! He demanded to see me, and that brute Dick ordered him off the grounds. Harry tried to push past him, and Dick, who thinks he's the strongest man in the county, dared to catch my poor boy by the collar. In an instant Harry had knocked him down, and had him by the throat. Dick screamed-the coward! - and the stablemen and gardeners ran out, and dragged Harry off. He just stood looking at them for a moment, in that same bewildered way, and then he turned and disappeared into the night. And I, sitting by the fire in my dressing-room, weeping bitter tears for him, and never knowing! Ah, how glad I was that Dick's coat was torn, and his face cut, and that he couldn't walk without limping for a week! And save for the tears that fell on the newspaper paragraph, where "Lieutenant Henry Curzon resigns his commission in the 2nd Wiltshire Regiment," I heard no word of my Harry for many a weary month to come. Oh, that year that followed! how did I ever live it through? I could not be so weak and wicked as to let life be spoilt because its happiness had gone ; but oh, how utterly the taste had gone out of everything! I tried to be a | seen his name in the police courts halfgood daughter, since I might never be a-dozen times for street brawls, and a wife; but sometimes I looked at the reputable things of that sort. He's too little churchyard, and sighed to think decent-minded a fellow to go in for dishow long it might be before I found sipations of the worst sort, but when rest and peace within its moss-grown he's not racing, he's card - playing. walls. Somewhere during that winter Extraordinary thing! when while he Dick asked me to marry him. I was was in the regiment he hated cards glad he did, for it gave me a chance of couldn't get him to take a hand at telling him how I despised him for all whist—and he hardly ever made a bet. his conduct about Harry, and how II can only fancy there's some bad strain should love my boy, and him only, to somewhere in the family, though I the end of my days, even though we and it's come out never met on earth again. Dick went Drink's done most away in a passion, and I was anything but sorry that he did. never knew of it; stand." It was in the last days of the next keep perpetually the worse for liquor March that my dear father died. | for some nine months, and not suffer There was little suffering. a sort of in his general health, I can't undergentle fading away, almost like a little child falling asleep. I think neither mamma nor I realized what was coming til: the blow was just about to fall. I was sitting by his sofa one evening, his dear hand clasped in mine, when he opened his eyes all at once, and said: Forgive me, little girl, if ever I seemed hard to you. Tell Curzon I grieved sorely; give the boy my love, if ever you should meet him. Kiss me, Kathleen." And as I stooped to lay my lips on his, his gentle spirit passed away to the country which had always been its home. When I began to recover from the shock of this grievous loss and blow, there began to be borne in upon me a new, vague impulse. I had a great longing to find out Harry, and to give him my father's message. The desire was very strong upon me to see his face once more to try if a hand held out to help might not even yet have power to save. Colonel Maylands, when he came to my dear father's funeral, had given my mother some small news of him. Where he was, or how he lived, no one seemed to know. I made up my mind I would go and try to find out. When I told my mother my decision, she was unutterably shocked. "It's altogether impossible, Kathleen!" she said; "you must be mad to suggest it. If womanly feeling on your part doesn't prevent it, common sense ought to. Don't dream of such a thing." So, as my twenty-first birthday fell in May, and I came into possession of all the considerable fortune my dear father had left me, there was really no possibility of thwarting me, and my mother had reluctantly to give way. For a little while it seemed as if my efforts would all be in vain. I could "He's gone to the dogs about as fast hear nothing of Harry's whereabouts. as any fellow I ever knew," he said. At last I had word of his having been "That tidy little fortune his father left seen at a race-meeting in a certain him has all but gone, in a year- hardly town of Essex; and, having friends in a few hundreds left, I'm told. Heaven the immediate neighborhood, I deterknows how or where he's spent it; I've mined at once to go down there. 66 I reached Marnay Court late on a Heaven knows how near to it I've been Saturday evening so late that I did sometimes. Yes, it's true," as I looked not get up in time for church the next at him. "Since the day you kissed me morning, but slept off my fatigue, and last, Kitty, I've done no single thing to spent a lazy, quiet day among the roses make me unworthy-degraded though in the garden. My host and hostess I am - to hold your hand to-day." were old people, and unused to church- Harry, can this be true?" I asked, going twice a day; so I started off to as I yielded my hand to his poor, evening service by myself, and chose a feeble, trembling clasp. "Don't you distant church I remembered from a call intemperance an unworthy thing?" former visit a quaint place of great "Kitty, believe me, - even my worst age, far in the heart of the country. I enemy has never put lying among the was early when I arrived, having list of my sins,—I say to you solemnly started betimes, so I skirted the low that I have never once been drunk in churchyard wall, and made for a bench all my life. Yes, you look shocked, overlooking the distant country, with but I tell you the truth. People say the long, faint sea-line on the horizon. I'm seldom sober, I know; and there As I approached the bench, a man rose isn't a doubt I've done things, time hastily from it, and stood before me after time, that I haven't had the least and in an instant I knew that it was consciousness of- but it's never been Harry. under the influence of liquor. Why, look at me! Are my eyes bloodshot ? - do I look like a man who has been drinking hard for a year? You could tell from my breath in a minute — why, I haven't had even a glass of beer in a week." Harry! but oh, how changed! From the shabby and careless dress, to the look of wild despair on his still handsome face, there was not one thing to remind me of my boy-lover · my Harry of the happy rectory days. 66 Kitty! oh, Kitty!"-and the next minute he was on the ground at my feet, passionately kissing the hem of my dress. "No, I'm not insane,-I thought My heart was sick within me as I that, too, but I've been to the best raised him from that attitude of pro- men on the brain and nerves, and they found humiliation, and made him sit all insist I'm as sound as a bell, in my beside me on the little wooden bench. mind. Heaven knows what strange The change in him was still more ap- and awful disease it is. I've never parent close at hand. The old light in been free, this whole year, from this his eye was quenched, and instead of dull pain and weight in my head — this the bright, confident bearing of past black depression and these awful fits days, there was the hopeless, dogged of reckless despair. Sometimes I find look of him who has ceased to struggle myself, to my horror, on the verge of with fate, and has owned it master. some act that appals me with dismay; "Oh, Kitty, Kitty!" his very and heartily as I dislike cards, I can't voice was altered, so deep, and wild, see one without a mad desire to play. and hoarse 66 why did you ever leave I've found out I had a gambling ancesme? If you had not cast me off I tor, somewhere about Charles the Secshould never have come to this. As ond's time—I sometimes fancy I've long as you were with me I had the inherited his passion, and that it broke strength to fight against myself. out all of a sudden last summer at could hold out while you were by. Lay Dewsbury. Whatever wrongs he ever your little fingers on mine, as you used did have been revenged in his descendto do don't shrink from me, for ant. I'm broken in health, and ruined Heaven's sake, or it will kill me. I in pocket; the last few hundreds I swear to you, Kathleen, that I've in- owned went at the races last week. jured no living soul but myself; though The last ten-pound note I have in the I |