them, as much as a juggler swallows swords. "I can't take them while you are looking," he said; "when you come in again you will find them gone."

Now one of the girls it was never known which, because all three denied it-stupidly let the sick cousin know that the master of the house was absent. Hilary paid no special heed at the moment when he heard it; but after a while he began to perceive (as behoved a blockaded soldier) that here was his chance for a sally. And he told them so, after his gravy-beef and a raw egg beaten up with sherry.

"How cunning you are now!" said Cecil, who liked and admired him very deeply. "But you are not quite equal, Master Captain, to female ingenuity. The Spanish ladies must have taught you that, if half that I hear is true of them. Now you need not look so wretched, because I know nothing about them. Only this I know, that out of this house you are not allowed to go, without —oh, what do you call it?—a pass, or a watchword, or a countersign, or something or other from papa himself. So you may just as well lie down or mamma will come up with a powder for you."

"The will of the Lord be done," said Hilary; "but, Cecil, you are getting very pretty, and you need not take away my breeches."

"I defy him to go, if he were Jack Sheppard: he has got no breeches to go in."

"Cecil, you are almost too clever! How your father will laugh, to be sure!" And the excellent lady began her nap.

As the afternoon wore away, Hilary grew more and more impatient of his long confinement. Not only that he pined for the open air-as, of course, he must do, after living so long with the free sky for his canopy- but also that he felt most miserable at being so near the old house on the hill, yet doubtful of his reception there. More than once he rang the bell; but the old nurse, who alone of the servants was allowed to enter, would do no more than scold or coax him, and quietly lock him in again. So at last he got out of bed, and feebly made his way to the window, and thence beheld, betwixt him and the grassy mounds of the churchyard, that swift, black stream which had so surprised him on the night of his arrival.

Since then he had persuaded himself, or allowed others to persuade him, that the water had been a vision only of his weak and excited brain. But now he saw it clearly, calmly, and in a very few moments knew what it was, and of what dark import.

66

"How can I have let them keep me here?" he exclaimed, with indignation. My father and sister must believe me "I am sorry to do it, Cousin Hilary; dead, while I play at this miserable hidebut I know quite well what I am about.and-seek. Perhaps they will think that I And none of your military ways of going on can mislead me as to your character. You want to be off. We are quite aware of it. You can scarcely put two feet to the ground."

"Oh dear, how many ought I to be able to put ?"

had better have been dead; but, at any rate, they shall know the truth."

With these words he took up his sailorclothes, which the vigilant Cecil had overlooked, and which had been left in his room for fear of setting the servants talking; and he dressed himself as well as he You know best at least four, I could, and tried to look clean and tidy. should hope. But you are not equal to But do what he might, he could only cut argument. And we are all particularly a poor and sorry figure; and looking in ordered to keep you from what is too the glass, he was frightened at his wan much for you. Now I shall take away and worn appearance. Then, knowing these things-whatever they are called, the habits of the house, and wishing to I have no idea; but I do what I am told avoid excitement, he waited until the two to do. And after this you will take that elder daughters were gone down the vilglass of the red wine, declared to be won-lage for their gossip, and Cecil was seederful; and then you will shut both your eyes, if you please, till my father comes Lome from his hunting."

ing the potatoes dug, and Mrs. Hales sleeping over Fisher or Patrick, while the cook was just putting the dinner down; and then, without trying the door at all, he quietly descended from the window, with the help of a stack-pipe and a spurry

The lively girl departed with a bow of light defiance, carrying away her father's small-clothes (which had been left for Hilary), and locking the door of his bed-pear-tree. room with a decisive turn of a heavy key. "Mother, you may go to sleep," she said, as she ran down into the drawing-room VOL. X. 470

LIVING AGE.

So feeble was he now, that this slight exertion made him turn faint, and sick, and giddy; and he was obliged to sit

was so full, that she paid no heed to the "dressing-bell," clanging over the lonely hill, nor even to her pet mare's sense of dinner; but took a short cut of her own knowledge, down a lonely bostall, to the channel of new waters.

The stream had risen greatly even

down and rest under a shrub, into which he had staggered. But after a while, he found himself getting a little better; and pulling up one of the dahlia-stakes, to help himself along with, he made his way to the gate; and there being cut off from the proper road, followed the leave of the land and the water, along the valley up-since the day before yesterday, and now ward. in full volume swept on grandly towards the river Adur. Any one who might chance to see it for the first time, and without any impression, or even idea concerning it, could scarcely fail to observe how it differed from ordinary waters. Not only through its pellucid blackness, and the swaying of long grass under it (whose every stalk, and sheath, and awn, and even empty glume, was clear, as they quivered, wavered, severed, and spread, or sheafed themselves together again, and hustled in their common immersion), - not only in this, and the absence of any water-plants along its margin, was the stream peculiar, but also in its force and flow. It did not lip, or lap, or ripple, or gurgle, or wimple, or even murmur, as all well-meaning rivers do; but swept on in one even sweep, with a face as smooth as the best plate-glass, and the silent slide of nightfall.

Alice Lorraine had permitted herself, not quite to lose her temper, but still to get a little worried by her grandmother's exhortations. Of all living beings, she felt herself to be one of the very most reasonable; and whenever she began to doubt about it, she knew there was something wrong with her. Her favourite cure for this state of mind was a free and independent ride, over the hills and far away. She hated to have a groom behind her, watching her, and perhaps criticising the movements of her figure. But as it was scarcely the proper thing for Miss Lorraine to be scouring the country, like a yeoman's daughter, she always had to start with a trusty groom; but she generally managed to get rid of him.

And now, having vainly coaxed her father to come for a breezy canter, Alice set forth about four o'clock, for an hour of rapid air, to clear, invigorate, and en- Now the truth of the good old saying liven her. Whatever she did, or failed was made evident to Alice, that one can of doing (when her grandmother was too take a horse to water, but a score cannot much for her), she always looked graceful, make him drink, unless he is so minded. and bright, and kind. But she never It was not an easy thing to get Elfrida to looked better than when she was sitting, go near the water. She started away with beautifully straight, on her favourite mare, flashing eyes, pricked ears, and snorting skimming the sward of the hills; or bow-nostrils; and nothing but her perfect ing her head in some tangled covert. This day, she allowed the groom to chase her (like the black care that sits behind) until she had taken free burst of the hills, and longed to see things quietly. And then she sent him, in the kindest manner, to a very old woman at Lower Chancton, to ask whether she had been frightened; and when he had turned the corner of a difficult plantation, Alice took her course for that which she had made up her mind to do.

fafth in Alice would have made her come nigh. But as for drinking, or even wetting her nose in that black liquid -- might the horse-fiend seize her, if she dreamed of doing a thing so dark and unholy!

"You shall, you shall, you wicked little witch!" cried Alice, who was often obstinate. "I mean to drink it; and you shall drink it; and we won't have any superstition." She leaped off lightly, with her skirt tucked up, and taking the mare by the cheek-piece of the bridle, According to the ancient stories, no drew her forward. "Come along, come fair-blooded creatures (such as man, or along, you shall drink. If you don't, I'll horse, cow, dog, or pigeon) would ever pour it up your nostrils, Frida; somehow put lip to the accursed stream; whereas or other, you shall swallow it. You know all foul things, polecats, foxes, fitches, I won't have any nonsense, don't you?" badgers, ravens, and the like, were drawn The beautiful filly, with great eyes by it, as by a loadstone, and made a feast-partly defiant and partly suppliant, drew ing place of it. So Alice resolved that back her straight nose and blowing nosher darling "Elfrida" should be com- trils, and the glistening curve of the pelled to pant with thirst, and then foamy lip. Not even a hair of her muzzle should have the fairest offer of the water should touch the face of the accursed of the Woeburn. And of this intent she water.

"WHAT can I do? Oh, how can I escape?" cried Alice to herself one The vigour of youth had fought against morning, towards the end of the dreary this robbery of humanity so long and November; "one month out of three is hard that Alice, the only spectator of the gone already, and the chain of my misery conflict, began to recover from shriek tightens around me. No, don't come and wailing by the time that her brother near me, any of you birds; you will have fell into the black insensibility. The to do without me soon; and you had ground sloped so that if she had not better begin to practise. Ah me! you been there, the unfortunate youth must can make your own nests, and choose have rolled into the Woeburn, and so your mates; how I envy you! Well,

-

then, if you must be fed, you must. Why | selfish of me to contrast my state with should I be so selfish?" With tears in his !" her eyes, she went to her bower and got Briskly she mounted the crest of the her little basket of moss, well known to coombe, and passed to the open upland, every cock-robin and thrush and black- the long chine of hill which trends to its bird dwelling on the premises. At the highest prominence at Chancton Ring bottom were stored, in happy ignorance a landmark for many a league around. of the fate before them, all the delicacies Crossing the trench of the Celtic camp of the season - the food of woodland a very small obstruction now which song, the stimulants of aerial melody. loosely girds the ancient trees, Alice enHere were woodlice, beetles, earwigs, tered the venerable throng of weathercaterpillars, slugs and nymphs, well-girt beaten and fantastic trunks. These are brandlings, and the offspring of the of no great size, and shed no impress of tightly-buckled wasp, together with the hushed awe, as do the mossy ramparts luscious meal-worm, and the peculiarly and columnar majesty of New-Forest delicious grub of the cockchafer all as beech trees. Yet, from their countless fresh as a West-end salmon, and savour- and furious struggles with the winds in ing sweetly of moss and milk-no won- their might in the wild midnight, and der the beaks of the birds began to water from their contempt of aid or pity in their at the mere sight of that basket. bitter loneliness, they enforce the respect and the interest of any who sit beneath them.

"You have had enough now for today," said Alice; "it is useless to put all your heads on one side, and pretend that you are just beginning. I know all your tricks quite well by this time. No, not even you, you Methusalem of a Bob, can have any more—or at least, not much."

For this robin (her old pet of all, and through whose powers of interpretation the rest had become so intimate) made a point of perching upon her collar and nibbling at her ear whenever he felt himself neglected. "There is no friend like an old friend," was his motto; and his poll was grey and his beak quite blunted with the cares of age, and his large black eyes were fading. "Methusalem, come and help yourself," said Alice, relenting, softly; "you will not have the chance much longer."

mixture

Now as soon as the birds, with a chirp and a jerk, and one or two futile hops, had realized the stern fact that there was no more for them, and then had made off to their divers business (but all with an eye to come back again), Alice, with a smiling sigh if there can be such a left her pets, and set off alone to have a good walk and talk and think. The birds, being guilty of "cupboard love," were content to remain in their trees and digest; and as many of them as were in voice expressed their gratitude brilliantly. But out of the cover they would not budge; they hated to be ruffled up under their tails: and they knew what the wind on the Downs was.

"I shall march off straight for Chancton Ring," said Alice Lorraine, most resolutely. "How thankful I am, to be able to walk! and poor Hilary-ah, how

At the foot of one of the largest trees, the perplexed and disconsolate Alice rested on a lowly mound, which held (if faith was in tradition) the bones of her famous ancestor, the astrologer Agasicles. The tree which overhung his grave, perhaps as a sapling had served to rest without obstructing his telescope; and the boughs, whose murmurings soothed his sleep, had been little twigs too limp for him to hang his Samian cloak on. Now his descendant in the ninth or tenth generation - whichever it was had always been endowed with due (but mainly rare) respect for those who must have gone before her. She could not perceive that they must have been fools, because many things had happened since they died; and she was not even aware that they must have been rogues to beget such a set of rogues.

Therefore she had veneration for the remains that lay beneath her (mouldering in no ugly coffin, but in swaddlingclothes committed like an infant into the mother's bosom), and the young woman dwelt, as all mortals must, on death, when duly put to them. The everlasting sorrow of the moving winds was in the trees; and the rustling of the sad, sear leaf, and creaking of the lichened bough. And above their little bustle and small fuss about themselves, the large, sonorous stir was heard of Weymouth pines and Scottish firs swaying in the distance slowly, like the murmur of the sea. Even the waving of yellow grass-blades (where the trees allowed them), and the ruffling of tufted briars, and of thorny thickets,

shone and sounded melancholy with a farewell voice and gaze.

madam. But I was afraid of your knocking yourself."

66 Sir, I thank you. I was very foolish. But now I am quite well again."

"Will you take my hand to get up? I am sure, I was scared as much as you were."

"Now, if I could only believe that," said Alice, "my self-respect would soon return; for you do not seem likely to be frightened very easily."

In the midst of all this autumn, Alice felt her spirits fall. She knew that they were low before, and she was here to enlarge and lift them, with the breadth of boundless prospect and the height of the breezy hill. But fog and cloud came down the weald, and grey encroachment creeping, and on the hilltops lay heavy sense of desolation. And Alice being at heart in union with the things around her She was blushing already, and now her (although she tried to be so brave), be- confusion deepened, with the conscious. gan to be weighed down, and lonesome, ness that the stranger might suppose her sad, and wondering, and afeard. From to be admiring his manly figure; of time to time she glanced between the which, of course, she had not been thinkuncouth pillars of the trees, to try to being, even for one moment.

sure of no man being in among them hid- "I ought not to be so," he answered in ing. And every time when she saw no the simplest manner possible: "but I one, she was so glad that she need not had a sunstroke in America, fifteen look again and then she looked again. months ago or so; and since that I have "It is quite early," she said to herself; been good for nothing. May I tell you "nothing not even three o'clock. I who I am?" get into the stupidest, and fearfulest "Oh yes, I should like so much to ways from such continual nursing. How know." Alice was surprised at herself as I wish poor Hilary was here! One hour she spoke; but the stranger's unusually of this fine breeze and cheerful scene simple yet most courteous manner led her on.

My goodness, what was that ! " The cracking of a twig, without any sign of what had cracked it; the rustle of trodden leaves; but no one, in and out the graves of leafage visible to trample them.

And then the sound of something waving, and a sharp snap as of metal, and a shout into the distant valley.

"It is the astrologer," thought Alice. “Oh, why did I laugh at him? He has felt me sitting upon his skull. He is waving his cloak, and snapping his casket. He has had me in view for his victim always, and now he is shouting for me."

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"I am one Joyce Aylmer, not very well known; though at one time I hoped to become so. A major in his Majesty's service " - here he lifted his hat and bowed" but on the sick-list ever since we fought the Americans at Fort Detroit."

"Oh, Major Aylmer, I have often heard of you, and how you fell into a sad brainfever, through saving the life of a poor little child. My uncle, Mr. Hales, knows you, I believe, and has known your father for many years."

"That is so. And I am almost sure that I must be talking to Miss Lorraine, the daughter of Sir Roland Lorraine, whom my father has often wished to know."

"Yes.

And perhaps yon know my brother, who has served in the Peninsula, and is now lying very ill at home."

In confirmation of this opinion, a tall grey form, with one arm thrown up, and a long cloak hanging gracefully, came suddenly gliding between the trees. The maiden, whose brain had been overwrought, tried to spring up with her usual vigour; but the power failed her. She fell back against the sepulchral "I am sorry indeed to hear that of trunk and did not faint, but seemed for him. I know him, of course, by reputathe moment very much disposed thereto. tion, as the hero of Badajos; but I think When she was perfectly sure of her- I was ordered across the Atlantic before self, and rid of all presence of spectres, he joined; or, at any rate, I never met she found a strong arm behind her head, him that I know of though I shall hope and somebody leaning over her. And to do so soon. May I see you across this she laid both hands before her face, with- lonely hill? Having frightened you so, out meaning any rudeness; having never I may claim the right to prevent any been used to be handled at all, except by others from doing it." her brother or father.

"I beg your pardon most humbly,

Alice would have declined the escort of any other stranger; but she had heard