scarcely exchanged words since we landed. It almost seems as if she shunned me on purpose."

"I think she does although I might remark that one evening spent together, out of the two days we have been in England, appears to be a reasonable allowance of intercourse. But her very efforts to shun you, her changing colour and absent manner, show an awakening consciousness which makes me the more anxious that you should not trifle with her happiness."

"You think only of her," said Lord De Cressy, "and make no allowance for what I have also to endure the doubts and difficulties, the inward struggle."

"I think of her chiefly," replied Lady Harriet, "because a woman must feel most for the breaking of woman's heart; and I have seen enough of that in my own family. But for you, as for her, a speedy decision is clearly best."

Lord De Cressy was, to his evident relief, spared the necessity of reply by the entrance of some morning visitors, and he snatched up his hat and departed, without heeding his aunt's whispered assurance that they would not detain her long. Walking with his usual staid and measured tread, and returning the greeting of his numerous acquaintance with mechanical courtesy, he had almost traversed the Mall before he paused to inquire whither his steps were leading him, and discovered that he was within a few doors of his own house in Carlton Gardens.

Following the same instinct, Lionel De Cressy took out his latch-key, and passed through the little garden into his own room on the ground floor. The dismantled and melancholy air pervading the house might also be

traced in this, its only inhabited portion, although the taste of the owner had been exercised in its decoration. The walls were covered with well selected prints; but a woman's eye would have detected that they did not hang straight, and that dust accumulated in the corners of the frames. The leathern table was splashed with ink, and piled with loose papers, pamphlets, and “fugitive literature," and chairs enough to accommodate a large family circle were ranged along the wall, impeding the access to the book-shelves.

Lord De Cressy seated himself in his own peculiar chair, in an attitude of profound meditation. But a train of connected thought will seldom come to our call, and when his eyes fell upon the box of carving-tools of which he had spoken to Kathleen, he forgot the present in his anxiety to recal the happy hours of his boyhood, passed among his fond, admiring sisters; he remembered how these had been one by one borne to an early grave, to be followed in a brief space by the broken-hearted mother. And then arose a yearning to become once again the object of such special love, and he felt that there was but one image which might fill the void in his heart. As that fair form rose up before him, he impatiently resolved that it was no time for calculating reason; he must be guided by circumstances, or, in other words, by the impulse of the moment.

His present impulse urged him to fulfil his promise of presenting his gift to Walter Lisle in person, so he rang to desire that his cabriolet might be brought round at six. For he was unable to conquer his unwillingness to see Kathleen reduced to the position of aunt and playfellow to the "tribe of children" whom he regarded

De Cressy.

4

with compassionate contempt, and so he timed his visit at an hour when he knew that she must have returned to Lowndes-square.

Although his calculations were correct on this point, he had not chosen a happy moment for his first visit, for Hannah, not without hesitation, and a great accession of awkwardness, ushered him into the room just as the family were assembled round the tea-table. This was filled to overflowing, save the little hemisphere of mahogany over which the baby reigned; his organ of destructiveness was so strongly developed, that it was necessary to move every article of crockery beyond his reach, and he flourished a crust of bread in one hand, while drumming on the table with the other, to remind his papa that he was "firsty." Mr. Lisle, in the most rusty of office coats, cut slice after slice off the quartern loaf, leaving the butter a good deal to the imagination; while Agnes presided over the delft tea-pot, and the jug of milk and water, which must be watered once more to satisfy those thirsty souls. And though the manners of Mary, Cecil, and Frank might have done honour to the most polished circles, since they were too busily engaged to say more than "yes, please," and "no, thank you,” with gravity and decorum, they did not appear to advantage in holland pinafores, and with their mouths full of bread and butter. Around Walter's couch, however, there reigned the same atmosphere of refinement which Lord De Cressy had before remarked: the little table was spread with his own tea-service, and furnished with such delicacies as might tempt his failing appetite roll, a morsel of clear ice, and a few strawberries, procured by his father on his way home.

a

a

Lord De Cressy's entrance caused a sensation lull in the clatter of cups and plates, an opening of blue eyes on the part of the children, and an inward ejaculation from their parents, that "it was so like Hannah to have let him in."

If this dissatisfaction was shared by their visitor, it was skilfully concealed. He apologized for his intrusion with his usual air of high breeding, and then turned to greet Walter, whose expressive eyes lighted up with pleasure.

"He is quite ready to claim acquaintance," said Agnes, with the peculiar smile which ever reflected the transient expression of ease and pleasure on her boy's countenance. "It is very kind of you to remember him."

"Aunt Kathleen said that perhaps you would come," added Walter; "but mamma thought that it was too late."

"We were both consulted on the subject," said Agnes, with some quickness, perhaps because she was unwilling that Lord De Cressy should suspect Kathleen of having volunteered any information respecting him. "Walter seemed to think that you had nothing better to do than to visit him."

"Walter is right," said Lord De Cressy; and for the moment, at least, he spoke with perfect sincerity. "I have nothing better to do. I was disappointed in my first attempt to make acquaintance with you all, and so I have ventured to repeat my visit."

"If you wished to see us in force, you could not have come more opportunely," said Edward Lisle; "but

I am not always cutting bread and butter, nor are the children always eating it, whatever appearances may say to the contrary."

Lord De Cressy laughed, admiring the ease which he could not have imitated in like circumstances, and less disposed than before to consider a large family, a small income, and a shiny and threadbare coat incompatible with the mind and manners of a gentleman. In Agnes, also, there was much to charm the most refined taste, her pale brown hair, on which a sunbeam ever seemed to shed its light of dusted gold, defined the oval outline of a face remarkable for its sweetness of expression, if not for regular beauty; and the resemblance between the sisters, not apparent in form or feature, might be traced in the low and musical tones of her voice.

Lord De Cressy made known the object of his visit in presenting his tools to Walter. The boy expressed cager satisfaction, not discouraged by his mother's fears lest his long, thin fingers should be too weak for such occupation. His new friend assured him that skill was much more necessary than strength, and begged to see the works of art of which Miss Mortimer had spoken. And when Cecil produced a pack of hounds, carved out of cherry stones, and issuing from a pasteboard kennel, Lord De Cressy admired this triumph of genius almost as much as he did himself.

"You must practise on beech, or some soft wood," he said; "but very soon you will be able to fashion something out of those pieces of bog oak which were such a prize when they were given to me. I projected