'Only a few lines to Churton, sir; to tell of my safe arrival.'

'Oh, they'll know that soon-but-ah, wellyou can send it. I am going down to the Bureau just now, and will post it.'

He put on his hat, walked down the garden in the direction of the village, and Paul was obliged to be satisfied, though he felt there was something odd in Mr. Rivers's manner, besides being aware of a strong odour of brandy that pervaded the whole apartment before he left it. Then he crept quietly into the bed-room, where his mother lay still dozing-fading away like the flowers in autumn. The Breton nurse whispered to him, and sitting down by little Mimi he took her hand in his, and a low soft conversation between the related and yet not related brother and sister commenced for the first time. It was a sad and touching scene, that bed-room; the low shaded light; the quaint foreign furniture; the heavy embroidered hangings, rich with grotesque figures looking weird and ghostly in the dimness; the anxious responsible face of the swarthy nurse peering across the bed; the boy with his blue-eyed, golden-haired little sister lovingly leaning her head on his shoulder as she whispered to him intelligently the tale of her life, and that of her father and step-mother as far as she knew it ; and most sad of all was the face of the dying woman, beautiful with the transparent beauty

of consumption, and yet ghastly with the gathering ghastliness of death. Mimi said they had been wandering about the Continent ever since she could remember; that they always stayed at the best hotels, she thought; that her father was very fond of company wherever he stayed, enjoying very much the rooms where the gentlemen, and ladies too, played games; and sometimes bringing home immense quantities of money he won; but sometimes, she said, he had none to bring, and came home in a passion and very queer, and then mamma was very unhappy, and cried, and papa went out into, the country for a few days and came back very ill indeed; that mamma` grew weaker and weaker day by day; and finally that they had only been in Brutz for a couple of months and took the pretty cottage for mamma to get well in, but, hélas !--and the affectionate child burst into a suppressed passion of tears.

Paul coaxed and soothed her; the nurse spoke a few endearing words, and took her from the room; just then his mother gave a very faint sigh and opened her eyes weakly. Paul turned, alarmed, to call the nurse, but she motioned him to kiss her instead; he leaned over the bed and did so, and then he saw a lovely glow, as of the setting sun, pass for a second over her features and then leave them more deadly pale than before, and he noticed the intense brilliancy of her eyes, which bore a

most longing look as they rested on his. After a pause, during which she pressed his hand to make him lie on the bed beside her, she spoke to him in whispering, tender, hesitating tones-her breath coming with difficulty, and her agitation as much as her feebleness hindering her words. She spoke of her neglect and desertion of him; of her weakness of mind and body; of her wandering life up and down the Continent; of the great love she bore to Bernard Rivers and to little Mimi, his daughter:

'And oh! Paul,' she went on; 'in spite of all his faults-though I should not speak of those to you-he loves your poor mother dearly-he has always loved me all-his life long-and-for my sake--you will love him, respect him, obey him, cling to him as his own son-won't you, Paul?for my sake, Paul '—she implored, when she saw a hesitating look in her son's eyes as he thought of the strange, unpleasant sensation that came over him in the brief interviews he had had as yet with Mr. Rivers.

'He has been kind to you, Paul, he has indeedit was he insisted on putting you at such an expensive school as Churton-and sometimes he could ill afford it—it was he that often and often begged to have you with us again-but I-cruel and heartless. that I was-though I thought it was for your own good--would not hear of it-hoping for a pleasant