"Very well, I should only reply by asking you how young you are. "Young enough to love the loveliest girl in the world," said Silvester. "O dear! this mad boy will never let one have the last word." S CHAPTER X. LOUISA'S BIRTHDAY GIFT. "What shall we say for a birthday gift? No: for then she might fly away When she was tired some humdrum day.” ILVESTER that same evening told the Squire that the following day was his sweetheart's birthday, and that he had only just learnt the fact. 66 'How old is she?" ungallantly asked the Squire. 66 My dear father, she is not old. me to-day how young I was. elegant way of putting it." VOL. II. She asked That is a more 8 "Ah, Silvester, you are very far gone. No matter: she is a charming child with all her crotchets, and you must cure her of crotchets." 66 The man who cannot cure a woman of crotchets had better remain a bachelor," quoth Silvester." I'll undertake this thirteenth labour of Herakles. But I want to give her something to-morrow morning, and there is nothing to be got in Silchester." "Give her some fish for breakfast from Mount St. Nicholas," said the Squire, "and a bouquet of flowers from our greenhouses, and a copy of verses from your own brain." Silvester, knowing his father's humour, said, "She shall have all three, sir, if you'll find me something less perishable to give her also." "Ah, I see. You shall have a love-gift. I've got a few knicknacks about. to my room." Come up After some search, the Squire found what he wanted, and handed it to his son. It was an ebony casket with a silver plate on it bearing this inscription in old-fashioned letters: "Touch me rightly: 'tis no sin To be black without and white within." No lock or hinges could be seen the artificer had made the box look like a single block of ebony. The Squire showed his son that the letter / in rightly yielded to pressure and opened the casket by a spring. When open, Silvester saw an ivory casket with a gold plate, inscribed "Touch me rightly: ivory white Will yield to a more wondrous sight." This box of ivory was exquisitely carved in the style which oriental workmen achieve-a curious arabesque of birds and flowers and caprices. Silvester touched the letter -with no result. "Try another," said the Squire, laughing. "Odd you can't guess the letter that ought to follow L. now that you have learnt the alphabet!" The o in ivory proved to be the talisman. "Your sweetheart will find it out sooner than you," says the Squire, as there appeared within a silver casket, carried all round with figures in low relief representing a Syracusan procession-naked boys and girls leading lions and tigers and panthers to the annual feast of Adonis. The legend was: "Touch me rightly: vile and vain Am I to that I do contain." "I wonder which v," thought Silvester; he touched the first, and lo a casket of gold, with the effigy of a Knight Templar carved upon its lid, and figures around the sides representing the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection of Christ. The legend: "Touch me reverently: He Who died for you was one with me." A touch on the final letter of the old distich showed within a beautiful gold cross, set with diamonds, rubies, and emeralds, worthy to be |