he had just left, with his clothes littered about as he had thrown them off, and wondered where we could turn for help-wondered till I grew tired with casting about in my mind whether there was one left who would see him out of this trouble, and if so, where that one ought to be looked for.

And then, supposing somebody could be found now, who would help him on the next occasion?

Things had been getting worse and worse with us for a long time.

My head was young then, but it grew giddy reckoning up, or rather trying to reckon up, what he owed, and how the tangle was ever to be unravelled, when who should walk in but a lawyer who had seen Mr. Will through with a few bad scrapes.

Though on the last occasion he had vowed he would never advance another sixpence, still my heart leaped into my mouth for joy at sight of him.

'Your master is gone to Berkeley Square, Walters, I suppose,' he began. 'I saw the Countess was entertaining, as I passed, but I thought I would take my chance of finding him dressing, and late, as usual. Will you tell him he had better keep out of the way for a little while? Marston is going to arrest, and two or three more will follow suit. Thought he would like to know. What an extravagant sinner it is!' he added, looking at the array of articles on the toilette-table; and he would have gone with that, but I shut the door, and implored him to listen to me.

My head, as I have said, was dizzy with thinking, and planning, and scheming, and I was thank'ful to find any one to speak to about our trouble.

Mr. Will's debts had that night, so to speak, marshalled themselves before my eyes, and I faced them

as he would not have done, and talked of them as he could not.

Perhaps I was wrong to talk so freely of things that I only knew in confidence; but I could not help it. I loved Mr. Will with all my heart, and those Jews, with their evil faces, and heavy gold chains. sprawling over their gaudy waistcoats, and huge rings on their dirty fingers, had filled me with a disgust and hatred that I could not have expressed in words.

Although he happened to be a lawyer, Mr. Perrin was a gentleman. As a rule, I do not think much of lawyers and such like; but they say every rule has its exception, and Mr. Perrin was an exception to mine.

I think he must have been fond of Mr. Will, too. Lawyers, even the worst of them, I have noticed, entertain a sort of sneaking fondness for wild characters, for reckless, improvident chaps, such as Mr. Will used to be. It is the redeeming point about them. There may be a providence about it, too, as there is about a mother being fondest of her lame, or blind, or imbecile child. Anyhow, it was not for the money he got out of Mr. Will, his lawyer looked after his affairs then. He is making a good thing of the Earl of Dugdale's estates now; but, Lord! which of us then ever dreamed he would some day reign at Oakhill?

I, for one, never could have served him as I did, with a perfectly single heart, had such a change seemed probable, or even possible.

I stuck to him as one might to a cheery comrade in a bitter fight, or a shipwrecked companion to a but there, why do I go on

talking such nonsense?

He was a poor master and I a poor servant, and he made me his friend, and I loved him, for all he

was the Honourable William Pattingham and I Tom Walters; and I think, for the same reason that I was fond of Mr. Will, Mr. Perrin liked him too.

With a very grave face he listened to what I had to say, and then he remarked

I had no idea things were so bad as all this comes to, Walters.' Then I made answer

'Sir, they are worse; and you would think so too, if only in a minute, so to speak, I was able to remember all about everything.'

'You have remembered enough,' he said, and sat for a minute quiet. Then he got up to go, but stopped to observe―

'I wish your master would follow my advice.'

'He would follow anything, sir, that meant ease of mind and a berth in the Colonies,' I was bold enough to reply.

6

Following my advice would mean ease of mind and a comfortable life in England.'

Ah! sir, I don't think his pride would let him do that,' I answered, for I thought Mr. Perrin wanted my master to pass through the Court, and I knew it would go sorely against the grain to have such a proposal even made to him.

It was not the fashion then, as it is now, for noblemen to shuffle off their debts in that way like any butcher or greengrocer; and it may be that the very idea of its being supposed Mr. Will could so demean himself made me speak quick and sharp; but Mr. Perrin only laughed, and said

His pride did not stand in the way of his getting into debt, and ought not to stand in the way of his getting out of it; it is not so much his pride though as his prejudices.' I looked in a dictionary, after he went away, to learn what he meant by the last

No, sir. Please give my duty to Mr. Will, and I hope he won't be long away.'

'If he follows my advice he will never come back here,' said Mr. Perrin.

But Mr. Will did come back. Months after that night when Simeon arrested him, he walked into his rooms as if he had only left them an hour before.

'Yes, Tom, I am free,' he said, in answer to my awkward expression of delight at seeing him once more, ' and yet I have lost my liberty-there's a paradox!-at least I shall lose it at half-past eleven to-morrow morning.'

Still I was so stupid, I did not see his meaning.

'Oh! sir,' I exclaimed, 'I was in hopes all that was over.'

Will Pattingham-ironically styled The Honourable.'

Have you had money left you, sir?' I asked; or,' I added, a light breaking in upon me, 'is it-'

'Yes,' said Mr. Will, it isMy heart leaped up into my mouth, and then fell back again like a leaden weight. I tried to wish him joy-I tried to look cheerful and pleasant, but it would not do. He saw the news had shocked me, and so he went on

'All men must die, you know, and I suppose most men must marry; at any rate, I must; and therefore it behoves me to make the best of a-good bargain; he finished after a pause so slight, that many a one might not have noticed it. The lady is wealthy, generous, and kind; my people are delighted with the match; they make no objection on the score of family — why, indeed, should they? Her grandfather on the one side bore a name better known throughout England than that of Pattingham-Smith. grandfather on the other side came of an almost equally old race-he was a Jones. Her father thought the two names too good to be divorced, and so dubbed himself "Smyjthe-Johnes;" after which he died, and bequeathed his cognomen and fortune to his only daughter Amelia Selina Annabella, whom I am to marry to-morrow.'

Her

'Are-are you going to take me with you, sir, on the wedding trip?' I asked, wondering whether the old life was indeed all pastwhether with his marriage a life so utterly new was to begin, that it should mean for him no Tomfor me no Mr. Will.

'I am afraid not,' he said, with one of his old queer smiles. You like a pretty face, Tom, and it would not suit for you to be flirting with my wife's maid. The future Mrs. Pattingham has strict VOL. XXIII.-NO. CXXXIII.

ideas, and might not approve of any indiscretion. There I declare the fellow has tears in his eyes. Tom, do you think my marriage is going to part us? Did you think me such a cold-blooded monster as to contemplate flinging over an old friend-for you are my friend? I have been considering into what good berth I can slip you in the new establishment, and have decided that you shall be butler. You must, therefore, go down to Johnesborough, and have everything ready for our return. We are not to reside much in London. I mean to become a model country gentleman. I shall interfere with the poor people, and see that the children learn their catechism.

'Do you know, my grandmother is so charmed with my prospects that she has sent me her diamonds to present to the bride. They came to her, not through the Pattinghams, but some of her own more august progenitors. They would have been a catch for the Jews, in the good old times—eh, Tom ?'

I answered him with what spirit and heart I could muster. The old times had often been bad enough; but it seemed to me the new times were promising to be worse still.

We were entering upon evil days, I thought to myself-days when the hours would pass regularly, with all life and hope and enjoyment taken out of them. This was what had come of following Mr. Perrin's advice. In my soul I cursed him, for which, if that gentleman were here now, I would humbly beg his pardon.

'You will let me know where you are going to be married, sir?' I said, after awhile. 'I should like

I don't know that there need be any difficulty about the matter. The sacrifice is to take place at St. George's, of course; and-yes, you may come-only, Tom, my lad, if you feel surprised at anything in the ceremony, try not to look so, there's a good fellow, and keep a still tongue afterwards;' and with that he held out his hand, and I-well, you can think what you please about it; but we had been boys together, and I loved him, and he seemed going away from me for ever. So I kissed it, and then broke out crying like a woman—or a fool.

'Cheer up, Tom,' he exclaimed; 'when we come back you will know Mrs. Pattingham for the true, honest, amiable creature she is. She has been liberality itself to me, and I only hope I may be able to make her as good a husband as she deserves. I mean to try.

Heaven knows I do,' he added, and then he went off humming an opera air; and I thought I had seen the last of light-hearted, easy-going Mr. Will.

The next morning I thought so more than ever. As the bride came down the aisle, leaning on her husband's arm, I caught a glimpse of her face for the first time. I knew then the part of the ceremony he imagined would surprise me, and I turned my face towards the wall that no one might see the amazement I knew was written on it.

She looked old enough to be his mother. She was ugly enough to have been burnt for a witch in the days when witches were burnt. She had no figure-she was no shape-she had no presence; and her tall, handsome, winning, gracious, well-born husband had sold himself for life to this woman to get out of the hands of those Jews. Though I was in a church, I prefixed a word to Jews that I

won't repeat here; and meeting Simeon in Piccadilly, on my way home, I had much ado to keep from knocking him down.

I wish I had now. The will to do it and the opportunity never dovetailed so neatly together afterwards.

But it is the story of the diamonds I was to tell, you remind Patience, I am coming to

me. that. You have now the main threads of it in your hand. I served the Honourable William Pattingham, who, marrying Miss Smyjthe-Johnes, promoted me to be butler at Johnesborough.

To Mrs. Pattingham, Lady Dugdale the Dowager, I mean-presented her wonderful diamonds, which Mr. Will sent to Rundell and Bridge to be reset. His wife wanted to wear them on the occasion of her presentation at Court. Thus the diamonds were at the jewellers, I at Johnesborough, and Mr. Will and his wife on their wedding-tour.

It was very kind of Mr. Will, giving me the butler's place at Johnesborough; but I could not help wishing he had arranged that I should learn my duties before going there.

When a stern and stately housekeeper, who had been at Johnesborough in the time of SmyjtheJohnes, addressed me, I wished my shoes were big enough to hide in. However, I took heart of grace, after awhile, and gave her my confidence-told her how I had been Mr. Will's own manhow of his goodness he had chosen me to fill the post of butler; how I knew little or nothing of what a butler was expected to do; and, to wind up all, how thankful I should be if she would give me a few hints.

Over her spectacles the old lady looked at me for a minute. Then

she said, Young man, you will do; you are modest and ingenuous.' (Somehow, it seemed to me I was then always running up against people who used long words.) 'I will instruct you myself. Few persons, male or female, know more of the nature of a butler's duties than I.'

Which was quite true. Mrs. Barrett deserved all the praise she was good enough to bestow on herself.

By the time Mr. Will returned, I had learned enough not to disgrace his recommendation. Indeed, my Lady herself seemed surprised at my progress, for she said to me one day, 'I had no notion, Walters, you had so correct an idea of the duties of your position. Even my dear father could have found no fault with the manner in which you discharge them.'

This was high praise from her Ladyship. The doings of Johnes of Johnesborough seemed, in those days, right in the sight of his daughter-as right as her own doings do now.

No one ever can tell how a

marriage will turn out. I am sure, had any person told me, that day in St. George's Church, I should some time consider my master had done a good thing for himself in taking Miss Johnes for better for worse, I must have laughed out in very scorn and bitterness; but the pair had not been long back at Johnesborough before I began to believe she was the very wife for Mr. Will.

If she was fussy and fidgety— and who could doubt her being both ?-Mr. Will was too much the other way. She kept things together; she prevented his getting into debt again; she led him into paths of respectability so fenced in by ideas, and traditions, and responsibilities, and proprieties,

that I think it would have been next to impossible for any man to break bounds, even had he wished to do so. But Mr. Will did not wish. For the first time, he had a chance given him of doing well; and he was not above taking advantage of it. I know he felt his wife had given him all she had it in her power to bestow, and that it behoved him to try to make her some return. When he married her there was not a morsel of love on his side; but it grew. Day by day, month by month, year by year, it went on putting out buds and shoots; and now I doubt if there is a man in the county fonder of his wife and the mother of his children than William, Earl of Dugdale. And as for the Countess, I think she gets younger every week, and she is not half so plain as she was when she relieved Mr. Will of his debts, and took it in hand to make a steady, respectable, and respected country gentleman of him.

But I am running ahead too fast. When she came home to Johnesborough I did not much care for her, and I liked her ways still less; fussing here, and fuming there; worrying herself about the merest trifles, and nothing to be put out of the regular course, even for a moment.

If she had got hold of any gentleman less easy-natured and sweettempered than Mr. Will, she would have driven him, or he would have driven her, mad in three months. Even Mrs. Barrett confessed that in some things Mrs. Pattingham was difficult to please.

I tried to please her for Mr. Will's sake, and was making way in her good graces, when one day there came a letter from some place very far away, where old Lady Pattingham, the Dowager, generally spent three parts of the year, saying she was dangerously