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allurement in those tones, that Eddie (beginning to tire of them a little though he was) could not resist, and he went away down with her. On the way he wanted to smoke, but he had forgotten his fusee-box, and almost swore-so irritable was he. Carry bought a box of common lucifers in a sweetstuff shop just on the verge of the shore, and when they sat down on the shingle to talk Eddie tried to light his cigar, but failed through the wind puffing the matches out one after the other.

Try a piece of paper,' suggested Carry, who well knew the soothing power of ignited tobacco on the system of irritated man, pulling two or three scraps from a little tatting-case she toyed with. But the last match he tried did light; and he was soon exhaling clouds of perfumed smoke in comfort.

'Some of Sam's mems.,' she idly said, tossing the scraps away. One fell close to the arm with which Eddie Keiller was supporting his head.

What is it? Not English, surely?'

'Arabic character. He always keeps his private notes in it, for secrecy.'

Rum Arabic,' said the other, picking up the pencilled scrap, and examining it. 'Why, it's shorthand!" Dear Captain Hall, I have something very particular to tell you." Hallo! that's warm, isn't it?'

'Do go on,' entreated Carry; and he, with changing colour (for he had caught the signature) and a forgetfulness of honour that would have been inexcusable under other circumstances, or in another man, read rapidly on as follows:

"Something I heard to-day from mamma that I am afraid will put an end to all our jolly walks and fun together. I am so sorry, you dear old fellow; but

matters must come to a crisis soon; and then-but here's that teasing Jack to take me to sketch the ruined chapel at Burcombe. He will wander off while I am drawing, and then you can come up, and we will settle everything. Not a second to spare. . "Yours ever,

"TOT.'"

Eddie Keiller's face had turned a deep scarlet as he translated the note; Carry Hall became deadly pale. She rose hastily. He had bounded up to his feet at the first few lines.

I must stop this. I did not know my brother could act so disgracefully.'

She spoke in a passion, but very determinedly. Eddie, too, was in a passion - a turmoil of many conflicting passions rather-and scarce knew what he said. There was a seaside pony-chaise standing for hire at the end of the lane they had just come down.

'She is my cousin—a mere child -and her father does not know of this,' he muttered hoarsely, as he made towards it, followed closely by Carry.

"To Burcombe-quick as you can,' said Eddie to the sunburnt boy who squeezed in between them to drive-thus preventing, happily, any further conversation on the note-and away they went.

The ruined chapel at Burcombe, a couple of miles or so from Seasurf, stands picturesquely at the sea end of a lovely dell, well wooded, well flowered, well watered by a sparkling trout stream, and very well known as a trysting spot for lovers with art proclivities. It was called a' chapel,' but in reality the shattered ruins of a goodsized monastery occupied the lovely spot; and it was not by any means easy to find any per

son who might be wanted amidst the numerous blocks of decaying buildings that crowded the undulating ground.

'So they've found us out at last, have they?' laughed out Sam Hall's jolly voice, as he wiped his heated forehead and sat down on a stone in an arched recess of the old ruin close by, where Tottie was making a pretence of sketching. (Her brother Jack had wandered away, boy like, down on the beach.)

'Hush! there may be people about; don't speak so loud,' warned the girl as she toyed with the dainty hat she had just taken off.

'All right. But what have they said about me?-anything awful?'

'Oh! no. Only I'm forbidden to see you any more in private. They found that out somehow. People do talk so. And I should not have been here to-day, only Jack and I had arranged it long ago. Mamma looked very odd when I told her I was going; and I shouldn't wonder a bit if she followed me, she seems so queer about it.'

'About what?' he asked, lighting a cigar and making himself comfortable by unbuttoning his waistcoat.

'Well, about our "absurd love-making," she called it: Tottie fairly burst out laughing, and Sam joined in with a boisterous guffaw.

'But what do you intend for the next move?' he inquired, when he had half choked between tobacco smoke and laughter.

'I don't know, I'm sure. Everything seems to go wrong and thwart us,' she replied meditatively, and a gathering gloom creeping over her fair young face like a thunderstorm rising on a fair April day: 'What can we

VOL. XXV.-NO. CXLIX.

do? We can't well run awayelope.' She smiled again, but only a little, at the word.

'Why not? Jove, just the right thing. Postchaise to Farpoint-train-express, if you like -cross-country route-splendid! -bring 'em all to their bearings -old Eddie and all-in no time!' The dragoon was quite carried away with the enthusiasm the idea evolved in his romantic brain. Hush-oh, do hush-you— well, dear old fool! there! People may hear you-and

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'And your sister?' put in Tottie, quietly. She was flushed with the eager conflict going on in her mind, but she spoke calmly; 'what would she say of it? and, above all, what would she think of poor me after running away with her brother?'

'Oh, Car be hanged! she can console herself with some fellow; old Eddie Kei

Captain Samuel Hall never finished that sentence; his sister and Edwin burst out on them from behind the turret.

'She would think you a very brazen-faced girl, Miss Wylde, to run away with a'married man, as my brother is !' So Carry Hall.

"Some fellow," as you're pleased to call me, will put a stopper on your game, Captain Hall,' cried Edwin, in a towering passion, going towards Tottie, who had bounded to her feet at the interruption, and now looked the picture of dismay.

'Oh, by Jove! here's the d-l to pay, and no pitch hot!' groaned out the Captain, who was thunderstruck at the sudden appearance and words of his sister-he did not notice Keiller-just when

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he had expressed (in most uncomplimentary terms) his views on her future prospects.

'Do you mean to say that your brother is really married, Miss Hall?' asked Eddie.

Really,' she answered, flushing all over as the bitter memory of a sad mésalliance came over her mind.

'You hear that, Tottie? The man is a

'Stop!' shouted Sam Hall, before the other could utter the word: Miss Wylde became aware I was married a week or two after she first knew me! Did you not?'

'I did,' answered Tottie, simply. She was regaining her calmness now, and her own darling Eddie had her hand once more in his with the old warm grasp that sent a thrill through her.

'And I knew it, too!' said Master Jack, who had come up during the scene: 'Why, Tottie, and I, and Captain Hall were only serving you out in your own coin, when you went off on the high stilts after your tumble downhill!'

'And you never told me your brother was married, Miss Hall!' said Eddie, in a rage at being deceived in so barefaced a manner.

Carry Hall drew herself up to the full extent of her stately figure as she answered him with great dignity, mingled with scorn (for she had well noted of late how his temporary passion for her was waning); 'I am not in the habit of gossiping about my brother's affairs, Mr. Keiller!' She made him a stately courtesy, turned on her heel, and left them with all the dignity of an injured queenthree minutes afterwards they heard the rattle of the ponychaise, and knew she was driving into Seasurf.

Then, and on the walk back,

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and in the pleasant family rooms at the Royal' in the presence of Mr. and Mrs. Wylde, the whole business came out by degrees. Tottie, in the simplicity of her trusting nature, had turned Sam Hall from a flirting admirer into a friend, by disclosing to him her passion for her cousin Eddie; while he, on his side, told of his marriage, and between them they concocted a plot of sham love-making to pique the latter into returning to his allegianceTottie's maid and Jack taking an active part in the performance by slyly mentioning before Keiller the various places where the pseudo lovers were about to meet. Sam, of course, dared not tell his sister, because she held the secret of his wedded misery, and he did not wish it spread all over the place -for he knew her temper when roused-and, as he justly remarked, Car can pick up a good fellow anywhere-one spoon, more or less, will be nothing to her!'

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But when Major Ralston, who knew the Halls well, so unexpectedly turned up, and informed Mr. and Mrs. Wylde of all the gossip he heard at the Marine Hotel about their daughter and Captain Hall (at whose marriage Ralston had actually been present) the whole plan fell to the ground, and hence the meeting at Burcombe Chapel, that eventuated so differently from what had been expected.

There is no Tottie Wylde now; but should you this season visit that very excellent hostelry, the 'Royal' at Seasurf, you would find plenty of people to tell you of her 'device' to win back her cousin-lover- 'which her name is Keiller now, sir!' as the staid head chambermaid said to us only the other day when narrating the little romance.

S. J. MACKENNA.

THE BOAT-RACE AND THE SPORTS.

T is difficult to understand why

IT

the University boat-race has of late years become so popular among the lower classes, and why two or three hundred thousand people should yearly make their way to the banks of the Thames for the purpose of shouting themselves hoarse in honour of eighteen young gentlemen with whom they cannot have the most distant acquaintance. Races are the only occasions on which John Bull contrives to forget his phlegmatic nature; but as he never does anything by halves, once thoroughly satisfied that any event of the kind is worthy of his encouragement, it is a point of honour with him to mark his approbation by his presence and the most enthusiastic demonstrations of sympathy. It is only lately that the annual match between Oxford and Cambridge has 'been elevated to the dignity of a metropolitan gala day; and we confess that we look back with regret to the races of former years, before all the world, from Brompton to Bow, thought it incumbent on them to go through endless trouble and discomfort for the sake of catching a momentary sight of the rival crews. "The old order changeth, yielding place to new;' and the old days are gone, never, alas! to return. Horses have long been banished from the towing - path; a ticket for one of the steamers is a rare prize for the few who have the good luck to get one; and every one else has to take his chance in the crowd.

The Boat-race day is now the occasion of a festival second only to the annual exodus to Epsom; and in point of numbers, it is probable that the crowds are even

greater than on the Derby day. But the attractions are not the same. No one despises a day in the country in May; nor the drive, the al fresco lunch, the fun of the road and downs-each of which is an important element of enjoyment; and it is well to uphold the good old theory that every Englishman knows something about a horse, although the secret of one's individual ignorance of the animal in question must be carefully concealed. But there is no pleasant drive to the Boatrace; the journey must be made in clouds of dust, or on foot, or in a railway carriage that makes one fancy oneself the victim of an experiment to ascertain the extreme limits to which overcrowding can be carried without loss of life from suffocation. Then the playful 'rushes' and delicate horse-play of the roughs may have to be braved before an eligible point of view can be obtained; and when, at last, 'the race' has gone by, one can hardly realise the craving for excitement that induces so many who cannot know an oar from a broom-handle' to go through so much discomfort for such an inadequate pleasure. How different is the apathetic crowd from the thousands of hardy Northumbrians who shout themselves hoarse for the victory of their favourite on the banks of coaly Tyne! Let us pursue the contrast by comparing the earnest horsey Yorkshiremen at Doncaster, where each Tyke' has a shrewd knowledge of the chances of every animal in the Sellinger, and where such trivialities of the race-course as sticks and dolls are unknown, with the folly-loving Epsom racegoer, and we relinquish the idea

that innate love of sport has a prominent place in the southern character. But, nevertheless, the lower classes swarm down to the towing-path in shoals; and the decision of the blue ribbon' of the river on any other than the now orthodox course would be a sore disappointment to many who have brought themselves to fancy that they have a sort of vested right in the Boat-race as a public institution.

The inhabitants of St. Petersburg hold high festival at the breaking-up of the ice on the Neva, and the 'Varsity race, as the opening of the river season, is equally welcome to all lovers of the oar. It is the symbol of freedom from the enforced idleness of the winter, and warns the man of muscle that it is time to begin the practice and training indispensable to success later on. To those who frequent the river only for pleasure rowing,' it opens up a delightful vista of picnics and water parties, as pleasant in reality as in prospect. In quiet peaceful beauty no stream surpasses the Thames, and of late years the dwellers on its banks have become fully alive to its attractions. From Oxford to Richmond it flows through ever-varying scenery, between high hills, through pleasant woods, along verdant meadows; and its locks and bridges, and the towns on its banks, are picturesque in the extreme. If to the rowing man Henley recalls the memory of wellfought contests and desperate races past Poplar Point, it reminds the Sybarite, whose ambition soars no higher than a comfortable tub, of pleasant days and festive evenings by the camp fire on the island. What better than Walton Regatta, the Goodwood of the river, with its lawn resplendent with perfect toilettes;

the picnic under the willows, and the row homewards in the bright moonlight? Clifden, Marlowe, Sonning, are all fruitful in pleasant memories and bright anticipations.

Yet

But to have told a 'country cousin,' witnessing the race for the first time after an interval of some years, that the crowd this year was comparatively small, and the interest taken in the race less than usual, would have prcvoked an incredulous smile. so it was. Early in February it was known that at Oxford there was an unusual deficiency of the material necessary for the formation of a good crew; and, to make matters worse, indecision reigned supreme in the councils of those to whom the selection of the oarsmen was intrusted. Man after man was tried, and found wanting; of last year's crew, Nicholson was obliged to absent himself from the boat; Mitchison, for family reasons, followed suit, and Farrar was not in the crew at all. Then it was discovered that Courtney was not in the right place at the stroke-thwart, and the darkest hour was reached when a new man-Way-was substituted for him at the last moment. Then Oxford prospects brightened. Nicholson came back, and the boat went much better with the new stroke, although the few days left for practice before the race forbade all hope of turning out a finished crew.

On the other hand, Cambridge were said to be unusually strong. In Rhodes, Close, Lecky-Browne, and Read, they had a formidable quadrilateral of veteran oarsmen, and in February the crew was already settled and in full practice. On their first appearance at Putney, three weeks before the race, and just at the time that the Oxford stroke was changed, it was ap

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