farewell, his eyes followed him with the yearning of a prisoner who sees his would-be deliverer turned from the gaol

gate.

'Good-bye, Kezia,' said Robert, 'I musn't stay here, a wolf among lambe any longer.

Kezia's eyes were turned anxiously towards Hagh, to whose side she went when Robert had shaken hands with her, and gone round to Hirell.

‘Hugh,” said Elias, with that peculiar thickening of the voice which came to him in moments of excitement, I have heard no word of approval or acknowledgment yet of this service which our friend Ephraim Jones is doing you."

Hugh still remained silent, in sadness rather than in obstinacy or anger. Kezia, as she sat by him, gently plucked his sleeve and whispered,

Dear Hugh, say something. Oh, think! has he not enough to bear 2

She had a tender winning voice, and eyes like it, and Hugh looked at her and received her persuasion passively.

In a minute he turned his head wearily to the minister.
I-thank you, sir, for what you have done,” he said.

And will he take thanks from you, sir, so grudged ?' asked Elias, with rising anger.

• Enough, my boy, enough,' cried the minister, extending his great arm across to take Hugh's hand. Elias, you require too much of the young man. Could the captives of Israel thank him who should point out for them the road of their exile ?'

Robert leaned over Hirell's chair, and said—

Good-bye, Hirell; and she looked up at him with eyes so brimful of her own griefs, that they asked and won forgiveness for being too heedless of his. He even smiled as he pressed her hand, and all the pleasantness of his liking came over her.

Their friendship had been founded on simple knowledge of each other, and the habit of being and thinking together. As no admiration on either side made them exaggerate its strength, all that there was of it was genuine, and knit into their very natures. It was like that primitive mysterious link between blood relations, that is often never felt till it is suddenly broken by some bitter family dissension or death. Hirell's liking for Robert was as a stream that ran too deep and strong to make

any of the murmurings by which a shallower one attracts and excites the mind. If her bright imagination had once looked down into it, it might have burst into sunny beauty; but as it was, it flowed silently and unseen-refreshing her without her knowledge.

"Good-bye, Robert,' said Hirell, and their hands clasped with clinging earnestness.

All had risen to take leave of Robert, except the lodger, who sat at the table still, either lost in thought, or anxious to appear unobservant of the disagreements that had taken place.

The simple hospitality of Elias would not allow him to sit while his guest and kinsman took his departure; but the attitude in which he stood at the head of the table, and the. expression on his face of unmoved severity, did not encourage Robert to take any steps towards lessening the breach between them.

He had wished them all good-bye, and now approached Elias.

Well, good-night, Morgan,' he said, and held out his hand.

'Good-night, Robert Chamberlayne,' answered Elias, as he took coldly the proffered hand.

Robert noticed the coldness, became flushed and irritated, then turned to go.

The lantern,' demanded Elias, turning slowly to Kezia. She brought it, and they were not surprised to see him follow Robert; for it was his common custom to light any one who went away at a late hour beyond the first white gate. Hirell and Hugh went after them.

Robert remembered the last time he left Bod Elian they had all followed him then, but not silently as to-night; the long, stone passages and kitchens had rung with blithe farewells, and entreaties that innumerable commissions with which he was charged might be remembered; that letters might be quickly answered; that nobody and nothing about the farm might ever be forgotten by him; and now he had nothing to do for any of them; no one had asked him to write, or wished to be remembered by him. He longed to turn back and tell Hugh that he might rely on his friendship when he came to London, but he dared not, for Elias was between them.

Hirell fully expected some outburst from Robert at the in

justice with which he was being treated. It was like a dream to her to see him go-after once turning his face towards her -out of the gate and down the hill, and then to feel that he was gone.

Her father's harshness to Robert made her own thoughts of him kinder than they would otherwise have been. She laid her hand on the gate, and looked down in the direction of his footsteps sounding crisply on the slaty path, and falling into the rhythm of the fresh autumn night.

The light fringe of garden trees waved airily on her left, and seemed to lean and hearken after the footsteps with her; and the water in the deep ravine to hurry and cry louder; while the oxen in the field showed their breath in the faint starlight, as they turned towards the sound.

It went on, farther and fainter, and seemed to leave a chill behind it, and when it was quite gone from Hirell's hearing, and she took her arms from the gate and gazed round, the garden trees looked still and dull, the water plunged down the ravine with a crashing, gloomy monotony, the oxen lowered their heavy heads again, and tore and chewed the tough, dry grass. He who like the fairy prince would have changed it all, was gone, and the place left still under the dreary spell.

Elias had given Hugh the lantern, and was waiting for Hirell.

'Father,' she said, as she came up to him, 'I want to ask you if I have done right or wrong in some matter in which I have acted without asking your advice.'

'What is it, Hirell?' he said, gravely.

'Robert Chamberlayne has asked me to marry him, and I told him I cannot.'

Whatever Elias felt at the news, he kept concealed in his own breast. He said not a word till they had nearly reached the door, and then he asked her―

'Was it before-before this bubble burst, or after ? '

'After he knew of it all, but before he let us know.'

He looked at her-pausing in the doorway to do so, as they were entering-he looked at her with a keen, penetrating glance, and then across at the gate by which Robert had gone

away.

'I thought of myself alone when I answered him,' said Hirell. 'If he had asked me after all this, I cannot tell but

perhaps that, for all our sakes, I might have been tempted to give him a different answer.'

'And he saw this when he decided to speak to you first! I honour Robert for it, Hirell. I shall write and tell him so.' I care enough for him to be very glad to hear you say that, father,' answered Hirell gratefully.

They went into the house, and Elias shut the door, and followed her into the kitchen.

They found there Ephraim Jones and the lodger, by no means in a friendly attitude towards each other, and Kezia looking on with much distress.

'I maintain, sir,' the minister was saying, 'that it is utterly beneath the manners of a Christian-or what I suppose is a stronger word in your vocabulary-a gentleman.'

'May I trouble you for my

candle?' said Rymer to Kezia. 'What is this, Ephraim ? inquired Elias.

'Friend Morgan,' said the minister, 'have I not rightly informed this person in telling him that everyone under your roof is expected to be present at evening prayers?'

'It is my rule,' answered Elias.

'And one which by no means should you permit to be broken,' cried the minister.

'My candle, if you please,' repeated Rymer to Kezia, who stood looking hesitatingly from one to another.

'Your candle,' said Ephraim Jones; and what candle, sir, will light you in the darkness of a night unhallowed by prayer?'

Shall we begin at once, friend Ephraim ?' proposed Elias, as Mr. Rymer appears anxious to retire; and, indeed, it is growing later than I thought,' he added looking at the clock.

'You are very kind,' said the lodger; but pray do not alter your arrangements on my account, for I am going at once to my room. Oblige me with a candle.'

And he took it with a bow from Kezia's yielding hand, saying, ‘I fear I must trouble you to show me what bedroom I am to occupy.'

She turned a perplexed look on her master.

6

'Elias,' said the minister, it is your duty to uphold, like the ancient fathers of Israel, the statutes of your house.'

'Surely, sir,' interposed Hugh, who had just entered and seen how things stood between their guest and lodger, 'Mr. Rymer can do as he likes. He is not under the obligation of

a visitor. He buys a home of us, and I cannot see how our share in the bargain is to be fair unless we give him a home with all its privileges and liberties.'

'And one of the privileges and liberties he is to enjoy,' said the minister, 'is letting Satan find a passage through his heart to your very fireside. Take heed, Elias! May not the exposure of one sheep bring the wolf into the fold-or the carelessness of one soldier betray a whole garrison?'

The word of the Reverend Ephraim Jones was law at Bod Elian, and all stood irresolute and perplexed. Everyone, even Elias himself, would have been glad to let the lodger have his will, and relieve them of his presence, yet no one dared volunteer to show him the way to his room.

Rymer's position was even more embarrassing. He stood with the candle in his hand determined upon going, yet not knowing in the least which way to turn.

At last he remembered Nanny, and, instantly he did so, went towards the kitchen where he had seen her.

Hirell and Kezia were thankful to hear them going upstairs together; and to see by the manner in which Ephraim Jones flung into a chair, and opened his Bible, that he had given up the contest.

'Perverse and stubborn spirit,' he cried, shaking his head at the door by which Rymer had gone out; God grant that this night sleep alone may visit him, for if death got hold of him, sharp indeed were its sting, and great "the grave's victory." But come, friends, come, fellow-soldiers, maimed and weary-before we leave the battle-field to rest under the tent of night, let us kneel down at our Commander's feet, and make known to him the defeats and triumphs of the day, and ask of him that he will enlighten us as to the duties of tomorrow.'

They all knelt, and he prayed-specially mentioning Hugh in his prayer—and setting forth such a terrible vista of temptations to be passed through by the young man as to make the women tremble, and redouble the anxiety of Elias.

Hirell knelt where she could see the minister's face; but it was not while he was praying that she cared so much to look at it, but when his prayer was finished. Then, as if the loud voluminous tones of his own voice had acted like a kind of thunder on his mental atmosphere, and cleared it of the evils