fortnight, but promised to be more careful in future, and made a secret vow to think twice before encountering Laura's father in broad daylight. The truth of the matter was that his present life was a feverish one. He led a dual existenceloving Laura with his better self, hating Kitty with his worst; and naturally the unhealthy moral diet disagreed with him. And -must it be confessed?—our poor Perry differed sadly from ordinary heroes of fiction in the matter of sinews and muscular perfection. Gifted and graceful as he was, he possessed neither lofty stature, nor Herculean strength, nor muscles of iron; and as his habits were sedentary and unwholesome in the extreme, he did not acquire what Nature had failed to bestow. He returned to Polly in a state of exultation bordering on frenzy. Kitty couldn't marry me because I was a poor devil,” he cried; "and I'm good enough for sweet Laura Norman, who has a hundred a year! Give me a slip of paper, Polly, and I'll write out the announcement of our wedding for the Times, for Lady Bartelotte to see."

66

"The doctor is willing, then?" asked Polly.

"My dear Polly, Dr Norman is a brick-God bless him! And look ye, Polly, he's going to furnish a house for us, so I can pay you the fifty pounds you lent me ages ago-in the glacial period."

"Hoity-toity-toity-tum !" said Polly. "I'm sure the world must be coming to an end when you begin to pay your debts." Perry had seated himself at the table, and began to write"At the parish church of Kensington, on the -th inst., Perugino Neeve, Esquire "

"Son of the late Perugino Neeve, Esquire, H.M.W.P.," put in Mrs Cornford, "which means Walking Poster to Her Majesty's Theatre. Never be ashamed of thy father, or of his trade, Perugino."

"At the parish church of Kensington," repeated Perry, impatiently," on the th inst., Perugino Neeve, Esq.-O Polly, if I had only a handle to my name !"

'Well, you have taken the degree of A.S.S., I'm sure-put that."

Perry went on very gravely—" What about the address ? "

"Put Montgomery Lodge, or The Cedars, or something equally fine," Polly said; "for if you live in a seven-roomed house now-a-days, it is sure to have a name fit for a mansion." "I'll leave out the address for the present, and go on'Perugino Neeve, Esq., to Laura, eldest daughter of Edward Norman, LL.D., F.R.S., &c., &c., of Shelley House, Kent, and Muir Cottage, Kensington.' What will Lady Bartelotte say to that, I wonder?"

"As if it mattered to you? You're mighty lucky to get such a wife and such a father-in-law, and shouldn't trouble your head any more about Kitty than if you had never seen her."

"That is true, Polly," Perry said, seriously, and straightway he threw the announcement of his marriage in the fire.

Meantime, Laura was preparing for her new home as joyfully and shyly as a young bird that is enticed away from the parental nest.

"I don't deserve you in the least," Perry said to her, "but I will work like a slave for you."

"As if I wanted you to do that!" Laura made answer, her blue eyes shining with happiness.

"But I shall do it; I mean to get rich for your sake, though I know we should be happy in the dingiest alley in the Isle of Dogs."

Thus Perry talked and Laura listened, assenting to everything, believing in everything; and for the first time Mr. Perugino woke up to find himself an oracle!

He had once proposed to Dr Norman that they should spend the first year or two of their married life in Italy; but to this Dr Norman firmly objected. He would do everything, he said, to promote Perry's wishes by and by; it was surely not unreasonable that he should like to have his young daughter near him for a little while longer.

So a tiny house was selected, overlooking the gardens of old Campden House, which Laura and Prissy proceeded to furnish with the three hundred pounds Dr Norman had given for the purpose. For a time Perry was in his element painting cornices, hanging pictures and brackets, doing, in

fact, the work of carpenter and artistic decorator to perfection. He conveyed all his prettiest treasures to his new home; and what with Dr Norman's money, and Perry's good taste, Laura's little drawing-room was as charming as any young artist's wife could desire. One obstacle Perry had to overcome. The house was small, and had no good-sized room with a north light. He should be obliged to paint all his large subjects in the old studio at Polly Cornford's for the present. Dr Norman demurred, and Laura looked greatly vexed; but at last the matter was happily settled in this way: Dr Norman promised to buy the house as soon as he could afford it, and Perry was bound over to build a studio for himself.

Was ever a wedding in reality anything but dismal? Dr Norman did not know till the time came what it would cost him to lose his little girl; and Laura's gentle heart was full of bitter self-reproach, thinking of the little she had done to make him happy, and of the wonderful undeserved happiness that he had bestowed upon her. Perry, perhaps, suffered more from inward struggle than any, since it was the first time in his life that he stood pledged to a duty. He kept saying to himself-I can make Laura happy, and I will do so, though all that was best in me I gave to Kitty long ago. But he felt ashamed and sorrowful at not being made quite happy by Laura's pure adoring love. When they started for their wedding trip to Cornwall, the two other guests took their leave, and Dr Norman and Prissy were left alone.

Miss Prissy was full of the wedding. Had papa noticed what an ugly man the clergyman was, and how he stumbled at the name Perugino? Dr Norman had not noticed.

Well, had papa noticed what a big coat Perry wore, and, oh! so creased? (Perry's new coat was not forthcoming in time, so he was married in one of his friend Carrington's.)

.

No, Dr Norman had not noticed that either.

"O, papa! where could your eyes have been? But you must have heard the pew-opener whisper to the old woman next her- My! isn't she a bonnie one?' meaning Laura ? and the old woman answered-He licks her!' meaning, I suppose, papa, that Perry was the handsomest."

To that speech Prissy elicited a monosyllabic answer only. Then she went up to her father coaxingly, and said— "But why do you look so grave, papa?"

For Dr Norman's face had been growing sadder and sadder, and at the sound of the loving little voice, and the touch of the caressing little hand, his composure gave way. It was not so much the loss of Laura that made him feel desolate, as the thought that they had been so little to each other, and that she could leave him so willingly. He had hardly felt so forlorn since, years ago, he had gone from the chamber of his dead wife to tell his little ones that they had no mother.

"O Prissy," he cried, taking the child in his arms and weeping over her, "be very good to me, or my heart will break."

CHAPTER LXVI.

HUSBAND AND WIFE.

KITTY found her honeymoon endurable, but none the less did she long for it to come to an end. She said to herself that she should be perfectly happy when once she had settled down into the position of Sir George's wife, with recognised duties and a recognised sphere. It was all very well for foolish young lovers to have honeymoons; but what had she and her husband to do with sentiment and romance? He declared that he was frantically in love with her; and the assertion seemed true, as far as the deed could certify the word. He had made her his wife. Love could go no farther. Kitty was schooling herself into gratitude to her husband from morning till night. If he looked concerned when she took a little cold, or if he laid out a few francs on any trifle she had admired, she would say—

"How good you are! How good you are!"

And this sort of appreciation delighted him. He felt conscious of his goodness towards her; but then virtue is not always its own reward, and he coveted the reward.

They talked a good deal of Ella in these days. How generous

had her conduct been, how candid, how loving! There was nothing they would not do by way of rewarding her. Sir George took a solemn resolution never to thwart her wishes again. Kitty proclaimed herself Ella's debtor as long as they both should live.

One thing struck Kitty.

Why was it that they should both recognise the necessity of insisting upon this devotion to Ella? She did not doubt them. She did not ask more affection at their hands than they were wont to give. She forgave them for the temporary suffering they had caused her.

Could it be that this marriage was already looming between father and daughter, friend and friend? Kitty's moral perception was as acute as her practical morality was lax. The thought that Ella, whom she had loved next to Perry better than anything in the world, should lose one iota of her father's affection through her, was intolerable. That she and Ella should ever become other than the firm friends they were, was hardly less so.

She longed impatiently to be with Ella again, and assure herself that all was well. Ella's letters were loving as ever, and quite gay; but even the most truthful people will at times write happier letters than circumstances warrant.

"Dear Ella writes word that we must soon go back," she said one morning to Sir George. "What do you say, dear?"

Happy, happy Sir George ! to have Kitty by his side always, accosting him in this loving, wife-like strain-Kitty to rejoice his eyes all day long-Kitty trying to please him whether he were moodish or content, grave or gay. What would not some others have given for the priceless boon he took much as a matter of course?

He was reading his letters when Kitty spoke to him, and finished a long sentence before looking up.

"You said something, I think, my dear ?" he said. "Ella says she must have us back again soon, or "

"Read what she says," Sir George answered.

Kitty read the following

"You must come back again very soon.

We have done our