best to amuse ourselves, but miss you both all the same. Gardiners take the greatest care of me "

The

"I'll be bound she has invited the whole family to stay with her. A pretty expense!" growled the baronet. "But go on.'

"And Mr Tyrrell is delightful "

"Do you know what I have thought for some time past?" Sir George cried, looking lively on a sudden,-"Tyrrell is in love with Ella."

"But Ella will never marry," Kitty said; "she has said so a hundred times."

"Young ladies don't marry till they're asked by somebody they find delightful," Sir George answered, with a chuckle of satisfaction at having been himself found delightful. "And Tyrrell has five or six thousand a-year. Ella might do worse." "Do you wish Ella to marry?" Kitty asked, opening her large eyes.

"I never have wished it before, nor do I now, except for her own sake. It was in the nature of things that my marriage should make me wish it. But read a little more.

I am amused.'

Kitty continued to read Ella's letter::"Mr Tyrrell is delightful, and not a day passes but we are indebted to him for some pleasant surprise in the shape of new excursions, new music, new sketches, or new books. I do think, Kitty, that this versatility is on the surface only, and that". Kitty stopped on a sudden, and put the letter back in its envelope.

"Ladies don't like to have their letters to each other read aloud," she said, smiling; "and though Ella and I have no secrets, we are afraid of such sharp criticism as yours."

Sir George laughed, and threw his own letters across the table to her.

"Don't betray poor Ella's confidence, on any account; but answer those letters for me, there's a good child, and tell Ella when you write that we cannot possibly bring our honeymoon to an end yet."

Kitty looked up with an expression of disappointment.

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Why not do Tyrrell and Ella a good turn, and leave them to make love in peace? We should only spoil the thing."

Kitty acquiesced of course, and did her best to seem pleased, though she was dying to be away, and fairly on the road to England. It ought to have flattered her vanity, if it did not touch her heart, that Sir George could so entirely content himself with her society. She chafed at his easy, complacent mood instead, and wanted him to feel something of her own impatience, forgetting that, whereas marriage had wholly altered the tenor of her own life, it affected his very little. He was delighted to have a young, handsome, and submissive wife, and regarded the alliance as a great achievement; but there, for the present, the matter ended. He hoped and prayed every Sunday in church -for Sir George was an exemplary church-goer that the blessing always desired by husbands should fall on his marriage. Beyond this he had no ambitions. Kitty had a thousand.

Of what use were parks and mansions and titles except to be enjoyed? Of what use was her wit, unless she moved in the world; or her beauty, unless there were eyes to delight in it? Partly from imagination, and partly from such fashionable life as novel-reading had made familiar to her, she drew a picture of her future, and delighted to dwell on it. She was to be a leader of fashion in London, a Lady Bountiful in the country, a patroness of poor artists, and a beneficent, happy, ruling spirit in any society among which she might find herself. Hitherto her career had been successful beyond her expectations. She looked very far forward, undoubting, as of old.

Six weeks passed-to Kitty's thinking the six dullest weeks of her life-and then they returned home.

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'Well," Sir George said, as they came within sight of the villa, "I can honestly say that I never spent a happier time in my life. I hope you are of the same manner of thinking, my dear?"

"Have I looked otherwise than happy?" Kitty asked.

"I think you have had just a touch of melancholy now and then. But that is quite becoming. Every right-minded young lady is a little melancholy after her marriage; as, indeed, she well may be, for marriage is a most serious thing-most serious," Sir George added. "A good Christian woman will then look

into her heart, and see how far she is fitted for the solemn responsibilities of wife, mother, and citizen".

Fortunately for Kitty the monologue was interrupted by a chorus of welcoming voices. They had come suddenly upon Ella and the Gardiners, grouped on the lawn; and after a great deal of hand-shaking, and a little kissing among the ladies, all went in-doors to partake of tea. After a little time, Ella and Kitty were left alone. Kitty went up to her friend, hung over her, kissed her, clasped her hand, and seemed fain to cry of joy.

"I am so glad to be with you again, my darling," she said. "Have they taken good care of you? Have you been happy?" Everybody has been very good to me," Ella answered. "The six weeks have slipped away, I hardly know how."

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"Ah!" Kitty cried, reproachfully, "then you did not miss me much?"

"I have indeed missed you," Ella said, trying to look cheerful; "but was it not right to begin learning my hard lesson at once? You belong to papa now, and cannot devote all your time to me."

"As if I should ever love you less dearly!"

"As if I doubted your affection or my own, dear Kitty. It would, nevertheless, be unreasonable to claim the thought and self-sacrifice you once gave me. Papa must be first in your eyes, and you first in his, you know.'

She said this smiling, though with underlying sadness in her voice, and changed the subject. Had Kitty found Ronda so very beautiful? Had she and Sir George decided upon returning to England soon? Should they stay in London for a little while? Was Akenholme to be repaired, and put in order, etcetera Kitty answering with a blank face.

By and by, the conversation fell back into the old channel; and it was Kitty's turn to ask questions.

"Mr Tyrrell has been here a great deal?" she asked.

"More than ever.

comic dismay.

Kitty laughed.

What is to be done?" Ella said, with

"Mr Tyrrell is delightful!" she said. "Perfectly delightful!"

"And very fond of you?"

"So it seems."

"And you are fond of him?"

"Not in equal proportion, I think,” Ella answered.

"But

he has been so good to me whilst you were away, that it is only natural I should wish to be good to him. He must, however, have patience."

Just then Sir George came in. Would Kitty be so good as to go and find such and such a packet for him? The servants were far too stupid. And then, would she order the dinner to be a little earlier? He was so hungry. Thirdly, would she help him with his letters for half an hour? He must send off several to England that evening.

Of course Kitty complied. Formerly Ella would have said, 66 Dear рара, I am sure all these things can wait till poor Kitty is rested a little." But now Ella perforce must hold her peace.

Kitty hardly knew how it was that these first days of her return seemed vexatious. Sir George was kind; Ella was affectionate; things went on smoothly in the house; yet she could have cried of sheer weariness from day to day. She accounted for such fits of chagrin in this way—“I am so childish and little-minded as to be piqued by the fact of Ella having a lover, and seeing daily and hourly how Mr Tyrrell has usurped my supremacy and my influence. But is not this behaving like a school-girl? Ought not a lover to usurp the first place, leaving the second for a friend?"

It was not likely that Kitty's introspection should go deeper than this. We do not play the moralist to ourselves; and even had another spoken the plain though subtle truth to her, she would have gone away unbelieving. For the truth must have been this: Kitty and Ella could no longer sympathise with each other, no longer love each other, no longer delight in each other as before, simply because the less noble nature had knowingly, if not wilfully, wronged the nobler; and the wrong, though pardoned, was inevitably working out its retribution in self-abasement. We cannot completely love or be completely loved by those whose loftiest principles we have outraged..

CHAPTER LXVII.

LADY BARTELOTTE IS INTRODUCED.

AN English spring was not to be thought of for Ella; and as Malaga had become monotonous of late, the little party journeyed to Cannes, where it was proposed to stay till April.

Cannes is eminently a gay place. Pic-nics, luncheons, dinners, and balls, succeed each other without intermission; and Kitty and Ella entered with zest into as much society as Sir George would countenance. Kitty wanted to see what fashionable life was like, and whether she should be as successful in it as she had been in such phases of life as were familiar to her. Ella's motives were purely unselfish. She saw in the distractions of intelligent society Kitty's only chance of happiness, and did all in her power to get Kitty introduced and welcomed into the choicest coteries.

There was a certain Lady Adela C- whose house was one of the most pleasant places of afternoon resort; and it was Ella's achievement to get Kitty graciously received by her. Lady Adela might be called really a distinguished woman, and her house in Paris was frequented not only by princes and nobles, but by men of learning and women of genius. She had the happy art of filtering society so delicately that the finest sense could never detect a gross element in the stream she kept flowing about her. And the stream sparkled and glowed like a fountain with a rainbow playing on it, reflecting as it did so many bright and harmonious minds.

Hitherto, Kitty had outshone Ella in society, which was hardly wonderful, since the one possessed twice as many, and twice as striking personal attractions, and strove to shine; whilst the other ever hid herself in some quiet corner, and watched the animated masses around her, as a looker-on only.

Kitty, accompanied by Sir George and Ella, had come for the first time to one of Lady Adela's crowded afternoon parties. The ubiquitous Tyrrell, was there, of course. He knew Lady Adela of old, and had somewhat mischievously rejoiced at the idea of Kitty being introduced to her. He no longer sat at