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that Sir Robert disliked fuss to be made about his ailments. 'I was a little faint, I think, for want of my breakfast.'

If this was so, it was curious, since he made no attempt to eat anything beyond toying with a little toast and marmalade; but of this no one was supposed to take notice.

He was the first to rise from table, and Lady Arden followed him with her eyes, but with her eyes only. Mr. Walcot had already risen, leaving his devilled chicken only half consumed upon his plate, and left the room close at Sir Robert's heels.

Again no one hazarded a remark, but Gresham glanced significantly at Elise, as much as to say, 'You see his power; and then turned scarlet on perceiving Evelyn remarked it.

Lady Arden showed no touch of annoyance, nor perhaps did she feel any. She had been long content with the affection of her second husband, shown in a hundred material ways to her and hers; she had never possessed his confidence; and on the few occasions when she had striven to minister to him in his little troubles-which were generally understood to be 'nerves '-she had not been very successful. She was homœopathic, and had suggested Pulsatilla, in which Sir Robert did not seem to have much confidence.

The Baronet passed through the folding-doors that led into his own studywhich stood somewhat isolated from the house, forming one of its many projections and threw himself into a chair.

'Great Heaven, Ferdinand,' were his first words, why did you not tell me?'

6

'Tell you what, my dear Arden?' inquired the other with simplicity.

"Why, about the likeness. That girl who came yesterday. I thought when I saw her face I should have dropped.'

'Do you mean Annabel Spruce?' " Of course I do. Is it possible it never struck you that she is the very image of our lost Madeline?'

"The image? Surely not. Now you mention it; indeed, I do recall a resemblance-something in the look of the eyes.'

The eyes the features-the very expression!'

My dear Arden-making every allowance for your sensitive organization,' answered Mr. Walcot, in a tone of alarmed remonstrance; it seems to me that your affectionate, nay, your devotional feelings towards our dear departed carry you sometimes too far. Remember, it is I alone who understand them, who appreciate them at their full value; and this exhibition of them before others

Sir Robert waved his hands in nervous protest.

'What does it matter-what does anything matter, in comparison with what I owe her!'

'Very true, my dear Arden; most true, no doubt. Still, you have since contracted other obligations.'

'I know it; I know it,' exclaimed the other impatiently; and I hope I have not neglected them.'

'Indeed you have not; no other man alive could have been so mindful of them.'

'Still I was wrong to contract them. I failed in fealty to the dead-if, indeed, I can call her dead, whose living voice is so present with me.'

'Why did you do it, my dear friend?' answered the other bluntly.

'Ay; why, indeed? I did it to escape from myself. You don't know what I suffered when she left me all alone. You were not here then, Ferdinand, to comfort me.'

'I wish I had been, with all my heart.'

The gentleness of his tone was only equalled by its genuineness; Sir Robert held out his hand, and the other grasped it warmly.

'I have no cause to complain, Ferdinand, of any human creature, save myself. Lady Arden and the children have been everything that I could have expected of them-more than I

had any right to expect. My nephew, too, dear George, is an honest, noble fellow.

You don't think so, because you compare him, perhaps, with an ideal standard-he has not, of course, your sensibility.'

'I said nothing against him, Arden; and I never shall do so. If I think he fails towards you in frankness and obedience, considering all the benefits you have heaped upon him, that is only my private opinion.'

Well, well, let us not talk of that, let us agree upon that single point to differ. In all others we are at one.' 'I hope so, indeed, my friend.' 'But, oh, that girl! Why did you not prepare me for her? When she turned round and looked at me, it was as though one had risen from the dead.'

'I grant there is a likeness, though it did not strike me with such force. If it pains you I will frame some excuse to persuade Lady Arden to get rid of her protegé.'

'No, no, no,' answered Sir Robert. 'Let her stay here since she has once come. The very accident of resemblance gives her a claim upon me.'

Mr. Walcot bowed, with a stoop of his shoulder too gentle to be called a shrug; the action seemed to say, This is a matter of feeling in which ao one has a right to argue with you; but to me such ideas are unintelligible.'

My dear Ferdinand, I know I must seem unreasonable to the world at large,' said Sir Robert, as if in answer to this movement, but I should have hoped that you would have understood me better. You yourself are cognizant of many things beyond the ken of

grosser minds.'

'I have been witness to certain manifestations, Arden, it is true, that I cannot refer to any known laws, and those manifestations have, as it seemed, been connected with my lamented sister. But I hesitate to attach to them any vital meaning.'

That is because you are by nature a sceptic-that is to say, of a too logical mind, Walcot. Yet you have al

lowed to me that you have more than once been staggered. After all, these incidents are only links of a chain that has connected this world with the other throughout all ages.'

'Still the hearing is a sense that is very easily deceived, my dear Arden. I have thought oftentimes I have heard dear Madeline's voice; but it might not have been hers; nay, there might have been no voice. The eye brings with it what it sees, we are told; and this is still more true with the secondary senses. If she were to tell me something only known to myself and her-if I had even seen her

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Yes, but Oberlin tells us that his watched him like an attendant spirit, held communion with him, and was visible to his sight. When he contemplated any important act she either encouraged him or checked him.'

'That was a very remarkable case, no doubt, Arden; I remember something of it.'

This might well have been, since his companion had conversed with him on the matter half a dozen times before.

'But Oberlin's experience does not overthrow my argument, though I grant it weakens it, as to the self deception of the senses,'

That is what was said to Oberlin himself,' answered Sir Robert, in a tone of triumph; when asked how he distinguished such interviews from dreams, he answered, "How do you distinguish one odour from another?" They were perfectly distinct occurrences.'

'He was a theologian and a philanthropist, and probably of an enthusiastic temperament,' replied Walcot, doubtfully.

'Well, I am neither one or the other, Ferdinand; you must grant to me an unbiassed, if not a logical, mind.'

'I will go further, Arden, and allow you to be logical; I never knew a man more open to reason. It is not my wish, you may be sure, to rob you of any source of consolation, and least of all of one which may proceed from kin of mine. If this thing be really as you conceive it to be, I should almost feel that I had a hand in it; that your friendship for me had at all events received the seal of approval from a quarter, which, in your eyes--'

'It does-it has, Ferdinand,' interrupted Sir Robert, eagerly. You are dear to me for your own sake; but ten times dearer because of the sacred tie that connects us-we cannot speak of that, however, before others. Lady Arden, for example, would not only fail to understand it, but would, perchance, resent it. I should be loth to give her cause of pain. You had better go to her, by the bye, and say that I am better, and will see her now.' 'I will.'

We have said Mr. Ferdinand Walcot had a mobile face. It changed its expression twice between Sir Robert's study and the breakfast room. In the former it implied tender assent; between the double doors it became like the mask of Grecian Comedy; grotesque in its satirical mirth; and then, in the presence of the family, it turned to cheerful contentment.

'Sir Robert would like to see you, Lady Arden; his giddiness, I am thankful to say, has passed away.'

CHAPTER XIII.

THE FIRST BLOW.

T T was not very long after breakfast, and while Mr. George Gresham was completing on the terrace behind the Hall that second cigar which his new cares and dangerous position had rendered necessary for without tobacco how would some people contrive to think when Milly Nicoll came out to him, not trippingly as usual, but gliding like a ghost, and with quite a serious expression of countenance.

'George, dear, there are plots in the air,' said she. And I don't think you will see your friend, Mr. Mayne, on this side of Christmas.'

What do you mean, Milly? I have my uncle's permission to invite him?'

'You mean you had it. Mr. Walcot, however

'Confound his meddling,' ejaculated Gresham, prescient of what was com ing.

By all means,' said Milly, if that can be done. He has persuaded Mamma that Papa is not in a state of health to receive visitors, and you can therefore guess the next step.'

'He is the most impertinent wretch!' exclaimed Gresham, passionately.

'Oh, George, how can you use such words! If I had known you would be so angry, I would not have been the one to tell you this bad news. I was afraid it would annoy you.'

'Annoyance is no word for it, Milly. Of course it is a disappointment to me, but that is nothing to the indignation I feel against the person who has caused it. I will go to my uncle at once, and ask whether in future I am to consider him or Mr. Walcot the master of this house.'

'You would gain nothing by that motion, George. But if you are very anxious to see your friend at Halcombe

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'Well, of course I am; but long

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before the post goes out a veto will be put upon my asking him.'

'Just so.

But there is a horse in

the stable, and you know how to ride, I believe.'

'It is not a sea-horse that I can ride to Boulogne upon, Milly.'

'No, but you can ride to Mirton, and telegraph to Boulogne, silly.'

Excellent girl?' cried Gresham, rapturously; if you were a little better looking I could find it in my heart to kiss you.'

'He is the most impertinent wretch!' exclaimed the young lady, as if to space, and minicking the fiery tone as well as the words of her companion.

'Seriously, Milly, I am charmed with your sagacity, and I am sure it will please Mayne to hear that you had so set your heart on seeing him that devised this scheme. I'll be

you off at once.'

Now that is so like a man,' ob served Milly, sardonically; 'first, in the ingratitude, and, secondly, in the want of intelligence. Why, you're actually going to the stables by the front of the house.'

'True, I will go the back way. You are an angel, Milly, with the wisdom of the serpent added.'

'And look here, George,' added she, as he was hurrying away, if you are very anxious about your friend's coming, you had better prepay his message back. When he said, "I'll come." Papa can scarcely say he is not to

come.'

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circumstance, a long though narrow plantation of Scotch firs had been planted there by some previous tenant of the Hall, to which it formed a most picturesque approach. For more than a mile the traveller could ride or drive in shelter, while enjoying the most exquisite glimpses of marine scenery. It was called 'The Wilderness,' and was the favourite haunt of the children of the village.

It was early in the afternoon when Gresham arrived at the entrance of this grove on his return journey. The wind had dropped, and only sighed through the branches of the trees, like an echo of the waves beneath. The sweet breath of the pines, the warmth of the shelter they afforded after the open moorland road were so grateful to the traveller that he almost always drew rein as he entered the Wilderness, and came through it at a foot-pace. Notwithstanding his familiarity with the scene, this was now the case with Gresham, though it is doubtful whether the slackening of his speed was solely due to the attractions of Nature. As he reached this first jut of home it was natural that the consideration of his position there, and of his future prospects, should have suggested themselves, and a gallop (which had hitherto been his pace) is no aid to reflection.

He was still full of indignation against Walcot, but he perceived how dangerous it would be to give expression to it, considering the obvious increase of that person's influence with Sir Robert since he (Gresham) had left home, and especially in view of his own relations with Elise. If these should be discovered, they would afford a dangerous weapon, indeed, to the hand of such an unscrupulous foe. Gresham knew that he was solely dependent upon Sir Robert, but, to do him justice, that was not the consideration which most affected his thoughts. He was attached to his uncle by bonds of affection as well as of gratitude, and feared his displeasure at

least as much as his material conseHe was well aware, too, quences. that there were weak points in Sir Robert's character, quite apart from his infatuation with respect to his brother-in-law; that, with all his kindness of heart and indolence, he would at times assert himself in quite a despotic manner; that small annoyances -such as a nephew's not being down in time for morning prayers-put him out excessively; that ridicule of any subject in which he took an interest highly exasperated him; and that certain derelictions from moral duty had in his eyes the blackness of crimes. First among these was the vice of deception. If you will only be open with me, George,' his uncle used to say to him as a boy, all will be well between us, but never try to deceive me.'

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George would perhaps have been open with him now if he had only had his uncle to deal with; he knew that he disliked to be thwarted in anything on which he had set his mind, and that he would especially resent any change of his supposed intentions. as regarded Evelyn; but he would have thrown himself on his uncle's generosity, and bared his heart to him

-but not for that daw, Ferdinand Walcot, to peck at. He could foresee, only too well, how he and his love would fare, should he venture to confess it under present circumstances, and therefore he resolved to conceal it.

Immersed in these reflections, he came suddenly, at a turn in the winding road, upon Elise herself, accompanied by Frank.

His heart leaped up for joy, but he was too prudent to express it except by the welcome in his eyes. A boy is always a dangerous third party in such interviews, and especially a sharp boy like Master Frank. A certain proverb about 'little pitchers having long ears' passed through Gresham's mind, succeeded by the consolatory reflection, 'that the longest ear that ever British boy wore cannot understand an un

known tongue;- Elise and I will talk German.'

Their salutations, however, were made in English, and Elise informed him that the boy had undertaken to act as her cicerone to the beauties of Halcombe, whereupon Gresham, who had swung himself from his horse and hitched the bridle under his arm, patted Frank on the head with genuine approbation.

The lad, generally quick to appreciate the least kindness of his elders, said never a word, never even stretched forth his hand-a mechanical impulse, one would have thought, to every boy of his age-to pat the mare.

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'Why, Frankie, what's the matter! You look glum, as if you'd lost sixpence irrevocably.'

'There is nothing the matter,' said the boy, with nervous haste, 'nothing

at all.'

'There is,' observed Elise, in German. I never met with a child of his years so dreadfully out of spirits.'

'It is not usual with him,' answered Gresham, indifferently. Something has probably gone wrong with his lessons. What a blessed thought it was that prompted him to bring you here; otherwise I know not when I should have had the chance of a word with you. How do you like Halcombe—or rather the Halcombe folks?'

'They are kindness itself,' she answered, earnestly. So kind that my conscience pricks me to think that I should be playing any part here that is not an honest one."

'It is not dishonest, darling; and it will not last long, for they will all soon come to know your worth, and to welcome you as one of themselves.'

Elise shook her head.

'You are too sanguine. If I had known what sort of life your people lead-so far above everything that I have witnessed in my own country, and all of them to the manner bornI should have felt it impossible that I could ever link my lot with yours; if I could have foreseen the consideration

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