goddess whom he worshipped as the mother of all power and virtue ; and he had moreover a profound idea as to the value of contrast as well as purity of blood in marriage. Muriel and he were an exact match, through unlikeness. Dark, small, stubbly, wiry himself, his wife should be, as she was, tall, fair, smooth-skinned, softhaired; placid while he was nervous and excitable; administrative to his power of origination; and with that womanly quality which the world would call devotion, but which he recognized as the 'following power'—whereby they would never come into collision, but be always as Nature intended-he the step in advance, and she dutifully walking in his shadow at his heels. She was his ideal realized. Of all the women known to him, Muriel Smith was the one whom he would wish to choose for his wife. physical tendencies would be so admirably counteracted, so beautifully balanced in the children! And then she was so sweet and charming personally. It was such a glorious chance that inclination and scientific fitness should unite at the same point-mark out the same person!

Their

I am sorry,' he said slowly after a long pause; very sorry. She would make a charming wife; but, of course, if that fatal stain is in her blood, she would be impossible for any man of principle who respected humanity too much to commit such a crime against posterity.'

'It is not true. I would wager my existence that it is not!' cried Arthur hotly. Madness in their blood? No!'

"You know nothing about it, Arthur,' said Lady Machell, with a sharp glance. It is not a crime of which I accuse them, but you must see for yourself that there is something in their history which does not come to the surface; and, as Mr. Perceval says, the young man is decidedly odd.'

'If it is so, it ought to be known,' said Guy slowly. However hard on the young people, it is only their manifest duty to society.'

He spoke firmly, but sorrowfully. It was the kind of thing that he would do for his fellow-men, how great soever the cost to him personally; and it was what everyone else ought to do. The advancement of the race was dearer to him than all else, and the perfection of humanity the favourite dream of his life.

All this time Hilda had not spoken, nor shown by face or manner that she took more interest in the conversation than if it had been about the evils of leaden water-pipes, and the unhealthiness of impure gas. But in that active little heart of hers, which she concealed under such a meritorious envelope of quietness and submission, she felt as if she could have strangled Mr. Guy Perceval

with her own two small hands; and never in her life had she gone so near to condemning her mother, whom at all times she feared rather than loved, and obeyed because she must, not because it was her pleasant duty to yield. How good her brothers were for their advocacy of those dear, sweet, charming Smiths, she thought. And yet she knew in her secret soul that, had they dreamed of how much she liked the Smiths, and how she found Derwent her prince among men, they would not have been quite so good, and perhaps would have gone even beyond her mother in dispraise and Guy Perceval in hardness of repudiation.

Showing nothing of these tumultuous troubles within, she sat and did her little duties of smiling when she was spoken to; of patting Brian's head when he laid his big paw in her lap; of playing with the white kitten in her arms; and looking pretty and unconcerned all round. And as no one reads riddles when they are written in hieroglyphics without a key, no one suspected that these nice little duties, performed with such charming simplicity of grace and girlhood, hid anything deeper than the superficial diversion of the moment or served more as a blind than an expression.

'Pray do not go and proclaim throughout the country that the Smiths are all half mad,' said Arthur hurriedly.

'I am as likely to be as tender of them as you,' returned Guy Perceval. I admire her too much to harm her.'

Lady Machell's lips narrowed to a thin line. She looked venomous and vicious, for the stake for which she was playing was heavy, and she could not afford to lose it. Still, she was wise and politic, and knew how to pay out her line.

'You mean Miss Smith ?-or the mother?' she asked innocently.

'I meant Miss Smith, but I admire the mother too,' said Guy simply.

'They are both charming in their way,' returned Lady Machell ; 'the daughter singularly so; but, for all that, were I a man I should not like to marry even such a pretty and amiable young person as Miss Smith, unless I knew more about them than I know now; and especially who, what, and where is the father.'

air.

"Yes, who and where is the father;' echoed Guy with a disturbed

"Whoever he is, he is a gentleman; and wherever he is, it is neither a prison nor a madhouse. I would stake my life on that!' cried Arthur with unusual warmth.

Wilfrid's eyes turned to his brother; so did Lady Machell's. This passionate look, this scornful accent, were both so entirely foreign

to his ordinary habits of temper and manner, that it was no wonder if they looked with inquiry and surprise, searching out the motive which spurred him to so extraordinary a display. Like many men of strong will and deep passions, he was good-tempered and not easily roused; with a great deal of surface softness, and always more ready to swim with the stream in unimportant matters than against it. And to see him flame out so hotly on, as it would seem, such a commonplace topic as the personality and whereabouts of an unknown man, was a phenomenon in the family which naturally astounded them.

6

'There is a good old bit of advice, Arthur, which you would do well to consider,' said Sir Gilbert slowly. It is, never to go surety for a stranger, else you will smart for it. I dare say you are right. It is more comfortable to believe good of one's fellowcreatures than evil; still, in this case, evil and good are both unknown, and one is just as likely as the other.'

'And another maxim is to hold a man innocent till he has been proved guilty,' answered Arthur.

Sir Gilbert smiled. He was a slow, heavy kind of man; but he had clear views, and was not foolish.

'A good legal fiction, my boy; I have nothing to say against it in its proper place as a legal fiction; translated into everyday life, it would be a rather awkward rule to work.'

"I am surprised to hear this from you, sir,' Arthur answered, stoutly but not disrespectfully. I have heard you say so often that the man who assumes more evil than is known of another, draws his own portrait, and condemns himself—also that suspicion is the curse of little minds-that I should have expected to find you on my side to-day.'

He smiled. Have I?' he answered; I dare say; and I was right. But there are exceptions to every rule; and if I were you I would make one in favour of your mother's insight, and not be quite so ready as you are to endorse this unknown Mr. Smith's unproved respectability.'

'Respectability?—yes, I think that he is respectable enough,' said Guy Perceval; but I confess that Lady Machell's theory has thrown a new light on the subject to my mind. Mad! That would fit on every side only too well.'

'It is a cruel thing to say,' Arthur returned without a sign of yielding. No one has the right to make theories of this kind simply to gratify curiosity. We know nothing of Mr. Smith, and have no right to assume anything. We have not an inch of proof of any kind; and all these guesses are silly or cruelboth.'

'You are severe on your mother, Arthur,' said Lady Machell quietly; but her thin lips quivered.

He laid his hand on her own.

'No, mother, not on you,' he said; 'I am speaking of principles -not persons.'

"Your principles are very like persons,' she answered; but let us change the conversation. The truth concerning Mr. Smith can have no real interest for any of us; and whatever he is or may have been cannot possibly touch us in any way. How do your new dairy arrangements answer, Mr. Perceval? Are you as satisfied with them now as in the beginning?'

The diversion was effectual. No more was said of the Smiths; and after Guy had perorated for half an hour on his slate slabs and his glass pans, his patented churns and his machine-made cheeses, he got up and went away, more than ever convinced that Lady Machell was the choicest woman of the place, and his best friend through and through; and feeling that he had performed an important service to society and the future by making her promise again quite solemnly that Miss Hilda's diet should be largely modified by the introduction of oatmeal.

Long before he left however Arthur had strolled off fuming, leaving Wilfrid fuming too for two reasons where his brother had only one. For if this discussion derogatory to the Smiths had been distasteful to him, so had been Arthur's excitement; and he did not like his mother's manner and intentions towards Guy Perceval.

Ready to sacrifice himself for the good of the family, he thought how should he save his little sister; and could he? He despised Guy now as a man as much as he had despised him when a boy; and he was averse from the idea of Hilda's marrying him, even with all their poverty and all his wealth. And yet, fifteen thousand a year and a fine old Elizabethan house perfumed with historical tradition;— might not a few crazes on drainage and ventilation, oatmeal porridge and domestic hygiene generally, be forgiven in favour of such sterling advantages? And if mean-looking and plain, he was generous, good, and kind; and these are the long trumps that win the game in the end! But it went against him, how much soever he reasoned with himself and knocked sentiment on the head with the bludgeon of substantial interest. Hilda was as much like his daughter as his sister, and he felt something of a father's protection for her. He wanted to see her happy with a man of Guy Perceval's possessions and, say, Derwent Smith's personal graces; and this compromise between the two revolted him. He knew however that if his mother had decided on it, it would be done. Lady

Machell, with her theories of womanly submission always admirably marshalled, had known how to establish her own unquestioned supremacy. Sir Gilbert had gradually gone down before her, and so had he, Wilfrid himself. She knew how to guide them all with a thread so silken, a touch so fine, that they never knew the moment when to refuse her hand until they found themselves brought to the point where she had decided they should be led. Her fish were landed before they knew that they were hooked; and when landed, what is the use of floundering? Still, he would try what he could do for Hilda, and see if it were possible to put spokes into the wheel which the lady mother had set a-going.

'Mother, you are surely not going to dose that poor child with this horrid stuff!' he said, when Guy had gone and Sir Gilbert had lounged off to the library, and he was left alone with his mother and Hilda.

Hilda looked up at him appealingly, gratefully. She hoped that her mother would be as much afraid of her son as she was of her mother.

She must try it,' said my lady, her lips a trifle set.

'But why make her unhappy for the whim of that ass?' he said.

My lady did not look up. She was settling her dress, which was refractory and needed those sharp, short movements of her well-formed hands.

'I think it would be only good breeding to let her try it,' she repeated. And it does young people good to accustom them to all things-even to things which they do not like. It makes them plastic and more high-bred.'

'I am sorry to hear you say so,' said Wilfrid stiffly.

That is your creed too, my dear,' she answered. Which of us can go through the world with that low-bred self-indulgence which thinks only of personal pleasure? We must all sacrifice ourselves to the higher needs of family and society. And Hilda will not be hurt by being thoroughly grounded in self-control. You feel with me I am sure, Wilfrid, even if you are sorry to see her annoyed.'

'She is such a child yet-her initiation into pain need not begin so early. She will have abundance of sorrow and annoyance yet in life; we need not make occasions.'

Wilfrid spoke with strange softness. It seemed to him that his own immolation would lose half its value if it did not secure his little sister's safety.

'Women cannot begin too early,' said my lady. The life of a woman is all sacrifice, all self-suppression, from the cradle to the