Lady Tracy often talked to Honor of India, and after a time she began to know many of the men of whom the old lady told her, almost as well as if she had seen them.

A book of photographs, one of Lady Tracy's great treasures, used to help her here.

There was hardly one man there who had not done good public service, which Lady Tracy remembered faithfully, whether his name had come forward for distinction or not.

Many there had already won high honours, and there were others whose laurel crowns were to bud forth before that year was old,too often mixed with cypress.

'Who are those?' asked Honor as she turned to the page where opposite a soldierly-looking man with slightly grey hair, was the portrait of a very sweet beautiful woman.

'I like that lady's face; she seems as if she had a story about her.'

'I do not know her, my dear, nor much about her, save that she is the wife of a man whose choice could have fallen on none but a good woman, so I am sure her looks are her least charm.'

many years.

That is Sir Ralph Everard, a man whom I hold only second to one or two others in India. He has been a very dear friend of mine for I once thought to hold him in a closer tie, but Georgy preferred an English parsonage to India then; and though she has gone to India since, I have no cause to find fault with her choice. He married last year this beautiful girl, of no particular family or connexions, but I have heard she is very good and charming, and I can well believe it.'

Mr. Tracy was a very pleasant companion to his cousins. He used to escort them on long walks and drives, which the clear bright weather, though the season was mid-winter, liberally allowed; it was he who organized the charades, and, with the assistance of Charlie and Jean Detrop, transplanted the Christmas tree, and then did all the hard work of the decoration. He seemed to be never tired of providing everybody with amusement, while his gentle courtesies and little acts of consideration won Mrs. Blake's and Newton's hearts as effectually as his practical sympathy with Charlie's love of

VOL. II.

B

adventure did that of the young would-be sailor.

But in spite of all this, and of his frank undisguised admiration for Miss Conny's beauty, he showed not the least symptom of falling in love with that young lady.

She was too clever not to see when a case of the sort was hopeless, and after several attempts she made up her mind that this was so.

6

'I believe he is an idiot,' she said to herself spitefully one day; he looks on me exactly as he might do on his grandmother.'

The occasion in question was when Constance had appealed to Mr. Tracy coquettishly about a new fashion of arranging the hair, and in reply he had stated his opinion, ending with 'for a very handsome face like yours,'' just as if he were talking of a statuette or a kitten,' mused Conny, 'not half so warmly as he talks about pictures or scenery with Honor; I believe he is a fool!'

Mr. Tracy was not a fool. He thought Conny very pretty, quite as pretty as even she could wish him to think her, but then we must remember that, living in London, he was accus

tomed to see a number of pretty women continually, and something, either in his nature or his education, had given him a habit of looking below the surface. Conny showed her judgment and good sense when she early abandoned all designs on his heart. She was disappointed and mortified, and was perhaps the only one of the family not sincerely sorry when, at the conclusion of his holidays, he returned to England.

When this took place Lady Tracy begged Honor to live with her altogether while she remained at Anglet. Honor, with her mother's approval, consented, on condition that Emmy should accompany her. She did not give up her tuitions, nor did Lady Tracy ask her to do so; but the evenings and other hours of the day when she was at home were spent very delightfully in her dear old friend's company.

Emmy was a great favourite with Lady Tracy, and filled her sister's place in her absence. The old lady did not care so much for Conny's society as for that of her sisters; but she was very kind, and bestowed on her many

tokens of friendship in the shape of new dresses and the means of procuring amusement, all of which the beauty of the family valued quite as much as Honor did those inestimable hours of loving intercourse, which were Lady Tracy's best gift to her.

When Mr. Tracy had returned to London, and Charlie to Rochelle, and when the Lenten season brought its lull of gaiety, Honor enjoyed some delightful weeks. She was never tired of listening to Lady Tracy's conversation, so full of quaint originality, sparkling wit, and the rich fruits of a lifetime full of many experiences and much thought.

Then Edith was often with them in these days-days which Honor would long look back on, as the storm-driven mariner thinks of the snug hearths and flowery gardens of the last shore he left.

It was then that Honor, for perhaps the first time in her life, put many of her own feelings into words; then that she showed her kinswoman what even Edith had never seen-her attempts at authorship: not that she concealed anything from Edith, but that she had felt them