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[NOW FIRST PUBLISHED. J THE ONE THING NEEDFUL. BY MISS M. E, BRADDON, Author of Lady Audley's Secret," &c. THE RIGHT OF TRANSLATION IS IIBSEEVBD. CHAPTER XL THE CHIEF AMONG THE GLITTERING CROWD." As the years wore on Stella was almost happy. "The afternoon hours of every day were spent with jabriel Verner. He was old,and feeble, and some- times very prosy, but he was a mine of informa- ion. He loved learning for learning's sake, and .he loved Stella. He carried on her education from the point at which Lord Lashmar had left off. He cultivated her love of the classics, reading Homer, md Virgil, and Horace with her again and again, dwelling on the passages he loved, ingraining their beauties into tho very mind of his pupil. Ha taught her French and German, and together they read the classics of both languages. They had nothing to distract them from their books, no visitors, no pleasures. In summer time they sat in a yuiet spot on the edge of the river, a little nook below the towing-path, out of everyone's way, under a willow which Lashmar had loved. In winter they sat opposite each other by the trimly- kept bear tit like two old cronies. It is wonderful how much reading may bo got through in snVen years Ly a young enthusiast and a veteran student when the world has no claims upon either, and offers no temptations to youth or [¡C, Stella read more than many fairly culti- vated men of forty, when she was suddenly called upon to do suit and service to Lady Lashmar, From this time her regular studies with Gabriel Verner were at an end, and those gentle cares of hers which had made his old age so easy had now to be performed under difficulties. Sne could only jsteal away from the Castle now and then for a brief visit to her old friend, just time enough to see tj his comforts and to talk to his landlady, who was kindly but stupid, and whom Stella bad been gradually training into proper carefulness of her lodger. You do spoil the old gentleman so, misd," re- inonstrated the good soul. Old people require a little spoiling, Mrs. Chipp. But nobody could spoil Mr. Verner. lie is so good And so unselfish." Well, miss, nobody can deny that he is a nice easy gentleman to get on with, and if I wasn't afraid of his setting the house on fire, I should say lie was the best lodger I ever had, much better than the young curates as most people set such by; and a permanence, too, which the best curates never was." You must be more attentive to him than ever, Mrs. Chipp, now that I am so seldom here," urged Stella and Mrs. Chipp promised that the student should luck no fostering care. It was with a. rebellious heart that Stella entered Lady Lashmar's morning room on the first day of her new service. Mr. Stokes had endeavoured to awaken her sympathy for the stern dowuger. He Jiad hinted to her that the disease from which Lady LashmateufIored must sooner orlater be fatal, that all the rest. of her life must be spent under the shadow of affliction. She is very much to be pitied, poor soul," said the kindly Stokes; "ail the more so, perhaps, because she is not the kind of woman to invite Jlity," Yet even after this appeal Stella felt nothing but aversion as she tood, tall and straight as a lily Stalk, at the foot of her ladj'ship's sofa. She was thinking of thtt summer afternoon sev-n years ago when Lady Lashmar had sat besiue her bed, swathed in inky crape, stern, piti- less. and had told her of her benefactor's death— how all life and this bright world had changed to darkness at the sound of that cruel voice. Yes, it was the same face-cold, faultless, unbeautiful, looking at her with disdainful eyes. She bad not been face to face with Lady Lash- mar since that dreadful day. She had lived under Her roof and eaten her bread, and had felt the sting of her tyranny: but the mistress of the Castle had been no mure visible to her than the M:kado to the meanest of his subjects. And now she looked at her thoughtfully in the June sun- light noting the changes time had wrought. Yes, it was the same countenance, in no wise 3oltened by affliction; but the hair was whito, tnd there were traces of suffering and ot prema- ture age. I require a person to read to me for some hours Saily, sometimes even late at night, and I am told that you have contrived to educate yourself with Mr. Verner's help, and that you know how to read aloud. Is this so r" I have read aloud to Mr; Verner," the girl answered quietly; Habitually." There was no wasto of words on either side. "Tiion you can begin at once. There are my books" (pointing to a revolving bookstand within reach of the sofa, a stand which held about forty volumes). "Invalids are very capricious, and require change of mental food. You can begin with Charles Lamb, Elia's Essays—that one upon Old China, for instance. I am in a Inzy mood to-day, and would rather not be obliged to think." She was lying on a luxurious sofa, propped up frwith pillows. She spent a considerable portion of ievery day in this recumbent position, but she was ot confined to her sofa or to her room; and when there was comDany at the CasLle, or when her son ■ fras at home, she generally dined downstairs, and held her own with the old air of supremacy which nad been to her as a Royal robe. She was not easily to be beaten even by bodily pain, or the vague langour of obscure disease. She meant to make a. good fight to the end. Stella seated herself in a low chair a little way from the sofa and began to read. She read Lamb *or on hour, and then she was told to lay aside Lamb and to take up a volume of travels in Hok-I uara, a new book which her ladyship had just re- eived; and when the travels wearied she was told to resume the last poem by Browning, at the page which her ladyship had marked. She was allowed to read on like a machine. She read for three Tiours without respite, and then she was told that she might go. You read very well!" said her ladyship, with cold approval; u I daresay I shall want you again late in the evening. Stay, you can arrange mv pillows before you go." Stella bent over the white Marie Antoinette head, and with light and careful touch arranged the heaped-up pillows, and then, without a word )of thanss from the invalid, she left the room. As she went out by oue door Barber entered by tmotlier. Yes, I think she will do 1" said LadyfLashmar. *'She has a sympathetic voice and reads well. This is one of my bad days, Barber; I shall not leave ,00y room." At nine in the evening Stella was summoned Again, The lamplit room, with its profusion of roses, seemed a revelation of long-forgotten beauty and elegance after the puritanical plainness of the servants' quarters. The golden-brown brocade curtains and clouds of Indian muslin draping the line old vyindows, the rich carmine of old Sevres vases and candelabra, the Chippendale whatnots icrowded with richly-bound books, the low chairs and dainty little tables offering every possible •iorm of convenience for book, or flowers, or cup and saucer; the old Indian screen and tall young palms in Sawuma bowls. Such surroundings were new to Stella after the prim commonness of the housekeeper's parlour, with its horsehair sofa and Pembroke table; but she felt more at home hare :than in Mrs: Middleham's room. Lady Lashmar looked wan and faded in the lamplight, and the sickly white of her complexion was accentuated by the rich dark tints in her grey plush tea gown. A diamond and sapphire brooch .tastened her lichu of old Eoglish lace, and the semi-transparent hands glittered with costliest iugs. was here no intention of letting down the pride of womanhood or station, even under the grip of a fatal malady. l' You can go on with Balaustian," she eaid. Not ft word more. No praise or thanks for the afternoon's work: no invitation to take a. cup of tea from the old silver salver, placed handily on the delicious little tea-table beside her ladyship's Sofa. Jonathan Boldwood's daughter was to be treated onlv as a serf beneath that roof. She had been rearud there according to the laws of slavery ind there is no reason that a slave should be treated any better becauso he happens to have cultivated his intellect.. She read till eleven without any sign of fatigue. She had so trained herself during those long after- noons when she had sat 011 a. stool at the old student's feet, reading the authors he loved, saving the poor old faded eyes. She had read on uncon- gcious of the passage of time, just as she road now, ibsorbed by her own delight in version if the old Greek stOry, with it3 undertones of deepest thought. At eleven Lady Lashmar dismissed her, with briefest good night. Her duties as reader went on for months, with- out variation. She spent at least half of every day in Lady Lashmar's room6, and was often sum- moned late at night to sit beside her ladyship's bed, and to read till threu or four o'clock in the morning. She performed her task with a cold placidity, which was agreeable to the high-bred dowager, who detested iuss, and would have been disgusted by servility or offioiousness. Later on Lady Lashmar allowed her slave to write all her letters to indifferent persons, and sometimes even a letter ot friendship, but tha amanuensis was never empioyed in writing to her ladyship's son. Those letters were always in the mother's penman- hip. Stella had filled this office for nearly two years, and had been of the utmost sorvico to Lady Lash- mar. Yet the stern dowager had but in the smallest measure relented of her original aversion from liar stepson's protir/ce. She used her as a companion and slave, but ana never forgot that tliB thoughtful-looking girl with the large dark eye. was Jonathan Bold wood's daughter, and that the venpm of Radicalism ran in those blue veins which showed in such delicate tracery upon the slim whits hands nnd on the ivory pallor of the tofeliead. The old prejudice still existed in full force, and the dowager in no wise relaxed her hauteur because Stella Boldwood had become use- ful to her. In her inmoat heart she was angry with the girl for the very gifts which made her an invaluable companion. She resented that force of character which had enabled the child-dependent to rise superior to her surroundings, and to make herself a ladv in manners and superior to most ladies in education. She was angrv at that native grace which gave elegance even to the black merino gown which was the livery of servitude. Nothing could vulgarise Stella, or reduce her to the level of her ladyship's other dependents. Bar- ber had one day ventured to suggesr, that as the gill was now virtually her ladyship's cOmpanion she should have some prettier gowns-a. black silk, for instance, or, at any rate, ona of those fine French Alpacas which Celestine always wore, a material which combined all the lustre and soft- ness of silk with the merit of never wearing out. But Lady Lashmar replied angrily that the girl was to wear such gowns as the housemaids wore and no other. "She is quite vain enough as it is," said her ladyship, I believe she spends hours in dressing that hair of hers, and training her eyebrows." This was a cruel attack upon Stella's pencilled brows, whose bold clear line gave such character to the low, broad forehead. Barber was indignant at this ungenerous treat- ment of a girl who sat up till two or three o'clock in the morning three times a week on an average, to beguile the tedium of her ladyship's wakeful nights. But Stella made no complaint against tho inevitable black merino gown. She was glad when for the convenience of Lady Lashmar she was transferred to a pretty little bedchamber on the principal floor, close to Ba: her's den, where she now took all her meals,and which she was allowed to use as her own sitting-room. She was thus removed entirely from ail association with the other servants: and Barber wsa one of those kindly snuls who with but the slightest modicum of education have all the instincts of good breed- ing. Stelia had never revolted against the society tu Barb.T, while Barber's niece Betsy was alwav3 de tr to her as the friend of her childhood. And now it was the end of September, and Lord Lashmar and a l;ttie knot of distinguished visitors were expected at the Castle, some intent on the slaughter of the pheasants, others only desiring rost and respite after tha fatigues of a London season. Arnona; these latter was Mr. Noatorius, the great party leader, originator and chief of that political sect which was known as the Movement Party, who having retired from public life finally, after tho defcat of hi Ministry, DOW, like Dante's swimmer, looked back, breathless after striving with the w'tves, upon the raging sea of politics froin the calm shore of domesticity. Nestorius had been a protege ot Lady Pitland when his brilliant career was in its dawn and the friendship with that wonderful old lady aad her family had never buen interrupted, albeit their political opinions were as the poles asunder. And now that the 'politician's distinguished career was a closed hook, and that he had withdrawn into the haven of private life.without tho faintest intention ot ever refitting his damaged craft again to en- counter tho butVets of the ocean, it pleased Lady Lashmar that the great man should enjoy some portion of his woil-earned leisure under her roof. portion of his woil-earned leisure under her roof. She talked of him beforehand more than of any other of her guests, and arranged that the very handsomest ot the best rooms should be given to him. "There are cases in which rank counts for nothing," she said. Mr. Nestorius must always bo first nverywhcre, Ho is not. only great no; a statesman: he has won his laurels as a poet, nnd the interpreter of classic potry: and our respect is all the more due to him since he has retired from office for ever—always a melancholy fact to con- sider when a career has been so great, although so mistaken." Is there no possibility Hestorius return- ing to public life, wnenever the Liberals come into power again?" asked Stella simply. Lady Lashmar gave her a look which ought to have frozen her. "The Liberals have seen tho last of their mis- rule," she s?id. The country has bean taught a lesson which it is not likely to forget." "vet history shows that people always do for- get," argued Stella. Opinion follows opinion, as wave follows wave; the world would stagnate if it were otherwise." Pray do not argue. I do not care for M:\ Verner's ideas at second hand," said Lady Lasu- IDllr haughtily. She encouraged the girl to talk sometimes, snubbed her mercilessly at other times, and was never really kind. Yet it so happened that th's kind of life, slavery as it was, suited Ste\la's tem- perament. Good books and gracious surroundings were at present her only idea of bliss in this world, and as Lady Lashmar's companion she had the in abundance—the best of books, old and new, elegant rooms to live in, and the right to wander at will in gardens or park during her brief inter, vals of leisure. For the rest she was penniless, had no remuneration for hor labour, not even the wages of an under housemaid and now that Mr. Nestorius and other great, people were bidden to the Castle, Stella knew that her servitude would bo in no way altered, that she would see little or nothing of these great ones. She sat at the writing-table in the window of her ladyship's morning room waiting for further orders, whila Lady Lashmar and the beautiful widow, Lady Car- minow, sat on each side of the hearth, brightened by the glow of a small wood fire, and discussed the expected visitors. Remember, you are on no account, to desert me while these people aro in the house," said Lady Lashmar, with an imperative air, almost as a mother talking to a daughter; I shall expect you to take nearly all the trouble of receiving them off my hands; you must be almost as the mistress of the house." "It will be very nice," answered Clarice, with her slow, dreamy smile. I adore Mr. Nestorius though I know he did his utmost to ruin this country when he was in power; but he is such an orator, the finest, I aID told, since Lord Chatham, and he is such a thoroughly poetical man, and such a. scholar! His translation of jGschylus is quite too lovsiy. I am sure it must, be ever so much T.ieCJf than the original." Stella's lips moved, and a little impulsive move- ment disturbed the repose of her attitude. She had discussed this translation of Mr. Nestorius's with Gabriel Verner. They had gone over it line by line, and it had seemed to them that the Aga- memnon of Mr. Nestorius was a treason against the Greek playwright, so fully had the statesman given tho reins to his own vivid imagination but it was not for her to give utterance to her doubts in that room, or to air her knowledge of Greek before Lady C'arminow. "I am getting some new frocks on purpose for your people," said Clarice, who was fonder of millinery than of literature. The only books she ready enjoyed were French novels, and the newest sphool of English poetry. Her intellectual fibre had a certain limpness which required to be shocked and startled into attention. She went to sleep over Tennyson or Browning,and George Eliot made her head ache. Who is making your frocks ?" asked Lady Lashmar, faintly interested. "Mrs. Marshall." She is very good, but a desperate robber. Her prices are iniquitous." But she drapes a gown so deliciously. There is an indescribable something which is worth any money she likes to charge. I never gruuiblo tI her bills. I have even gone so far as to shake hanch with her when I have wanted a gown in a desperate hurry. How long is it since you have seen Victorian ?" asked Lady Lashmar absently, as if her thoughts had wandered ever so far from Mrs. Marshall's II bills. Oh! nges and ages; not 8:11::0 the spring. ves once in the summer, at a "rush at the Ro*"eign Office. We had live minutes together on tha stairs; five minutes that brought back the thought of old times, before 1 married poor Lord Carminow. I felt as if I were a girl again." You are not much more than a girl. He was very attentive, I suppose "Oh! he said some rather sweet things; but sweat things are onlv the small change of society now-a-days. They mean no more than the crysta. lised violets one nibbles at dessert. Lord Lashmar is a great man, quite absorbed in politics." 1 hope he wi.t never become a walking blue- book like some of them!" said Lady Lashmar vaguely. I am proud that he should make his mark in the wo^d but T should like to see his domestic happiness secure before I die." Dearest Lady Lashmar, pray do not talk of dying. You have a long life still before you, I hope." I should be glad to hope so too, if I could, Clarice but I can't. I am obliged to adopt the Horatian philosophy—abjure extended hopes, and enjoy life as much as I can in the present. I want to see my son married, and married as I should wish!" That is just the one thing you must, not hope for," answered Clarice, with a touch of bitterness, as if that placid temper of hers were faintly stirred by the memory of an old wrong. Men never marry to please their fathers and mothers; and the sons who have had ideal fathers and mothers are almost sure to marry badly. It is only the men who have seen a cat-and-dog life exemplified in their parents who aro careful in choosing their own wives." It would break my heart if Victorian were to marry beneath him Oh. I don't suppose he will do that," said Clarice, with supreme hauteur. He will marry in his own rank, I have no doubt. lie has none of those horrid low instincts which lead men to make frionds of their stablemen and to marry chorus-girls, But bo may marry a woman who has been more talked about than you would like although as so many women of fashion are talked about now-a-days that would hardly be supposed to matter." hit would matter very much to me, Clarice," answerad the dowager sternly. I wonder you can talk so lightly I only talk as other peoplj talk. Things do not count now as they used when my mother was young and Prince Albert was alive. Is it not strange that one good man's death seems to have loosened all the bands that held society together ? At least, mother says it is so. She puts our moral decadence all down to tiie untimely deatli of tha I'rince Consort." Stella was often a quiet hearer during such con- veifaations. Her presence couuted for nothing. Lady Lashmar and Clarice talked ns freely before her as if she had been footman. She was not of their rank or of their world, aud So was in a manner non-existent. Lady Carminow would honour her with a passing nod as she entered tha rÓOlu-tho most infinitesimal things in nods-Imd another as she left; but in the interval between entering and leaving the room, the lovely widow- appeared utterly unconscious of her e-xisteuce. Lady Carminow, be it observed, was more thor- oughly a peeress than if !:Ilt! been born in the pufple. The consciousness of her exalted rank never left her. It was for this she had suffered the slow agonies of union with a man she loathed for this she had shrunk shuddering from the raving of delirium tremens, endured ths unspeak- able horrors of habitual intemperance; and she was bent upon making the utmost ot the privi- lege she had won so JerlV. The once gentle and pliant Clarice had become the haughtiest of women, but as she had still the placid Montmo- rency temper—the constitutional amiability of the lymphatic lily-complexioned order of womankind —people managed to endure her pride of rank, and even the oppressive sense of her wealth. Between Lady Carminow and Stella there was a silent antagonism. Neither had forgotten that day in the library when Stella had shrunk from Clarice's pitying touch as if it had been the sting of an adder. There had been no renewal of com- passionate feeling on Lady Carminow's side. She was jealous of those gifts which made Stella such a valuable companion for Lady Lashmar. She resented tho girl's superior cultivation, and spoke of her sneeringly as a blue-stocking. She can read Greek and Latin. How very absurd! It is only a smattering, of cour,e." Old Mr. Verner tells me that she knows more than many a B.A. said Lady Lashmar. My poor foolish stepson crammed her with learning from the time she was able to read. She has betm nourished upon books." What a pity she cannot get a degree. I wonder you don't sdfcd her to Girton or Nuneham. She would be more in her place there than in this house." She is very useful to iiio. I could not possibly spare tier." Oli, bur, companions can begot by the hun- dred. You have only to choose from a column of advertisements. There is a fresh column every morning in the Times. I have often looked, think- ing 1 should like to get someone for mother, some- one who would amuse her ail diiy, and take her quite off my hands, don't you know." Needy young women in want, of homes may be had in shoals, 1 have no doubt," answered Lady Lashmar; but it is not easy to got a really good reader. Stella has a sympathetic voice, a.nd reads well. I could not do without her." "She is not simpatica with me," said Clarice languidly. I am very sensitive about my sur- roundings. I should not like your Stella in my room after midnight. These great black eyes aud that pale face would frighten me. I should have an idea tht-t I wad going to be murdered." Lady Lashmar smile i as at the nonsense talk of a beautiful child. She was very fond of Clarice, whose loveliness gladdened her eye. and whose intellectual inferiority was a perpetual compli- ment to her understanding. She was hoping great things from the coming October, which would bring Victorian and Clarice together day after day in the easy going intercourse of a coun- try house. Her own breaking health would be an excuse for leaving her son and the lovely widow very much to their own devices. Lady Carminow would take the place of the mistress of the house, and Lashmar would hr.ve to consult her about everything. Could he resist so much beauty and sweetness ? Ho had been proof against those charms once or he had shilly-shallied and had lost his chance. If he had t been proof if it had been :t case of si iil iv-slifi only, and he had been hard hit all the time, ow gladly would he seize tho golden opportunity which his mother had prepared for him! It is irue that ho might have made opportunities for himself during the years in which Lady Carm'now had been ) widow. But there are men who wi!l make no effort in those matters, who require to have fortune flung into their laps. And then Lashmar had been absorbed by poiitics over since that famous speech which had hellled to secure the majority that overthrew the late Cabinet. Lord Lashmar arrived, fresh from a yachting excursion in the Hebrides, bronzed and bearded, broad-shouldered, muscular, the mealiest of young men, with a fresh open-air look about, him, yet intellectual wirhal. It was a fine face, as even StaIln. was fain to confess to herself as she with- th,w from the morning room after his lordship's arrival, leaving mother and son together. Yes, it was a fine face, but far from a pleasant face, Stella thought. There was the haughty ex- pression of ins gr.indrjother's old Northumbrian race—the Fitz RaHas-who claimed to be descen- ded in a direct line from those Norsemen who swooped like a flight of sea-birds on that bleak coast in the dim beginning of English history. Stella had been told about those Norse robbers of the long-ago, from whom it was such unspeak- able honour to be descended. Some innate taint of Radicalism made her slow to perceive the glory of such linenge but she thought to-day that Vic- torian, Lord Lashmar, had just the kind of face that would have looked its best under a Norse- man's helmet, or at the prow of a piratical craft, with roughened hair blown by the north wind, and keen eyes looking landward, ready for rapine and carnage, so soon as that light foot should strike the shore. She could fancy him holding his own valiantly amongst the prosv old gentlemen in the House of 7-ords. He gave hor a distant bow as she passed him, a salutation which she acknowledged with an almost imperceptible bend of the long, slim throat, while the look in those dark eyes of hers expressed absolute disliko. She had not forgotten his part- ing speech in the library seven years ago or tho air with which he had flung open the door and told her to 11 marcti.11 He would tell lier to inarch again, perhaps, if she should happen to be in his way at any time. This was the first time they two had mot face to face since that day. He looked after her wonderingly till the portiére fell behind her, and he and his mother were alone. "Your proteyte has improved!" ha said. "She is not half so ugly as sho was seven years ago." Pray don't call her my protegee. You know she is a legacy from poor Hubert, an incubus which his Quixotism has imposed upon me." But I take if, she is useful to you. or you would have sent her about her business before novr. She fetches and carries for those two Inzy old maids of yours—Barber and Colestine-1. sup- pose ?" "She reads very well; that is the only way in which she is useful to me. And now, Victorian, let us talk of yourself and of the future. I hope you are going to stay here all the winter—till the ftntire re-opens Would you like me to stay?" Of course I would, dearest. What have I to live for but your society? Life is a blank when you are away from me," "That is hard, mother dear, when I have been so much away! You make me feel that I have been an undutiful son." No, no! You are not to be the slave of a too exacting love. Mothers are even more tiresome than vv:ves. It was right that you should see the world; but now that you have travelled and have soon so much the timo has come for settling down quietly, for assuming your right position as an English nobleman. All our greatest statesmen have been men who spent their lives at home. Our people are jealous of Continental influences, and dislike Continental habits." My dear mother, I am not such a caterer for popularity as to fashion my manners or my life to please the mob but I shall be glad to spend more of my days with you now—now that I am growing middle-aged." He had hesitated before those concluding words; saddened by the thought that the limit of those days which his mother and he were to spend together was already marked by Fate, and seemed to him now to lie within a definite distance. There was no longer that vagueness of prospect which makes the horizon of life seem iufinite. He could not flatter himself, in the face of obvious decay, that his mother would live to the green old age of Lady Pitland, who had ruled the world of fashion at seventy, and had been a power in her own little world till she was ninety. That is a good hearing!" said Lady Lashmar, with a smile which altered the whole character of her face—the mother's adoring smile. "And you will marry, I hope, very soon. No anchor like a good wife." I am non a hurry to be anchored," answered Lashmar, laughing; "but I have a receptive mind, and am ready to fall in love at short notice now that politics are off my mind. What have you here by way of beauty, mother mine ?" "The Bishop of Southborough is to be here in a week or so with his two daughters, pretty, fresh young girls, and both musical. I should not object to cither as a daughter-in-law. Then there is old Lord Banbury's daughter, the Diana of Northamp- tonshire, a frank, open-hearted girl, and a superb horsewoman. She comes with Mrs. Mulciber, an old friend of mine." I am glad you haven't gnt Hanbury himself. He is a dreadful old driveller. Lady Sophia is a good sort of girl, but she has made herself a great dual too public. and is written about in the sport- ing papers as if she were a joskey. I think one of tlieiii called her I Our Sopli.' I Our Soph's perfor- mances with the Pytchley have been creating the usual senantion,' or something of that kind. I don't think you would like 'our Soph' for a daugliter-in-law.11 "Old Lord Banbury was a friend of your grand- father Was he ? Then he must have been one of the few friends my grandfather was allowed to Choose for himself. Lady Pitland would never have tolerated him on her list. Well, mother, who else is coming?" "There is Mr. Nestorius. The rest aro all your own invitations." "Oli! my invitations are rather ad eaptandnm, given on the spur of the moment. There is Mr. L'onsonby, tho famous Q.C. and Conservative member—Ponsonby who saved Mrs. Brownrigg, don't you know, in the starving case that made such a sensation seven or eight years ago. Pon- sonby began life as a rad, but is now a High Church Tory—swears by Laud, adores Pusey, and weeps when the disestablishment of the Irish Church is mentioned; attributes all oar Irish troubles to that destructive tneastfre. I wonder how he and Nestorius will get en under the same roof ?" They have been under the salhe roof before," Sl\id her ladyship. P. y e; but that was a bigger roof, and titev were not upon company manners.' Mr. Nestorius is always charming. Whom else have you asked "Captain Vavasour, the society tieveligt, and his wife such a delightful little woman, airy fas- cinating, eccentric, audacious,—just like one of her husband's novels. I think she must sit to him for all his heroines! "Perhaps she writes his books." "Not she! Amelia is one of those delicious creatures who never do anything for thernselves- not, so much as to fill in a card of invitation or run up to tho nursery to look at a sick baby. Vavasour writes all her letters and fills in all her cards, and she sends her maids to ask after her babies. She would not he half so graceful and charming if she were not the quintessence (,f selfishness. I once heard a woman ask her what her gown cost. 'Haven't the least idea !'she answered sweetly. 41 never ask what things are going to cost lest' I should be afraid to order them.' Then your Vavasours are in debt, I conclude." Knorinously." I feal sure that I phali loathe this person." I doubt it. But please don't show your aver- sion in any case. Don't freeza the poor little thing with the pride of tho Fitz Rollos. That would be to break a butterfly upon a wheel." I don't suppose she would care. A woman of that kind is always case-hardened. Did I tell you tiiat Lady Carminow will be hare for a woek or two ? She Wanted to run in and out as she used when she was a girl, but I have insisted upon her sending over her trunks. She will help to amuse Mr. Nestorius." "No doubt. Mr. Nestorius is impressionable, and a widower. Lady Carminow would make him a capital wife." "My dear Lashmar, he is oid enough to be her father." "Greatness is of no age. Neitorius at fifty is more attractive than the common herd of young men, and for a woman of Lady Carminow's ambi- tious temper he would be especially attractive. She has secured her coronet. She has made her- self a marchioness, and no one can unmake her. The next step would be to secure an ex-Prime Minister for her husband and slave." That is all nonsense. Clarice is full of romance." Her marriage with a notorious sot would imply as much." It was a noble feeling which prompted that unhappy union. She wanted to reclaim him." "She wanted to be Lady Carminow. Don't look so unhappy, mother. I like your favourite well enough. I once almost thought myself in love with her, bat that was when I was young and foolish." "You need not be afraid of her fascinations now," said Lady Lashmar, piqued at his manifest indifference. Clarice is much too well off as a widow to wish to change her condition," "Precisely. She is one of those sensible women who can estimate the value of everything. She knew the value of a marquess' coronet: so much for the strawberry leaves, so much for the pearls. She knows the exact value of her position as Lord Carminow's childless widow. It is not very much, bar the title. Take my word for it, mother, she would marry again—to better herself." Lady Lashmar did not argue the point. She was bent upon masking her batteries, if possible. Men are such kittle-cattie; and ii Lashmar once took it into his head that she was bent on match-making he would set his face against Clarice and all her charms. She would trust to the chapter of acci- dents and to Lady Carminow's besutv, which was in its zenith. CHAPTER XII. Wrra VARYING VAKITIKS }.'[O)I EVERY PAI:T." Lady Carminow's beauty came almost as a sur- prise on Lashmar by-and-bye, when she sauntored into the library at tea-time. He was unprepared for so much loveliuess, albeit he had taiked with her last June for five minutes on the stairs at the Foreigh Office. That girlish loveliness, svelte, flowing, alabaster fair, had expanded into a Royal beauty. Lady Carminow was much less slim tiian i she had been in her girlhood, but her stoutness- if it must be called by so vulgar a word—was a Juno-like stoutness, and her loveliness was en- hanced by expansion. The alabaster tint was still more dazzling, it had that transparent brilliancy which Horace sings of. Her goiden-auburn hair was piled in a coronet above the low classic brow. The turn of the neck was statuesque in its perfec- tion, the carriage of the small head was full of unaffected dignity. The plainly-made gown of lustreless brown silk set off the gracious figure with a nobie simplicity. The lovely wrist and hand looked all the lovelier under a severely cut sleeve with a narrow CD.I of old Mechlin lace. "How strange that wo should meet for the first time in this room," said Clarice, when she and Lashmar had shaken hands, and she had ensconced herself in the most comfortable of all the comfort- able chairs which were grouped about the hearth and tea-table. Do you remember that afternoon when you showed me the wonderful books, and I Wiien we found that poor little savage sitting on a ladder ? Indeed, I have not forgotten. I was reminded of the fact this morning by tho bight of my brother's pwiiyee. My mother tells me she has become a bidable young person, and very useful to her as a reader." Clarice shrugged her shoulders and gave a faint shiver. I should not like such a person about mv," she said but dear Lady Lashmar seems quite taken up with her of late," Dear Lady Lashmar disavowed any such friendly feeling for the girl. useful to me," she explained; I require someone to read to me, and she reads well, that is all," "I am always afraid of self-educated people," said Clarice, they are so arrogant, and so ambi- tious almost alwayi Radicals, thinking, poor creatures, that book learning ic the only thing that counts, and forgetting their hopeless ignorance of everything we know." And that naturally means everything worth knowing," said Lashmar, smiling at her across his teacup. Well you will acknowledge that in society manners and savoir-faire are of much more im- portance than Latin and Greek," said Clarice., with conviction. I see you are one of those people who think that the classics are the exclusive property of half a dozen elderly gentlemen in the Universities, who seldom wash, and who could hardly muster a hair-brush among them, replied his lordship laughingly. Lashmar sipped his tea, and enjoyed the rest- fulness of this lazy afternoon hour, when dressing for dinner seems too far off to be thought of as a penance. He had been the first to arrive: his guests were expected by a later train; so he and his mother and Lady Carminow had this dt-licious interval all to themselves. It was a new thing for him to take ten in that grandiose old library, with its bossed ceiling, rich .in gold and vermilion, seeming to repeat the colour jlrtf the Grolior bindings. Hitherto the room in a ilell Hubert, Lord Lashmar, had lived his peu- Uve, unoffending life had been a sealed chamber, dedicated to the memory of the dead as it were a tomb in the mansion of the living. But within a week of her son's return Lady Lashmar had made up her mind to re-open the library as a general sitting-rootu-m pleasant place for afternoon tea- a haven in the evening for elderly people who,love quiet, or for those unmusical souls who care not tor the modern sonata or the modern ballad. It was Clarice who had talked Lady Lashmar into this innovation. The library is quite the handsomest room in the Castle, and you leave it figuratively speaking, to bats and owls," she siiid. What is the good of fine rooms if one does not use them ? The Lashmar library is the one great feature of this house, and you don't even let people see it." Lady Lashmar yielded, and it was Lady Car- minow who, with her own fair hands and the aid of half a dozen housemaids, re-arranged the room after the luxurious modern idea. She introduced delicious little Alma Tadema-cum-Queen Anne chairs and tables, things half Pompeian, half old English. She made delightful corners with old Indian screens, seven leaved, golden, wonderful; and she set groups of palms in richest red pottery vases. She knew exactly where all the prettiest things were to be had, and what to order. The Genie of the Lamp was hardly more expeditious in the art of furnishing. Lashmar was delighted. What a Sensible idea to use this big old room for living in," he said, lolling back in a nest of brown plush, and looking round at the black and gold screens, and vermilion tables, and palms and peacock's feathers. •« It was Lady Carminow's idea. You have her to thank for the change." "Then I do thank her, most cordially." Oh, but it is I who ought to be thankful," cried Clarice. "I delight in arranging a room. I am almost as officious as Lady Hillborough, who cnn- not be half an hour in anyone's drawing-room without re-arranging all the chairs. Now, Oriana has a genius for chairs but if I have any talent it is for corners. How do you like that corner with the seven-leaved screen and the groups cf palms ?" It is simply perfection; a haven in which to dream away wintry days, too blissful to regret the summer a nook for a flirtation, for a proposal even. Young ladies on their promotion ought to be very grateful to you, Lady Carminow." "I am very fond of nice girls," murmured Clarice, with an air of matronly superiority worthy of a grandmother. Afternoon tea lasted a long time upon this par- ticular occasion. It was dusk when the two ladies closed their work-baskets and went off to their own apartments, Lady Lashmar to secure au hour's rest before she put on velvet and diamonds to receive her son's guests, who were all to arrive in time for dinner; Clarice to waste an hour pleasantly over Ohimt or Daudet or the milder Greville. A few minutes before seven there camo a great clanging of doorp, and the corridors echoed with strange voices, whereby Lady Lashmar, resting her wearied nerves as best she might, knew that the people had all come. She could not help listen- ing for Mr. Nestorius's voice amidst that Babel of mistresses and maids; aud she heard a few words uttered calmly by that mellifluous organ. Depth and smoothness were the chief characteristics of tho ox-Minister's voice. Soft, grave, and yet strong were those tones which had ruled in the Senate, which had touched the hearts of women. Perhaps it was this voice which had been the most power- ful influence in Mr. Nestorius's career. He had that fine flow of language and those ever-musical tones which enable a man to talk nonsense un- challenged, nay, rather to make nonfenpe appear logic or wit, as the orator choose. How reposeful, how soothing mounded that voice amidst the chatter of the women and the haw- hawin* of the men. Captain Vavasour was making as much fuss as the noisiest, of women; but then, as he had to look after his wife's luggage and his wife's poodle as well as his own portmanteau, there was some excuse for him. I wonder how 1 shall get on with these people," thought the dowager: "they are horribly noisy, and their voices have a vulgar twang. Thank heaven, there is Clarico to take them off my hands." At ten minutes to eight she was in the drawing- room, and the strangers were duly presented to her as she sat, supported on one side by Mr, Mul- ciber, a spreading woman in a grey Satin gown, and by Lady Sophia Freemantle On the other. Lady Sophia was a tall, well-made young woman, with the square shoulders which were considered intolerable thirty years ago, but which are per- mitted, and even approved, nowadays. She was not handsome she would have scorned to be so. She had a healthy, brunette complexion, which had been buffeted by all the winds of heaven, and shone on by the sun, until it had acquired a per- manent bronze and a harder consistency than belongs to the cheek of beauty. She had regular features, a small, sharp nose, and a determined mouth and chin a mouth that had grown resolute in encounters with obstinate horses, refusing the same ditch thirty times on end, to be beaten bv Lady Sophia at the thirtr-fii-.it. She had loud voice that had grown strong in conversations Carried on in the open air, and otten at, longish distances, with labouring men at the further side of a field, and sometimes with tramps and way- farers just within hail; discussions its to which way the hunted foi had gone or as to whether an animal latety seen was or was not the hunted fox. There i, always a chance of bping deluded by that social imposter--t.be fox out for it quiet airing, and only distinguishable from the real hero bv his smug, respectable aspect and clean brush. On horseback Lady Sophia looked better than one woman in twenty, not only for her Willowy waist and the thin fit of her habit, but for the admirable pose of that slim, tall figure, and the perfect adjustment of the rider to every move- ment of the horse. In the evening gown Sophia looked her worst, and she regarded the whole question of evening gowns with supreme indiffer- ence. Her dark red satin was at least three seasons old, as Ladv Carminow's keen eye per- ceived in an instant, and the colour was much too near the carnation cf the wearer's cheek to be becoming. Lady Carminow was at the other end of the drawing-room, half buried in a gigautic chair, and slowly fanning herself with a great ostrich feather fan, while she listened to Mr. Nestorius. She was looking divinely lovely. Her large, fair bust and shoulders looked dazzling in their Parisian white- ness against the hedge-sparrow velvet of her gown. Hedge-sparrow had been the fashionable colour of last season. Women had lived and moved and had their being only in hedge-sparrow gowns. The colour was that of a hedge-sparrow's egg, be it understood, not of the sparrow himself, a turquoise blue with just the faintest greenish tint, a colour which became blondes to perfection; and most, women are blondes Dow-a-days, or make themselves so, the hue had enjoyed a tre- mendous vogue. If there was a particularly attractive woman in a room it generally happened that Mr. Nestorius and she were together. He was said to be a mag- netic man, and it was an attribute of his mag- netism always to draw the nicest women about him. Pallid faces and thrilling tones have an almost irresistible charm for women. Your healthv-looking man, with a florid complexion or a harsh voice has hardly any chance. It was wi'Uin two minutes of tho hour, and Lady Lashmar was beginning 10 look angry, when Mrs. Vavasour came gliding ia, clad in a dragging garment cf limp lace and muslin, which might or might not be a gown. There was that marked dispropoi1 tion between the lady and her clothe.* which is so often seen now-a-days its to be no longer surprising. The lady was so exuberant, and the gown so exiguous, that had it not been for an immense garland of Marshal Niel roses, which made a kind of flower-bed across the ample bust, Lady Lashmar would have been inclined to order the new-comer out of the room. As ir. was, she acknowledged her son's introduc- tipn somewhat stiffly, gave Mrs. Vavasour tLJ tips of her fingers, and only recognised the lady's husband with a haughty inclination of her head for it was her ladyship's opinion that when a married woman made 11 spectacle of herself, the husband was more to blame than the wife. In those circles in which Mrs. Vavasour moved it had been often said that she was utterly charm- ing; but that a stranger required hait'-an-hour to get accustomed to her. She was certainly pretty; but that her beauty was either made or marred by art was indispu- table. The cioud of golden fluffiness which sur- rounded her head, seemed almost too ethereal for actual hair, the definite line of dark eyebrows, and the lashes clogged with ebon dye, the porcelain whiteness and the rose-leaf bloom were all from the same source, and a child of four years old could scarcely have been innocent enough to mistake the picture for reality. But tha general effect was considered good, and as Mrs. Vavasour'3 reputation had never been clouded by the breath of scandal, the lady was caressod and courted, and her little ways were considered charming. Her manner was quite as artificial as her com- plexion. She drawled out her delight at making Lady Lashmar's acquaintance ili the latest slang, and with tho latest abbreviations; Lady Soplria contemplating her calmly with her hawk's eyes all the time, as if she had ben some naw specimen in that animal world of rats, weasels, stoats, ferrets, polecats, and other unclean vermin which Lord Hanbury's daughter knew so intimately. Mr. Nestorius was, of course, entitled to the arm of his hostess, and Lady Carminow to that of her host; Mr. Ponsonby, the barrister, took Mrs. Vava- sour, and good natured Mrs. Mulciber put up with the vicar, who had been asked, as it were, to open the shooting season with a good old Anglican grace, short and unintelligible. Captain Vavasour took in Lady Sophia. They had travelled by the same train, aud were as friendly ns if they had been brought up in the nursery together, Sophiu's experience of the hunting field having given her all the ways of jolly good fellowship but this fainilial-ity with the fashionable novelist did not prevent her almost ignoring his wife. 11 1 am afraid Mrs. Vavasour and I can't have much in common," she said, ducking to get a glimpse of that radiant lady athwart a grovoof silver trophies, in the way of racing cups and candelabra. "She doesn't look as if she hunted," inwardly adding, not an outdoor make-up." If And you do nothing else, I have heard," re- plied the Captain. Well, it is the highest kind of fame to do one thing to perfection." I write a little in my humble way, but it is always about hunting." said Lady Sophia. "Then you are Spur-box,, of the 6 SundAy -lei Swash-buckler, cried Vavasour; I have often been told as much." "Yes, I am Spur-box, admitted the lady, looking modestly downward, overcome by the thought of her own fame. "I rather enjoy writing for the paper. The editor pays me very well, and there is only one thing I don't altogether like. He insists thut I should always pretend to be tipsy when I am writing, or to have been Horribly tipsy overnight." "Oh but that is de riyeur. It is part of the policy of the paper. All the contributors are 1 supposed to exist in a state of chronic drunk- enness. I need not tell you that they are some of the soberest men in London, as temperate as you, Lady Sophita It is rather good fun, pretending to be hope- lessly obfuecatod." Whnt is supposed to ba your particular vanity ?" Sod.. and curaCOIl. ) consume gallons. I "m always talking of my little failings. Sometimes I go in for green ohartreuse, with fatal results. But the editor wants me to drop liqueurs, which, lie says, have snobbish lone that offends his Radical subscribers. Ha want-a me to take to tlog's-nose. What is dog's-nose A compound of beer and gin, particularly affected by cabmen. What is supposed to be your social status, as Spur-box J" Oh I it is awfully vague. I am as misty as a mythological personage. I writo from all tho great hunting centres. Sometimes 1 am at the Goorge at Grantham, where I soetn to live in the bar; for the editor will put in remarks of his own about drinks, don't you know, and I hardly know mv own writing when I see it in print." "I comprehend. He embellishes. That is hardly fair!" I I have told him so, but he says that there must be a single mind directing the whole—" "Just so! as, according to poor old AnchUes, when his son interviewed him in the under-world, there was at one time a single soul permeating the human race—" 11 Anchises must, be dead! slid Sophia, who only caught the classic and familiar name. He won the Derby when I was a little tot. I remem- ber seeing the race from my father's drag. It was the year that Facilis Primus was favourite, and camo in a bad third. Anchises was a soapy chestnut." The conversation went on at this rate all through dinner. Captain Vavasour hunted, SlId was fond of racing was hand in glove with men who kept racers, and had a good deal to say about the turf. He knew old Lord Banbury's history by heart; knew what to say and what to avoid saying. Lady Sophia did not usually like writing men. She thought them conceited and uninterested; but the novelist. charmed her. He was in the middle of a capital story about Jack Russell and the Exmoor staghoutids when Lady Carminow rose swan-like at tha beck of her hostess. "What a bore!" exclaimed Sophia. "I shall have to go with the ladypack." And with the lady-pack the fair Sophia depar- ted, wondering whether she would find anyone sociable enough to join her with a cigarette. She carried her cigarette case in her pocket, even when she was dressed for the evening and in those pleasant houses where ladies wore tolerated in the billiaid-rooiu, she always smoked. This was her first visit to Lashmar, and Mrs. Mulciber had warned her that it was a severe house. Lady Carminow settled herself in a comfortable arm-chair near Lady Lashmar's particular corner, beside the wide old hearth. These two talked apart, and left the other three ladies to their own devices. Sophia found the last Saturday Review with a sporting article, nnd retired behind that paper. Mrs. Vavasour shed her artificial radiance upon friendly Mrs. Mulciber, whom she enter- tained with her opinions upon the plays and operas of last season, a style of conversation which could not have warmly interested a lady who had not seen one of them. But Mrs. Mulciber was one of those admirable women who always appear to be interested, even when they are inwardly sinking with wearines! She was a delightful listener, had very little to say herself, but said that little in a neat and plea- sant manner. She had made her way in the world without advantages of birth or fortune, and with very moderate abilities. Born and bred in the middle ciasses, the daughter of a village vicar, she had contrived to live all ])or- life in the very best circles, staying now at one country bouse, now at another; now chaperoning an orphan heiress; now keeping tilings straight for an aristocratic household in which the mistress was a dipsiP maniac: aflon looking after a widower's young children, or helping in the dirty work of a county election. She was everybody's confidante, and everybody's amanuensis. She wrote a magnificent hand, and Sh6 was good at accounts. She always read the newotl);tp--i-P, and knew everything that! was going on in the world; but her travelling library consisted of only two books— a Peerage and a Bible. These sho knew by heart, and here her know ledge of literature ended. She had no imagination, and never read novels. Her mind required hard facts. Her notion of leisure was to git at a window working high art designs of an angular ecclesiastical character upon brown hoiland, and she was ndmitfible in this wise as the dragon of prudery in a country house full of lovers. For the rest she knew all the latest reme- dies and palliatives for neuralgia, low spirits, and insomnia, and was pleasantly offieioue in such cases. Her headquarteis for the last three years had been Banbury Manor, whore ho acted as a deputy mother for Lady Sophia, whose real mother had run away with a colonel of dragoons at the mature age of nine and thirty, much to the satis- faction of old Lord Banburv, who had tyrannised over her for nineteen weary years, and was begin- nilJg to sicken of a worm which never turned vr It was neArly a week since the arrival of the visitors, and Stella had enjoyed moru liberty during that interval than she had known since sho had become her ladyship's reader. She had only been called upon to write a few letters in the morning, and to read to Lady Lashmar after ten o'clock in the evening. These nightly readings generally lasted till the small hours; but Stella did not mind that. h(j was not a person Who required much sleep; and she was about in the dewy park long before the CAstle breakfast time, and some- times spent fin hour with Mr. Verner before break- fast. it wal oft one of these fearly visits that She was surprised by the enttanbe of a stranger, who came unannounced into the cottage parlour wnue sne was reading JSschylus to her tutor. The visitor was no less a person than Mr. Nesto- rius, who had unearthed Gabriel Verner the day after his arrival at the Castle; and in whom the old man had welcomed an honoured pupil in the long-ago days of his University career. Yes, it was Mr. Nestoriuii who stood in the doorway ■smiling to hear the rugged music of Prometheus from those girlish lips. from those girlish lips. "So you are still at. the old work, Verner! he j said, and with a very promising pupil. Will you present me ?" My dear. this is Mr. Nestorius. You have heard me talk about Mr. Nestorius." Stella bowed, blushing deeply. It was the first time that anyone of importance had ever been pre- sented to her. She closed her book, rose hastily, and took up the neat little black straw hit which was her invariable headgear. "1 hopa I have not soared yci away," said Nestorius. "No, sir; it is time for me to go back to the Castle." "Nonsense, child," said Verner, "yon told me her ladyship would not want you till eleven o'clock. Sit down, and let me toll Mr. Nestorius t what a capital Grecian you are." "It used to be Edgat in ths oid days," remon- strated the statesman, putting down his hat and seating himself at the table, covered with bonks and manuscripts, loose sheets of that vast work which wa3 still in progress. I But in those days you w; re an undergraduat e and I was a don," answered Gabriel Verne; shnk- ing his grey head, which was always just r, linle tremulous, and now you are a great statesman and I am a nobody." I "The interpreter of the Stagyiite must always be renowned," said Nestorius, laying his hand upon a pile of manuscript on the old man's desk. He had unearthed his old tutor tha day after his arxival at Lashmar Castle, and had spent A good upon a pile of manuscript on the old man's desk. He had unearthed his old tutor the day after his arrival nt Lashmar Castle, and had spent A good many odd half hours at the cottage, talking over Verner's hope", and disappointments, listening with ¡ heroic patience to complaints against publishers and th6 reading public, mild bewailings of fate, comforting, sustaining, as only be could. If he had been called a magnetic man, it may be that magnetism was but another name for an intensely sympathetic nature. Stella looked at him with wondering, e-irnest eyes, ns he sat beside the old tutor's desk. He we," a man for whom life was on the wane. He had passed the flood-tide of life and fame, and strength and beauty. After some brilliant successes lie had lived to hear himself called a failure and he had retired from the political arena, ost.ensib'y foi ever. There was to be no return. He had done all that in him lay: and if he had not succeeded in all things, if seme of his grandest ideas had b?en considered the vain dreurus of an inspired lunatic, he had at. least made himself an imperishable name. His fame and his personality would stand out for ever in the history of English politics. And now he had retired, to enjoy well-earned leisure, with all those delights of theschoiar'y mind which can only be tasted by him who is free of a.'l public duties, who can afford to shut his door on the outer world, who iias neither constituents nor patrons to whom he d;H not deny himself. Although he had passed the prime of manliooi, he was not yet even an elderly man. He was nearer fifty than sixty; his hair was still dark, albeit streaked with gray, a sable silvered. His features were large and boldly cut, yet with a re- finement of line that. made the face eminently classic. The eyes were grey not large, and deeply sunk under overshadowing brows; but they were said to be the most expressive eyes in England. terrible in wrath, almost divine in love. The mouth was large, but the lips were thin and flexi- ble, high bred lips. The clean shaved clan was massive. The hollow cheek indicated thought,, and hinted at the night watches ot the statesman and the student. Even to Stella, to whom his history was almost a blank, Mr. Nestorius appeared and the student. Even to Stella, to whom his history was almost a blank, Mr. Nestorius appeared an interesting man. "So this is Stella, the young lady of whom I heard from poor Lashmar years ago, when she was a little child." "You knew Lord Lashmar, sir-my Lord Lash- mar." exclaimed Stella breathlessly. "Yes; lie and I were great friends, though my original friendship was with her ladyship's side of the house. Poor Lashmar interested me he was a remarkable young man." He was the best and noblest, man that ever lived," said Stella. Within your knowledge, yes. I can under- stand and admire your grateful affection for him," answered Nestorius gently. "It was at Harrow- gate I met him for the last time. You remember, Verner. He was there with you one ati, We only stayed a few days the place did not suit, him, and he was anxious to go back to the Castle," said Verner. "Yes, I remember; and one of his reasons for that anxiety was the existence of an adopted daughter, a child of seven, about whom he talked to me." I- He was too good to me," faltered SIena. He has his reward, since you remember him with tears," said Nestorius. Yes. lie told me his scheme of education, and how receptive he had already found your young mind, what, great things he hoped from its later development: and all tbose hopes were cut short, by his untimely death. But llun glap to !;t39 that Mr. \ernnr has carried on his pupil's work." "Mr. Verner has made my life happy,'1 said Stella. 1 should have been quite- miserable with- out him." "Not very flattering to her ladyship," remarked Mr. Nestorius, looking at her thoughtfully, that, keen aye of his noting the black stuff gown and linen collar, the utter absence of girlish ornament; noting, too, the unnatural gravity of tho small, pale face, with those wondrous star-liko eyes, noting the exquisite shape of the head, and that coronal of blue-black hsir. ondroti I am grateful for Lady Lashmar's She was going to say kindness, but hor IIdf- rospect revolted at a word that would have been a lie, and ahe ended her sentenfT wit h "toleration." And you really read Greek nsked the states- man. I read it and love it." No modern languages, I presume." "French and German, and a little Italian." You are a very wonderful young person." I have had nothing to live for except books. I should have been idle and worthless if I had not learnt a good deal from such a kind and patient master." She laid her small, slender hand caressingly upon Vomer's shabby coat-collar, and he looked up at her with ineffable love in his dim old eyes. She has been sight to the blind," he said. She has been my consolation, and I have been hers, undor, perhaps, not altogether generous treatment. And now her ladyship finds that the girl whom she counted as a burden is the most useful of all her dependents." Yes, I have heard that you are Lady Lash- mar's reader. Lady Carminow told me about you. And now, if you are going back to the Castle, we may as well walk together, and you can tell me a little more about yourself and your studies." The offer of such escort would have been an honour to a young person of much loftier rank than her ladyship's reader. Stella put on her hat without a word, waited meekly while Nestorius and Verner talked for another quarter of an hour and then the old man followed his visitors to the gate of the little garden, with its chrysanthemums and late-lingering roses, and stood watching them as they walked down the village street, the statesman tall and erect, the girl slim and straight and tall beside him. Lady Carminow never rose before ten o'clock, never appeared in public until luncheon. It was one of the privileges she had allowed herself since her widowhood. She left the raw early hours to I commoner people. The days are always long enough," she said, with her pretty, languid air. I get all my reading over in the mornings, and then I am free to enjoy society." Lashmar, listening politely to this explanation, wondered what kind of reading it was which was performed in the seftlusion of Lady Carminow's own apartment, inasmuch as her knowledge of booke, old and new, seemed of the slightest. But when a woman is completely lovely, all words which drop from her lips are as pearls and rose- buds. I am not such a loser as other people by your absence from the breakfast table," he said, for I am always off early with the shooters; but Mr. Nestorius has a right to complain. He finds the Castle breakfasts very dull, wiMi only Mrs. Mtil- cibei- to pour out his tea. The bishop's two musical daughters breakfast earlier, and are off to the I tnusic-room for their morning practice before any- body else appears." indeed, and I suppose Lady Sophia is with the shooters?-' When she has no hunting." I And Mrs. Vavasour comes down about the same time as I d,) we generally meet on the stairp." Nirg. Vavasour has a good deal to do of a morning," said Lashmar; '• 1 don't think all her morning hours are given to reading. A complexion like hers must be a work of time. 1 take it that each eyebrow must require a quarter of an hour, to say nothing of failures." Poor thing," sighed Clarice. "I onl WIlYS feel so sorry for her." A waste of compassion. Site is not at all sorry for heraulf." But to be a spectacle like that, and to have people making jokes about one." People must make jokes about something; and better that they should make fun of Mrs. Vava- sour's complexion than of her character. Tkrrt, I am told is faultless." Except that she is intolerably selfish, I believe lie is really a very nice person," agreed Lady Carminow. t 1 (I be continued.) [fn consequence of Chapters XI. nnd XII. not being published in their regular order, we have allotted special space for t-itir publication this week. The chapters vrill oe continued nriaihn from Chapter XVII, in future.]