less of their fitness to govern-men, who accept alike their religion and policy without a question as to the soundness of either."

"Ah; you should let the women have a turn," said Miss Stanhope, laughing.

But for these

"What about their physical disabilities? there would be no difficulty in the matter. As it is, I am quite sure that the women are at the bottom of much governing that really goes on. Take old Miles, for instance. Do you mean to say if he were in the Cabinet you don't know who would be de facto minister?"

"Lady Adelaide, of course."

"Of course she would. I can imagine how she would drill him into carrying out the measures that she thought best for the nation; so that women, after all, possess the best of it-the right of governing those who govern."

"Not all of them. What are you to do for the women who have no husbands, or don't happen to be on friendly terms with those they have for all men are not under the delightful petticoat government that you describe."

"Ah, now you put a question I would rather not answer-it is fatiguing. Wait until Addison comes, and let him propound this weighty matter to you."

"If you can get him, that is to say."

"I mean to try," he began, as he looked at his pen to see if it was in good writing condition. "I may be more successful than you think. What do you say, Mary?”

What could I say? I could only smile vacantly, and wish, and hope, and long for what I feared was too good to be true; and so I left him without an answer.

CHAPTER XXI.

"A month or twain to live on honeycomb

Is pleasant; but one tires of the scented time."

SWINBURNE.

THE following evening we dined at Crofton Grange, which was about three miles distant from Clynden.

"Go into the library, I will be with you presently—Adrian is there," said Miss Stanhope, as we went downstairs together before starting for dinner at the Croftons.

"I am afraid I disturb you," I said to him, entering the library with some hesitation, in obedience to Miss Stanhope's direction. "Your sister wished me to come."

He looked up from the book he was reading and smiled, closed it, and surveyed my dress.

How pretty your dress is !" he remarked.

"I shall be asked

to give my consent to your being carried off some of these fine days, I am afraid. Well, I shall not object if you fall into good keeping."

"Colonel Stanhope!" I exclaimed, flushing crimson at his unexpected remark.

"You must not mind an old man's good wishes, Mary. I do wish it sincerely. I hope you may live to experience what I have missed."

And what I felt it more than probable I should miss, considering all that I had lately learnt to know of myself, I thought.

"I think a passage in the book that I am reading has rather suggested my remark. The biographer of Göethe says-speaking of the poet' He knew little of the exquisite companionship of two souls striving in emulous spirit of loving rivalry to become better, to become wiser, teaching each other to soar.' A very beautiful passage this, and surely no bad wish for you, Mary."

"It is very kind of you, but I am never likely to meet with anything so perfect," I said aloud, thinking the while of Philip Addison and all that I had lost in him, with sorrowing regret. I did not know what the future had in store, but of one thing I was sure that the truest and best portion of my heart would always retain an aching void which he alone could fill.

"So sorry to keep you good people waiting," said Miss Stan. hope, bustling in.

"Don't apologise, Catherine, we have been improving the occasion, have we not, Mary? I have been warning her against the heinous sin of flirting.'

Before I could contradict so false a statement Miss Stanhope said

"Yes, take care of Arthur-he is a dangerous character."

"I would not give much for a girl's chances of happiness with Master Arthur," said Colonel Stanhope, as we went into the carriage; "though I don't deny that he is a very fine-looking young fellow."

"You had better turn the horses' heads and leave me at home," I said, laughing; "I think you both very cruel to expose me to such a fire of temptation."

"Anyone who marries Arthur will have to run the gauntlet of my Lady Adelaide-no slight ordeal, I should say," remarked Colonel Stanhope.

"Yes, she is very absurd in some things, especially about Arthur. One would think, to hear her, that she was the first mother who had ever had a son. The fact is, being the daughter of a distinguished man, who spent his life in politics, she is very

D D

ambitious that Arthur should make some figure in the world, either in a military or political career. All her hopes are centered. in him. He is to go into parliament after he leaves the army; he is to marry, an heiress with ministerial interests, and then he is to go into the Ministry; and I know not what other wild scheme of advancement she does not entertain for him, all of which he is sure to disappoint."

"I am not so sure of that; I think she holds the reins too well in hand," said Colonel Stanhope.

When we reached the Grange I followed my friends into a very large drawing-room, at the upper end of which stood the Crofton family.

Sir Miles, a jovial fine old gentleman, was loud and warm in his welcome. Lady Adelaide Crofton was the opposite of her husband. The daughter of an earl was the hall-mark with which she was unmistakeably stamped. Her manners were stately and courteous to a fault; but she was one of those who hand their affability and kindness across a gulf, to traverse which they would witness the drowning struggles of an impertinent intruder with. haughty satisfaction, not unmixed with astonishment at the attempt. Yet, seeing her as she then appeared, in her rich satin dress and soft falling lace, it was impossible to withstand the charm of her bearing, which was at once fascinating and freezing.

"My son, Captain Crofton," I heard her say, and I was being introduced to the object of our previous discussion-a mother's idol and a world's darling, and no wonder. In looks, bearing, and easy manner, he was as pleasing a man as his sister was a girl. In face and figure he resembled his mother, but without her expression of hauteur. This description is the result of later experience, for my first introduction showed me nothing but a very handsome young man, with the usual military close-cut hair, small moustache, open face and white teeth, and to whom I bowed.

There was one other gentleman present, Lord Delamaine, a brother officer of Captain Crofton's, and a particular friend of Amy's.

'You are a stranger in our neighbourhood?" was Captain Crofton's first remark to me when we were seated at dinner.

"Yes; the Stanhopes are quite recent acquaintances, or rather friends, I should say, in speaking of such kind people as they are

to me."

"He is an awfully nice fellow, is he not? His sister just missed being my aunt-pity he has such bad health-got knocked over in India-tried hard to get killed in some fight out there, but only got a heap of medals instead." Here the speaker paused to take some dinner, continuing presently. "India did him up—he has never been good for much since. There is no getting him to

4

shoot, or hunt, or anything-slightly touched, I should say on some points," he remarked, lowering his voice, and wrinkling his eyebrows to indicate the locality that was unsound.

"Commend me to my dear friend for a character," I thought, with a smile, as I listened to his résumé of Colonel Stanhope's disposition and habits.

As I made no reply he continued ironically. "Jolly sort of life it must be, going about from one stupid out-of-the-way little seaport town to another; or from Paris to Nice, back again to his library. That is the sort of existence he has led; it is an awful pity. We tried very hard to get him to stand for the county along with my father at the last election, but he refused point blank. I was surprised when Amy told me there was a young lady stopping with them. They have never had one before in my recollection-that is to say, not since I have arrived at years of discretion, and learnt the supreme worth of young ladies,' " he said, sailing. "Miss Stanhope tried having the house full of visitors at one time, thinking to get him out of his fits of melancholy, but he put an end to it. Amy is the only one who does just as she pleases with him."

"No doubt it was to give her a companion that I owe the pleasure of being their guest," I remarked, without any purpose beyond feeling that some response was expected after so much information.

"Oh-ah-yes, I dare say. They are awfully fond of her, you know-the Colonel especially. I hear she has actually got him to promise that he will give a ball-an unheard-of piece of gaiety on his part !" And here Captain Crofton put down his knife and fork to give full vent to his surprise.

As I was getting very tired of his conversation I leant back in my chair and looked around in search of fresh interest. Lord Delamaine was making the most of his opportunity, and pretty Amy's smiling face showed that she was happy. Colonel Stanhope and Lady Adelaide Crofton were grave and dignified, as if contemplating some deep subject; while Sir Miles and Miss Stanhope were laughing heartily over some joke of the former.

As the ladies rose, Captain Crofton remarked: "What a pity you don't smoke! I wish you did, there would then be no need for your leaving us all alone after dinner. So sorry you must go!"

I did not like to tell him what would only have been the truththat I was heartily glad to be relieved. I was pleased to find myself in the drawing-room once more, talking to Amy, who found me a seat on a luxurious ottoman, and planted herself beside me.

"I am not the same as most ladies," she began, having over. heard her brother's remark; "I enjoy the quiet half-hour after

dinner without the gentlemen, especially if I have a nice girl to talk to. Men are all very well in their way, but they are not everything. I can't understand women who don't like to talk to their own sex. I always think there is something wrong about them, somewhere. Don't you think so?" she asked, eagerly. "There is Lord Delamaine's sister, for example, she is just one of that sort; she sits after dinner and stares at us all as if she were dumb or sleepy; it is only the arrival of the gentlemen that has the power to bestow upon her either the gift of speech or wakefulness.”

"I rather think the true secret of the dumbness you complain of is the absence of anything to say."

"How do they find so much to say to gentlemen, then? But perhaps it is as you remark, for my small experience of the world has taught me that men delight in talking to women, who, as a rule, have nothing very much to say for themselves beyond the most common-place observations. An aged aunt of mine used to say, 'Only listen to a man, declare his opinions are quite your own, appear to cherish his least observation as something original and profound, and he will pronounce you little short of divine, if not in looks, at least in the far superior quality of good common sense;' and I declare I think she was right."

"Ah, I see," I said, laughing; "you think that what women lack in wit men supply with vanity; but I ought to have explained myself better when I made my first assertion. I meant that when ladies get together there is so little talked of beyond the gossip of society, children, and servants; topics, to many women so utterly distasteful, that they are glad to feign a dumbness that promises them remission from such subjects, and they welcome the arrival of the gentlemen as likely to open out other points for discussion. To some minds the small-talk of life is so utterly wearisome; they take it for granted, and crave some stronger stimulant than that supplied very often by their own sex. At the same time, I quite agree with you, that a woman is not half womanly who cannot sympathise with the weakest of her sisters. As you remarked just now, men are all very well, but they are not everything."

"Poor men!" said Amy, with a most ludicrous tone of patronage, as if she took the superiority of her sex as a point beyond dispute. "Take them all-in-all the world would be a very poor sort of place without them! I for one would not care to be in it. Would you?"

"I don't fancy I should," I answered, thinking of the one or two that made up my small world, and without whom, my life, as I had lately learnt to know it, would have no colouring. "But then, I have never had much experience of them," I continued. "We were left orphans, and lived for ten years with a single lady."