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this may be, it is doubtful upon which of the two auditors the fascination of the story most powerfully operated. Elsie, singing ere she slept that night, warbled forth the fisherman's invocation, and mingling with Leonard's waking thoughts came that uncouth exordium, "Mantje! Mantje! Timpe Te!"

"I can't get rid of it," he said to his aunt, as later in the morning he handed her from a modest pony-carriage into the waiting-room at the nearest station. "It haunts me like my own shadow. If I were a superstitious fellow I should get seriously frightened at it."

She gave him a laughing answer; and a very few minutes afterwards was seated in a railway carriage.

"Farewell," cried Leonard as the train was moving off. And then he returned to the cottage ornée and to the humdrum of his every-day existence.

A remarkably humdrum life it was that Leonard Dallocourt led. He had no business or profession of any description, he had no independent fortune, and no reasonable prospect of ever making one; he had nothing in the world to do, and his time hung upon his bands with a dreary and unutterable heaviness. He looked upon it as his natural foe, and in the utter lack of more profitable occupations was ceaselessly endeavouring to kill it. But time took

its own course; and the rolling hours died away not one whit the RARY.

sooner for his angry objurgations of their slowness.

"I'll turn counter-jumper," he said, sometimes; I'll go into the haberdashery line. There is a deal of money made by selling ribbons and buttons; and I have as much right to it as the cads."

Then Mrs. Dallocourt, his mother, would turn up her nose skyhigh, and enumerate his distinguished ancestors. Upon one occasion she substituted for the usual lengthy dissertation a speech of unaccustomed brevity.

"There never was a Dallocourt yet," cried she, "whose hands have been soiled by trade."

"More fools they," responded Leonard. "If there had been they'd have been better off, and so should we; and that beggarly pony of ours might have been a stableful of horses."

"It seems to me, my dear Leonard, that that sentence is grammatically incorrect; for although we might have had horses instead of our pony, the pony itself could never under any circumstances have become a stable full of horses."

"Oh, well, what does it matter?" said Leonard. I don't profess to be fit for an examination."

"You know

Examinations had been for many years the bugbear of young Dallocourt's existence. Mrs, Dallocourt, who had been left a

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widow, with five children, while Leonard, the eldest, was still a schoolboy, had always impressed upon him and upon his brother, that it behoved them, as poor gentlemen, to work for their living; and, as gentlemen of the blood of Dallocourt, to be dainty concerning the manner of doing it. There were a few select callings and professions, amongst which she desired them to choose. Leonard, amiable and accommodating as heart of woman could desire, had ever declared his willingness to make any one of them his. The wig, the pulpit, the epaulettes, the Government Office, possessed equal charms for this young man, and bad all been easily obtainable, the sole difficulty would have lain in an embarras de choix. Unfortunately there was another and more stupendous obstacle,

" una figura infame,

Che porta scritto sulla fronte Esame."

That formidable word signified to Leonard's ears nothing but a slough of despond, through which there was no passing; and the hardworking coaches who had been employed upon his education, had at length given up in despair, and resigned him to his fate and the cottage ornée. Being easy-tempered and unambitious, he had not taken his failure to heart; and, for a little while after his final relinquishment of study, had thoroughly enjoyed idleness, and played with cordial goodwill the role of a nice young man at a croquet party, and an ever-available beau at a dance. Dallocourt's cottage was situated in a retired village, as remote from the busy haunts of men as village well could be, but society was not wholly unattainable, and the despised little pony had trotted miles and miles upon its master's journeys of pleasure. These, however, were few and far between, and Leonard, by degrees, grew weary and dissatisfied, and found his time hang heavily upon his hands.

Mrs.

"I shall go to the backwoods," he would say, after the haberdashery talk had been disposed of. "I shall go to the backwoods, and farm. A strong young fellow like me can make a mint of money in no time by farming in the backwoods."

Then his mother would speak of the savages that infested those regions, and allude to horrible tales she had read of the fate of imprudent settlers; but Leonard laughed such arguments to scorn, and talked hard and fast about purchasing land from Government. One day his aunt almost offended him.

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"You will never do it," said she. You are a great deal too particular about your dinner to go into a savage country.'

"Dinner!" cried Leonard, in accents of the utmost disdain ; "I should shoot wild beasts and eat them, and leave the people at home to talk about their dinners."

So perseveringly did he pursue this theme, which appeared to him on the whole preferable to haberdashery, that Mrs. Dallocourt began to feel rather alarmed. She spoke upon the subject to a friend of the family, and anxiously requested advice.

"If only he could have an occupation," she said, "it would be such a blessing to him and to all of us! The very mention of that odious Far West sends a shudder through my whole frame."

"There are many other things to be done in this world," replied the friend of the family, "besides farming in the Far West."

"Yes," answered Mrs. Dallocourt," but then there are so many amongst them which it would not be fitting for Leonard to do. And yet he is so unsettled and so anxious to be doing something. He actually talks of going into some horrid business; and that, you know, is quite absurd."

"I don't see the absurdity of it," observed the friend of the family. "It strikes me that it is about the best thing he could possibly do. And in the choice of a business I should recommend drugs. Drugs, properly managed, pay uncommonly well, and so does grease; but, of the two, I should recommend drugs."

After that, Mrs. Dallocourt's nose went up to an immeasurable height, and she asked no more advice of the friends of the family.

It was not long subsequent to this notable dialogue, that Leonard drove his aunt to the railway station: and then his time, which, during her brief visit, he had killed with comparative ease, grew as heavy, and as tiresome, and as obstinately tenacious of life as ever.

One morning, having nothing else wherewith to occupy himself, he went on an errand for his mother's cook. That estimable woman wanted currants, and Leonard volunteered to walk a mileand-a-half to order them.

"I shall be back by one o'clock," he said to his mother, just before starting; but one o'clock came, and two, and three, and four, and still no Leonard appeared.

Mrs. Dallocourt grew a little fidgety.

"What can possibly have detained him?" thought she; and her eyes wandered down the road much oftener than was their wont in the direction from which the currants had already come.

At half-past four Leonard walked into the cottage, safe and sound, and proceeded to satisfy her curiosity.

"He

"I have been lunching with Squire Dobson," said he. overtook me on the road home; at least, his hat did; and then I turned round and met him."

Mrs. Dallocourt, with a look of excessive mystification, requested to be further enlightened.

"I was walking along," said Leonard, " thinking about nothing in particular, and I had just got as far as the top of the hill. The wind was blowing like Old Nick, and——

"Like what?" asked Mrs. Dallocourt, who never confessed to understanding any vulgar or diabolical allusions. "How did you say the wind was blowing, Leonard ?"

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"The wind was blowing like anything you please, and I was walking along, thinking about nothing, when, all of a sudden, I felt something knock against my heels; and, at the same time, I heard a fellow shouting out behind me, 'Hallo, there! stop my hat, will you?' So I looked round, and saw a hat on the ground; and before I could catch hold of it, off bolted the thing in front of me; at least, it was behind me then, because, you see, I had turned; and Mr. Dobson was in front of me, puffing and blowing up the hill like a panting hippopotamus. 'Confound you,' cried he; why don't you catch my hat? Well, I thought he was remarkably uncivil in his way of talking, but it is an aggravating thing to have one's bat blown off in that way. I had a sort of fellow-feeling for him, because mine had played me just the same trick a little time before, and a fine chase I had had! And, you see, Mr. Dobson is so fat, and it is so difficult for him to run, and there was no one but I to help him. again, and set off full tilt after the hat. the hill by that time, and was running along at a prodigous rate. There is a pond thereabouts, you know, at the side of the road, and the Squire was in an awful fright lest it should fall in. 'I know it will be in before you can catch it,' he kept shouting out. I am quite positive it will!'

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So, round I turned
It was going down

"No fear,' cried I. 'I am not going to be outrun by a hat.' And I caught the thing before it got to the pond, and gave it to him as dry as a bone."

"Well done!" said Mrs. Dallocourt. "You did that very nicely, Leonard. And what did Mr. Dobson say?"

"He began to abuse the hat first, and the man that made it, and the place it was made at, and everything connected with it; and then be grumbled away at the wind; and after that it occurred to him to say, 'Thank you!' to me."

"I think," observed Mrs. Dallocourt, "that that ought to have occurred to him before. And, pray, did he apologise for his very unceremonious mode of address ?"

"Not he; I believe he had forgotten all about it. up for it by asking me to lunch; and a very good

But he made

lunch we had,

and some first-rate wine. And Mrs. Dobson inquired for you, mother, and desired to be kindly remembered to you."

Mrs. Dallocourt smiled sneeringly-so sneeringly that it might be said she sneered-and shrugged her shoulders à la Française.

"Really," said she "that is a very unwonted piece of attention on Mrs. Dobson's part, and I must say altogether superfluous. Seeing that for more than a twelvemonth she has declined to pay me the common civility of a call, those kind remembrances of hers might more consistently have remained unsent."

"But, mother, she spoke about that; she made a regular little speech about it, she laid all the blame upon her health, and I am sure she looks poorly enough. She says that she is so delicate, and so troubled with nerves and so forth, that she is not fit to go out anywhere, and that the pleasure of her friends' society is too much for her to bear."

A mocking and meaning laugh broke from Mrs Dallocourt's lips. "I am quite sure it is true," said Leonard, chivalrously speaking up for the Squire's lady. But there was no pause in his mother's laughter.

"Well," continued he, "I don't know what on earth you are laughing at. All I can tell you, is that she did not even sit at the luncheon-table like other folks, but was obliged to lie upon the sofa all the time; and the tiny little bit of chicken she ate was quite distressing to look at."

"Pooh, pooh!" said Mrs. Dallocourt, "that was only because she had breakfasted so late. And as for being obliged to lie on the sofa, nothing obliges her but her own hypochondriacal fancies. If Hufferton Hall were to catch fire you'd see she would very soon jump up, and be no more an invalid than anyone else." Well, I am sure I hope it won't catch fire," observed Leonard. "It would be a very bad job, you know; and if it were only for the sake of getting Mrs. Dobson off her sofa, I hardly think it would be worth while. You don't want it to catch fire, do you ?"

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"Of course, I don't," answered Mrs. Dallocourt with a snap; only I have no patience with such lackadaisical nonsense. But go on. What did you do after luncheon?"

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'Oh, we walked about the garden and the park, and so forth. I would have gone sooner, but the Squire seemed to have a mind to show me about; and then we went indoors again and drank some tea and looked at some green lizards."

Mrs. Dallocourt's eyes opened to their widest extent, and she sat bolt upright in her chair.

"Green lizards!" cried she; "they are great curiosities." "They are very ugly ones," said Leonard. "They were poked away into a corner of a room in a glass case, and I asked what they were; and so Mr. Dobson pulled the case out for me to look at, and asked me whether I didn't think them beauties."

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