"And it is bad news?"

"It is bad news, indeed," said Brian, "Is that why you would not shake hands with me just now?" inquired our heroine.

"I was unworthy to touch you, madam," answered Brian, in deep humility, and with a strange tremor in his voice; I have betrayed your trust in me-I have taught my own father to be your enemy-I have robbed you!"

"Oh, this is the money question again, Mr. Halfday," said Mabel; "well, please explain for once and for ever. 'Your own father!' what does that mean?"

"I saw him the night before last," replied Brian; "he stepped across my waking life again, like the grim spectre that he is, and I told him of the money like the fool that I was !"

"Your father-yes, that is strange," murmured Mabel; "but could you have kept him in ignorance of the truth, and was it worth the effort?"

"I might have bided my time--I should have waited for a while-I should have left him to discover the facts for himself," said Brian. "I might have done a hundred things save put in his hands the weapon with which he strikes you down.'

"I am not stricken down," said Mabel, who had turned somewhat pale, "only you

alarm me-you, you look so fiercely at me; it is your father of whom you are speaking, remember."

"He is a villain."

"Still his son should not be the first to declare it to a stranger."

Brian paused, and looked down.

"I accept the reproof, Miss Westbrook," he said; "you are more of a Christian than I am-I have been ill-taught and ill-trained, and this is the result."

"Shall we go away from here?" "I would prefer your remaining for a few minutes, but you are tired."

"No, I am not tired," Mabel answered. "I will not rave in this mad fashion again," said Brian, "but I have been deceived, and I have helped towards my own deception. My first thought was of you, madam, when he stood before me in his rags and squalor, and of the power that he would exercise by right of birth to claim the money paid in error to my grandfather. I trusted him too quickly; I was anxious he should hear the truth from my lips before a distortion of it should raise vain hopes in his heart, and I sought to bind him by an oath to keep his promise of restitution."

"You did not?" asked Mabel anxiously. "No; I would not listen to him when I saw the look upon his face in the starlight," answered Brian. "I knew what was to follow before I received this letter."

He dashed through the epistle in his old rapid way, but it is uncertain if Mabel Westbrook followed him completely :

"288 Cloister Street, Penton, “June, 18—.

"Sir,-I beg herewith to inform you that my client, and your father, Mr. William Halfday, has entrusted to me the entire management of his affairs, and the procuring for him the necessary letters of administration to the estate of his father, Adam Halfday, late of this city, and of the Hospital of Saint Lazarus, adjacent. I am further desired by Mr. William Halfday to inform you that he intends to act fairly and

equitably by all those who do not needlessly interfere with a matter which he leaves entirely in the hands of his legal adviser and "Your obedient servant,

"RICHARD EVERSHAM.

"Brian Halfday, Esq.,

"Datchet Bridge."

"Here is the gauntlet thrown in my face, and I must fight," said Brian, as he tore the letter into fragments, and scattered them over his grandfather's grave.

"Can you not trust to what your father says?" asked Mabel.

"Trust that man," exclaimed Brian indignantly, "who has already deceived me, and who is weak enough to think his silly promise of fair dealing can juggle me at the eleventh hour like this. Trust him, madam ! I will fight him to the death as though he were my bitterest enemy. I will make him prove he is William Halfday; I will dispute his claim inch by inch in a court of law, and, granted that he is the William Halfday of sixteen years since, I deny his right -he, a vagabond and a deserter from his family to take that money, which his own father would have never left to him. I will ask you to support me by your story of how the money was placed in Penton Bank, and then I will tell this poor weak mortal's history afterwards."

He pointed to the grave, and Mabel

said

"You would be acting very unwisely, Mr. Halfday. I know nothing of the law, but I am wise enough to see the impossibility of your resisting your father's claim to the estate."

venture a great deal, and sacrifice much But it is for your sake I would act in oppo sition to this scheme," he answered.

"I shall want all your courage and assistance in another direction-not in this." Brian looked at her with surprise before he said

"I am completely in the dark.”

"You must remain so for a while, although I am not successful in my mysteries," said Mabel, smiling at his bewilderment. "But I have had letters this morning also, and they influence my whole after-life." "For the better, I hope."

"I have to wait a second communication, and then I may come to you as to a friend in whose good faith I can rely."

"It is all for the worse, I am afraid,” said Brian moodily, "or you would not seek advice and help from me. Surely you——

"Don't guess," said Mabel very quickly; "I would rather you did not think of this at at present. I should not have spoken if it had not been that you were anxious to fight a hopeless battle for me, at a time when in a fairer contest you might be of invaluable assistance."

"I trust I may."

"Here, on his father's grave, I swear"No, no," cried Mabel with alarm; "if you have any respect for me don't say another word. You are angry, and know not what you are doing. In resisting this claim you will bring about your ruin."

"I do not care for that."

"Let him have the money; it will come in due course to Dorcas and you," Mabel said; "let it drift away for ever, rather than that any act of mine should create enmity between a father and his children. I came to help the Halfdays-it was a promise to a dying man; don't say that, despite the utter failure of my mission, you will add to my regrets by a foolish course of action. I ask you not, for my sake."

and ra

"That as long as you lived you would see after us Halfdays," said Brian; "enrich us, study us. Now let one of the family promise something in return." "Oh! no more promises," cried Mabel; "you are so quick to resolve, that I don't know what you may say or do."

Very little on this occasion, Miss Westbrook," said Brian mournfully, save to reecho that promise of your own, and with a stronger reason for it. It is said in Penton that I am an irritable, half-made visionary, an obstinate and hard brute, a man with no consideration for the opinions of his fellowmen when they clash with his own. Well, I promise from to-day to sink my individuality, my crotchets, my pride, my convictions, everything, when they are opposed to yours. As long as you live, I am your slave in very gratitude, and you may command me how you will. And commanding me not at all, seeing me no more, passing away as it may appear to you for ever, I, Brian Halfday, will still be dreaming of you, planning what is best for you, watching you, so long as you are living on this earth. I take this right from to-day, without claiming any right of friendship with it, or deeming myself worthy to be thought your friend, and I swear it on the grave of this poor sleeper."

"It is a foolish promise," said Mabel, "and I am undeserving of it. I—I wish you had been sillent."

"You do not trust me yet?"

"I do; but oh! you are so strange a man. I am afraid of you," she said timidly. "I have raved too much," replied Brian gently; "will you forget it, and take my arm back to the inn? You are trembling, I think?"

"Perhaps I am not so strong as I ought to be," she said, taking his arm, and walking slowly away from the grave.

"And you trust me at last?" Brian.

"Shall I give you a proof of it?"
"Yes."

"Shall I tell you my new mystery?"

"If

you will."

asked

"What will become of me after the storm is over, I don't know," she said; "something from the wreck will float to shore, perhaps, and, if not, I must look out for a new home or a rich husband."

"Here is Angelo Salmon coming towards us," said Brian Halfday in a low tone. "Poor Angelo," responded Mabel Westbrook.

"I will leave you;" said Brian, “I have not finished all my work at Datchet Bridge." "I shall see you again before I leave?' she asked.

"You go to-day, then?"

"Yes."

"To the Hospital --or the Mitre?" "To the Hospital. It is less expensive," she said, laughing again.

"You bear misfortune lightly, Miss Westbrook," said Brian, "but then you are young, and do not know what misfortune really is."

"Yes, I do," was the reply; "but then I cannot fret over the loss of my money. I care for it as little as you do."

"I am very fond of money," answered Brian; "it is a failing of the respectable family to which I have the honour to belong."

"It is a big story!" she replied.

She smiled brightly as she left him and went towards Angelo Salmon, who was waiting at the gate, a mute, curious, but resplendent being. Brian stopped and saw the meeting, the friendly greeting of Mabel, the pleased and blushing countenance of the young man whom she addressed. He did not move until they walked away together -he raised his felt hat in salutation to them as they looked back at him, and Angelo Salmon elevated his own silk castor in the air. Then he turned and went off at his customary railway-train rate of progression. Yes; it is as long as she lives!" he said

again.

END OF THE FIRST BOOK,

"Did you say bad news, my dear?" exclaimed Mrs. Salmon, always easily discomfited. "Oh! I am very sorry. Nobody ill, nobody hurt, I hope!'

"Only somebody heavily hit-is not that the correct phrase, Mr. Salmon, to express certain trouble?"

"I believe so," said Angelo. "It might mean an offer of marriage from a gentleman deeply impressed; he would be 'heavily hit,' Miss Westbrook, you know."

"Poor fellow-yes, he would indeed," replied Mabel Westbrook laughing; "well, my letter contains no sentiment, and only one hard fact."

"You are not going to leave us," exclaimed Angelo, and his colour actually faded away at the suggestion.

"Have I not trespassed on your kindness too long?" she rejoined.

"Impossible," said the enthusiastic An

gelo.

"They had been ten happy days to him, ten days to be looked back at for ever, with the woman he loved a guest in his father's house. They had been ten days too much for the rest of his life, but he was not aware of that at the present hour; he felt only suddenly miserable and desolate at the bare thought of his happiness vanishing away.

He had been a quiet, grave, unobtrusive young man during Mabel's stay at the Hospital, and no one was aware of the deep draughts of pleasure which he was taking down by wholesale into his heart at the mere sight of Miss Westbrook, and in the simple consciousness of her being near him, and regarding him as a friend. He was too timid a man to allow the evidence of his affection to escape-too much afraid of the consequences which might ensue from any precipitate step on his part. If he were rash, he would assuredly lose her, and if he waited patiently, somebody would certainly walk off with her under his nose, and hence all before him was uncertainty, despite the satisfaction of the present hour. And now the hour was closing for him, and Mabel Westbrook was going away; he was sure of it by her answers.

"It is bad news, indeed, that will take you from us, Miss Westbrook," said the Master of St. Lazarus politely.

"I wonder whether it will take me back to America," said Mabel, thoughtfully. "For a trip?" inquired young Salmon, nervously.

"For good."

"I have been waiting for the full particulars during the last ten days," said Mabel, "and here they are."

She passed the letter to Mr. Salmon, who took it from her.

"Ten days ago, you knew it then?" said Mr. Gregory Salmon.

"I knew that my grandfather's bank had stopped payment; that big honest bank to which he had pinned his faith so firmly. It is as well," she added, "he died before the crash came."

remained at the table; Mrs. Salmon, after a moment's consideration, followed Mabel to the window.

"My dear child," she said, putting her little fat arm round the slender neck of the girl, "you do not know how sorry I am!" "Yes, I do," answered Mabel, smiling up at her.

"You will trust in Gregory-Mr. Salmon, I mean," she said; "he is a far-seeing, clever man, Mabel, and will know what is best for you.'

"I think I have made up my mind to trust in myself, being a conceited young

"Bless my soul, it is most extraordinary," continued the Reverend Gregory Salmon, crumpling his newspaper together violently in his excitement, "and to think that with this terrible catastrophe hanging over your head for the last ten days, Miss Westbrook, you could talk and sing and treat matters lightly; it's amazing to me. I should have had a fit with suspense-I must have gone off to a better world."

"Probably I shall feel more sorry in good time," replied Mabel, "but the loss of the money is no affliction to me yet. I have have been nominally in possession of it for three months; literally speaking, never in possession of it at all. It is not like losing a fond hope or a dear friend."

Hopes and friends, young lady, will follow the money," prophesied the Reverend Gregory Salmon.

"False hopes and false friends only-and the sooner the better," said Mabel, shrugging her shoulders.

"Ahem! yes. Of course in a world like this But dear, dear me, it is so very extraordinary! For ten days to know this and to keep it a secret from us-excuse my retiring into the study for a few minutes to peruse your letter. I am utterly bewil

dered."

Mabel laughed merrily, but did not reply. Mrs. Salmon continued her protestations of sympathy and attachment, and Angelo stared across at the speaker in the same vacuous way. Presently a servant entered to inform Mrs. Salmon that her husband desired to speak to her in the library for a few minutes, and then the elder lady withdrew, the breakfast-table was cleared, and Angelo rose, stretched his long limbs, and walked slowly towards the recess of the window where Mabel Westbrook was ensconced.

"I can't tell you all I feel about this, Miss Mabel," he said, stammering a great deal during his address, "or how it takes me off my guard like—and floors me, if you will not object to so vulgar an expression. For I am floored completely."

"Like your poor father," said Mabel

"He will not get over the shock quickly," said Angelo; "he is an excitable man, and the surprise has been a great one."

"My life has been passed lately in surprising people," said Mabel, thinking of Adam Halfday, "and you English people are so completely interested when money is in question."

"You speak as if you were a foreigner," said Angelo.

"I feel more like a foreigner to-day than usual," answered Mabel, "and less of the English girl that I fancied I might grow to be.'