the ungrateful creature back to the hotel, and give her tea and a novel. As for the billiard-room in that hotel, it is one of the best between Holborn and the Canongate. The Lieutenant begs to add, that he can recommend the beer.

CHAPTER XV.

"LA PATRIE EN DANGER."
"Sometimes on lonely mountain-meres,
I find a magic bark;

I leap on board: no helmsman steers:
I float till all is dark."

I SIT down to write this chapter with a determination to be generous, calm, and modest in the last degree. The man who would triumph over the wife of his bosom merely to have the pleasure of saying "I told you so," does not deserve to have his path through life sweetened by any such tender companionship. Far be it from me to recall the protestations which my Lady affixed to the first portion of this narrative on its publication. Not for worlds would I inquire into her motives for being so anxious to see Arthur go. The ways of a woman ought to be intricate, occult, perplexing, if only to preserve something of the mystery of life around her, and to serve her, also, as a refuge from the coarse and rude logic of the actual world. The foolish person who, to prove himself right, would drive his wife into a corner, and demonstrate to her that she was wrong that she had been guilty of small prevarications, of trifling bits of hypocrisy, and of the use of various arts to conceal her real belief and definite purpose the man who would thus wound the gentle spirit by his side to secure the petty gratification of proving himself to have been something of a twopenny-halfpenny prophet;-but these remarks are premature at the present moment, and I go on to narrate the events which happened on the day of our leaving Shrewsbury, and getting into the solitary region of the meres. "I have received a telegram from Arthur," says Bell, calmly; and the pink sheet is lying on the breakfast-table before her.

"How did you get it?" says my Lady, with some surprise.

"At the post-office."

"Then you have been out?"

"Yes, we went for a short walk, after having waited for you," says Bell, looking down.

"Oh, Madame," says the Lieutenant,

coming forward from the fireplace, "you must not go away from the town without seeing it well. It is handsome, and the tall poplars down by the side of the river, they are worth going to see by themselves."

"It was very pretty this morning," continued Bell," when the wind was blowing about the light blue smoke, and the sun was shining down on the slates and the clumps of trees. We went to a height on the other side of the river, and I have made a sketch of it

"Pray," says my Lady, regarding our ward severely, "when did you go out this morning?"

"Perhaps about an hour and a half ago," replies Bell carelessly; "I don't exactly know."

"More than that, I think," says the Lieutenant, "for I did smoke two cigars before we came back. It is much to our credit to get up so early, and not any thing to be blamed of."

"I am glad Bell is improving in that respect," retorts my Lady, with a wicked smile; and then she adds, "Well?”

"He has started," is the reply to that question.

"And is going by another route?"

"Yes: in a dog-cart-by himself. Don't you think it is very foolish of him, Tita? You know what accidents occur with those dog-carts."

"Mademoiselle, do not alarm yourself," says the Lieutenant, folding up his newspaper. "It is quite true what Madame said yesterday, that there are so many accidents in driving, and so very seldom any one hurt. You ask your friends-yes, they have all had accidents in their riding and driving; they have all been in great danger, but what have they suffered ?—Nothing! Sometimes a man is killed-yes, one out of several millions in the year. And if he tumbles over-which is likely if he does not know much of horses and driving

what then? No, there is no fear; we shall see him some day very well, and go on all together!"

"Oh, shall we?" says my Lady, evidently regarding this as a new idea.

"Certainly. Do you think he goes that way always? Impossible. He will tire of it. He will study the roads across to meet us. He will overtake us with his light little dog-cart; we shall have his company along the road."

Tita did not at all look so well satisfied with this prospect of meeting an old friend as she might have done.

"And when are you to hear from him next?" I inquire of Mademoiselle.

"He will either write or telegraph to each of the big towns along our route, on the chance of the message intercepting us somewhere; and so we shall know where he is."

"And he has really started ?"

Bell placed the telegram in my hands. It was as follows:

"Have set out by Hatfield, Huntingdon, and York, for Edinburgh. Shall follow the real old coach-road to Scotland; and am certain to find much entertainment."

"For man and beast," struck in the Lieutenant. "And I know of a friend of mine traveling in your country who went into one of these small inns, and put up his horse, and when they brought him in his luncheon to the parlor, he only looked at it and said, 'Very good, waiter; this is very nice; but where is the entertainment for the man?"

I continued to read the telegram aloud

"Shall probably be in Edinburgh before you; but will telegraph or write to each big town along your route, that you may let me know where you are."

"It is very obliging," says the Lieutenant, with a shrug of his shoulders.

"It is quite certain," observes my Lady, with decision, "that he must not accompany us in his dog-cart; for we shall arrive at plenty of inns where they could not possibly put up three horses and so many people."

"It would have been so," said the Lieutenant," at the place on the top of the hill-Bourton was it called ?"

The mere notion of Arthur coming in to spoil the enjoyment of that rare evening was so distressing, that we all took refuge in breakfast, after which we went for a long and leisurely stroll through Shrewsbury; and then had Castor and Pollux put into the phaeton. It seemed now to us to matter little at what town we stayed. We had almost began to forget the various points of the journey. It was enough that some hospitable place-whether it were city, town, or hamlet-afforded us shelter for the night, that on the next morning we could issue forth again into the sweet smelling country air, and

have all the fair green world to ourselves. We looked with a lenient eye upon the great habitations of men. What if a trifle of coal-smoke hung about the house-tops, and that the streets were not quite so clean as they might be? We suffered little from these inconveniences. They only made us rejoice the more to get out into the leafy lanes, where the air was fresh with the scent of the bean-fields and the half-dried hay. And when a town happened to be picturesque-and it was our good fortune to find a considerable number of handsome cities along our line of route-and combined with its steep stree's, its old-fashioned houses, and its winding river and banks, a fair proportion of elms and poplars scattered about in clumps to mar the monotony of the gray fronts and the blue slates, we paid such a tribute of admiration as could only be obtained from people who knew they would soon be emancipated from the din and clamor, the odor and the squalor, of thoroughfares and pavements.

Bell, sitting very erect, and holding the whip and reins in the most accurate and scientific fashion, was driving us leisurely up the level and pleasant road leading from Shrewsbury to Ellesmere. The country was now more open and less hilly than that through which we had recently come. Occasionally, as in the neighborhood of Harmer Hill, we drove by long woods; but for the most part our route lay between spacious meadows, fields, and farms, with the horizon around lying blue and dark under the distant sky. The morning had gradually become overcast, and the various greens of the landscape were darkened by the placid gray overhead. There was little wind, but a prevailing coolness that seemed to have something of premonitory moistness in it.

But how the birds sang under the silence of that cold gray sky! We seemed to hear all the sounds within a great compass, and these were exclusively the innumerable notes of various warblers-in the hedges, and in the roadside trees, far away in woods, or hidden up in the level grayness of the clouds: Tewi, tewi, tewi, trrrr-weet!

droom, droom, phloee !—tuck, tuck, tuck, tuck, feer!-that was the silvery chorus from thousands of throats, and, under the darkness of the gray sky, the leaves of the trees and the woods seemed to hang motionless in order to listen. Now and

again Bell picked out the call of a thrush or a blackbird from the almost indistinguishable mass of melody; but it seemed to us that all the fields and the hedges had but one voice, and that it was clear, and sweet, and piercing, in the strange silence reigning over the land.

So we rolled along the unfrequented road, occasionally passing a wayside tavern, a farmhouse, or a cluster of cottages, until about noon we caught a glimpse of a stretch of gray water. On this lonely mere no boat was to be seen, nor any house on its banks, merely a bit of leaden-colored water placed amid the soft and low-lying woods. Then we caught the glimmer of another sheet of cold gray, and by and by, driving under and through an avenue of trees, we came full in sight of Ellesmere.

The small lake looked rather dismal just then. There was a slight stirring of wind on its surface, which destroyed the reflection of the woods along its shores, so that the water was pretty much the counterpart of the gloomy sky above. At this moment, too, the moisture in the air began to touch our faces, and every thing portended a shower. Bell drove us past the mere and on to the small village, where Castor and Pollux were safely lodged in the stables of the "Bridgewater Arms."

We had got into shelter just in time. Down came the rain with a will; but we were unconcernedly having luncheon in a long apartment which the landlord had recently added on to his premises. Then we darted across the yard to the billiardroom, where Bell and my Lady having taken up lofty positions, in order to overlook the tournament, we proceeded to knock the balls about until the shower should cease.

The rain, however, showed no symptoms of leaving off, so we resolved to remain at Ellesmere that night, and the rest of the afternoon was spent in getting up arrears of correspondence and similar work. It was not until after dinner that it was found the rain-clouds had finally gathered themselves together, and then, when we went out for a stroll, in obedience to Bell's earnest prayer, the evening had drawn on apace.

The darkening waters of the lake were now surrounded by low clouds of white mist, that hung about the still and wet woods. From the surface of the mere,

too, a faint vapor seemed to rise, so that the shores on the other side had grown dim and vague. The trees were still dropping large drops into the plashing road; runnels of water showed how heavy the rain had been; and it seemed as if the gray and ghostly plain of the lake were still stirred by the commotion of the showers. The reflection of a small yacht out from the shore was blurred and indistinct; and underneath the wooded island beyond there only reigned a deeper gloom on the mere.

He

Of course, no reasonable person could have thought of going out in a boat on this damp evening; but Bell having expressed some wish of the kind, the Lieutenant forthwith declared we should soon have a boat, however late the hour. dragged us through a wet garden to a house set amid trees by the side of the lake. He summoned a worthy woman, and overcame her wonder, and objections, and remonstrances, in about a couple of minutes. In a very short space of time, we found ourselves in a massive and unwieldy punt, out in the middle of this gray sheet of water, with the chill darkness of night rapidly descending.

"We shall all have neuralgia, and rheumatism, and colds to-morrow," said my Lady, contentedly. "And all because of this mad girl, who thinks she can see ghosts wherever there is a little mist. Bell, do you remember

Tita stopped suddenly, and grasped my arm. A white something had suddenly borne down upon us, and not for a second or two did we recognize the fact that it was merely a swan, bent on a mission of curiosity. Far away beyond this solitary animal there now became visible a faint line of white, and we knew that there the members of his tribe were awaiting his report.

We were

The two long oars plashed in the silence, we glided onwards through the cold mists, and the woods on the opposite shore were now coming near. How long we floated thus, through the gloomy vapors of the lake, I can not tell. bent on no particular mission; and somehow the extreme silence was grateful to But what was this new light that was seen to be stealing up behind the trees, a faint glow that began to tell upon the sky, and reveal to us the conformation of the clouds? The mists of the lake

us.

deepened, but the sky lightened, and we could see breaks in it-long stripes of a soft and pale yellow. The faint suffusion of yellow light seemed to lend a little warmth to the damp and chill atmosphere. Bell had not uttered a word. She had been watching this growing light with patient eyes, only turning at times to see how the island was becoming more distinct in the darkness. And then more and more rapidly the radiance spread up and over the south-east, the clouds got thinner and thinner, until all at once we saw the white glimmer of the disk of the moon leap in to a long crevice in the dark sky. And lo! all the scene around us was changed;" the mists were gradually dispersed and driven to the shores; the trees on the island became sharp, black bars against a flood of light; and on the dark bosom of the water lay a long lane of silver, intertwisting itself with millions of gleaming lines, and flashing on the ripples that went quivering back from the hull of our boat. We were floating on an enchanted lake, set far away amid these solitary woods.

“Every day, I think," said Bell, "we come to something more beautiful in this journey."

"Mademoiselle," said the Lieutenant, suddenly, "your country it has been too much for me; I have resolved to come to live here always, and in five years, if I choose it, I shall be able to be naturalized, and consider England as my own country."

The moonlight was touching softly at this moment the outline of Bell's face, but the rest of the face was in shadow, and we could not see what evidence of surprise was written there.

"You are not serious," she said.
"I am."

“And you mean to give up your country because you like the scenery of another country ?"

"With you it may be different," said Bell, almost repeating what I had said the day before to the young man. "I wish we could always be traveling and meeting with such pleasant scenes as this. But this holiday is a very exceptional thing."

"So much the worse," said the Lieutenant, with the air of a man who thinks he is being hardly used by destiny.

"But tell me," broke in my Lady, as the boat lay in the path of the moonlight, almost motionless, "have you calculated the consequences of your becoming an exile ?"

"An exile! there are many thousands of my countrymen in England; they do not seem to suffer much of regret because they are exiles."

"Suppose we were to go to war with Germany."

"Madame," observed the Lieutenant, seriously, "if you regard one possibility, why not another? Should I not hesitate of living in England for fear of a comet striking your country rather than Germany? No; I do not think there is any chance of either; but if there is a war, then I consider whether I am more bound to Germany or to England. And that is a question of the ties you may form, which may be more strong than merely that you chance to have been born in a particular place."

"These are not patriotic sentiments," remarks my Lady, in a voice which shows she is pleased as well as amused by the announcement of them.

"Patriotism!" he said, "that is very good—but you need not make it a fetish. Perhaps I have more right to be patriotic in a country that I choose for my own, than in a country where I am born without any choice of my own. But I do not find my countrymen when they come to England much troubled by such things; and I do not think your countrymen, when they go to America, consult the philosophers, and say what they would do in a war. If you will allow me to differ with you, Madame, I do not think that is a great objection to my living in England."

ing."

surely it ought to have been visible on this clear moonlight night.

At length we had to make for the shore. It seemed as though we were leaving out there on the water all the white wonder of the moon; but when we had run the boat into the boat-house and got up among the trees, there too was the strong white light, gleaming on black branches, and throw ing bars of shadow across the pale, brown road. We started on our way back to the village, by the margin of the mere. The mists seemed colder here than out on the water; and now we could see the moonlight struggling with a faint white haze that lay over all the surface of the lake. My Lady and Bell walked on in front; the Lieutenant was apparently desirous to linger a little behind.'"

"You know," he said, in a low voice, and with a little embarrassment, "why I have resolved to live in England."

"I can guess."

"I mean to ask Mademoiselle to-morrow-if I have the chance-if she will become my wife."

"You will be a fool for your pains." "What is that phrase? I do not comprehend it," he said.

"You will make a mistake if you do. She will refuse you."

"And well ?" he said.

"Does not every man run the chance of that? I will not blame her-no; but it is better I should ask her, and be assured of this one way or the other."

"You do not understand. Apart from all other considerations, Bell would almost certainly object to entertaining such a proposal after a few days' acquaintanceship

"A few days!" he exclaimed. "Der Himmel! I have known her years and years ago very well we were acquainted

"But the acquaintanceship of a boy is nothing. You are almost a stranger to her

now"

"See here," he urged. "We do know more of each other in this week or two than if I had seen her for many seasons of your London society. We have seen each other at all times-under all ways-not mere talking in a dance, or so forth."

"But you know she has not definitely broken off with Arthur yet."

"Then the sooner the better," said the Lieutenant, bluntly. "How is it you do

all fear him, and the annoyance of his coming? Is a young lady likely to have much sympathy for him, when he is very disagreeable, and rude, and angry? Now, this is what I think about him. I am afraid Mademoiselle is very sorry to tell him to go away. They are old friends. But she would like him to go away, for he is very jealous, and angry, and rude; and SO I go to her, and say no, I will not tell you what my argument is, but I hope I will show Mademoiselle it will be better if she will promise to be my wife, and then this pitiful fellow he will be told not to distress her any more. If she says no-it is a misfortune for me, but none to her. If she says yes, then I will look out that she is not any more annoyed—that is quite certain.

"I hope you don't wish to marry merely to rescue a distressed damsel."

"Bah," he said, "you know it is not that. But you English people, you always make your jokes about these things-not very good jokes either—and do not talk frankly about it. When Madame comes to hear of this and if Mademoiselle is good enough not to cast me away—it will be a hard time for us, I know, from morning until night. But have I not told you what I have considered this young lady-so very generous in her nature, and not thinking of herself-so very frank and goodnatured to all people around her-and of a good, light heart, that shows she can enjoy the world, and is of a happy disposition, and will be a very noble companion for the man who marries her. I would tell you much more, but I can not in your language."

At all events, he had picked up a good many flattering adjectives. Mademoiselle's dowry in that respect was likely to be considerable.

Here we got back to the inn. Glasses were brought in, and we had a final game of bézique before retiring for the night; but the Lieutenant's manner towards Bell was singularly constrained and almost distant, and he regarded her occasionally in a somewhat timid and anxious way.

necessary for me to explain that I am not respon[Note by Queen Titania.- -"It is perhaps unsible for the strange notions that may enter the heads of two light-hearted young people when they are away for a holiday. But I must protest which I will not describe that I was throughout against the insinuation-conveyed in a manner scheming against Arthur's suit with our Bell.