should never know peace of mind. I did think, when Katherine was given back to us again, that things would go smoothly; but there, I suppose it is not to be." After a time she began to consider how soon it would be possible for them to turn their backs on the place, "for if I stay here I shall be seriously ill-to feel under the constant dread of what Stephen or this aunt, who had entirely slipped out of my memory, may say, is more than my nerves. could bear. Stephen is so odd in his notions; now, instead of seeing how fortunate it was for this young man to be brought up so respectably, he flies out at me each time I try to impress it upon him, and says that, seeing his uncle evidently intended to do something for him, it should have been our care to see his wishes carried out. Poor Stephen! he can never know what I have undergone for him."

These and similar thoughts filled her brain during the day and night which followed her interview with her son; nor was she the only one whom troubled fancies made restless and disturbed. Sir Stephen did nothing but think of the one subject. A hundred things combined in giving strange interest to this new revelation. That he

should ever have come to the place, which he had been brought up to regard as "a barren, uncultivated waste, fit for nothing but to be the home of a rough and scanty fishing population!" How culpable had been his neglect of Mallett! He had taken for granted what his mother had always said, that it brought in next to nothing; and now he found that at the time of his uncle's death the best part of the estate had been mortgaged to relieve the pressing wants of Pamphillon, and since then, nothing had been done for the land or

the people.

From a repugnance on Sir Stephen's part to enter into matters which overwhelmed and disheartened him, he had acquired the reputation, with his agents and lawyers, of being a poor man of business. This, combined with his continual absence from England, made them enter into details far more fully with Mrs. Prescott than they did with her son, and they took it for granted that Sir Stephen was by her made acquainted with everything that took place. But they, like many others, had gauged Stephen Prescott very imperfectly. weakness arose from his knowledge, that the moment he faced an evil he must set to work to remedy it; therefore, as much as it was possible, he accepted things on trust, asked few questions; and, while tormented about the state of Pamphillon, felt no twittings of conscience about Mallett, whose inhabitants, when viewed by the

His

light of Mrs. Prescott's hearsay exaggerations, he concluded, had not reached that state of civilisation in which dirt and discomfort either affect or disturb. When he began looking into the Pamphillon affairs, he decided he would at least see Mallett. Had providence decreed that he should be the scapegoat-that, while he was to be the instrument by which happiness should be effected, he should, in his own person suffer for the sins of those who had gone before? Surely he had had his share of suffering already, for he now saw the reason of his uncle's reckless speculations-it was to form a fortune for this son, whom, doubtless, he yearned to make his heir. "And yet," he said, "my mother, seeing this, could allow her sensitiveness to overcome her sense, and, to screen my uncle, commit an injustice to his son and to her own. I am quite ashamed to think how I hope the

young fellow will choose to keep the matter

still secret.

I know how

I know how many would sneer over the false sentiment which kept her silent, while others would do the same at the idea of my pretended ignorance. What will Hero think of it? she, of course, must know what is the meaning of this sudden rupture between her and Despard.

I to believe the aunt, or the father?

Am

Per

haps neither of them know the truth; she may have told him about me, and he may feel bound to release her, and neither of them may be able to speak plainly to a third person. God knows," he exclaimed, after a long pause, jumping up to occupy himself and so drown thought, "but at

times I could swear that she loves me."