according to report, and if things look very ugly, you'd better try to sell out, even at a sacrifice; half a loaf is better than none, you know!"

"Indeed ye'r mighty kind, Sir John, and it's an old fool that I am. But if the Company's all wrong, what'll become of Mr. Erskine, and the Monkswood folk, that I guess are in the self-same leaky boat?"

"I tremble to think, McCormick, if your fears and mine have any foundation. In the meantime, say nothing to anybody, and I will write up to my lawyer in town, and have the proper inquiries instituted."

The farmer withdrew, a little relieved of his heavy burden; but Sir John pondered the matter very seriously, and finally he told Cyril what had passed, and begged him to look after the Cordillera and Alleghany Mining Company as soon as he arrived in London, and if possible prevail upon his mother to join him in selling out, if still possible, at least half the shares she had secured through the influence of her son-in-law, and Cyril declared he would make it his first business as soon as ever he was settled in his new abode.

A fortnight after, on a glorious May evening, Cyril bade adieu to Forest Range," going at last," he assured Miss Craven, "to be a man among men; to carve out his fortunes with unflinching purpose and unwavering hand!”

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CHAPTER XIV.

PENRHOE SHORE.

ELIZABETH bore Cyril's absence better than we expected; she betook herself to scampering over the downs on horseback, and she began to work an elaborate cheval-screen, representing Anne Boleyn kneeling at the feet of Cranmer on the night before her execution. Whether it would ever be finished, was, to say the least of it, very problematical, for it was a piece of work worthy the perseverance of Penelope; and perseverance was certainly not one of Miss Asburner's cardinal virtues! However, she saw the pattern in the principal fancy and Berlin shop-window in Southchester, when we were making purchases in the High-street one brilliant June morning, soon after Cyril's leaving home, and she was immediately fired with the idea of transferring it to canvas; nay, she would not only work a cheval-screen, but several banner-screens, and hand-screens, and divers ottomans, and two music stools; and she would knit a counterpane rose-leaf pattern, and plenty of antimaccassars, and tidies, and D'Oyleys, and pin-cushions, and things innumerable; all to be put in hand immediately, and expeditiously completed, and then laid up in lavender, ready for future housekeeping, in the flower-wreathed, vine-clad cottage in which she and Cyril would one day live!

So, leaving certain business with the china-man, who was to match some plates for us, we three, Agnes, Elizabeth, and myself, invaded the Berlin shop, and remained there for a matter of two hours, and when we came out there was a huge bundle of canvas, wools,

floss-silks, filoselle, beads, crochet-hooks, and cotton, knitting-pins of every size, and patterns enough to stock a parish, ready to be put into the carriage—for we had driven into Southchester, that we might take back our parcels with us.

Elizabeth was in high good humour; she was going to be "eminently practical;" she said she was not going to waste her time any longer; she would rise with the sun, and do no end of work these summer mornings before the great bell rang, which called the household to prayers. She would have a good stock of things ready for her house by the time she wanted them; she would take care of her choicest books; she would buy little useful things now and then, such as jugs and mops, and put them by; and oh! of course, Cousin Janet and Agnes would help her in the fancy-work.

Miss Craven immediately professed herself ready to undertake any piece of work that Elizabeth would confide to her. "Well, then," said Elizabeth, most graciously, "you shall do a banner-screen, that one in gold and blue and bray, the arabesque sort of thing; it will be very nice for you, Agnes, to help me to furnish; and you, Cousin Janet?'

My dear, when the right time comes, I will help you willingly enough; you know you are not even engaged yet, and nothing is to be said about your marriage till you are one-and-twenty."

"Now, Cousin Janet, I call that positively unkind! You are always lecturing me for being so unpractical, and insouciante, and letting the morrow take thought for itself, which after all, is only Scripture precept; and now, when I am going to work, and cogitate about the future, and prepare for the life that is before me, you check me, and throw cold water! Yes, it is unkind, and not at all like you, Cousin Janet!"

"My dear child, I don't want to check one good impulse; but do you not think it would have been better to begin gradually? to have worked at the chevalscreen till it was finished, with perhaps a piece of

knitting or crochet on hand by way of change? for I must tell you, that I think the pattern you have chosen will take the whole four years to execute."

"Ah! you do not know how I can work when I set about it. I shall use up the spare moments I have hitherto idled away; I shall redeem the time. By the way, I wish I had bought a cookery-book at Prout's."

"What for, my dear?"

"For my own study. I think I ought to know something about cookery; I read the other day in one of the magazines an article on Woman's Household Duties,' a very nice article, proving that ladies even should know how to do everything. And it strikes me, that perhaps I shall not be able to keep so efficient a cook as ours when I am married, and certainly there will be no Mrs. Roberts to help me out; and then I like a good table. I should not like to come down to cold mutton and suet-dumpling; I must have soufflés, and meringues, and croquets, and some 'Trifle,' very often; for Cyril likes such things, though he never gets them at Monkswood, because Mrs. Denham says they help to pamper the flesh."

"There are plenty of cookery-books at home, and Mrs. Roberts will teach you all you wish to learn better than any of them."

"I will talk to her this evening, and become her pupil to-morrow.”

"But how will you find time for all these occupations ?—the cheval-screen, the cookery, your music, and German, and painting, and needful exercise, to say nothing of the claims of other people upon your leisure?

"Oh, never fear; I shall begin at once to rise early. If I get up at five o'clock six mornings in the week, instead of at eight, I shall save eighteen hours and add a day and a half to every week, taking twelve hours for a working-day! And that will be six days in a lunar month, actually an additional working week, and thirteen additional working weeks in the

whole twelve months, a real extra quarter of a year gained by getting up in time!"

We both laughed at her enthusiasm, for between Elizabeth and her mother there was always mild guerrilla warfare on the score of her not coming down to prayers, but when breakfast was nearly over. Would the promised reformation in reality take place? But Agnes encouraged her; she is an early riser herself, and is very fond of sitting at her open window, when the dew is still upon the branches, and the milkmaids are coming back with well-filled pails. And then Elizabeth resolved that she would write to Cyril, and advise him instantly to adopt a rule of early matinal studies or useful occupation. Why should not he get an extra quarter to his year? and if he lived fifty years longer, add nearly thirteen active, useful years to his natural life! Ah! Elizabeth, you talked that day as if impulse and effort were identical; as if, strong in virtuous intent and youthful energy, you were going through the world like a queen upon a royal progress, ruling restive spirits with a nod, and restraining evil by a glance!

But arrived at home, Lady Ashburner looked with mingled astonishment and dismay at Elizabeth's packages, as they were brought into the house, and very naturally inquired, "My dear, what is all this? are you going into the retail fancy trade?" Elizabeth coloured a little, but explained in her own enthusiastic fashion, what she was about. Her mother gravely answered, "I have no objection, my dear, to your making such preparations reasonably, but I think you are very premature; and of course you have paid for all these things?"

“Well—no, Mamma, you know I could not; I had but two sovereigns and some silver in my purse, and the cheval-screen pattern alone cost 30s., so I told them to put it all down to you, and the shopwoman was quite content.”

"No doubt, for my credit is fortunately good! But I am not pleased at your acting in this way; if I