"Sir," said Sir Charles, "you have acted well towards me, and I will do my best to requite you. It is not a subject I care to pursue. Let it be told in as few words as possible. After what happened in this room, Dick Castayne left England at once, but he went not to America but to Germany. I was eager for revenge then, and I followed him wherever he went, and never left him, night or day, till his death. He wandered about a long time, trying to escape from me; but he gave up that hope at last, and settled down in a quiet town of Germany Göttingen, I remember it well, where we had both been in our youth."

"And he died and was buried there?" Sir Charles dismissed these details with a wave of his hand. "He lived in a small house in a street near a canal, with trees and a shaded walk on the banks," he said quickly, hurrying as if to get rid of the subject. "The house belonged to a man who made scientific instruments, whose shop was below. Ask there; there you will find your proof."

In my eagerness I asked for names of the street and the house. Sir Charles shook his head impatiently, and I made haste to excuse my importunity.

"Thanks, thanks!" I cried; "that will be enough."

He seemed to reflect for a moment. "You will go to Göttingen yourself?" he said.

"I shall send somebody, at least.”

Sir Charles smiled loftily. "Leave that to me," he said; "I shall find means to do as I propose."

Sir Richard, who had not paid much attention to the latter part of the conversation, here interposed.

"There should be punishment as well as help. Who is this vile impostor who calls himself a Castayne? Can we do nought to him?"

"Do not think of it," said 1. "Who he is I cannot tell, except that he comes from America, and calls himself the grandson of Richard Castayne or Caston. Probably he believes himself to be in the right." "Caston?" cried Sir Charles. "Then the case is clear. Richard Caston was old George Castayne's son indeed, but illegitimate - a common fellow. He did go out to America."

"And this can be proved, too?" It was a foolish question, but I was carried away by excitement.

Once more Sir Charles dismissed the subject with a wave of his hand. He had said enough.

I went back to my room a happy man, and next morning hurried up to London, aad went at once to see Mr. Quibble. This time he was most evidently irritated by my appearance, until I told him that I brought him information.

"Important information," I said, "but derived from a curious source. Yes," I continued, in answer to his look of inquiry, "from a very curious source. In fact, Mr. Quibble, you must ask me no questions about where it comes from."

Then I proceeded to tell him the story I had heard from Sir Charles, both about Richard Castayne's death at Göttingen, and about George Castayne's natural son, who called himself Richard Caston. Notwithstanding my warning, he was very anxious to hear how I had got my information, but though I refused to tell him- decided after some hesitation to act upon it. I firmly believe that he thought I had dreamed the whole thing, and am not even sure whether he was not inclined to doubt my sanity. But still the possibility was too important to be neg. lected.

After this there followed weeks of waiting. I feared to give any encouragement to Bee or Dick under the circumstances; but I did let drop mysterious hints at home, which drove my sister into almost as great a state of suspense as myself. At last, one day Mr. Quibble appeared in person at Horton, and I knew that something important must have come to light. Good news, I argued from his manner, as he stopped outside to exchange remarks with the gardener about the weather, and to praise our roses, and held some little laughing conversation with Bee, whom he met at the door, while I was devoting him to the infernal deities for keeping me in suspense.

Mr. Quibble, however, at last came into my study, and was not slow to unfold his business when there.

"It is remarkably fortunate, Mr. Greg. ory," he said, "that I have received im portant communications from all our three agents, almost at the same time. The man who was sent down here to examine the church registers arrived with his report yesterday. The same day I got a letter, conveying intelligence of the highest importance, from Göttingen; and

think I've been harsh to you, do you, my | dear? I did as I was obliged to do for the time, but it's all past now; and it has always been the dearest wish of my heart that you and Dick should come to love each other."

Bee only sobbed in reply, and - but what has all this got to do with my story? -I telegraphed for Dick next day, and the engagement was announced; and Mr. Courtenay wrote me a long letter in praise of the admirable choice his son had made (an expression I object to; why should the lady never be supposed to choose?), and the pleasure it gave him to be allied to my family, etc., etc. But these are mere family matters, and I have another event to record, which bears more directly on my story.

I thought it my duty to go and convey my formal thanks to my ghostly friends for the great service they had done me. So I set off one evening for Castayne Manor, taking the same precautions as before to avert any suspicion of my object, and twelve o'clock that night found me on my way to the old gallery. Arrived at the door at the end, I tried to open it, but it resisted all my efforts. Then I remembered that I myself had given instructions that it should be kept locked - though locks availed little against such inhabitants as were there.

"Sir Richard!" I called softly through the door; "Sir Richard! may I speak to you? I have come to thank you; it is I, George Gregory."

Not a sound answered my call. I tried the door again; it resisted every effort of mine. As I turned away in disgust, a new idea occurred to me. Sir Jasper's room was not far off; should I try that? I did, but without avail; and this time I was afraid to call, because the Grants slept in a room almost exactly below it. I then went to the green room, and entered quite easily, the door giving way at once. Stupid of that fellow David, I thought, he can't have locked the door this morning; for I had made arrangements, knowing Sir Charles's feelings about the clocks, that they should be reset every morning, in order that they might stop at the right moment. The room was empty, and there was no sound of any presence either there or in the adjoining room. I doubted what to do for a time; but at last I made up my mind to wait till half past two, the time when Sir Charles habitually appeared; and, sitting down by the table, began to think over the events that had happened since I was VOL. LIII. 2735

LIVING AGE.

there last. Lost in pleasant fancies of the happiness that was coming to all of us now, I took no notice of the time, till, on the clock striking one stroke suddenly, I looked up and saw it was half past two. I glanced towards the folding-doorsthey showed no signs of moving; I waited full five minutes; not a thing stirred, and the clock still ticked on merrily without a thought of stopping. I took the candle and examined the other room - nothing there. Then I sat down again and waited. Three o'clock struck, and nothing appeared; half past three, and — and then the next thing I remember clearly is waking up with a start, feeling very cold, and hearing the clock strike eight, and David Grant remarking,

"Well, I didn't think to find you here, sir. Fallen asleep, I suppose, sir. I was wondering where you could ha' got to, for I saw you hadn't been to bed."

"Has this room been left open long, David?" I asked, as soon as I had collected my senses, and knew what I was doing.

"Only since yesterday, sir," he said apologetically. "I came in yesterday to set the clock; but it's been going so well lately, sir, it ain't worth while taking the trouble."

"Why, doesn't it stop as it used to do?" I asked.

No, sir; not now. For the last three or four days it's gone as well as any clock could. It's sing'lar, for there used to be some queer noises in this room, sir, and they've stopped too."

And so it has been since. I do not wish to offer any explanation of this curi. ous fact. Certain it is that none of the disturbances. formerly prevalent in the green room have been repeated since then. Of the other spirits, I only know that report says that they are still to be seen and heard at their former post. The light in the old tower, at least, still exists, for I have seen it myself; but I have never intruded myself again on their privacy, as my adventures of that last night, in my opinion, clearly prove that they do not intend to let me see them. My aunt and I live quietly at Horton Place still, enliv ened once a year by a visit from Dick and Bee, who have settled down in Devonshire. The spirits reign supreme at Castayne Manor, and shall never be disturbed there, in my time at least; and I sincerely hope that none of my successors will ever do anything to molest those who have stood by their family and friends so bravely in the time of need.

From The Quarterly Review. THE COUNTRY BANKER.*

THE wonderful power of development which, during the last half-century, has made such enormous changes in the structure of society in this island, shows itself nowhere more remarkably than among the contemporaneous alterations in English banking. If we could look back fifty years even, certainly sixty years back, we should find ourselves, so far as banking is concerned, surrounded by methods of carrying on business which had descended, traditionally, nearly from the period of the

Civil War. We should have found the City not a mere collection of offices, thronged during working hours by a busy crowd, and left at night to the care of messengers and policemen, but inhabited by some of the members of many firms, who lived with their families over the places in which the head of the house labored during the day. Recent changes have, we believe, caused the removal of the last City banker as an inhabitant from Lombard Street, and the habit, once broken, is never likely to be resumed. But there are still parlors with stiff, respectable-looking furniture, fitted up for family life, now never likely to be so employed again, with old-fashioned pianofortes and solid sofas, within a few yards of the Mansion House; and further to the west, though on the inside of Temple Bar, old traditions are still maintained. Within living memories the partners of banking firms adhered firmly to the practice of their fathers. Tradition reports, that the children of these families, hard-set for places to walk in when little, were cised" on Blackfriars Bridge, then protected from traffic by a toll, and within the Tower Hill enclosure. Provincial bankers followed the same mode of life, and a banking house not inhabited by a member of the firm was rather the exception than the rule. Most business men would now consider the obligation to reside near the scene of their occupation, a needless and most unwelcome burden.

66 exer

ment Printing Office, 1884.

The difference in the mode of living was not more marked than the difference in the

system on which business was conducted. Till the act of 1826 was passed, no joint stock bank whatever, except the Bank of England, could exist in England. That act permitted the establishment of joint stock banks with the power of issuing notes, provided the business was not car ried on within sixty-five miles of London. This was followed by the act of 1833, which removed many difficulties from the course of joint-stock banking, and many of our most flourishing joint-stock banks date from that period.

Though the success of joint-stock banking in London has been very considerable, its progress in the provinces has been even more marked. The position of banking in London was vividly described by the late Mr. Walter Bagehot, in his vol me named "Lombard Street." The position of banking in the provinces has now found its historian in Mr. George Rae, who has embodied the experience of forty years in his recent work, named "The Country Banker." We have named of the two is very different - the one these two books together, though the scope London money market, with a brilliant containing a general description of the sketch of the principles involved in the management of higher finance; the other seeking, in the words of the preface, "to exhibit the machinery of banking in mothem; while the one endeavors to make tion." There is this uniting link between the theory as well as the practice of monetary business clear to those not versed in the subject, the other seeks to make the practice clear, while never losing sight of sound theory. And both have this high merit; they are written by men possess ing thorough practical knowledge of what they describe.

mediate disposal of ready money affords The advantage, which the power of imto mercantile and general business, can either the being able to make use of an hardly be over-estimated. It means often advantageous opportunity for trade, or the being unable to do so. The great majority of all private firms and persons carrying on business in this country are compelled to borrow from time to time, to

Printing Office, 1882.

4. Il Credito Popolare in Italia. Luigi Luzzatti. Roma, 1882.

Relazione di

5. Manuale per le Banche Popolari Cooperative

Italiane. Ettore Levi. Milano, 1883.

6. Statuto della Banca Mutua Popolare di Firenze: Società Anonima Cooperativa. Firenze, 1883.

The companies with limited liability which have so often been formed during recent years to conduct industrial business, rarely borrow in exactly the same manner as private firms. But even to them, amply provided with capital as they usually are,