the whole voyage, and she takes it all so coldly. I rather think I like him the

better of the two."

"O, Cloud is a good enough fellow, I dare say, only a little over anxious to make money. He is just now on some business connected with a new steamship company, and, if he succeeds, will make a mark on the market. If we meet them anywhere in traveling we may as well be civil, and I wish you would pay them a little attention," replied her husband.

"One has to be civil and gracious to every new body that comes up with a few hundred thousands of dollars in this day, without the slightest regard to family or circumstance. Do you know who the Clouds were, Augustus?" she asked,drawing off her sea-cloak and preparing, while she talked, for departure.

She

"Well, don't make yourself ridiculous, for unless you put a list of names to your back, how is any one to know that you are entitled to any more consideration than-Mrs. Cloud, for instance? looks quite as well, and her appearance indicates quite as high development into the region of ladyhood as your own. Come, it is time to be off."

A few days later the Clouds met the persons who had commented upon them as they were leaving the steamship. A stranger would have failed to perceive that Mrs. Mount condescended in the slightest degree to meet Mrs. Cloud. Yet Mr. Cloud felt a flutter at his heart, a flutter of pleasure; for, if his prospective wealth brought such attention from the Mounts, what might he not attain to in the future, if so be that he could gain over his wife to sell some of the Jersey lands at home. He thought it would be easier to persuade her at a distance; beside it would be so much pleasanter to have the business all settled with Mrs.

Cloud's approval and blessing than to resort to his plan; for, somehow, he could not exactly tell how, in bright, clear moments his purpose grew hideous in his eyes, and he felt almost as though he would rather throw away the great steamship enterprise, if he must buy the glory at such price. That miserable almost! In those moments he might have resolved it into altogether, if only he had the will.

แ

"Annie," he said, the night of the day in which they had met Mr. and Mrs. Mount, "if our company succeed, and we are prospered, as we hope to be, it will make the future very bright for us, will give us great pleasure. I do not like to limit Morton. It really pains me to keep him down so. Why, when we left New York I actually had but a single hundred dollars to send him."

"You paid his bills, of course."

"Bills! No, indeed, I did not. I thought they could wait until some other time; and, I tell you, actually I had not another dollar to spare."

"Then why did you take me with you on such an expensive trip as this? You surely might have left me-" She did not complete her sentence as she purposed, and add "at Hartford," for the temporary peace between the two had been so pleasant, that she feared to break it.

"Well, Annie, I missed you so much when you were away the last time, and the doctors gave such hope of your entire recovery in travelling, that I economized in every way I knew how to do it, in order to give you the benefit from the change."

"But what is Morton to do?" she added, by way of response. "You know perfectly well that he has inherited my family's notions regarding the payment of debts, and I can tell you that the boy will not spend one penny of the sum you left him on himself, but will use it all for what he owes. O! Norman, I wish you would let me know in time when you put our boy into such painful position. I might have aided him."

How, Annie?"

"I would have made deduction on a

rent, or something of that kind, to get the money in advance."

"No, Annie," he said, almost lovingly, "never do that; that is the way trouble begins; besides, you might find occasion to sell the lands in the mean while, and then what would you do?"

"Nothing, because such emergency is not likely to arise. I have told you often that nothing, except great need for the common wants of life, shall induce me to sell an inch of the lands my father left me."

If you

"But, Annie, think a minute. can turn the lands into three or four times the amount of capital, what then?"

"Norman! Please do not begin the old argument," she said. "I had fondly hoped you had forgiven yourself for the past in a promise never to trouble me again on that subject."

"I wish that you would let me reason with you."

"I admit that I am incapable of reasoning on that subject, Norman, and you may one day have cause to be thankful that I am so; for you may gladly turn to the despised lands to supply your daily bread."

Because you will not give me the aid I need, I may end my life in disappointment," he added, and Mrs. Cloud made no reply. She had turned aside and opened her stationery case, and was preparing to write a letter to her son. The letter contained an order by which Morton might obtain from her agent sufficient money to pay his term bills and otherwise supply his present needs, the intent of which might faithfully have been carried out, had the letter been committed to the English mail. It disappeared into the care of Mr. Cloud and there remained. Meanwhile the son of these two persons suffered all the agony of a young debtor. "I am going into France," said Mr. Cloud, about three weeks later, "and from thence to Germany; and I have been looking out for you a pleasant place in which to stay during my absence."

"Let me go with you, Norman. I cannot consent to be left among strangers; indeed I cannot."

"And I cannot afford to take you with

me.

This trip is far beyond what I estimated in the matter of expense." He pleaded that the separation was a necessity, and informed her that he had heard of a most delightful locality in which she could not fail to be happy; beside, his absence would not outlast a month.

They went down to the place specified on the coast, a week later. Mr. Cloud seemed familiar with the locality; strangely so, for he ordered everything like one who had been used to go thither.

The year was at its best-sweetness, loveliness, beauty, joy everywhere; trilling in bird voice, pulsating in the sea and turning to soft agues of thrilling every leaf on wood-side and copse, when, at evening, the traveling carriage stopped at a castle-like entrance to a lofty, wide building near the German Sea.

"I don't like it. Take me away," exclaimed Mrs. Cloud, clinging convulsively to the arm of her husband. "Pray order the driver to take us back to the station," she pleaded.

The door opened and a gentlemanly man came down to the carriage accompanied by an attendant.

"Good evening, sir! Good evening, madam," he said. "I hope you will find it to your taste here," but as he spoke in a language unknown to Mrs. Cloud she gave no reply, and only clung still tighter to the arm of her husband.

“It looks like a prison here,” she said. "Nonsense, it is one of the loveliest places on the coast. Don't make the man indignant, Annie, by your incivility. He has come down to receive us with politeness. At any rate we must spend the night here, for it is too late to get elsewhere."

So persuaded, they went in. Mrs. Cloud did not notice the action of her husband as he hurriedly took their host aside and whispered a few words in his

ear.

In consequence of the words so whispered, Mr. and Mrs. Cloud were served with tea in a large dining-room by a most attentive servant, and Mrs. Cloud was afterwards shown over the house and grounds and taken down by the

had suddenly grown hateful to him, when he was summoned to attend her. He found her pale, quivering with fear, and wholly unable to explain her condition. Several hours later he learned that she had been alarmed, while sitting in the pleasant room assigned to them, by shrieks and cries. She had followed the sounds, hoping to be able to alleviate some distress, and finding a door ajar had pushed it open, and going in, had found two insane women attacking each other. Seeing a new face on the scene, the women left their imaginary feud and seized upon her as their victim. She fled, pursued by them, and was rescued. The physicians reluctantly admitted that such accidents did sometimes occur, and that scarcely a year passed without a similar unfortunate affair.

Mrs. Cloud clung convulsively to her husband and would not be parted from him.

De you cry out, "What an unnatural man is this Norman Cloud! An improbable story! An impossible story! A man considered respectable, occupying position in the world of trade, represented as committing his wife to such a place, merely to gain possession of her lands. I do not believe it." I wish I could join you in the un belief. Norman Cloud was enabled to take with him a certificate of the madness of Mrs. Annie Cloud, duly signed by two of the attending physicians of the institution, who, being young men, and seeing Mrs. Cloud suffering from a spasm of fear, readily gave their names when asked. The men in authority kept their signatures for genuine cases.

Mr. Cloud was equally well content. No one could, he thought, confront him with ugly accusation, so long as he had that testimonial to show for his deed.

Mrs. Cloud was kept quiet-so quiet that her husband was in France ere she awoke to miss him and to find herself a prisoner.

She had been made to believe that she had been very ill. That she could readily believe, but hitherto she had met no one with whom she could speak. Being permitted to walk in the grounds, guarded VOL. IX.-18

by an attendant, she one day espied the little doctor on the coast, walking to and fro, a gentleman accompanying him. The sight recalled to her memory the night he had sat at the entrance and searched her through with the keenness of his glance. Watching her opportunity, she stealthily gained upon her guard, and then, by quickness of movement, surprised him by an escape to the coast. He pursued, but did not overtake her until she had reached the doctor. She went up to him, catching his arm in her eagerness to arrest. his instant attention. "I remember you," she said. "You sat on the porch that night when I came, and looked at me. Tell me where my husband is.'

"I cannot, madam; I do not know." The stranger looked at Mrs. Cloud. He observed her with remarkable care, for one in no wise interested, for he had no knowledge of her or her family. The little doctor made quick apology to the stranger, and turned to accompany Mrs. Cloud to the enclosure from whence she had escaped.

"Madam," he said, "we do not wish to lessen the privileges already granted to you, but, however unwilling, shall be compelled to do so, if you repeat this experiment."

"O sir! Tell me, and tell me truly, why I am here and what this place is? When I assert that I saw two crazy women in an awful contest, my attendant insists that it was delirium and only a part of my illness."

"Then why do you not rest upon her statement?" he questioned.

"Was it a part of the same illness that made me remember you the instant I saw you? Say, sir. Did you, or did you not, sit at the entrance the night I came, and look at me very much as a detective might at a supposed criminal? If you can assure me that you did not, then I will try to believe that I did not go out of my room at cries I heard, and what followed I will endeavor to think a dream."

She spoke so earnestly, that in spite of himself the little man was called out of his refuge of lies and for once spoke the

honest truth. "I did sit in the porch the night you came, and I did look at you to discern the state of your mind. This is a mad-house, and you are put here for safe-keeping."

She did not scream, or faint, or do any one of the dozen acts that would have been done by most women under the circumstances. She asked, "And my husband is, where?"

"On the Atlantic ocean, beyond a doubt. We got a remittance from him a week ago, just before he was to leave."

"Thank you," she replied. "Will you be my friend? Will you come and talk to me a while every day, so that I may believe myself a sane woman?"

Mrs. Cloud glanced up at the man, or rather across at him, for his height was not above her own, as she put up her petition. I cannot describe to you the effect of that look upon this man better than to tell you that he stood like a person before ·whom had been opened a door into a new life. He did not straightway enter through it. He lingered, looking a moment in, then promised after the manner following: "If you will promise me faithfully not to attempt escape, to do nothing whatever to cause me to regret my kindness, I will not lessen your freedom and I will try to

find a few minutes in each day to talk with you. Besides, I promise you the reading of my English newspapers and periodicals.”

Mrs. Cloud hesitated to make reply. How could she promise not to walk out of a mad-house into freedom, if the door was set wide for her? She would not speak with a shadow of untruth, not even among untruthful enemies. "You must not exact too much from me," she said. "You must remember how sore my strait, how torn my heart. This much I promise: I will not attempt escape, without giving you good and sufficient warning. If you will be my friend, I will not break faith with you, not even for my life. Don't you know," she suddenly asked, "that no woman can live and retain reason long, without one friend. Why, sir! if in the darkness of the night a vision of the way in which I might get away from here and home to my boy came to me, and I felt that you were my friend, I should tell you of it."

They had come to the enclosure. The guard, with face of anxiety, drew close, for he feared dismissal. "I must go back," said the little doctor to Mrs. Cloud. Το the guard he said, "No more restraint. The same liberty as heretofore." (To be continued.)

DID you ever stroll through an old graveyard, and look carefully on the humble plants that cling to the tombstones? They are very humble. "Lichens" we call them. They are stemless, leafless, flowerless. They appear to the eye under many forms; overspreading the boulder by the wayside, carpeting in gray the sandy wastes of Nantucket, pendent, like patriarchal gray-beards, from the live oaks of the South, and the dwarf-oaks of Martha's Vineyard, clothing the barrenness of polar zones, and incrusting the ledges, high up on the mountains, where no other life can go

"Nature's livery round the globe, Where'er her wonders range." When Humboldt stood on Chimborazo, 18,000 feet above the ocean, the only form of life to meet his eye was a lichen. When Brooke sent his sounding-lead down two miles into the ocean, and brought up mud from the bottom, Bailey and Huxley found in it minute

forms of life. Add the 18,000 feet of mountain to the two miles of ocean, and you have almost five miles and a half, perhaps the ver tical range of life. If the base of Chimborazo rested on the bottom of the North Atlantic, his head would rise into an island as high as Mt. Washington, with Monadnock piled on his top. If an Alp 8,000 feet high were piled up on that, our mountain would reach through all the zones of life. Around his feet would be only the protozoon; on his head, only the protophy ton. Under two miles of ocean-if the mud brought up on the sounding-lead tells the secret of the deep-nothing can live but the simplest forms of animal life-protozoa-organized points of jelly. Three miles above the ocean nothing can live but protophytes. They are lichens. Both protozoon and protophyton are cellular. They have no distinction of parts. The animal has no mouth, no stomach, no members. The plant has no stem, no root, no