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else, some lawyer, some man of business who would place the whole affair in proper legal form."

"All I have to do, then, is to go on as I have been going on ever since I can remember-keeping silence to my mother and to every one else, being Hugh Travis to the end of the chapter?"

"Not to the end of the chapter, unless it break off most abruptly. Be patient, Hugh, do nothing rashly, trust no eager impulses, and oh, my boy, above all things ask God to guide you, to lead you in the way you should go, to show you that way, step by step, and so to control your speech and your actions that you shall neither injure yourself nor any one else. I think there can be no harm in your preparing yourself quietly and thoughtfully for a life of selfdependence. I think it will be well for you to select a profession, and to work hard to make it a successful one." "I should like to follow my father's profession." "I am afraid you are too old for that."

"I shall be seventeen in less than two months." "Then it is too late, I am almost certain."

"I wish one had some idea what one's future would be."

"One never has. That which we picture to ourselves as most probable rarely comes to pass. Oh, Hugh, do not trouble yourself about the future; leave it all in God's hands, and patiently wait for Him. Take each day, each hour as it comes, and spend that day, that hour worthily, faithfully, as one who must give account, as one who submits himself to God's holy will, actively as well as passively. Trust life to your heavenly Father, Travis, and so it will unfold as a rose, leaf after leaf, to perfect beauty and fragrance, though how exquisite that beauty really is, how subtle and rich its fragrance, you may never quite comprehend till you come at last to His eternal joy. It is one of the first lessons we have to learn, boys-for I speak to you now, Charlie dear, as well as to Travisto take things on trust. First of all to trust God, next to trust humanity, for nothing is more certain than this-he who has no faith in God's creatures has very small faith in God the Creator. And little faith, if less dangerous, is more tormenting than no faith. Oh, boys, whoever, whatever you doubt, never doubt God. Never doubt His goodness, His wisdom, His tender mercies, which are over all His works."

Years afterwards I remembered that quiet, grey evening at Schloss Wanterfels; I could see the terraced garden on the slope of the green, wooded hill; I could see the clouds settling on the mountain tops, and resting darkly on the solemn Odenwald, and I could hear the rushing river deep down in the valley, dashing over rock, and mossy boulder, and fallen tree towards the kingly Rhine. And I could see the faint, rosy, summer lightning quivering among

the trees, and hear ever and anon that low, far-off voice pealing from the mountain fastnesses, and saying sweetly and grandly, "The God of glory thundereth! The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice." I remember it all so well because, although I did not recognise then the spirit working within me, I surely learned the first lines of the glorious lesson which teaches us so much, and raises us so high, that at last by it, and in the might of the Great Teacher, we triumph over frail mortality and over all the trials and weaknesses of earth, and are made meet for the better, purer life beyond the grave. I began to feel that I must control myself, that I must trust myself to God, because I knew so little, and needed so much; and there came to me dimly and faintly that hope-which, thank God, has never quite deserted me in any season of darkness, or failure, or desolation, and which now shows brighter and brighter as the afternoon shadows slant towards the silent eventide the hope that good, certain good from my Father's hand, will be mine here below, and mine, too, the bliss unspeakable in the world to come; for

"Ever the richest, tenderest glow

Sets round th' autumnal sun

But there sight fails; no heart may know
The bliss when life is done."

CHAPTER XIX.-MEURICE'S.

I took Mrs. Craven's advice, and accepted my situation; and it was astonishing how quickly I became reconciled to all the circumstances with which I was environed. It is wise to accept the inevitable. Vain and useless struggles only hurt and maim the struggler; the bird who dashes himself ceaselessly against the strong bars of his cage cruelly beats and bruises himself and expends his tiny strength for naught; but he is not one inch nearer the blue sky to which he yearns on free wing to soar away. Some day Providence may leave the door of his cage unfastened; and some day, oh! weak and foolish struggler, God may open to thee the long-closed door, and say, "Depart!" or "Enter in, as even thou desirest." Work and strive, while to work and to strive can possibly avail; when they cannot-and so often they cannotsit still with patient, folded hands, waiting to see the end, which will be as God pleases. And what pleases Him is always best; and what we know not now we shall know hereafter, when the mists of earth have all melted away in the clear, golden sunshine of heaven.

Early in September Charlie and Mrs. Craven were to go to England for awhile; business called them to Cravenshaugh. I could not make up my mind whether or not I could accompany them, for

I had some notion of going to Vienna, and afterwards to Buda and Pesth. If I went Roger Blake would go with me; and we thought it possible if our funds held out that we might get to Trieste, go on to Venice, and return home by way of the Tyrol. But while I was still debating there came to me-a very rare occurrence-a letter from the Marchioness. She was in Paris with her children, and she would be staying perhaps through the winter, but certainly till quite late into the autumn, and she wished me to join her party as soon as possible. The Dovercourt family were at Meurice's, and a room would be engaged for me as soon as my answer should be received. It was impossible to hesitate, and after being duly counselled by my friends to keep a strict guard over myself, and to remember how much unhappiness a little rash conduct of mine might occasion, I packed up my belongings and set off for Paris.

There had been an accident with a goods-train, so that we had to wait while the line was being cleared, and that of course brought us to our journey's end several hours later than the appointed time. I reached Meurice's in the middle of the night, and was shown at once to a room which was ready for me. It was a very small room au quatrième, but I could see traces of other preparation for my comfort than that which was due to the servants of the establishment. There is always much obsequious homage rendered to a rich English milord and suite, abroad; and when people spend their money lavishly there are not supposed to exist any of those impossibilities to which the owners of lighter purses must succumb; but in the present instance I felt quite certain that something more than gold had been used in my behalf, and that the Marchioness had not contented herself with merely issuing orders, she had evidently been at work herself; for some of my favourite flowers were daintily arranged in two small but exquisite vases, and several of my favourite authors in their familiar Dovercourt guise were collected in a little blue-enamelled book-slide, which, together with a handsome blotting-case and abundant writing materials, lay on my table. There was nothing actually superfluous, yet nothing had been omitted that could possibly conduce to my comfort or my pleasure.

I was tired, and slept till rather late, and I was scarcely dressed when some one came to my door to know if I would descend and breakfast with miladi in her own room. I recognised the voice, and opened the door, and there was Mademoiselle Sophie, as trim and jaunty as ever, looking her very best in honour of her beloved Paris. Wendell Holmes says that good Yankees, when they die, go to Paris!! I wonder whether the Parisians think their own city at all inferior to the new Jerusalem!

Sophie burst into raptures upon the subject of my improved.

appearance. "Ah! monsieur, comme vous avez l'air noble!" she exclaimed, regarding me approvingly. "Ah! when you have also that indescribable air of fashion-the true air of distinction, which Paris, and Paris la belle alone can give-you will assuredly be charming. That is a beast of a waistcoat, Mr. Travis, and your collar is quite too low as they wear them now. And your hairyour cheveux magnifiques!-how have the German barbarians spoiled it ? Ah, ciel!" and she quite wrung her hands in dismay, partly real, partly affected. "An! do they cut hair in that dreadful country with shears, such as they crop the hedges with in England? Ah, quel bêtise!" And then Sophie took up comb and brush, and proceeded to rearrange my abundant locks, which were, I must say, in anything but drawing-room order. She would have kept me some time, but that I sprang up impatiently at the end of half a minute, and, running my hands desperately through my curls, declared that I was not going to sit for a barber's block while the Marchioness was waiting breakfast for me.

"The Marquis is not here, I suppose ?" I inquired, carelessly, as I left the room.

"Mais non!" replied Sophie, with an exaggerated shrug. "Milor, he is far away in some savage country or other, and he returns not till the summer. Ma foi! if he returned not at all, we would not die of grief, for I tell you, moi, qui vous parte, que M. le Marquis de Douvrescour, est un véritable—bộte.”

I was relieved to find that my enemy, as I could not help considering him, was gone to a savage country, and, as I did not care to discuss him with Sophie, I begged her to show me at once to her lady's sitting-room. In a few minutes I was once more alone with the Marchioness-with my mother-whom I had not seen for more than a year. "My boy, my dear boy!" she exclaimed, rapturously folding me in her arms; "at last I have you again! Ah! Hugh-Hugh Vassall-I have been hungry and thirsty for a sight of you! And how you are grown, and how manly you have become, and how like your father you are! I think you will be as handsome as he was, Hugh; and-yes! there is the black down on your upper lip already. You must not shave, your father never did; he had such a beard as few men could show. But, oh! my boy, how glad I am to see you; tell me all about yourself; tell me everything; only first you must have some breakfast. Is there anything you would especially like, my dear? Let me order something very nice."

But there was an abundance of nice things ready and waiting to be attacked, and I said so, and would not suffer her to ring the bell. It was between ten and eleven o'clock when we sat down to breakfast; it was past one when we had entirely finished. Not that

we were devouring all that time. I made a pretty good meal, taken in instalments however, but my lady picked up her crumbs and sipped her chocolate very much as if she were of the chicken species. But we talked to our hearts' content; the smallest trifle relating to my university life was interesting, and I told everything I could remember, save and except that episode of the Professor's story heard under the blossoming linden-trees. I abstained from mentioning his name, for I was quite sure she would remember it, and it could only awake the most bitter reminiscences. I was begin. ning to be considerate, for Mrs. Craven had impressed upon me the fact that thoughtlessness is selfishness, and that selfishness is a vice of the most ignoble order. It broke upon me one day that I, who in my childhood had wept because I had no mother, was now actually gifted with two, for as my second mother I must always regard that most incomparable of women, Mrs. Craven.

The "savage country" to which the Marquis had betaken himself was India. He was going up into the Himalayas, his wife said, and she thought he would visit China and Japan before his return, which would be no one knew when; I am afraid no one cared. As regarded myself, the longer he expatriated himself the better I should be pleased. I really felt quite grateful to him for going to such a distance, and remaining absent from England and indeed from Europe, for an unlimited period of time. I rejoiced within myself, thinking how many thousand miles away India was. It was by his desire that the Marchioness came to Paris. Lady Olive had taken a fancy to spend some time in France in order to complete her education; and though Lady Juliana had offered to chaperone her niece abroad for as long as she desired, the Marquis preferred that she should be under the care of her stepmother. He certainly respected and trusted his wife more than any other person; doubtless, too, he penetrated his sister's motives, which were scarcely of a disinterested nature.

"Is Lady Olive here then?" I asked, in some dismay. I wished sincerely she had accompanied her father to India.

"Yes, Olive is with me; I came very much on her account, and yet not entirely. Maude is now in her fourteenth year, and I am anxious about her education. Felixstowe is with me for awhile; I have engaged a tutor for him. He has been rather delicate of late, or he would have been at Eton as soon as term commenced. As it is, I think of keeping him with me this winter."

"And Miss Flogg?"

"Miss Flogg has become companion to Lady Juliana Rashleigh, and Olive has a new governess, Madame Le Gramont. I believe her to be a very excellent and trustworthy person, and Olive gets on with her wonderfully."

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