the zenith. "To an outsider such con- | least of those who composed it, was an induct would be natural; but to a friend toxicating one. Paula and Somerset were who finds your pocket-book, and looks dancing together. into it before returning it, and kindly removes a leaf bearing the draft of a letter which might injure you if discovered there, and carefully conceals it in his own pocket-why, such conduct is unkind!" Dare held up the abstracted leaf. Havill trembled. "I can explain-" he began. "It is not necessary: we are friends," said Dare, assuringly. Havill looked as if he would like to snatch the leaf away, but altering his mind, he said, grimly: "Well, I take you at your word: we are friends. That letter was concocted before I knew of the competition: it was during my first disgust, when I believed myself entirely supplanted." "I am not in the least surprised. if she knew you to be the writer!" "That proves nothing," said Dare. "Look at their rapt faces, and say if it does not," sneered Havill. Dare objected to a judgment based on looks alone. "Very well-time will show," said the architect, dropping the tent curtain."Good God! a girl worth fifty thousand and more a year to throw herself away upon a fellow like that—she ought to be whipped." "Time must not show," said Dare. "You speak with emphasis." "I have reason. I would give something to be sure on this point, one way or the other. Let us wait till the dance is over, and observe them more carefully. Hörensagen ist halb gelogen. Hearsay is But half lies." "I should be ruined, as far as this competition is concerned," said Havill, carelessly. "Had I known I was to be invited to compete, I should not have written it, of course. To be supplanted is hard; and thereby hangs a tale." "Another tale? you astonish me." "Then you have not heard the scandal, though everybody is talking about it." "A scandal implies indecorum." "Well, 'tis indecorous. Her infatuated partiality for him is patent to the eyes of a child-a man she has only known a few weeks, and one who obtained admission to her house in the most irregular manHad she a watchful friend beside her, instead of that moon-struck Mrs. Goodman, she would be cautioned against bestowing her favors on the first adventurer who appears at her door. It is a pity, a great pity." ner. 66 Oh, there is love-making in the wind?" said Dare, slowly. "That alters the case for me. But it is not proved?" "It can easily be proved." "I wish it were, or disproved." "You have only to come this way to clear up all doubts." Havill took the lad toward the tent, from which the strains of a waltz now proceeded, and on whose sides flitting shadows told of the progress of the dance. The companions looked in. The rosy silk lining of the marquee, and the numerous coronas of wax lights, formed a canopy to a radiant scene, which, to two at Sheet-lightnings increased in the northern sky, followed by thunder like the indistinct noise of a battle. Havill and Dare retired to the trees. When the dance ended Somerset and his lovely partner emerged from the tent, and slowly moved toward the tea-house. Divining their goal, Dare seized Havill's arm, and the two worthies entered the building unseen, by first passing round behind it. They seated themselves in the back part of the interior, where darkness prevailed. As before related, Paula and young Somerset came and stood within the door. When the rain increased they drew themselves further inward, their forms being distinctly outlined to the gaze of those lurking behind by the light from the tent beyond. But the hiss of the falling rain and the lowness of their tones prevented their words from being heard. "I wish myself out of this!" breathed Havill to Dare, as he buttoned his coat over his white waistcoat. "I told you it was true, but you wouldn't believe. I wouldn't she should catch me here eavesdropping for the world." 'Courage, Man Friday," said his cooler comrade. Paula and her lover backed yet further, till the hem of her skirt touched Havill's feet. Their attitudes were sufficient to prove their relations to the most obstinate Didymus who should have witnessed them. Tender emotions seemed to pervade the summer-house like an aroma. The calm ecstasy of the condition of at least one of them was not without a coercive effect upon the two invidious spectators, so they must needs have remained passive had they come there to disturb or annoy. The serenity of Paula was even more impressive than the hushed ardor of Somerset: she did not satisfy curiosity as Somerset satisfied it; she intensified it. Poor Somerset had reached a perfectly intelligible depth-one which had a single blissful way out of it, and nine calamitous ones; but Paula remained a beautiful enigma all through the scene. The rain ceased, and the pair moved away. The enchantment worked by their presence vanished, the details of the meeting settled down in the watchers' minds, and their tongues were loosened. Dare, turning to Havill, said, "Thank you; you have done me a timely turn today." What! had you hopes that way?" asked Havill, satirically. "I The woman that interests my heart has yet to be born," said Dare, with a steely coldness strange in such a juvenile, and yet almost convincing. "But though I have not personal hopes, I have an objection to this courtship. Now I think we may as well fraternize, the situation being what it is?" "What is the situation?" "He is in your way as her architect; he is in my way as her lover: we don't want to hurt him, but we wish him clean out of the neighborhood." "I'll go as far as that," said Havill. "I have come here at some trouble to myself, merely to observe: I find I ought to stay to act." "If you were myself, a married man with people dependent on him, who has had a professional certainty turned to a miserably remote contingency by these events, you might say you ought to act; but what conceivable difference it can make to you who it is the young lady takes to her heart and home, I fail to understand." 66 Certainly." Havill drew a deep breath, and dropped into a tone of depression. "Well, scheme as you will, there will be small advantage to me," he murmured. "The castle commission is as good as gone, and a bill for two hundred pounds falls due next week." "Cheer up, heart! My position, if you only knew it, has ten times the difficulties of yours, since this disagreeable discovery. Let us consider if we can assist each other. The competition drawings are to be sent in-when ?" "In something over six weeks-a fortnight before she returns from Brighton, for which place she leaves here in a few days." "Oh, she goes away-that's better. Our lover will be working here at his drawings, and she not present.' "Exactly. Perhaps she is a little ashamed of the intimacy." "And if your design is considered best by the committee, he will have no further reason for staying, assuming that they are not definitely engaged to marry by that time?" "I suppose so," murmured Havill, discontentedly. "The conditions, as sent to me, state that the designs are to be adjudicated on by three members of the Institute called in for the purpose, so that she may return, and have seemed to show no favor." "Then it amounts to this: your design must be best. It must combine the excellencies of your invention with the excellencies of his. Meanwhile a coolness should be made to arise between her and him and as there would be no artistic reason for his presence here after the verdict is pronounced, he would perforce hie back to town. Do you see?" "I see the ingenuity of the plan, but I also see two insurmountable obstacles to it. The first is, I can not add the excellencies of his design to mine without knowing what those excellencies are, which he will of course keep a secret. Second, it will not be easy to promote a "Well, I'll tell you-thus much at least. I want to keep the place vacant for anoth-coolness between such hot ones as they." er man.' "What place?" "The place of husband to Miss Power, and proprietor of that castle and domain." "You make a mistake. It is only he who is so ardent. She is only lukewarm. If we had any spirit, a bargain would be struck between us: you would appropriate his design; I should cause the cool "That's a scheme with a vengeance! ness." Who is the man?" "It is my secret at present." "How could I appropriate his design?" "By copying it, I suppose." แ "Copying it?" would you have been then? Instead of "By going into his studio and looking that, I have locked it up, out of considerit over." Havill turned to Dare, and stared. "By George, you don't stick at trifles, young man! You don't suppose I would go into a man's rooms and steal his inventions like that?" ation for you; and what do I get for my considerateness? I shall let the law take its course!" "You'll do me inexpressible harm, and get nothing whatever," said Havill. "If you would renew for another three "I scarcely suppose you would," said months, there would be no difficulty in Dare, indifferently, as he rose. "And if I were to," said Havill, curiously, "how is the coolness to be caused?" | "By the second man. "Who is to produce him?" "Her Majesty's government." Havill looked meditatively at his companion, and shook his head. "In these idle suppositions we have been assuming conduct which would be quite against my principles as an honest man.' CHAPTER II. A FEW days after the party at Stancy Castle, Dare was walking down the High Street of Markton, a cigarette between his lips, and a silver-topped cane in his hand. His eye fell upon a brass plate on an opposite door, bearing the name of Mr. Havill, Architect. He crossed over, and rang the office bell. The clerk who admitted him stated that Mr. Havill was in his private room, and would be disengaged in a short time. While Dare waited, the clerk affixed to the door a piece of paper, bearing the words, "Back at 2," and went away to his dinner, leaving Dare in the room alone. Dare looked at the different drawings on the boards about the room. They all represented one subject, which, though unfinished as yet, and bearing no inscriptions, was recognized by the visitor as the design for the enlargement and restoration of Stancy Castle. When he had glanced it over, Dare sat down. The doors between the office and private room were double; but the one toward the office being only ajar, Dare could hear a conversation in progress within. It presently arose to an altercation, the tenor of which was obvious. Somebody had come for money. "Really I can stand it no longer, Mr. Havill-really I will not," said the creditor, excitedly. "Now this bill overdue again-what can you expect? Why, I might have negotiated it; and where the matter." "You have said so before. I will do no such thing.” There was a silence; whereupon Dare arose without hesitation, and walked boldly into the private office. Havill was standing at one end, as gloomy as a thunder-cloud, and at the other was the unfortunate creditor, with his hat on. Though Dare's entry surprised them, both parties seemed relieved. “I have called in passing to congratulate you, Mr. Havill," said Dare, gayly. "Such a commission as has been intrusted to you will make you famous." "How do you do? I wish it would make me rich," said Havill, dryly. "It will be a lift in that direction, from what I know of the profession. What is she going to spend ?" 66 Stancy Castle," said Dare, since Havill seemed too agape to answer. "You have not heard of it, then? Those are the drawings, I presume, in the next room?” Havill replied in the affirmative, beginning to perceive the game. "Perhaps you would like to see them?" he said to the creditor. The latter offered no objection and all three went into the drawing office. "It will certainly be a magnificent structure," said the creditor, after regarding the elevations through his spectacles. 'Stancy Castle: I had no idea of it! and when do you begin to build, Mr. Havill?" he inquired, in mollified tones. "In three months, I think," said Dare. Havill also assented to this. "Five thousand pounds commission," murmured the creditor. "Paid down, I suppose?" Havill nodded. "And the works will not linger for lack of money to carry them out, I im- | more? If so, go to the castle, and get agine," said Dare. "Two hundred thou- anybody to assist you. Why would you sand will probably be spent before the not make use of the room at your disposal work is finished." in the castle, as the other architect has "There is not much doubt of it," said done?" Havill. "You said nothing to me about this?" whispered, the creditor to Havill, taking him aside, with a look of regret. "You would not listen." "It alters the case greatly." The creditor retired with Havill to the door, and after a subdued colloquy in the passage he went away, Havill returning to the office. "What the devil do you mean by hoaxing him like this, when the job is no more mine than Inigo Jones's?" In asking the question, her face was toward the window, and suddenly her cheeks became a rosy red. She instantly looked another way. "Having my own office so near, it was not necessary, thank you," replied Havill, as, noting her countenance, he allowed his glance to stray into the street. Somerset was walking past on the opposite side. "The time is-the time fixed for sending in the drawings is the first of November, I believe," she said, confusedly; "and "Don't be too curious," said Dare, the decision will be come to by three genlaughing. "Rather thank me for get-tlemen who are prominent members of ting rid of him." A carriage slowly passed the window, and Havill recognized the Power liveries. "Hullo-she's coming here!" he said, under his breath, as the carriage stopped by the curb. "What does she want, I wonder? Dare, does she know you?" "I would just as soon be out of the way." "Then go into the garden.' Dare went out through the back office as Paula was shown in at the front. She wore a gray travelling costume, and seemed to be in some haste. "I am on my way to the railway station," she said to Havill, with stiff courtesy. "I shall be absent from home for several weeks, and since you requested it, I have called to inquire how you are getting on with the design." "Please look it over," said Havill, placing a seat for her. "No," said Paula. "I think it would be unfair. I have not looked at Mr.the other architect's plans since he has begun to design seriously, and I will not look at yours. Are you getting on quite well, and do you want to know anything | the Institute of Architects." Havill then accompanied her to the carriage, and she drove away. Havill went to the back window to tell Dare that he need not remain in the garden; but the garden was empty. The architect remained alone in his office for some time; at the end of a quarter of an hour, when the scream of a railway whistle had echoed down the still street, he beheld Somerset repassing the window in a direction from the railway, with somewhat of a sad gait. In another minute Dare entered, humming the latest air from Offenbach. "Tis a mere piece of duplicity!" said Havill. I out his handkerchief ready to wave, while "She looked at him—nothing more. she looked out of the window toward the wouldn't give much for his chance." Aftbridge. The train backed before it reach-er a while Dare added, musingly, “You are a mathematician; did you ever investigate the doctrine of expectations?" 'Never." ed the bridge, to attach the box contain- Dare drew from his pocket his Book of Chances, a volume as well thumbed as the minister's Bible. "This is a treatise on the subject," he said. "I will teach it to you some day." THE GATE OF THE ORIENT. The recent visit of the United States steamer Ticonderoga to Bassora marked the first appearance of an American man-of-war, and perhaps of our flag, in those waters. HERE, where the morning stars of young Creation | O grave-eyed merchants, from the looms of Iran Sang o'er the Eastern earth, Floats in yon choral field what constellation Of Occidental birth? Make splendid your bazars; Bring wines that breathe what Bulbul blooms environ Where first the globe chimed, swung on airy Heap silks, shawls, redolent woofs, to rare illusion gimbals, To rhythmic human beats, What Flag, as with the clash of golden cymbals, Where Magi, in wise school of Zoroaster, Mapped heaven with mystic signs, What orbs are these that no Chaldean master And where the great grandmother of Aurora In hues of later dawns, by old Bassora, Is this that vibrates, where yon banner flutters, And silently from star and streamer utters Of soft Scheherezades In lustrous languor, Odalisque seclusion Of glowing Persian maids, With myrrh and frankincense, the fragrant berry And pearls, the enchantment of moonlight Peri The coastwise lumbering dhow no longer freighting, Beyond the desert and the sea awaiting, Your waning Commerce! West to East sends The stranger shall report; And in ancestral gates Eve's children meeting, Time's youngest born hath given her ocean eagle Twin rivers of romance, of empires hoary, The olive of the dove; And thrones of later time, She sheathes the thunders of her war ship Shall smoking Genii bring back ancient glory? regal, Haroun-al-Raschid's prime? Nay, shall they not waft bold young Freedom hither, Than all the old forms, that at her wand shall wither, O Ghebirs! not from Mithra's mountain-towers, From hills afar bright Ormuzd kills the powers With the old Greeks the West meant death; their Made Hesper-Hades one; And sees, where Tigris pours his tribute billows, But we beyond their baths of stars are bringers The sumptuous Caliphate. VOL. LXII.-No. 871.-50 Of light to lands of sun. |