At the same moment, too, the new house he was building fell in with a tremendous crash, but as it was night, fortunately no one was hurt.

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'Come to see me in Birdie's room- -the dear child knows nothing; don't mention a word.' Obeying this note to the letter, Ralph was soon with the Marchioness.

CHAPTER XIX.

'Man's love is of man's life a thing apart :

'Tis woman's whole existence.'-BYRON.

'NOBODY loves as I love--nobody, not even Ralph! Ah, nobody ever could love as I love my own darling Ralph! Perhaps some day, when a scattering of hopes, or a blighting of somebody's existence by a sudden stroke of fortune, comes to try me, and he finds out what I would go through for him, he may learn to love me.' And as Birdie reclined upon her couch the morning after the ball, thinking these thoughts, she looked pale, and worn, and melancholy.

As Ralph ascended the staircase to go to her room and watched the excitement and turmoil in the great hall below, he unconsciously muttered, 'Oh, to take her from this cursed spot -her, my more than everything; my hope here and evermore ! Is there an evermore? But, ah, to grasp the living reality! to take her away, and be never again parted!'

He found Birdie in tears, and as the Marchioness had whispered previously to leaving him, taking Emma Louise and Lady Gertrude away with her, 'You shall not be interrupted, my dear boy; a man who so nobly, and in such a way, too, risked his life, is worthy of every confidence and affection!' I left them for two good hours.

And the room was still; and when I returned he was saying, 'Nothing could ever recompense for that ethereal passion,-ineffable flame, which no money can purchase, nor ruin destroy; which is rich without riches, and true to the grave !—then more and more true;-for yonder, ay, ever it deeper becomes, as age succeeds age, and Sphere follows Sphere !-remote Space is traversed, each phase becomes known,-warm, life-giving Love abides, ever the same!'

And Birdie's eyes were wet still, but they were not the same

kind of tears, though they did flow fast; and I'm afraid they looked very foolish; but then there was no one to see them, so what did it matter? I don't think it did a bit.

And suddenly she began to laugh, for Ralph had said that small as her tiny hands were, they were not smaller than her little feet; and she asked him, how did he know indeed? and then he said, 'I do know though, Birdie darling.' I think he said 'darling;' I'm not sure, but it does not matter. I know he didn't like the word as a rule. And she started up suddenly, for she had been reclining on her couch, and he had been leaning over her. "Why, Ralph, what can you mean?' asked she, with a little blush.

'If you must know, Birdie, many and many a time have I paced outside your room and looked at your little boots as they stood-'

'Then I sha'n't put them there any more.'

'And kissed them inside again and again—'

'Then I won't put them-'

'And you have the teaniest mite of a little foot—'

Oh, Ralph, how foolish of you-'

'But it was in the days when-when-'

'When what, Ralph ?' asked she, in a burst of merry laughter. 'When I-'

'Well, do go on, old boy.'

"When I hadn't you to—'

And I left them again, as I couldn't comprehend a word. At the expiration of three-quarters of an hour I found them on the very best of terms with each other; Ralph having learnt nothing whatever as to the cause of her sudden fright in the corridor, and Birdie having become quite satisfied, notwithstanding reports -and Ralph would have liked to have found out the fellow who spread them, if it had been a man-that if he could only have been certain of seeing her alone for even five minutes the night before, he would have been by her side.

CHAPTER XX.

'The ruling passion, be it what it will,

The ruling passion conquers reason still.'-POPE.

FERN gathering was lawful; clouds had cleared off, and on the afternoon after the ball the beautiful Vale of Lovely was proposed for a picnic. There would be a bright moon; therefore

cares and forebodings were exchanged for hampers; and flirtations, which had been so unpropitiously broken off, were to be renewed with greater vigour than ever.

As the party were about starting, I saw Ralph walking with Geraldine. The girls had been complimenting him on the progress he had made in Lady Teresa's good opinion-a thing so rare-and telling him that she was fabulously wealthy. The conversation was interrupted by the approach of Tabitha Gallwood, who had, so it seemed, conceived a sudden and unaccountable liking for Ralph. Thinking to make herself agreeable to Geraldine first by way of preliminaries, she all at once accosted her in a most endearing manner. This, however, was the signal for his departure. As he left them I heard him mutter,

"When "dear" and "love" they one another call,

Take swift depart, nor wait the coming squall.'

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I saw no ferns gathered. I cannot call to mind whether the Saints went, but I should not have been surprised to hear that they did not; for I do recollect hearing St. Peter address the head of Trememdon's house as my noble Marquis,' and telling him about the famous danseuse, Kitty Trippit, whom he had engaged to perform at the new music-hall about to be opened in close proximity to the Vortex, as a substitute for the pernicious habit of gambling lately acquired by members and authorised clerks' belowstairs, and to afford recreation and brace the jaded nerves of Brokers, Principals, Jobbers, and clerks, during the intervals between slaughtering bulls' and pickling 'bears,' and showing him a letter which he had just received from her (under cover to X. Z.).

'We shall not go ourselves, my noble Marquis,' said St. Peter; indeed, we are getting Tracts printed in vast quantities ready to distribute amongst our weaker brethren out of the Lord. It is like to "take" well enough,' added he, looking up with a knowing grin at the Marquis; would my noble Marquis care to invest? it will be on the limited

'What may the titles of your Tracts be?' asked the Marquis incredulously.

"Shrieks from Pisgah" is the name of one,' said St. Peter. "Also "David in the Damp Sheets," put in Lanky sternly. "Or "The Tottering Tinker,' 999 volunteered St. Luke. "The Spectral Panic" is a lovely one,' urged Fid-fad, who was as yet but slightly imbued; it refers to the millennium beautifully; it would be devoured by all eagerly-indeed, it would "take"!'

I began to think this insulting, but the Lord love you, sir,

Fid-fad did not mean anything. I thought, however, at the time that 'Ye Vampyres!' by Me, would cap them all, for they should be circulated!

Now it was St. Peter's evil genius which had prompted him to mention this subject to the Marquis that morning; for from that hour, so far as his Name was concerned, Fleasaway was doomed.

CHAPTER XXI.

'Not she with trait'rous kiss her Saviour stung,
Not she denied Him with unholy tongue;
She, while apostles shrank, could danger brave,
Last at His cross and earliest at His grave.'
E. S. BARRETT.

Now I saw that Slasher was returned and in his right mind, and the Marchioness, Ralph, Freddy, and he consulted together; the Marquis, having tried to bear up, had completely failed.

'You see, my dear boys,' said she, 'we must keep him alive.' She felt as much for Somers as though he had been her son, though keen was her anguish at what had occurred.

He refuses point blank to go to my father's,' said Slasher. 'Poor fellow he persisted in saying all along that he heard voices in the air.'

What did they say?' eagerly inquired Ralph.

'I cannot tell,' replied Slasher; but I myself plainly saw an unsheathed sword amongst the thunder-clouds, with Justice inscribed above it amidst a dazzling brightness which, flashing all around, nearly blinded me; and I heard a voice, high and clear-'

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'What did it say?' asked Ralph excitedly.
""Righteous Heaven!"

Anything more?'

6.66 Tremble, guilt, for thou shalt find !"''

'Tho did I tho did I,' said Freddy; 'and then I heard thome more-'

"Was it "Yet his bolt shall quickly fly"?' asked Slasher. 'Yeth, yeth. Did Thomerth hear it?'

'He did, but took little notice.'

'How was that?' gently inquired the Marchioness.

'O, he was all too much taken up with joy at having rid the world of a villain !'

'Ah! I do not wonder,' said she, with a deep sigh.

'I mutht thee Thomerth,' said the good-natured boy.
'We'll all go down together,' added Ralph.

When the Marchioness heard this, she said, 'May God be with you all! but he should be advised not to keep too near Trememdon now,' and left them to themselves.

Harry persists in staying near Trememdon,' whispered Slasher to Ralph, ' to watch over HER!'

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Although many a bosom among that Christmas party felt an inward aching, all strove to throw off the sense of gloom which oppressed and seemed to menace them at every point. As the evening approached, the Marquis rallied, and had still a kindly word for every blushing maiden, shedding a lustre wherever he went; and hearts which were warm before became more cordial and hearty as the evening ripened into night.

The Marchioness bore up equally well, casting gleams of joy and brightness in her train; pleasing without effort, gladdening unconsciously, she subdued and endeared hearts unused to woman's wholesome sway, leading each and all to feel the near approach of that bright morn, which so many hundred years before had ushered in the birth of HIм, around whom, despite all subtleties of logic and wilfulness of human nature, many sad hearts clustered; and who then traced out, in His deep, loving nature, in His noble, untrammelled purity of essence, divested of every colouring of misconception, priestcraft, and idolatry, the joys ineffable of Paradise!

CHAPTER XXII.

'Away with your fictions of flimsy romance,

Those tissues of falsehood which folly has wove;
Give me the mild beam of the soul-breathing glance,

Or the rapture which dwells on the first kiss of love.'-BYRON. SLASHER, Ralph, and Stanley left the Christmas party early. They reached old Betty's to find their friend gone. He had left an hour before with a gipsy-woman, whom Ralph and Reginald had met in the morning on Bleak Moor, and who had then informed them of the fugitive's whereabouts. Putting a sovereign into Betty's hand, and getting into a disguise old Peggy had brought with her, they had departed within half an hour of the arrival of the officers of justice, whom Betty had detained as long as she had dared, for they were in no very good humour.