he caught with being so fond of going off to the Continent, instead of coming back to his good old English home.”

He went on repeating much of what he had said before, till he left the room. Osborne had kept on replying to his unreasonable grumblings, which had only added to his anger; and, as soon as the Squire was fairly gone, Osborne turned to Roger, and said—

“Of course you’ll go, Roger? Ten to one he’ll be in another mind to-morrow.”

“No,” said Roger, bluntly enough—for he was extremely disappointed; “I won’t run the chance of vexing him. I shall refuse.”

“Don’t be such a fool!” exclaimed Osborne. “Really, my father is too unreasonable. You heard how he kept contradicting himself; and such a man as you to be kept under like a child by”——

“Don’t let us talk any more about it, Osborne,” said Roger, writing away fast. When the note was written and sent off, he came and put his hand caressingly on Osborne’s shoulder, as he sate pretending to read, but in reality vexed with both his father and his brother, though on very different grounds.

“How go the poems, old fellow? I hope they’re nearly ready to bring out.”

“No, they’re not; and, if it weren’t for the money, I shouldn’t care if they were never published. What’s the use of fame, if one mayn’t reap the fruits of it?”

“Come now, we’ll have no more of that; let’s talk about the money. I shall be going up for my Fellowship examination next week, and then we’ll have a purse in common; for they’ll never think of not giving me a Fellowship now I’m senior wrangler. I’m short enough myself at present, and I don’t like to bother my father; but, when I’m Fellow, you shall take me down to Winchester, and introduce me to the little wife.”

“It will be a month next Monday since I left her,” said Osborne, laying down his papers and gazing into the fire, as if by so doing he could call up her image. “In her letter this morning she bids me give you such a pretty message. It won’t bear translating into English; you must read it for yourself,” continued he, pointing out a line or two in a letter he drew from his pocket.

Roger suspected that one or two of the words were wrongly spelt; but their purport was so gentle and loving, and had such a touch of simple, respectful gratitude in them, that he could not help being drawn afresh to the little unseen sister-in-law, whose acquaintance Osborne had made by helping her to look for some missing article of the children’s, whom she was taking for their daily walk in Hyde Park. For Mrs. Osborne Hamley had been nothing more than a French bonne, very pretty, very graceful, and very much tyrannised over by the rough little boys and girls she had in charge. She was a little orphan girl, who had charmed the heads of a travelling English family, as she brought madame some articles of lingerie to an hotel; and she had been hastily engaged by them as bonne to their children, partly as a pet and plaything herself, partly because it would be so good for the children to learn French from a native (of Alsace!). By-and-by her mistress ceased to take any particular notice of Aimée in the bustle of London and London gaiety; but, though feeling more and more forlorn in a strange land every day, the French girl strove hard to do her duty. One touch of kindness, however, was enough to set the fountain gushing; and she and Osborne naturally fell into an ideal state of love, to be rudely disturbed by the indignation of the mother, when accident discovered to her the attachment existing between her children’s bonne and a young man of an entirely different class. Aimée answered truly to all her mistress’s questions; but no worldly wisdom, nor any lesson to be learnt from another’s experience, could in the least disturb her entire faith in her lover. Perhaps Mrs. Townshend did no more than her duty in immediately sending Aimée back to Metz, where she had first met with her, and where such relations as remained to the girl might be supposed to be residing. But, altogether, she knew so little of the kind of people or life to which she was consigning her deposed protégée that Osborne, after listening with impatient indignation to the lecture which Mrs. Townshend gave him, when he insisted on seeing her in order to learn what had