tacle of her late adorer wavering in his care to know what Nancy's symptoms allegiance, she entered the lists with had been up to the last, or to learn in the Prices, and, in an evil moment for detail how, after passing a restless herself, won an easy victory, and be- night, the old woman had sunk into a came John Cooper's promised wife. torpor which, according to the doctor, The transitory enjoyment of witnessing would before long terminate in death. the Prices' mortification when the en- Without being precisely heartless Beagagement was given out, was the only trice had a great dislike to all that appleasure she had yet derived from the pertained to sickness and poverty. If affair. The meeting just recorded was she could have her way all misery would a very fair sample of their relations to be cured by magic, but she felt no inone another. stinctive longing personally to relieve In a few minutes Beatrice was knock-pain, or bring comfort to the afflicted. ing at the door of the tumble-down cot- But suddenly the woman's words ar tage on the outskirts of the village. rested her attention apathy was On entering the room in which the dy- exchanged for extreme excitement. ing woman lay she did not experience Beatrice started up and poured out a any of the involuntary reverence that volley of questions, to which the woman, is awakened in most people by the near with the circumlocution of her class, approach of death in any form. She carefully avoided any direct answer. was merely conscious of the more repulsive features of the scene the dusty furniture, and confusion of dirty cups and basins, containing the remnants of past meals that were scattered about the table. Her first care was to seat herself as far from the bed as possible, whilst an untidy woman, who it appeared was Nancy's daughter, took the basket and unpacked its contents, accompanying the operation with perpetual exclamations of gratitude.

"Mother's been wanting to see you ever so, miss," she began, when the last little delicacy was deposited safely on the table. "There's been some'ut on her mind that's troubled her mortal bad these last days. She couldn't bring herself to name it even to me till near daybreak-well, it might be three o'clock then. She were a-groaning away to herself, and a-clutching at the sheets, and I promised her as how I'd send for you soon as ever the boy had done milking

"I know," interrupted Beatrice, "you sent up for me early, but I was busy all the morning. And I do not see what use I am now," she added, glancing towards the motionless figure lying in the corner.

Then ensued a long and involved explanation on the part of the woman, to which Beatrice listened with very slender interest. She did not really at all

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"Yes! But I don't care to hear what the neighbors said and what you thought!" interrupted Beatrice impatiently. Repeat to me what you were telling just now about the railway accident and what it is that Nancy knows!" Her cheeks were flaming as she spoke. She felt on the eve of a great discovery.

How you do

"Well, I never, miss! take on to be sure! And it's no such great matter after all," continued the woman soothingly.

"Make haste then, and tell me all about it your own way," said Beatrice, sinking back on a chair, and mastering her emotion as best she could.

The whole story briefly amounted to this. On the day of the famous accident, Nancy had assisted at the removal of the victims to the inn. It appeared that yielding to a sudden temptation she had appropriated a small parcel out of the pocket of the unfortunate woman who was popularly considered to be Beatrice's nurse. This parcel Nancy had kept by her ever since, a superstitious terror of incurring the resentment of the dead woman having prevented her from making any use of its contents. Now on her deathbed she was stricken with remorse, and full of anxiety to restore the missing property as nearly as possible to its original owner.

"And is that all? Everything you some other traces. I will find out yet. know?" demanded the girl imperi- Make your mother speak, can't you!" ously. "And where are the things And she turned angrily on the wonderyour mother stole ? give me my prop-ing woman at her side. erty at once!" she continued in a voice trembling with anger and excite

ment.

“Lor, miss! How you do speak out, to be sure! Poor mother, there, she never meant to do you a harm, for certain. Any way you'd never go to disturb her when she's just passing away, as quiet as a lamb.”

"Give me my property at once," reiterated the girl, "or I will send for some one who will make you !"

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It isn't no manner o' use speaking to mother any more, miss," she replied stolidly. "She's going to glory, she is, and it ain't no use a hindering of her with questions and such like.”

But Beatrice was not to be deterred. Overcoming her natural repugnance, she drew back the faded cotton curtain that partially concealed the old woman, and bent over the bed.

"Nancy," she said, in a hard, metallic voice," tell me what you did with the rest of my things? There must have been something more valuable! I will know the truth!"

ful lest the old woman should die in her very presence, she swept together the little articles on the quilt, and hurried out of the room.

Frightened by the awful vagueness of this threat, and with visions of policemen, armed with all the terrors of the law, floating before her eyes, the There was no reply. The old woman woman went to the bedside, and tried lay motionless, her dim eyes half closed. to remove some object from under the She drew her breath with evident diffipillow. But the stiffened hand of the culty, and with a low, moaning accomdying woman retained its grasp, and it paniment. It was obvious, even to was not until Beatrice, with averted one ignorant of such matters, that the eyes, lent her help, that the bony, wrin-end was very near. Then suddenly a kled fingers relaxed their hold. A great terror fell upon Beatrice, and fearpacket about four inches square, folded inside some dirty newspapers, did not seem a great acquisition. Yet Beatrice felt that it contained her fate. She could not wait to return home but tore off the string at once, and turned the contents of the parcel out on the shabby patchwork quilt that lay across the bed. A fine cambric handkerchief, with a beautifully embroidered monogram, three half-crowns, and a tiny gold locket. That was all! The girl simply gasped with astonishment. If the packet had contained a tiara of diamonds or a family pedigree, it would have astonished her far less.

It was impossible to return at once to Rose Cottage and Miss Whimper's kindly scrutiny. There were many things to be thought over; whether to make known the discovery as far as it went, or to keep it a secret for the present, being the principal point that Beatrice was debating feverishly in her own mind. So she turned up a narrow, grassy lane, where she could stroll along as slowly as she pleased, without fear of interruption. But as she turned a corner, all thought was rendered impossible, by the extraordinary medley of sounds that greeted her ear. The yells, howls, and imprecations, interrupted Can it be all? There must be from time to time by the sharp report something more!" she repeated fever- of a gun, suggested the idea that someishly, as she turned the little articles thing of the nature of a South Amerover and over in her hands. "Oh, why ican revolution had broken out in the did I not know sooner!" she broke neighborhood. Even Beatrice, preout passionately. Nancy could have occupied as she was, felt bound to make told me more; she must have found further investigations. But the first

Indeed she had quite expected some such dénouement to the scene; some decisive discovery that would entirely alter her whole life.

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III.

glance through a gap in the hedge, dispelled the illusion that anything apIT is difficult to describe the extreme proaching a social tragedy was in prog- bitterness with which Beatrice brooded ress. It was merely one of the farmers over her fate during the next few days. cutting his last bit of barley, and, as Brought up by Miss Whimper to regard was customary, all the farm men were herself as a kind of princess in disassembled with a view to securing the guise, she naturally accepted all that rabbits that had taken refuge in the the old lady did for her with an underrapidly diminishing patch. There was current of feeling that after all she had not more than half an acre left stand- not received her deserts. Rose Cottage ing now, and at every circuit of the for a home, and John Cooper for a machine some poor rabbit, realizing husband, would have done all very well that his sanctuary would shortly cease if she had really been Miss Whimper's to exist, made a bold rush for life across niece. But under those circumstances the open space that separated him from she would probably have been a very the friendly shelter of the hedgerow. homely, unornamental little person, the As each rabbit appeared, it was mobbed very opposite in fact to what was actuby half-a-dozen laborers, and their at-ally the case. And now she had been tendant sheep dogs, the waving of on the very verge of discovering the sticks, throwing of stones, and fearful great secret that would have opened to clamor of upraised voices being calcu- her a new existence, and had been dislated to bewilder a much bolder animal. appointed only by a series of trivial But in spite of apparently overpowering accidents. She was furious with herodds, many a rabbit would have es- self for having postponed her visit to caped, if Mr. Cooper had not been Nancy until it was too late, and still standing quietly under the great oaktree, and rolling them over with a charge of No. 6 shot through their heads, just as the worst of the danger seemed over.

This sight added the last touch to Beatrice's annoyance. Rather unreasonably she ignored the fact that the presence of a gun probably saved many a rabbit from crawling off to die with a broken leg, for though the laborers often succeed in inflicting injuries with their different missiles, it is comparatively seldom that they manage to pick up their victims. But wilfully disregarding this view of the case, she only felt a movement of contempt and disgust for a man who could amuse himself in this fashion. Every moment the excitement grew louder and more furious, as the patch of standing barley diminished in size, until at the last round, as all the rabbits rushed out, rather than be cut to pieces by the machine, the yells became simply frenzied. Then Beatrice turned and hurried home, fearing, if she waited longer, that she might risk another encounter with her lover.

more so with the old woman whose original fault had caused all the trouble. Her anger extended in some sort to Miss Whimper, who surely might have made more searching inquiries at the time of the accident. She even felt a certain spite against the dead woman who had been lying for so many years under the green mound in the churchyard. It must have been in some measure owing to her carelessness that there was so little by which to identify the child. In the mean time, a sort of sullen reticence prevented Beatrice from mentioning what had occurred in the cottage. Nancy died without regaining consciousness, and for the present all hope of further revelations seemed at an end.

nothing of the least importance ever what surprised her, for the visits of the went on in the parish without her pres- school inspector were not as a rule the ence and sanction. There was always signal for much light-hearted rejoicing a little friendly rivalry between her and amongst the youth of the village. Starthe rector's family, both wishing to en-tled by an exceptionally loud shout of tertain the distinguished ecclesiastical | laughter, she waited for a moment in visitors, who from time to time came to the school porch, trying to gather Blankton in an official capacity. As a through the half-open door what was rule Miss Whimper quite held her own, going on inside. for though the bishop had once dined and slept at the rectory on the occasion of the church opening, the archdeacon had quite restored the balance by taking tea at Rose Cottage three years running, before starting to catch his train. School inspectors were a sort of debatable ground.

Beatrice, my love," said Miss Whimper, after a few moments of anxious thought, "I am exceptionally busy this morning, as Ellen is making the damson jam, and I never can trust her to remove the stones carefully unless I am in and out of the kitchen all the time. Of course I must go down to the school presently, particularly as I know the rector has had a touch of bronchitis and is confined to the house. But I wish you would put on your hat and just run down and tell Mr. Grainger that I hope to see him to dinner as usual. No doubt he will be glad to be spared the walk to the rectory. You can remind him that this is only half the distance."

"What! Not recognize Mr. Jorrocks? Never heard of him, did you say, children? Well, I wonder what they do teach you in these schools! "

This did not seem quite right; neither did the voice sound like that of Mr. Grainger. Beatrice pushed open the door and walked in. The schoolroom presented a very unusual appearance for an examination day. At one end presided the gentleman who had just been addressing the children before she entered. He was about thirty years younger than Mr. Grainger, and a very different-looking person altogether. Very fair and slight, dressed in most unprofessionally cheerful checks, he did not much resemble anybody that Beatrice had ever met. He was seated in an easy attitude on the top of a desk, and was flourishing a bit of chalk with which he had just completed a rude sketch of an animated hunting scene on the blackboard. The children were naturally looking on at this performance with unmitigated delight, while the schoolmistress had retired into a corner, divided between amusement and alarm at this astonishing variation The old lady's petty pre-occupations on the established routine. As Beatrice and vanities seemed so ludicrously con- entered the room, the stranger compostemptible compared with the great mat-edly slid off the desk, and, advancing lers over which she was brooding. with a sweet smile, introduced himself However, good Miss Whimper did not to her. detect the shade of irritation in her manner, and trotted off contentedly to superintend the jam making, with the comforting conviction that she had secured the inspector's presence without neglecting her household duties.

"Very well; I will do my best to secure you a guest," replied the girl rather mockingly.

"I am afraid you will be disappointed at not finding my friend Mr. Grainger here," he began in a singularly soft voice. "The fact is he was upset out of a dog-cart just as he was starting to drive here this morning. Nothing seriIt was a very short walk to the school, ous, you know, but the doctor said he and even before Beatrice was out of had better lie still for a day or two. the garden she could hear the merry And I came on here as fast as I could voices of the children coming through so that he shouldn't worry about the the open windows of the building. The inspection." repeated outbreaks of merriment some

"Oh, I see," said Beatrice, rather

vaguely, as she stared at the outlines | so?" replied the young man, sinking on the blackboard. "An object lesson," murmured the drawing-room window, that commanded young man, following the direction of her eyes.