now.

The doctor was at home. He did not appear to think that much was the matter with Mr. Falkland.

"You want a change," he said. "If you could go abroad for a month or two, with a cheerful companion of your own sex, you would probably find yourself quite well again."

He

He stopped a hansom and drove the last time. As if fate were deterto Harley Street. mined to pile things up, something had gone wrong of a business nature in the afternoon, and added to his worry. knew that he ought to be in London for the next day or two, and going away on a honeymoon was inconvenient. It made him quietly impatient even to think of it. But he felt that it would be so discourteous to her to put it off, and he hated discourtesy. So he did not say a word to Miss Glenny about the matters that were troubling him; but his manner was preoccupied and abrupt, and, though she tried not to show it, she was hurt. It was almost a relief when he rose to go. Then she struggled with the situation.

"I have been making arrangements to live in the country and to come up every day."

"A mistake," the doctor answered decisively. "You will find the wear and tear of the daily journey try you a good deal, and the dead leaves and monotony of the country in winter will depress you. London is the best place for a temperament like yours."

"George," she said, "my dress came home this afternoon. It looks subdued

"I am going to marry," Mr. Falk- and proper- a sober grey silk for your land said, half hesitating.

"It is too late to put it off," Mr. Falkland said; and felt bewildered as he walked away. For if he was not to live in the country, why was he doing it at all? It was because Miss Glenny -because they both had wanted to get away from London that they had agreed to marry. But, if he was forced to stay in London, naturally she must do so too; and she might be sorry. It was very puzzling. He felt as if he were selling his freedom for a mess of pottage; worse-as if, for no reason at all, he were giving himself to a gaoler, a gentle, kindly one, but still a gaoler, who would hold the key that made his life a prison. But it was too late to alter things. The marriage must go on. He determined not to tell her what the doctor had said, lest he should make her uncomfortable. But he felt strongly that this was beguiling her into marriage under false pretences, and entering upon it himself under conditions for which he had not bargained.

spinster of sober years turned bride.'

"That's right," he said; and looked at her absently through his pince-nez. There was no enthusiasm in his voice. "Is Mr. Barlow coming to see me this evening?"

"No; he thought you might like to be left alone." Perhaps his voice betrayed something; for she asked quickly :

"Is he sorry that you are going to be married?"

"He didn't say so," Mr. Falkland answered cautiously; "but it would be natural, I suppose. He had had an idea that we he and I might have gone to Switzerland this autumn and done some climbing.”

"You told me you didn't like going abroad," she said, with something like dismay.

"Not your sort of going abroad,” he answered. "We should have smoked and walked all day.”

"I could walk all day, and should like it."

He went to tea alone with her for the night."

"We never talk very much," she was married. The bridegroom had to said. He hesitated for a moment, as if go back to the puzzled. he was staying.

"He and I have been friends so long -and-well, I think two men have always more to say to each other than a man and a woman. They have more things in common.” He looked at the clock as he spoke, as if anxious to get away. Then suddenly she put out her hands to him.

"George," she said, "are you sure that you want to be married that you care about me? I am not very happy," she added piteously; and the tears came into her eyes.

"Why, what is the matter?" he asked, surprised and afraid lest she were going to make a scene.

country inn at which Before he started he and her sister had stood in the moonlight for a moment outside the little door that opened on to a short cut across the field. "Good-bye, my darling," that lover had said; "it will never be good-bye any more; " and he took her in his arms and kissed her, and did not care one single straw whether Margaret witnessed it or not. And when he had gone a step or two he came back and kissed her again, and called her endearing names, and swore to make her happy all her days, and told her that he should count the hours till the morning, and then, as if with a mighty effort, drew himself away and disappeared quickly along the pathway.

Her own parting to-night had been different. She felt as if Mr. Falkland had grown tired of the engagement — as if he were carrying it out merely from a sense of duty. "We had better go through with it now," he had said. Perhaps he regarded it as an obligation he could not shirk, an arrangement it would be foolish to alter. And for this she was changing her whole life. She was giving him her freedom; and her freedom had been very precious to her. She had liked

"It'll be better to go through with it now," he said, as much to himself as to her. "I dare say it will be all right.” It would be better to break it off, the sense of her own irresponsibility even now, if

"No" - but there was a little hesitation in his voice "No; we are not children. We shall get along all right, I expect."

"Some one have arrived for sieur," Marie said, entering. sieur Snoxall want to tell you

so much the knowledge that no one could question her or call her to task for her goings out and comings in, or ask her to give an account of her time. But this would never be again; her Mon- wings were clipped. He had shown Mon- her quietly, but quite plainly, that henceforth her life would be shaped by him, and not by her own fancy. Always in future there would be, Can I do this?" and "I have done so-andso." She felt a little desperate, and almost frightened at the thought of the fate that to-morrow would overtake her. She had loved George Falkland at the beginning of their engagement; she had been prepared to love him very much, had he expected it; and this would have made the monotony of the life that was coming sweet. She could

"I am coming," he said quickly. He seemed thankful for the chance given him to escape. He shook hands with Margaret, and then, as if on second thoughts, kissed her hurriedly, and went down-stairs.

When he had gone she realized that she had said good-bye to him for the last time-that to-morrow would be their wedding-day. He had forgotten to say anything tender about it. She remembered the night before her sister

chave delighted in his tyranny, had she canvas-covered, trunk. It was open; begu sure that he loved her; ord og and on the end towards, her there were But that is what I do not feel, still the labels denoting foreign travel. she said to herself as she sat over the There was one of the hotel at Eury She empty fireplace, with the pot of thought of the table d'hôte. Perhaps meadow-sweet, in front of it. If I the commercial travellers were sitting could only think that he cared, I round it now, telling their stories, In {wouldn't mind, what he did." She imagination she went along the roas broke down and sobbed, and felt louely in the forest again, till she came to the and helpless. It was a nice prelude to sign-post pointing the way to the farm. awedding-day,She crept over to the It was at this time of year, that she had sofa, and put her head down into the gone there; the late cherries in the pillow and lay very still. Presently she autumn would be hanging ripe and red. heard the street door below open, and How free she had been how unfetshut, and a faint hope, took possession tered. The wide, world had been her of her that he was coming back. But very own—and she would never know she waited, listening, and dabbing her that wonderful feeling again. She had tears away, while the clock ticked on to go through with her marriage. {three; minutes;}. Then Marie came in She wrenched, her thoughts away from with a tray on which was a little modestit, and looked at the other label on her meal her last one alone.

i

ing she determined to go there. In an hour she had departed on her way but changed her mind, and went to Honfleur instead, obs

box. It was one of the hotel at Rouen. Voilà, Madame : votre diner. Mon- She had been very happy there, too, till sieur le pasteur, has just arrived en she went to see the pepper-pot-shaped bas. 11 Monsieur, {Snoxall tell me they prison in which poor Joan, had been like each other very, very much, and tortured, and the old square in which Monsieur le pasteur; is very sorry that she had been burut. She remembered Monsieur Falkland should get married. standing in a corner of the square shivHe never believe in marriage. Ah, it ering and mechanically stopping her is a pity that Monsieur and Madame ears as if through all the centuries she are going to the country to live; for could hear a shriek, She hated Rouen Monsieur Snoxall say it is never good after that, and went on by next train to for Monsieur Falkland, and he get un- ILayre; and there she had, stayed in a happy there. Madame want to be queer little wooden shanty a mile or alone? I will go. of poisone muz two along the coast. It looked across Miss Glenny sat looking at her din- to Tronville; and suddenly one mornner. She did not want to eat it.She got up and walked slowly round the room in which she had lived so long. Her life in it had come to an end. She stood before the little square-table on which the silver ornaments were usually arranged. It was bare now; for they had been packed. There was a door leading from the drawing-room into her bedroom. She opened it and looked in. Over the back of a chair was her wedding dress. She remembered reading somewhere an account, more picturesque than accurate, of the execution of Mary Queen of Scots, and of how, the night before, the black velvet dress in which she was to be beheaded was laid across a chair, just as this grey wedding dress was now,ro

1

1. Beside the bed there was a large

There would be none of these vagaries in future. Life would, be ordered quite differently, and, according to the will of a man who had never for a mioment let himself go or led her to believe he loved her better than the whole world; and only for the man who did this was her freedom worth giving up. Then a great tenderness came over her. and she understood him, He wanted to be alone; he wanted to go on living the life that for forty-four-years bad been his, that he had grown, used to, that suited him above all others; and ho had unwittingly, bequ, drawn into this engagement with her, and was too

honorable a man to shirk it, and too kind a one to let her know the rebellion in his heart. She thought of his flat and his untidy, tobacco-scented sitting-room. She had not seen it many times but she felt that it was very precious, to him; yet that it would not exist neither that nor the like of it -in his future. It would have gone against all her instincts to have had a room like that in a well-kept house over which she presided. There swept in upon her like an avalanche a tide of sympathy with him, of understanding of the wrench to-morrow would be to him, the wrench, away from his old life, the books, and, the silence, the comfort and the restful loneliness.,

1

She looked at the trunk ngain; it was ready packed. All things were in it that she would want, if, for instance, she were starting for Normandy. There would be nothing to do but to close and lock it. Her travelling-cloak and hat were on the table at the foot of the bed. ; How wonderful it would be to dart off into the open once more → free free. It was just eight o'clock. At 8.50 the train, for. Dieppe left Victoria. She felt, herself tremble from head to foot. Did a bird feel like that before it took wing? She went towards the trunk. There was some muslin on the bed. She put it softly over the wedding dress on the chair;

some wheels that had stopped at the house a minute before, and now turned round and went off into the distance;::: "I think I should like to tell you about it," Mr. Barlow -said; “and I would rather do so now, before you have a wife, to whom you may feel inclined to repeat confidences.

It was late when they had finished their talk, and Mr. Falkland felt no better for it. When his friend had gone to his room he sat by the empty fireplace, as Miss Glenny had done by hers; and then got up and walked round his room, looking longingly at every familiar thing, it held ; and he felt, as she had known he did, that he was giving away his quiet, his books. that he was changing his whole life for an idea, a mere speculation. Moreover, he was about to make himself responsible for another's portion of happiness, and he night fail to give her any, He wondered how he could have been so rash. In the past winter, when they were merely friends, they had each been content; why had he altered things? It had been pleasant enough to go up-stairs and watch her bending over her work and to think of many things of which it was unnecessary to speak-pleasant to come back to the quiet. To-morrow he was going out of the quiet, and would never come back to it again. Forever in the future there would be a human being with him, tied to him, belonging to him, looking DOWN-STAIRS the two men sat at to him, taking her portion of weal or their dinner, ↑ Mr. Barlow's spirits were woe, as it was given to him to deal it not as good as in the morning, and his out. He felt ashamed of having broken talk was graver. He apologized for his in upon her peaceful life. She is a jokes; they hath not been in very good dear woman," he said to himself, and taste, he said. “And I'm sure the lady enjoyed her life in her own way; what is charming ; let's drink her health, I a fool I was to meddle with it. We shall miss you, of course. A man isshall neither of us be the better for never the same after he is married.?.

1

IV.,

I

) what we are going to do we have been used to freedom too long."

You were the same." I Don't let's talk of that," Mr. Barlow said, with a shudder; and he put down his wine untasted. Those years were an awful mistake; you never knew their history."

No, Mr. Falkland answered; "I never liked to, ask you questions." While he spoke he listened absently to

It was past midnight. Mr. Falkland got up desperately and went to his room, but he was staring wide-awake with the knowledge that slowly, and surely neuralgia was coming to torment him through the long, dark hours. “I must stop this at any price," he thought, "even at the risk of a headache to

morrow." He took a bottle from a wear till the one is exchanged for the shelf, and poured a dose into a glass, turban, and the other for the shawl thinking, while he did so, of Jack Bar- and veil. At the end of ninety years low's story, which flashed back vividly the story of these children, or rather upon him. "It will be all right," he of their father and mother— the handthought as he turned on his pillow and some young Englishman, whom they drowsiness overtook him. "At any called Hushmat Jung (Glorious in Batrate, we shall get a little spell of the tle), and the beautiful lady, Khair un country and afterwards—afterwards Nissa (Excellent among Women) — is

-

Then the greyness came and gathered over him.

There was a knock at Miss Glenny's door at eight o'clock next morning. When Marie opened it she found Snoxall, trembling and agitated.

he

still remembered in Hyderabad. The story is so curious and romantic that I have thought it worth while to tell something of it as it really happened, and as it is known from our family papers and family traditions; and if I only had the story-telling powers of Scheherezade, I believe that the romantic loves of Hushmat Jung and Khair un Nissa would rival many of

"Where is Mademoiselle?" asked. The old woman put her hands back with a motion of despair. “Monsieur, I do not know. She is the Arabian Nights' Entertainments. not here."

"Not here! I must find her directly," Snoxall said; and Marie saw that there were tears in his eyes. "Where is she? Something has happened

"I do not know," Marie repeated, too bewildered to notice his manner. "She went away in a cab last night, with a big box on the top-it is extraordinaire. But of Course Monsieur

"Marie," said Snoxall, in a scared voice, and touched her arm,“ Monsieur is dead." LUCY CLIFFord.

In the eighteenth century the great Mogul Empire, which in the days of Akbar could compare in civilization with the contemporary England of Elizabeth, fell to pieces. The viziers, subadars, nawabs, and other great officials of that empire, possessed themselves of the provinces which their predecessors had administered, with only an occasional pretence at recognizing the authority of their nominal sovereign, who still held a shadowy court at Delhi. Whether one or other of these Muhammadan princes, or an adventurer like Hyder, should restore the Muhammadan supremacy throughout India; whether the rise of the Mahratta power foretold the recovery of India for the Hindoos, or whether the ultimate power was to fall either to the French or the

English, this was the question still unsolved when Lord Mornington, better known by his later title of Lord Wellesley, went out to India as governor-general in 1798. The English

IN the house of Captain Phillipps at Torquay there is a life-size picture of a boy and girl, apparently of the ages Company of Merchants trading to the of four and three, respectively. The East Indies had acquired the soverartist was evidently English, and the eignty of several Indian provinces in faces of the children have an English spite of itself; and while it was still look; but their dress is Indian; they protesting with sincerity that it only have flowing robes of red or green, desired to carry on its trade without their naked feet are in embroidered any employment of its soldiers other slippers, and their curly hair shows than that of self-defence, and had even under their tightly fitting caps braided embodied this declaration in an act of with gold-caps which Indian children Parliament, they were obliged by the