the ideal excellence of the young man of the period, who hears with equal apathy of a railway accident or a revolution."

"Well, I suppose they only follow the fashion, just as in their coats and collars."

"But what an age it must be that makes a dead calm its acme of good style, and substitutes Jack Poyntz for Ranger or Charles Surface."

"Good Heavens, Diana! you don't mean to say you read those horrid old plays? Mamma would not let me study such things on any account."

"Nonsense! As if they could be worse than the French plays one sees now, or half a dozen English ones I could name. At least, I enjoy the male characters more than in ours. They were infinitely more sparkling, and I don't believe they were a bit wickeder at bottom."

"Gentlemen now could be quite as witty if they cared to try."

“Oh, I don't doubt their abilities, my dear; I suppose the breed of male animals produces about the same number of prodigies in every age; but how is one to know it? I certainly prefer men who kept their wits and their swords equally bright by daily use. Here one is in equal uncertainty as to their livers or their intellects."

"Livers,' Diana! What an expression!"

Strictly Shakespearian, I assure you. A lily-livered knave,'-see 'Macbeth.' I daresay you can find a dusty copy of Shakespeare on the top shelf in the library."

"Ah, Di! I'm afraid you never will get married at this rate.” "No, dear. As someone says of Morris, 'I shall die the serene martyr of a mean and melancholy time.'"

"You must have had plenty of offers ?"

66

Oh, dozens! all couched in the condescending brevity with which the preux chevalier of the day deigns to express his wishes. Now just contrast the men we have been talking about. Worship commences by a shower of more or less readable verses, which you have the option of reading or committing to the flames. You casually drop your handkerchief into a running stream or down a precipice, and your adorer throws himself after it, and restores it at the risk of his life. After a while he throws himself on his knees-both knees, mind and begs you to save him from destruction. You relent; on leaving you he meets his rival; a glance is enough; swords flash out "--so did Diana's eyes-" and woe to him who flinches."

"Horrible!" said Patty.

"Will this suit you better? Strephon strolls lazily into the room; remarks on the weather; allows himself to decline into a seat by your side, and suggests that you should become Mrs. Strephon. En sortant he meets his rival; treads on his toes; they exchange

abusive epithets, light cigars, and-oh, bathos!-cut each other at the club."

"Well, that's better than fighting," said Patty.

"And infinitely safer. Well, my dear, perhaps, after all, you are right. We mustn't take our idea of the class from Sir Harry Wildair -there's a darling name for you. They only show what was considered the thing. I daresay I am getting fearfully crabbed. You see when a girl has money she becomes the centre of a circle of deception. Let's change the subject. How well that habit fits you."” "It feels rather strange. You see I so seldom ride at home."

'Ah, of course. Now to me habit is second nature, as someone says. I feel infinitely more comfortable in one than in a low dress. I purposely lent you my regular riding-hat, for I wanted to see how I should feel in this new-fangled affair. I'm afraid it wouldn't suit crashing through a bullfinch; one wants something stiffer for that. . . . What's that?" she cried, as an indistinct sound came down the wind, and both horses pricked up their ears. "The hounds; they must have come all the way from Marlford."

"Oh do look at this horse, Di! He's dancing up and down fearfully."

"Put him on the curb, dear, if he's too troublesome. Ah, there they go! Look, Patty, there's a sight for you! See how close they run together! There's Mr. Vane on Brown Bess. Well tried at, Mr. Vane! Ah, the Major does it-oh, the conceit of that man !and here come the rest; only two gaps for all the poor creatures. There's my little brother Bantry bringing up the rear on his ponya terrible hard fellow is Bantry. Oh, Patty," said Diana, trembling with excitement, "I'd give anything to be with them."

"Then do go, dear," said Patty, with an effort of self-sacrifice that "I shall be safe enough. Withers will take care

was enormous.

of me."

66

Well, he's just down in the road there. Keep along it, and you'll just cross the line they are taking. I really must-come, Terry ;" and away went Diana, habit tossing and eyes glistening, and vanished gloriously.

Patty turned her horse's head back towards the gate of the field they had turned into, and got safely out into the road. Some distance down it she could see Withers, the groom, who was having a little difficulty with his horse, which was plunging and curvetting in a diagonal position, as is the manner of eager horses, performing an equine balance-step without advancing particularly. On Crusader catching sight of his companion in ill-doing, he proceeded to imitate his actions with a considerable amount of exaggeration. Patty, finding him bursting into a canter, attempted to take up the curbrein, but only succeeded in getting both in an inextricable confusion.

Then she clung in terror to them with both hands, on which theirritable Crusader fought himself into a confused canter, which developed itself into a smart gallop, dashed past the astonished Withers, and stampeded.

Our friend the Major had arrived at the meet that morning, and was considerably chagrined not to find the object of his intentions. present. "The stiffest bit of country for miles round, too," he said to himself. "What can she be thinking of?" His determination of the morning was still in his mind, and he longed for an opportunity of putting it in practice. Oh, for the sight of the well-known blue habit and iron-grey steed! The Major was destined to have his aspirations gratified in an unexpected manner.

He had been riding a line of his own for a short distance, and was separated from the rest of the field by the breadth of a pasture, when he heard the quick-repeated rattle of a horse going at full gallop in the road on the other side of the high hedge, parallel to which he was riding, and in another moment he saw through the twigs the horse he had looked in vain for at the meet tear past him at mad speed, the blue habit streaming back as the wearer swayed in the saddle, holding the reins in both hands with the convulsive grasp of fear.

"Run away, by Jove!" said the Major, turning Zerlina's head without the least hesitation at the quickset. Two or three intense, short strides a rise, and a crash of twigs,-a rattle of horse-hoofs as they patter on the hard road, as Zerlina just manages to save her knees and nose from damage by a clever recovery, and then the Major, as cool as if he had been hopping over a gutter instead of one of the ugliest drops in his experience, set her going in pursuit.

The fact was, the Major was in that state of exaltation that every soldier feels on coming into action. Quick as lightning he saw the coming situation, and braced himself to take advantage of it, and as he crept nearer and nearer to the fugitives he felt his confidence rise in his horse's powers and his own.

About half a mile from the place where this stern chase commenced, where the road was crossed by another at right angles, stood an inn called the Cross Keys. The Major knew this, and also that on the other side of it the road dipped down into a rather steep hill. He had got up some twenty yards nearer when the inn appeared in sight, and, keeping on the turf at the side of the road, that the noise of his approach might not add fresh speed to the runaway, he called on Zerlina smartly for a decisive effort.

In front of the Cross Keys there was a triangular patch of sodden turf, and as Crusader came upon this he slackened his speed very slightly; the Major dashed alongside and seized the reins near the bit in his right hand; the horse, which was not a vicious one, stopped

after a few struggles, as he felt the power at work on the curb; and the lady, falling fainting forward in a heap on his neck, would have tumbled to the earth, had not the ever-ready Major leapt from his saddle, and caught her in his arms. It would have made a capital picture the two horses standing steaming and panting, and the Major staggering under the weight of the senseless damsel, whose chin hung over his shoulder-while her hair, released from its bonds in her wild flight through air, streamed down his scarlet-coated back. With some difficulty the Major carried his lovely burden into the porch of the Cross Keys.

"Show me a private room, and get me a glass of brandy!" were the orders with which he stopped the mouth of the astonished landlady.

"La! Poor dear young lady!" said that female, in a voice of sympathy, as she brought the restoring fluid. "Can I do anything for her, sir?"

"No, I think not," said the Major decisively. "Leave her to me. I've had some experience in cases of this kind," and thrusting half-acrown into the woman's hand he shut the door in her face.

"Well, how she could ha' married he!" said the woman to herself, as she returned to the bar. She evidently thought, from the Major's want of sympathy, that he must be the husband of the sufferer.

The evening glooms were just closing in, and made the little backparlour look more and more dismal and dingy. The Major raised the clinging veil sufficiently to thrust the edge of the glass between the lips of the patient. Presently the colour came back to her face, she drew a long gasping breath, and felt for her pocket-handkerchief. It was in the pocket of her saddle-the Major instantly placed his snowy cambric in her trembling hand. Then she overflowed.

The Major waited a little. Then he ventured to take the hand that was not occupied with his pocket-handkerchief, and said in a tone of respectful tenderness,

"Don't, pray don't give way so! You're quite safe now, I assure you."

Sob, sob.

"If you knew how every sob you utter rends my" ("vitals," the Major was going to say, then he thought of "breast," and finally substituted) "heart, you-you wouldn't keep on so.

Sob, sob.

"You don't know how I have hoped, have longed for a moment like this; to hold your hand in mine, to feel that we are alone together, that you do not repulse me, that I am permitted" (kisses her hand), "that you do not forbid me." (Business as before.)

Sob, sob, sob. "When will she stop?" thought the Major.

"You do not answer; speak to me,—or hear me while I tell you what I have wished to say for long days past. Miss Harford-Diana, I love you!" That was deucedly well put, thought the Major to himself.

"SIR!" said the lady, suddenly becoming electrified into an erect posture. It was but one word, but it was quite enough to almost throw the Imperturbable off his invincible equilibrium. For that moment Miss Roseneath could boast of having seen that great man, to use a common but expressive term, flabbergasted.

"Patty!-Miss Roseneath!"

"Yes, Major Marjoribanks, Miss Roseneath. Oh, take me home, take me home, and never, never dare to call me Patty again!"

"The-de-vil!" said the Major, slowly, beneath his moustaches. "You might have been satisfied with making a fool of a poor silly girl, without insulting her afterwards. Oh, how could you be so c-c-cruel!"

"I say, Patty-listen a moment-don't talk like that. You don't suppose I meant to hurt your feelings? Hang it, I ain't such a cad as all that comes to. I didn't know it was you—I took you for "

"Oh, I know; you took me for Miss Harford. Dear Di! she told me you had been making love to her since you came. But I thought you had only been fl-fl-flirting," said poor Patty, going off again.

"Did she tell you that?" said the Major.

"Yes; and she said you were a conceited man, and she was afraid every day you'd propose, because she would have the trouble of refusing you. I never told her all you said to me down at Rosewood. Silly that I was, ever to believe in a Major!"

Did pique and chagrin at the intelligence that he had just received prompt the Major's next impulse? Or did his better angel whisper to him that a dinner of herbs with this little woman who really loved him, and for whom he was conscious of a feeling as nearly akin to that passion as he was capable of experiencing, would be better than a more splendid repast with her to whom he was indifferent? Bitterly would he have derided such an idea from another; bitterly that morning would he have laughed at the thought of his present conduct. But few men act up to their principles; and it was with a ring of genuine feeling in his voice that he sat down by Patty's side and said—but we will not write his words; they were greatly devoid of that artistic fluency which generally distinguished the Major's utterances to the fair sex; but to Patty they sounded like flowing honey.

"And you really will,-and you're not sorry for what has happened ?"