that an affectionate husband filled the void in Florence's heart, and saved her from the horrors

of old maidenhood.

Hear the mellow wedding bells,
Golden bells,

What a world of happiness their harmony foretells.

The bells of Newstead are ringing out a wedding peal. The parent nest is cleared of incumbrance. Mrs. Peachum's prognostications have been fulfilled. She is now the wife of the gentleman of the old school-the medical man whose opinion she always so highly valued. It is a marriage of convenience-one could not expect it to be otherwise. Ladylike widows of fifty, fifty-five, fifty-six anything you like-seldom marry for love. It is of no consequence to the bride that her son does not conceal his opinion that she is acting like a fool to give up her liberty. She knows he talks like a dear silly boy-that there is not the least fear of that. She is enchaining another-no, not Mrs. Peachum this time. In th matter of name he has the advantage of preserving his own. Poor unfortunate it is the last advantage he will get over his ladylike wife. The wedding bells ring. There is a cracked sound in their tones, as if they fancied it all a hum. The village children shout as if they think the mockery prime fun.

CHAPTER XVIII.

And as fresher flowers the sod perfume,
Where buried saints are lying,

So our hearts shall gather a sweet'ning bloom,
From the spirit he left them in dying.

MOORF.

PROPERLY speaking, a tale should finish with the death of its hero; if not before, at least then. But I cannot permit mine in this case to do so. Many years after the events and the close of the life I have attempted to draw, my medical man insisted upon my paying Stoneholme a visit. I had grown too old to care for my once favourite residence facing the promenade; on the occasion of this visit, I selected a retired-looking house in the outskirts of the town. I was accompanied by my nieces, housekeeper, valet, horse, terrier, and under-servants. This is the form in which the list was made out in my mind. I had taken an odd, eccentric dislike to the more fashionable part of Stoneholme. The glare hurt my eyesight, weakened by age, or I fancied it did, which was much

the same thing. The daily grind down and up, up and down, was, most tedious, and the sight of so many compeers in beauty and agility made my brougham horse prance in an unpleasingly excited manner. Instead, therefore, of going the old seesaw, knowing everybody and everything so well that I longed for a broken carriage-window as a novelty, I took every day a pleasant country drive. And since a little exercise and a great quantity of air were recommended me, sure as the clock" I alighted at the cemetery entrance, and, leaning on my charming young relatives' arms, sauntered leisurely up the steep grounds, and sat down in the arbour to enjoy the lovely prospect that elevated spot affords. The hill was so perpendicular that it hid from sight the numberless groves at its base. On the right the hills stretched away, one behind another. Straight ahead the little landscape was dotted with villa residences and small strips of gardens, while to the left lay the large and increasing town, with the broad band of sea beyond.

During the first few weeks of my stay at the sea-side there could not have been more charming girls than my two nieces. Instead of complaining of the monotony of my daily proceedings, they declared them to be most pleasant-they had not enjoyed themselves so much they did not know when. In a weak moment I allowed them to accompany an old friend of mine to a large public

X

ball-an officers' ball. From that evening Susie and Sarah were not the same girls. They no longer found the country drives delightful, the snapping of my "Jobby" playfulness, or the stroll up the cemetery innervating. I was always an independent-spirited man. I scorned the thought of being a nuisance to my young relatives in my old age; so one day, when Susie had thrown out some unmistakeably broad hints about Captain Heddings having been surprised he had never met them on the Parade, &c. &c., I told her to be off with Sally for a look at the gay Stoneholme world. She did not want telling twice; before my brougham came to the door, my undutiful companions were out of sight and recal. Well, after all, it was not much to be wondered at. age when prudence whispers, "If you do not settle soon you will be on the shelf;" when truth could add, "You are there already; if called for, you must be taken down and dusted."

They were both of an

With my footman outside the carriage, and my housekeeper and Jobby inside, I felt tolerably well taken care of; and when on my way home Mrs. May suggested, "You wont care for a walk, I suppose, sir, without the young ladies?" I indignantly rejected such a fancy. Leaning on her stout arm, and supported on the other side by my valet, Hills, I reached the brow of the hill.

"There," I said; "I will not go any higher today; lead me to that rustic bench. Now you can

go away to admire the view, and fetch me in a quarter of an hour or so."

child.

It was a lovely summer's afternoon; the balmy air and delicious scent of the wild briar which grew in front of the seat on which I sat helped to soothe my still irritable feelings. Just below there was a monument to the memory Below the pure marble statue of a kneeling cherub was written," Richard Finch," and a date. On the base were these words-"The grass withereth, the flower fadeth."

of a young

A winding path appeared to lead from this place of repose to another. I was looking at the tomb through a gap in the sweet-briar hedge, and trying to read without assistance an inscription, which I could not have made out at such a distance with the aid of my strongest glasses, when two visitors to the cemetery placed themselves before the letters, with their backs towards me.

"Yes," a man said, who from his erect figure appeared to be young; "I have been more fortunate than in my most sanguine moments I ever dared to hope. Now, there is but one boon I crave, and then

'The trivial round and daily task

Will furnish all I care to ask.""

"And what is that one boon?" his companion asked, in a low, serious voice.

I wondered in my place of concealment that she dared to put such a question, so plainly did the