Notices to Correspondents.

A letter for B. still lies at our office, as no address has been received to which it can be forwarded.

Accepted: "S. Chrysostom's Doxology;" "Whom the LORD loveth He chasteneth."

"Sweet is the smile of home; the mutual look
When hearts are of each other sure;

Sweet all the joys that crowd the household nook,
The haunt of all affections pure;

Yet in the world even these abide, and we

Above the world our calling boast:

Once gain the mountain top and thou art free;

Till then, who rest, presume; who turn to look are lost."

KEBLE, First Sunday in Lent.

"SHALL we leave the ladies with their treasure?" said George Saville, when his own brother had bidden them farewell, "they'll scarcely want us back again," and he turned into his library.

"I was wishing to see you about Eversfield Cottage. Of course if your sisters wish to move into it, and as it is-at Midsummer,-I have not a word more to say upon the subject."

'Ah, thank you, but they do not. London life seems to have caught them all, already, within its fascinations."

"And in that case are you willing to let me have a long lease of it? I should like one-and-twenty years. Then this young urchin will be of age, our duty done! But meanwhile of course he'll be wanting country air, and home in the holidays."

But his father," escaped Arthur almost unawares, doesn't mean to cast off all care of him."

"Well he's going off to New York to-morrow, and to resume his old wandering life of travel! A trial to my mother of course, yet what can a poor man do with a helpless babe like that! and as for staying on in Eaton Square without a wife, why in his place I couldn't have done it for even these past few months. He's let it already to some rich Jew or other who's in a hurry to come in. Of course he may marry again, but I doubt it! and, if he did, the new wife mightn't want this child."

"Then you really still wish to have Eversfield Cottage ?"

'Well, rather more than before, because now it is quite worth while to spend thought and means on a country home of our own. Had this little lad been a girl, why it might have been better to wait and see if Mark did re-marry! but this direct heir-male happily sets me free to carry out a project I've kept in mind ever since our visit to Dorking together soon after your father's death. May I write and make you a direct offer about it? or will you prefer the correspondence going on through our respective lawyers ?"

"Not at all," said Arthur hastily, "as a matter of fact I don't consider that I have a lawyer, too expensive a luxury for me! But of course Darton will advise me, if a lawyer's opinion be needed.”

voce.

"Well, I am quite prepared to make you an immediate offer, and viva Present rent, you said, £50, scarcely more adequate than the former £30. However, better of course than house standing empty; and a convenient stop-gap for the year your sisters had in which to try life in Kensington. Well! I offer £100 a year for a lease of one-and-twenty years, and undertake to rebuild the house within the next two years,— you know poor Henry Cowper's pretty little Queen Anne's maisonette at Henley? with some additions and improvements, I would take that as guide."

"May I ask its cost ?"

"Well, all fancy building is necessarily costly if not scamped, and I could never live in a house of which the workmanship had the least trace of what Carlyle would call 'malfeasance.'-Street's estimate for that was £6,000 if I remember right; and of course there were extras.”

"Say £8,500 in all, and I dare say within the mark, by the time garden and grounds were laid out and planted, and all complete.You cannot seriously expect me, George, to accept such an offer ?" "No? well, of course such healthy and picturesque spots, within easy reach of London, and secure from future intrusion, do fetch fancy

price now-a-days,—almost anything their owner pleases to ask.-Shall I make the rent £150 ?"

"But-"

"Perhaps you don't wish the old house pulled down."

"I don't want to take advantage of your too great generosity," said Arthur, "£150 a year! why husbanded all the years he'll need so little, it would probably clothe and educate my own little lad to the end of his college days! But as for taking such a rent from you, and then allowing you to spend some £8,000 more in building! why I almost wonder my father does not rise from his grave to forbid it."

"Ah, to be sure! well I had better make a formal offer to the trustees as a body.-And here are your sisters. Left the child happy,

Ianthe?" and he rose and held out his hand to her.

"Yes, fast asleep.-Mark asked me if I would follow him to Eaton Square to look over poor Lucy's things. Could you come with me, George, as Dulcie says she must not stay any longer? If your business-"

"Certainly, my love, our business is just over.-Can we take you home first, Dulcie? or drop you anywhere, Arthur ?"

But this brother and sister were bent upon a walk home, and together, and alone, and were allowed their wish. And, though they spoke but little on the way,—the silent walk, alone, together, was an intense enjoyment.

"May we stop here, Arthur ?" said Ducibella, as they crossed the High Street, just opposite the parish church, "we shall be just in time." So he followed her into the large building which had supplanted the little old red brick church of his youth; and thence, half-an-hour later they walked home in silence.

Amabel had come in from Notting Hill. Kathleen's violin lesson and subsequent practice were over; tea ready in the dining-room, the gas lighted and curtains drawn upstairs.

"It is a very dear home-even this," said Dulcibella as they passed up stairs, "perhaps it is well we are obliged to turn out of it, even this might grow too precious."

"You are perfectly sure you do not wish for Eversfield Cottage, when you must leave this ?"

"Dorking? Eversfield Cottage? oh no, Arthur,

pray

don't propose

to Dulcie to banish us to those musicless wilds," cried Kathleen, “ I am quite converted to the 'sweet shady side of Pall Mall,' and to Dr. Johnson's dictum, 'no place like Fleet Street.” ”

"And I sha'nt try to convert you, Kitty!—It makes a difference to my boy of some £100 a year whether you do go there or not, but of course if "

"Oh, can't you let it, Arthur ?" cried Kitty sympathetically, "well we might go for the hot summer months," but then he undeceived her. Dulcibella was glad to hear the young people's merry voices in the hall as she came down from changing her dress and putting on some very becoming tulle cuffs and fichu in Arthur's honour.—“No Queenie ?"

No, she said she could not come. Wasn't it a pity? and she was very sorry, but little Mab was rather cross, and Mrs. Pflegging gone to bed with a headache. Of course Ludo offered to take care of Mabel, but Queenie didn't quite seem to see it!"

"And I am afraid the two journeys would have fagged her terribly— even you young people must have had travelling enough."

Oh, we're not tired, Dulcie! we've had a jolly afternoon, and such a lark coming home," cried Dorothea, "got into the wrong omnibus and were being carried off to Harrow-no, Herne Hill—”

“Well, run up now and take off your things, we are waiting for you."

"We should have been in very good time but for that, so then we had to take a hansom, Charlie thought you'd be frightened if we didn't.—Moral: 'Young people, never try to save your pence, you'll only find it cost you pounds.'

"You didn't really take Dorothea into a city omnibus ?" asked Arthur, who had caught but part of the conversation, as he met Charlie on the stairs.

"Oh, dear, no!"-answered Charlie with the most innocent of tones "it was she who took me !"

and gazes,

Arthur laughed; but answered, "I don't wonder that your Keltic levity is one of the crosses of poor George's life! you and Dorothea would be enough to wear out most reasonable men of two-and-twenty by your own non-reasonablenesses.”

'Well, I couldn't help it; she would hail one and get in. You wouldn't have had me let her go to Herne Hill-that's I believe where we were really bound for-alone ?"