mind the rain; that shewed that he was a misanthropical gentleman.

Another "No." Then the coachman, not to be discouraged, tried again, "Know Balcombe, Sir? not far from there, Sir."

"Oh !"

"Nice place, Sir-can see the house now, Sir."

This time he had aroused the stranger, for he got up from his lolling posture, took the cigar out of his mouth and gazed long and earnestly in that direction, while he muttered something between his teeth.

"Know the Conynghams, Sir? nice family, Sir; but I hears the old gentleman has been and got into debt, and the place is to be sold. The eldest son is galivanting about somewhere, I suppose; they always was a proud family; 'eld their 'eads 'igh, and as my good woman says, 'no good comes of Lor! Sir, what's the matter?"

"Stop-I prefer walking; it is not far to the village."

"Bless you, Sir, a good two mile."

"Very well," and almost throwing the fare into the man's hand, he jumped down, and was gone in an instant. The next moment he was striding across the fields, till he came to Balcombe.

He paused for a second in front of the gates, then turned away and entered a little bye-path that led round to the side of the house. A window was half open, and fiercely putting back the tangled shrubs that were growing in unpruned luxuriance round it, he vaulted in, and was in the great hall in a

moment.

He threw off over-coat and hat, and began to pace heavily backwards and forwards, with hands tightly folded on his breast, as if to keep down the swelling waves that were eddying and surging there, till finally he stopped before the portrait of Lord Reginald De Lisle, one of the ancestors of the Conyngham family, that hung over the fire-place.

As he gazed his face grew dark with concentrated passion; and clutching his hands he muttered through his set teeth: "And it was for this you founded a lordly line, for this you reared an honoured house, for this you gained a noble name, forsooththat it might be whistled to the winds by a gamester, and thrown idly to the mercy of an auctioneer's hammer; and the innocent must suffer the innocent-why? Oh! God, it is too much." And striking his clenched fist with vehemence on the marble, he turned in his fierce anger to walk the hall again.

The door opened at that instant, a form stood on the threshold; so suddenly had it started out of vacancy that to his excited imagination, in the shadowy twilight, it seemed like a spirit. His course was arrested, and he stood motionless; but the figure advanced, a hand was placed on his arm, and Constance's voice said

"Sydney."

He pushed her from him, threw himself on a chair and hid his face in his arms on the table.

His sister knelt beside him and put her arm round his neck

"Oh Sydney, speak to me."

"Go, Constance," he said moodily, as he shook her arm off, "it is no time now for fooling."

She got up, but he felt a tear drop on his hand as she turned to go.

"Constance," he said, suddenly opening his arms, "come back, I did not mean it."

She sank upon his breast, and the long pent up flood of tears at last gave way, and she sobbed for a few moments uncontrollably. Little as he guessed the source of those tears, little as he knew the spring from whence they took their rise, he felt his heart strangely lightened beneath their influence. Without the power to weep himself, those pure messengers of the heart, seemed to flow over his

soul and to cleanse it, by bearing away on their crystal waves the dark passions and the fevered heat of its restless beating.

"You have suffered much," he said at last, in a tone of strange gentleness.

"And so have you," she answered softly, laying her head upon his shoulder.

"Aye! and must suffer more," he replied. "And, papa-oh, if you could but see him; he is so changed, so broken down."

There was some return of bitterness in his tone, as he answered, "And so he may well be."

"Oh! Sydney, if you could but see him."

"So I shall bye and bye," he replied moodily; "I am come to fulfil his wish, to give my consent to the breaking of the entail, and be-a beggar !"

For only answer, her head rested yet more lovingly upon his shoulder, and her arms twined tenderly round his neck. They sat on so together for a little while, listening