CHAPTER XXII.

CHARLIE'S HEROISM.

AVING promised to consider Arthur's request with regard to his party, Dr. Leslie's mind was soon made up, and to the little fellow's great delight he was allowed to issue notes of invitation to his fellowchoristers. The day fixed was the one before that on which Charlie had arranged to visit Dernham, and a delightful evening the boys spent, Pat provoking much merriment by his comical speeches.

With rather a heavy heart Charlie took his leave on the morrow, Arthur accompanying him to the station, and bidding him "make haste back as soon as he could !"

"I'll do that!" returned Charlie. Poor boy! he did not, could not, feel any great desire to see Mrs. Ellis, and upon his sensitive mind this sorely pressed. Nor did she, in her turn, manifest any particular pleasure at seeing him once

more.

As they were sitting by the fire one night, she suddenly began. "How old are you?"

"Thirteen next February, grandmother."

"You'll soon have to be thinking what you'll do, when you leave that choir."

"I have thought, grandmother."

"What?"

"I should like to be a clergyman."

The old woman laughed, not a pleasant laugh either, and said, "Well, I mean to say we're flying at high game. Who's to pay, I should like to know? You a clergyman, indeed! and your grandmother a washerwoman! Who's put that into your head, Charles Ellis ?"

"I've often thought about it."

"And thinking will be all, my fine gentleman. I can't afford to pay for you. You'll be a clerk or something of the sort, I expect, that's all."

"But I am to be a clergyman, grandmother-I'm to go to college, it's settled," said the boy gently, though his fair face flushed at the covert sneer.

"Who's going to pay? Tell me that."

"Perhaps the Dean and Chapter will."

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Perhaps! Ay! It will be perhaps, and when it comes to the point it'll stop there. Nobody cares enough for you, my lad, to do so much for you.”

"But grandmother, if they don't, someone else has promised."

"Who?"

"Someone who is very kind to me, Mr. Alexander Menteith. He is so good," returned Charlie.

"How on earth did you get to know him? You're always getting to know somebody or other," half-shrieked the old woman, her eyes fairly blazing with wrath.

"I have known him four years," was the answer, “he is a clergyman, and a proper one too."

"Do you ever talk to him?"

"Yes, frequently."

"Have you told him about your home?"

"Yes."

"And about me?"

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'Yes, he wanted to know all; so I told him."

"Little fool!" muttered she, menacingly regarding the fair child.

"What else passed between you?"

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'He asked what I wanted to be, and I said a clergyman, and he said I should be one, for he'd send me to college at his own expense."

"What is he like?"

"Very tall, and the boys say he is so like me in features, we might be taken for brothers."

"I wonder what they'll say next, the idiots! They pamper you up, and then tell you you're like a lord's son. You'll be fancying you are one, next, and not care to come and see your old grandmother. I don't believe you care much now."

Charlie couldn't say he did, and wouldn't tell a lie, or equivocate, so he remained silent, and the old woman went on, "I suppose I shall soon have to consider it an honour to receive a visit from my grandson. Look here, young sir, when you've done with that precious cathedral choir I shall leave Dernham, and go right away, and shall expect you to go too. They'll give you a character, and you'll be able to get a clerkship somewhere else. How should you like to go to Fairford? It'll soon be time you were able to support me. Won't it be nice for us to live together, eh,my dear?"

She spoke with biting sarcasm, evidently intending to make him feel her power over him, and Charlie bit his lips to keep back the high spirit that was struggling to assert itself. Presently he spoke, and his voice sounded strangely harsh and constrained.

"I think it would be better for me to go to college. If I had a living, I could support you better than as a clerk."

"That's all very well, one for me, and two for yourself. We want to see ourselves in the pulpit, don't we? The Rev. Charles Ellis would sound pretty, wouldn't it? You'll never get it, though. I'm your guardian, please to remember, until you're of age. Where are you going to spend the rest of your holiday?"

"At Mr. Leland's," responded Charlie, in the same constrained voice.

"What's he?"

"A solicitor."

"I thought he was somebody grand." "He is very kind, so is Mrs. Leland."

"Of course! I suppose she fusses you up, and pets you, and calls you 'Charlie dear.' Oh, well, I never have, and what's more, never shall. I hate fuss."

"She is very kind to me," said the boy, resolutely, "and I like her very much indeed."

"Of course you do, she isn't poor, and doesn't take in washing."

"It isn't that, I'm sure it isn't," replied he.

"Don't tell me. I don't believe you. I say it is, and contradict me if you dare. What other fine friends have you in Norstone ?"

"Dr. Leslie, I spent the last fortnight there.”

"Oh, indeed! Well, you may make the best of your smart friends now; when you leave Norstone, and settle down with me at Fairford, I question if such gentle-folks notice you."

Poor Charlie! poor orphan boy! Cruel, malignant old woman, how couldst thou thus treat the sweet child, who, hadst thou met him with common kindness, had been all goodness to thee?

Poor Charlie! on reaching his room that night, he seated himself on a box in front of the window, seeking to calm his perturbed and angry spirit, before retiring to rest. Angry he was, too, poor child, with almost uncontrollable passion, and not without ample reason. All honour to him that he uttered no hasty word,—that he retaliated not when one could surely have forgiven him, had he broken bounds. For some time he sat thus, the little hands tightly clasped, the white teeth clenched, the fair face dark with pain and trouble. Presently he rose, and flung himself

on his knees by the bed-side, his face buried in his arms, and sobbed bitterly. Then he sprang up, slowly undressed, and crept into bed, apparently soothed, for his brow wore a less troubled expression, and the sweet lips were gently folded.

When the last day came, how relieved he felt, to think that, ere night, he should be in Mrs. Leland's kind arms, and feel her motherly love about him. He had made up his mind to tell Mr. Leland all, and ask his advice, as to whether it was his duty to submit entirely to one who, though related to him, evidently wished not his