pleasant companion, it is all right, and only what others do."

I know now, what I felt then, that I should have gone further and further a-field, that I should have put continents and oceans, if need were, between me and temptation, but I did none of these things. I lingered at a wretched country inn in a Welsh valley, where I was given vile food to eat, and where a harper harped upon his harp continually.

All these trifles helped to send me back to my own home and to my own people. I had not received any tidings of the arrival of Our new guest, and when I lifted the latch of the pretty rustic garden gate and entered the shrubbery, I paused with surprise at the merry shouts and peals of childish laughter which I heard.

Our domain was not so large, but that a few steps brought me within sight of a clump of beech trees, which we always called my mother's summer palace. Truly their grand sweeping branches, so noble in outline, so delicately lovely in detail, feathering down to the very ground, formed a royal home for fairy queen; and there, on the soft green moss, which was flecked by the quivering sunbeams with a thousand dancing spots of light, lay my Titania.

Nor were elves and sprites wanting for the picture; her own little girls in their holland pinafores and bright sleeve ribbons, looked like tiny goddesses of night and morning. They were joining with a splendid big dog in keeping their sweet mother prisoner on the ground, and all this laughter which I had heard was the shout of battle.

At first they did not see me, and I stood for a happy moment watching the sunshine come and go on Adelaide's disordered locks, turning each hair which it touched into a golden thread.

If it had not been for seeing my own dear mother seated on one of the uncomfortable sofas made of crooked sticks, which constituted our outdoor furniture, I should have thought that I was in fairy land. No, I am not sure I should have thought that; for I well remember I was hungry and tired, weary and foot-sore, and none of those material disagreeables exist in dream-countries.

My mother was the first to see me.

66

'What, Paul, is that you?" she asked, in the usual absurd phraseology which we adopt towards unexpected visitors.

I answered, following the stereotyped formula, "Yes, it is me, back again you see."

Mrs. Carruthers sprang to her feet at my mother's

first words, and now turned towards her instead of me, saying, almost fiercely,

"I did not know you expected your son home, Mrs. Somerset; you told me only to-day that he would probably not return for a month."

"So I did, my dear," answered the elder lady; certainly I had no idea of seeing him this evening. What has brought you back so soon, Paul?" she continued, smiling a warmer welcome than her words convey.

"I will tell you presently, mother," I replied; then, with my newly acquired boldness, I moved a step nearer to Mrs. Carruthers and whispered,

"You !"

She looked displeased at my impertinence and turned away, calling the children to come to her. The little creatures had danced off towards the grass slope, and were busily engaged in harnessing the patient St. Bernard to a garden roller with their tiny pocket-handkerchiefs.

I followed her, and said earnestly,

"It is quite true that you brought me back, and yet I did not know that I should find you in this spot."

"We have been staying here, but our visit comes to an end to-morrow," she said drily; "I hope the

children's noise will not disturb you much during these few remaining hours."

"Good heavens! Mrs. Carruthers, why should you fancy I dislike such happy sounds and sights as those?" I asked, pointing to the bright, joyous triad on the lawn. "I will go away directly if my presence be disagreeable to you; but although it is true that I did not expect to find you in this house, (we were not in a house as it happened,) it was nevertheless a strong craving to see you which brought me back."

Mrs. Carruthers looked grave, but there was just the least touch of entreaty in her glance, which revived all my old masterful feelings with full force.

I continued, "Do not make me think I am driving you away; indeed I will not let you leave the house as I enter it; you must remain just as if I were not here."

And so it was settled by her silence, a silence which gave consent to our both shutting our eyes, and hand in hand walking to the very brink of a flower-hidden precipice.

We have many fellow-travellers, and it is to warn those who are not yet absolutely blinded by specious arguments with themselves in favour of the attainment of their hearts' desire, that I write this record of two lives made miserable by that journey.

CHAPTER III.

TEMPTATION.

AND so, as I have said before, we journeyed on, with " a gentle ecstasie"; blind and deaf to all the smothered, struggling cries of Conscience. Poor Conscience! Passion had her by the throat, and would fain have stifled her with kisses; but the fair white creature, strong with the strength of right, was not to be thus subdued, and she spoke loudly and sternly to me, at all times, but chiefly in the silent nightwatches. We each know what she says to us, and her words are better than mine; I will, therefore, hasten on with the record of that halcyon time, so pleasant and so wrong.

Turning over the pages of memory, I find few distinct pictures. They are mostly blurred and imperfect sketches, but perhaps that is because mine eyes are holden, I cannot see. There is always one figure in