with considerable interest; and each made the mental reflection that this was the first of the other's type that they had happened to meet with.

Mr. Freeman was a large, heavily-built man, of florid complexion, and with that patronising air which clergymen acquire who are 'greatly thought of' by their congregations. He had been a popular preacher in London before Mr. Talbot had presented him with the living of Durnton Regis, and he was not forgetful of his former eminence.

De Blaise was of a slight figure, rather undersized, though by no means insignificant-looking; his face was wan and a little weary in its expression, as is apt to be the case with gentlemen who have had their experience of what is popularly termed 'life' at an early age; but his black eyes were bright and lustrous.

He bowed politely as the Rector took his hand, but did not return its somewhat unctuous pressure.

These are fine windows,' said he, in

good English.

I have never seen the

like of them except in cathedrals.'

6

'Where they had much better not be,' observed Mr. Freeman gravely; their tendency being too often idolatrous. These, on the contrary, are in their proper place. You may here read the record of a noble house from generation to generation; that is if you have the requisite heraldic knowledge.'

Indeed. These bars and crosses signify something, then?'

'Certainly; on that pane is written, for example, that an heiress came into the family.' 'Mon Dieu! You surprise me. Then this bloody hand means murder?'

'Dinner waits, gentlemen,' exclaimed Mr. Talbot, in a hoarse, impatient tone; and he himself led the way into the dining

room.

'You are mistaken, young sir,' whispered the Rector. 'That symbol tells us that a baronetcy was conferred on one of our host's ancestors. It was lost in the Stuart

troubles.'

THE dining-room at Talbot Tower was one of the things to be seen in Suffolk, but it was scarcely adapted for purposes of conviviality. Its ceiling was a marvel of oak carving, which you needed, however, a ladder to examine critically. Its knots and bosses had an air of insecurity for those who sat beneath them; stern Talbots, painted in panel and of life size, frowned down on you from the walls; and in six corners of the room stood men in armour, with sconces in their hands, which had not an encouraging effect upon the conversationalist. This company of three persons, sitting at one end of the gigantic dining-table,

might have almost given to an imaginative mind the notion of survivorship-that all the rest of the party who should have had their places there had been removed by death. And the host himself looked not unlikely to follow them.

His face, always sombre and cheerless, had from some cause become suddenly drawn and pallid, like that of a man whose hours are numbered; for some minutes he even kept an unbroken silence, and though he made a pretence of opening his lips to admit food, nothing actually passed them. His appearance and behaviour were sufficient in short to cast a gloom over any table, and sad and severe the banquet would have been but for the vivacity of his guests. That of the rector, though it was no less effectual on that account, was forced. He had seen Mr. Talbot once if not twice before in almost as melancholy a condition. as the present; he was accustomed to his retired and morbid ways, and it was his mission at the Tower to conceal and gloss them over to others as much as possible.

VOL. I.

8

De Blaise, on the other hand, was of a nature too egotistic to be depressed by another's gloom, even though it were that of his host, so long as he could find a listener to his ready tongue. He had been left to himself for the last two hours (which he had found dull companionship), and that unaccustomed abstinence from talk had made him more garrulous even than usual.

It required no finesse on the part of his companion to extract from him his position. and prospects; he had just been made a lieutenant in the army, and was about to proceed with his regiment to Algeria, where things were cheap; only, unhappily, he had been lately quartered in Paris, where things were dear. It was to purchase his outfit and to pay his debts (to say truth, it was to escape arrest because of them) that he had had to apply to his dear friend and patron for a little money.

This latter piece of information was given in a low tone, though as the rector sat between him and Mr. Talbot, and the latter was obviously deaf and blind to all