up a little higher. There will be a lovely view to-day of Maintree Abbey tower and the hills beyond. Come, Lily.'

Lily scrambled up the bank just as Daisy had let herself down. She walked cautiously over, and had advanced some distance unperceived by Mrs. Meredith and Lily and Susie, when Elfrida heard a shout-a loud, clear, and ringing voice,

'Turn back! Come back!'

It was Lord Maintree's voice, who was walking swiftly from the gates leading to the stables. His shout arrested Mrs. Meredith and the others, and turning, they saw Daisy calmly and slowly walking across the pond.

'She is deaf! she cannot hear you!' Elfrida exclaimed to Lord Maintree; and before he could stop her, she was on the pond, taking long strides to the place where Daisy stood, just by the overhanging branches of a stunted oak that grew on the farther bank.

'Take care,' Lord Maintree cried again. They always break the ice there.'

The whole thing passed in less time than it takes to tell it. Elfrida had touched Daisy, and seized her hand, when a great crack was heard, and the swish of the water as it lapped against the edges of the broken ice. Daisy was under it, and Elfrida grasping her hand within one of her own, and with a desperate energy was making an effort to support herself by catching the overhanging bough of the oak with the other. The strain was very great, and

Daisy's upturned face beseeching and piteous. Elfrida dare not move or turn her head; but she heard the voices on the bank behind her, and one voice above the others,

'Keep still. I am coming round. The ice would not bear my weight. Keep still.'

The few moments which passed before Lord Maintree and Jack could get round, seemed an age to the group on the opposite bank. Lily clasped her hands in an agony of suspense, and hid her face on Mrs. Meredith's shoulder.

Susie watched with a face blanched with terror; and some servants came hurrying from the house at the sound of Lord Maintree's voice.

When he and Jack had got through a hedge which ran up transversely from the park, it required some skill to relieve poor Elfrida from her position.

For the first time Lord Maintree looked into the face of his young cousin. The great dark eyes met his, not with an appealing glance for help, but with a strong resolute gaze, and her voice was firm and clear as she said, 'Daisy is in the water; I am holding her up; tell me what to do.'

It needed some consideration to know how best to help the two girls. But Lord Maintree was cool and deliberate. The least haste or flurry, and Elfrida might have loosened her hold of the branch too soon, and both girls would have been in the water.

'I will take your hand; but do not loosen your hold till I tell you. Now, Jack, my boy, get down the bank, and take Daisy's hand when I call to you

to do so; and be quick,' for Lord Maintree saw that Elfrida's face was very pale, and her lips were quivering.

Jack did as he was bid, and, lying flat, stretched over and got firm hold of Daisy. It was all done in silence; neither Daisy nor Elfrida uttered a sound. Lord Maintree had to swing himself on a branch nearest to him to get at Elfrida. At last he had her shoulder in a strong grasp, and said, 'Now, leave go!' It was a perilous moment. Elfrida's dark lustrous eyes were fixed on his face, as if to assure herself that he was trustworthy; and then she relaxed her hold of the branch and of Daisy, and in another moment Lord Maintree had laid her on the ground, and stepped down on a level with the pond to rescue Daisy.

'The immersion in the ice-cold water is dangerous,' he said. 'She must be put to bed at once;' and, lifting her in his arms, he strode through the hedge with the half-fainting dripping child, and, meeting Mrs. Meredith and poor Lily, said, 'A hot bath and a rest will soon set her up again. She has only been up to her shoulders in water, thanks to her brave deliverer.' Lord Maintree marched on with his burden; and in an incredibly short time— so perfect was the machinery of Mrs. Ponsonby's household-Daisy was comfortably in bed.

'You have saved her life, my dearest son,' was his mother's words; 'a noble deed on the first day of your return.'

'It was the tall, dark-eyed girl who saved her life,