'I left her at the Ponsonby Arms at Maintree, till I knew your pleasure,' was the reply.

How old is she?' Miss Adelaide asked in her high-pitched treble voice.

·

Fifteen a day or two before her dear mother died. She is tall for her age'

The Ponsonbys are all tall,' Miss Adelaide. said.

'She is tall for her age; and-well'— said Colonel Bradshaw a very clever child, and good-looking; she has a splendid voice, and a warm, affectionate heart. Perhaps, owing to her mother's ill-health and other circumstances, she has had rather too much of her own way. Her poor mother did not wish her to go to school, but of course, if you find that she is in any way unmanageable, you must use your own discretion.'

'I have not yet said that I would undertake. the responsibility of the child!' Miss Ponsonby exclaimed. 'I am not a young woman, and I should rather shrink from the charge.'

Here Miss Adelaide tossed back her pink capstrings, and said, with her head turned on one side and a bird-like glance at Colonel Bradshaw, 'I do not think my sister ought to have any fresh burdens on her shoulders. It would make me anxious if I saw her overdone, you know.'

'Well,' Colonel Bradshaw said, 'you perhaps will like to consider the point, see the child, and then decide. But I frankly confess that I have a great deal to arrange in London before I sail for India,

and I must ask for a decision not later than tomorrow morning. I am in no position to provide for Elfrida except by putting her to a moderate school, where she would probably have to give her services in teaching others when she had been taught herself; that is to say '—

Miss Adelaide almost broke her netting silk in the violence of her emotion.

'A Ponsonby a teacher in a school!' she exclaimed. What would Leonard have said to that,

Dorothy? Do you hear?'

'Yes, I hear,' was the reply. Then, after a pause, Miss Ponsonby said, 'Colonel Bradshaw, did you

drive or walk from Maintree ?'

'I walked. It was a lovely morning, and I think nothing of five or six miles. We breakfasted at eight,' he added.

Miss Ponsonby glanced at the clock. It is now nearly half-past eleven,' she said. 'I will drive you back to Maintree, and we will make a round by the Court. I should like to consult the mother of the present head of the family before finally consenting to receive my niece. Will this plan suit you?'

Thanks,-I daresay it will; but I have some misgivings about leaving my young lady so long at Maintree. She promised to stay quiet, but'— Colonel Bradshaw stopped lest he should betray by his words any doubts as to the young lady in question remaining, as he said, 'quiet.' 'Perhaps you would like to drive into Maintree first, sce Elfrida, and then pay the visit you mention ?'

'Perhaps it would be best. Meantime, allow me to offer you some refreshment.'

Miss Ponsonby rang the bell, and Broome received orders to conduct 'the gentleman to the diningroom and offer him luncheon; also, to tell Reuben to come round with the carriage as soon as possible.'

Colonel Bradshaw accordingly crossed the narrow passage to the dining-room, where Ponsonby plate shone on the sideboard, and old Ponsonbys in frames, much too heavy for the Cottage, looked down on him while he drank sherry and sodawater, and made havoc amongst a tin of thin biscuits, digging also into a very small round cheese, which Broome, with some suspicion of masculine taste, set before him.

'A pleasant, gentleman - like person after all,' said Miss Adelaide. 'What do you mean to do, Dorothy?'

'Give me time to think, Adelaide,' was the reply, ' and let me see the child before I decide.'

'Yes,' said Miss Adelalde, 'it will be best. But if you don't like her, what then?'

'It's not a question of likes or dislikes,' was Miss Ponsonby's answer, 'it's a question of duty.'

Then she went up-stairs and put on the mushroom hat, a thin alpaca dust-cloak to preserve her gown, drew the large gloves over her hands, and rang her bell for Mrs. Broome.

'I may want the little room over the porch tomorrow, Martha. I suppose it is aired?'

'Dear me, yes, ma'am. The south-west sun just

pours in at the window. You might almost bake a loaf on the ledge, it's that hot.'

'But the bed, Martha? I think Bella had better sleep there to-night.'

'Well, as you please, ma'am, but there is not the leastest need of it. As I said, the room is baking hot. Indeed, if I might say so, I think the north room at this season would be more agreeable.'

'The small room is to be got ready,' was the decided answer; and, Martha, it is just possible that the daughter of Mr. Ralph will come here for a time.'

'Dear me! you don't say so, ma'am? Well, I never rightly knew Mr. Ralph had left a child. You don't mean to say she is to live here?'

'I expect she will do so, Martha.'

'Well, ma'am, you know best; but such an upset as it will be in your establishment, and such a change. Dear me! I'm afraid you will suffer from it.' Mrs. Broome spoke with prophetic instinct.

'The Cottage won't be like the same,' she rcpeated again and again; but even Mrs. Broome did not fully realize that the days of calm and quiet routine were numbered, and that the element about to be introduced was to prove so utterly incongruous with all preconceived notions of propriety which reigned there.

HE low carriage and the large horse Peter, with Miss Ponsonby driving and Reuben in attendance, was a familiar sight in Thorpe Bishop. But the children on their way from the village school who stopped to bob and curtsey to the lady, and the mothers who stood at the doors of the cottages, wondered as they saw, seated by Miss Ponsonby's side, not Miss Adelaide, with her fluttering ribbons, but a tall gentleman with a light beard, who, with a goodnatured smile, tossed little Tommy Black, the clerk's child, a penny as he passed, and, turning his head to see the boy's delight as he prostrated himself in the dust to pick up the treasure, sent another brown coin spinning to the fair-haired little sister, who came toddling out to have a share of the spoil.

Miss Ponsonby was too much engrossed with her own thoughts to carry on much conversation. Now and then she pointed with her whip to some object

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