Sebastion meant, but she had hardly courage

for such a bold step.

Miss Earle interposed.

"Ruth wishes us to suppose," she said, "that Frederick stays out late to-night, that he may attend a lecture given, it seems, by Maxwell Mey-”

She paused: Sebastion had wheeled round, and was confronting her; the two pairs of grey eyes looked steadfastly into each other for a full minute; it was a contest of wills, on which much future supremacy depended; the balance trembled for a minute, and then the stronger conquered. Miss Earle dropped her eyes, and in a low mortified voice, finished her sentence.

"By your brother-Maxwell Earle."

"My brother, Maxwell Earle !" Sebastion repeated after her, emphasising every word in a voice that was at once firm and sweet. Then he retreated to his seat, and after a minute's silence, burst into a little laugh. It might have

been a laugh of triumph for his victory; but he tried to give a different colour to it by his next speech.

"Little Max giving lectures to working men! well, that is something amusing to hear on one's first night ashore."

"The world turned upside down," said Miss Earle, bitterly, "the teacher, the subject, and the scholars, all equally out of place; but if you stay here long, you will learn not to be surprised at anything done by any of those Meyers."

"This appears to be something done by one of us Earles," observed Sebastion, the determined look coming back again into his eyes. Then, in a lower tone, and looking not at Miss Earle, but at Ruth, he added, "have any of you seen him lately?"

"Caroline and I see him now and then at Earle's Court," said Ruth, feeling excited enough to be very brave; "and Fred sees him almost every day; he often comes into the

office to write letters for Mr. Meyer, and help him when he is very busy, but he is not being brought up to the business-he is an artist. You won't find him altered, excepting, indeed, that he has grown taller; he looks precisely as he used to do before you went away. But," she went on quickly, as a sudden fear and the dread of another question flashed into her mind, "have you had no letters. Did not you get the letters that were written to you two years ago. Have not you heard?"

"Of my mother's death ?-yes," said Sebastion, bending down his head; "I got all my letters at the same time, when I returned to Alexandria, two months ago. I set off home as soon as I could after I had heard."

"You only heard two months ago?" said Mrs. Brandon, compassionately.

"It is not to be wondered at; I was travelling where no letters could possibly follow me; it was my own fault."

"It was

no fault," said gentle Mrs.

Brandon; "and even if you had been nearer, you could not possibly have reached England in time; it was so sudden-no one expected it."

"I know I had letters from my stepfather Mr. Meyer, and from Maxwell," Sebastion said shortly, as if the subject would not bear talking about.

There was a few moments' silence and then Sebastion asked:

"Does Mr. Meyer live at the Leasows still, and is Max with him?"

"They say that Mr. Meyer is likely to marry again almost immediately," observed Miss Earle, without looking up from her knitting.

"But it is not true-you know it is not," cried Ruth, seeing, as Miss Earle did not, how Sebastion winced under the words.

"Thank you for setting me right, Ruth," Miss Earle answered. "Sebastion, when you wish for any information about Mr. Meyer, or any others among the low people with

whom your poor mother had the misfortune to be connected, I beg to refer you to your cousin Ruth. Knowing how painful it is to me to hear them talked about, she considerately takes care always to have something to say on the subject."

"We have none of us any right to speak in your house, on any subject which is disagreeable to you, Aunt Harriet," Sebastion observed, rather haughtily; "I shall hope to hear my brother called by his proper name, and recognized as a member of our family here and everywhere; for the rest, I have no wish to cultivate intimacy with Mr. Meyer; no one can regret more than I do that Maxwell has been left so entirely to his stepfather's care that even his own relations appear to forget who he is. I have returned to England principally in the hope of being able to alter his position."

"It was his own choice," said Miss Earle, gloomily.

VOL. I.

D