he went heart and soul into the work, with his means; we ought not to leave a stone unturned to gain him. If only he could be brought to marry some really pious young woman, who would lead him in the right way ? It is a question of importance to all the religious societies in Kingsmills, whom he will choose. Why they say he will be the richest man in the county soon, and think, what a position his wife will have; what responsibilities, what opportunities of doing good!"

Miss Ash was looking at Caroline during the latter part of her speech with a very meaning smile, and Caroline appeared to be seized with a sudden tremulous motion of her head, for the scarlet beads rattled incessantly. Alice could not help wondering whether such speculations were usual among her cousin's friends, and a feeling of curiosity prompted her to glance towards the upper end of the room, where her father still stood,

engaged in conversation with the the very gentleman, who was furnishing the topic of their discourse. Alice had seen this same Mr. Gadstone once or twice before, without having bestowed any especial attention upon him, but now she was prompted to look at him with criticising eyes. How common he looked standing beside her father; what coarse, inapt hands he had, hanging down stiffly at each side; what a heavy face! It would have been nothing but a mass of flesh and bone, if it had not been for two expressions which gave something of life to it-the stolid self-importance that characterised the brow and chin; the slow cunning that looked out of the corners of the moist round eyes, and lurked in the lines of the prominent mouth. From his face Alice glanced up at her father's; she had wondered already what he could have found to talk about so long with such a companion; her surprise changed to sorrow as she studied his face. Anyone less acquainted with all its

changes than Alice, might have seen nothing unusual there. She saw anxiety in the slightly contracted brow and painful suspense in the fixed eyes and slightly trembling lips. The proud head was bent a little forward, too, as if to catch each word as it fell slowly from the other's thick lips.

What could Mr. Gadstone have to say of consequence enough to make Major Earle bend down to hear it?

Before Alice had half done with the question, the conversation she was watching came to an end. Mr. Gadstone thrust his hands into his pockets; Major Earle lifted up his head, and sighed; there was a moment's silence between them, and then Mr. Gadstone, who had partly turned away, came back, and appeared to address some short question to Major Earle. Alice saw her father's face brighten as he heard; he turned and looked round the room; she felt that he was looking for her, and the nervous anxiety that always oppressed

her, when she came in contact with her father, made her hastily withdraw her eyes, afraid of being supposed to have watched him. When she had gained courage to look up again, there was a little movement round her, and she rose hastily to meet her father, who, followed by Mr. Gadstone, was approaching the sofa on which she had been seated.

"My daughter, Mr. Gadstone," Major Earle said, coldly, as Alice drew near; but when Alice curtseyed as coldly, she read dissatisfaction at her manner in her father's eye. He followed her when she returned to her seat, and, bending down over her, he said in a low voice: "Alice, you must talk."

Now Major Earle knew, and Alice was conscious that he knew, that she could talk, and talk brilliantly at times; but he did not know, as she did, that it must be on topics that interested her, and to people between whom and herself she could at least fancy a connecting link of thought; on other conditions she

was absolutely dumb. Her father thought her perverse, strangers thought her proud; she wondered at, and suffered from her own incapacity, but could not conquer it. To-night, with her father standing close by, waiting for the first word, with Mr. Gadstone's heavy face and cunning eyes looking down upon her, with the inquisitive faces of all the ladies on the sofa watching how she I would avail herself of such an unlooked-for chance of captivating the richest bachelor in Kingsmills, even her usual slender stock of small-talk failed; she absolutely could not think of anything to say.

"My dear, if it had been you instead of your cousin," whispered Miss Ash to Caroline, 'you might have been able to put in a word in season; what a pity it is!"

Caroline answered this remark with a nervous twist of her head, which once more set all the tremulous red beads in movement, and the hero of the evening turned his eyes from