"You must have thought us so queer! It was too bad to give you so much trouble."

"None whatever, I assure you. My sense of propriety," he added demurely, "which might have been outraged had I been called upon to help three young ladies out of a schoolroom window at night, was deeply gratified at being able to assist them in again." The door-bell rang loudly, and Mr. Prince rose. "Take your own time, and think well before you make your decision." But Carrie's ear and attention were given to the sound of voices in the hall. At the same moment the door was thrown open and a servant announced, "Mrs. Tretherick and Mr. Robinson."

The afternoon train had just shrieked out its usual indignant protest at stopping at Genoa at all, as Mr. Jack Prince entered the outskirts of the town and drove towards his hotel. He was wearied and cynical; a drive of a dozen miles through unpicturesque outlying villages, past small economic farmhouses and hideous villas that violated his fastidious taste, had, I fear, left that gentleman in a captious state of mind. He would have even avoided his taciturn landlord as he drove up to the door, but that functionary waylaid him on the steps. "There's a lady in the sittin' room waitin' for ye." Prince hurried up stairs and entered the room as Mrs. Starbottle flew towards him.

Mr.

She had changed sadly in the last ten years. Her figure was wasted to half its size; the beautiful curves of her bust and shoulders were broken or inverted; the once full, rounded arm was shrunken in its sleeve, and the golden hoops that encircled her wan wrists almost slipped from her hands as her long, scant fingers closed convulsively around Jack's. Her cheek-bones were painted that afternoon with the hectic of fever; somewhere in the hollows of those cheeks were buried the dimples of long ago, but their graves were forgotten; her lustrous eyes were still beautiful, though the orbits were deeper than before; her mouth was still sweet, although the lips parted more easily over the little teeth, and even in breathing-and showed more of them than she was wont to do before. The glory of her blond hair was still left; it was finer, more silken and ethereal, yet it failed even in its plenitude to cover the hollows of the blueveined temples.

"Clara," said Jack reproachfully.

"Oh, forgive me, Jack," she said, falling into a chair but still clinging to his hand, "forgive me, dear, but I could not wait longer. I should have died, Jack, died before

another night. Bear with me a little longer, -it will not be long, but let me stay. I may not see her, I know--I shall not speak to her-but it is so sweet to feel that I am at last near her-that I breathe the same air with my darling-I am better already, Jack, I am indeed. And you have seen her today? How did she look? what did she say --tell me all-everything, Jack. Was she beautiful?-they say she is! Has she grown? Would you have known her again? Will she come, Jack? Perhaps she has been here already-perhaps-" she had risen with tremulous excitement, and was glancing at the door. "Perhaps she is here now. Why don't you speak, Jack,-tell me all."

The keen eyes that looked down into hers were glistening with an infinite tenderness that none perhaps but she would have deemed them capable of. "Clara," he said, gently and cheerily, "try and compose yourself. You are trembling now with the fatigue and excitement of your journey. I have seen Carrie-she is well and beautiful! Let that suffice you now."

His gentle firmness composed and calmed her now as it had often done before. Stroking her thin hand, he said after a pause, "Did Carrie ever write to you?"

"Twice-thanking me for some presents; they were only school-girl letters," she added, nervously answering the interrogation of his eyes.

"Did she ever know of your own troubles -of your poverty; of the sacrifices you made to pay her bills; of your pawning your clothes and jewels; of your-"

"No, no," interrupted the woman quickly no! How could she? I have no enemy cruel enough to tell her that."

"But if she or if Mrs. Tretherick-had heard of it? If Carrie thought you were poor and unable to support her properly-it might influence her decision. Young girls are fond of the position that wealth can give. She may have rich friends-maybe a lover."

Mrs. Starbottle winced at the last sentence. "But," she said eagerly, grasping Jack's hand, "when you found me sick and helpless at Sacramento-when you--God bless you for it, Jack !-offered to help me to the East, you said you knew of something -you had some plan-that would make me and Carrie independent."

"Yes," said Jack, hastily, "but I want you to get strong and well first. And now that you are calmer, you shall listen to my visit to the school."

It was then that Mr. Jack Prince proceed

ed to describe the interview already recorded with a singular felicity and discretion that shames my own account of that proceeding. Without suppressing a single fact, without omitting a word or detail, he yet managed to throw a poetic veil over that prosaic episode -to invest the heroine with a romantic, roseate atmosphere, which, though not perhaps entirely imaginary, still I fear exhibited that genius which ten years ago had made the columns of the Fiddletown Avalanche at once fascinating and instructive. It was not until he saw the heightening color and heard the quick breathing of his eager listener that he felt a pang of self-reproach. God help her and forgive me," he muttered between his clenched teeth, "but how can I tell her all now!"

That night when Mrs. Starbottle laid her weary head upon her pillow she tried to picture to herself Carrie at the same moment sleeping peacefully in the great school-house on the hill, and it was a rare comfort to this yearning foolish woman to know that she was so near. But at this moment Carrie was sitting on the edge of her bed, half undressed, pouting her pretty lips, and twisting her long, leonine locks between her fingers, as Miss Kate Van Corlear, dramatically wrapped in a long white counterpane, her black eyes sparkling, and her thorough-bred nose thrown high in air, stood over her like a wrathful and indignant ghost. For Carrie had that evening imparted her woes and her history to Miss Kate, and that young lady had "proved herself no friend," by falling into a state of fiery indignation over Carrie's "ingratitude," and openly and shamelessly espousing the claims of Mrs. Starbottle. "Why if the half you tell me is true, your mother and those Robinsons are making of you not only a little coward but a little snob, Miss. Respectability forsooth! look you! my family are centuries before the Trethericks, but if my family had ever treated me in this way, and then asked me to turn my back on my best friend, I'd whistle them down the wind," and here Kate snapped her fingers, bent her black brows, and glared around the room as if in search of a recreant Van Corlear.

"You just talk this way because you have taken a fancy to that Mr. Prince," said Carrie. In the debasing slang of the period that had even found its way into the virgin cloisters of the Cranmer Institute, Miss Kate, as she afterwards expressed it, instantly "went for her."

First with a shake of her head she threw her long black hair over one shoulder, then drop

ping one end of the counterpane from the other like a vestal tunic, she stepped before Carrie with a purposely exaggerated classic stride. "And what if I have, Miss? What if I happen to know a gentleman when I see him? What if I happen to know that among a thousand such traditional, conventional,feeble editions of their grandfathers as Mr. Harry Robinson, you cannot find one original, independent, individualized gentleman like your Prince! Go to bed, Miss! and pray to Heaven that he may be your Prince indeed! Ask to have a contrite and grateful heart, and thank the Lord in particular for having sent you such a friend as Kate Van Corlear." Yet after an imposing dramatic exit, she reappeared the next moment as a straight white flash, kissed Carrie between the brows, and was gone.

The next day was a weary one to Jack Prince. He was convinced in his mind that Carrie would not come, yet to keep this consciousness from Mrs. Starbottle, to meet her simple hopefulness with an equal degree of apparent faith, was a hard and difficult task. He would have tried to divert her mind by taking her on a long drive, but she was fearful that Carrie might come during her absence, and her strength, he was obliged to admit, had failed greatly. As he looked into her large and awe-inspiring clear eyes, a something he tried to keep from his mind,—to put off day by day from contemplation,-kept asserting itself directly to his inner conscious

ness.

He began to doubt the expediency and wisdom of his management; he recalled every incident of his interview with Carrie, and half believed that its failure was due to himself. Yet Mrs. Starbottle was very patient and confident; her very confidence shook his faith in his own judgment. When her strength was equal to the exertion, she was propped up in her chair by the window, where she could see the school and the entrance to the hotel. In the intervals she would elaborate pleasant plans for the future, and would sketch a country home. She had taken a strange fancy, as it seemed to Prince, to the present location, but it was notable that the future always thus outlined was one of quiet and repose.

She believed she would get well soon; in fact she thought she was now much better than she had been, but it might be long before she should be quite strong again. She would whisper on in this way until Jack would dash madly down into the barroom, order liquors that he did not drink, light cigars that he did not smoke, talk with men that he did not listen to, and behave

generally as our stronger sex is apt to do in periods of delicate trial and perplexity.

The day closed with a clouded sky and a bitter searching wind. With the night fell a few wandering flakes of snow. She was still content and hopeful, and as Jack wheeled her from the window to the fire, she explained to him how that, as the school-term was drawing near its close, Carrie was probably kept closely at her lessons during the day, and could only leave the school at night. So she sat up the greater part of the evening and combed her silken hair, and, as far as her strength would allow, made an undress toilette to receive her guest. "We must not frighten the child, Jack," she said apologetically and with something of her old coquetry.

It was with a feeling of relief that, at ten o'clock, Jack received a message from the landlord, saying that the Doctor would like to see him for a moment down stairs. As Jack entered the grim, dimly-lighted parlor, he observed the hooded figure of a woman near the fire. He was about to withdraw again, when a voice that he remembered very pleasantly, said :

Oh, it's all right. I'm the Doctor." The hood was thrown back, and Prince saw the shining black hair and black audacious eyes of Kate Van Corlear.

"Don't ask any questions. I'm the Doctor, and there's my prescription," and she pointed to the half-frightened, half-sobbing Carrie in the corner; "to be taken at

once !"

"Then Mrs. Tretherick has given her permission ?"

"Not much, if I know the sentiments of that lady," replied Kate, saucily. "Then how did you get away?" asked Prince, gravely.

"BY THE WINDOW !

When Mr. Prince had left Carrie in the arms of her stepmother, he returned to the parlor.

"Well?" demanded Kate.

"She will stay-you will, I hope, also, tonight."

"As I shall not be eighteen and my own mistress on the 20th, and as I haven't a sick stepmother, I won't."

"Then you will give me the pleasure of seeing you safely through the window again?" When Mr. Prince returned an hour later, he found Carrie sitting on a low stool at Mrs. Starbottle's feet. Her head was in her stepmother's lap, and she had sobbed herself to sleep. Mrs. Starbottle put her finger to her

lip. "I told you she would come. God bless you, Jack, and good night."

The next morning Mrs. Tretherick indignant, the Rev. Asa Crammer, Principal, injured, and Mr. Joel Robinson, Senior, complacently respectable, called upon Mr. Prince. There was a stormy meeting, ending in a demand for Carrie. "We certainly cannot admit of this interference," said Mrs. Tretherick, a fashionably-dressed, indistinctive-looking woman; "it is several days before the expiration of our agreement, and we do not feel, under the circumstances, justified in releasing Mrs. Starbottle from its conditions." Until the expiration of the school term, we must consider Miss Tretherick as complying entirely with its rules and discipline," imposed Dr. Crammer. "The whole proceeding is calculated to injure the prospects and compromise the position of Miss Trethe rick in society," suggested Mr. Robinson.

In vain Mr. Prince urged the failing condition of Mrs. Starbottle, her absolute freedom from complicity with Carrie's flight, the pardonable and natural instincts of the girl, and his own assurance that they were willing to abide by her decision. And then, with a rising color in his cheek, a dangerous look in his eye, but a singular calmness in his speech, he added:

"One word more. It becomes my duty to inform you of a circumstance which would certainly justify me, as an executor of the late Mr. Tretherick, in fully resisting your demands. A few months after Mr. Tretherick's death, through the agency of a Chinaman in his employment, it was discovered that he had made a will, which was subsequently found among his papers. The insignificant value of his bequest-mostly land, then quite valueless prevented his executors from carrying out his wishes, or from even proving the will, or making it otherwise publicly known, until within the last two or three years, when the property had enormously increased in value. The provisions of that bequest are simple, but unmistakable. The property is divided between Carrie and her stepmother, with the explicit condition that Mrs. Starbottle shall become her legal guardian, provide for her education, and in all details stand to her in loco parentis."

"What is the value of this bequest?" asked Mr. Robinson. "I cannot tell exactly, but not far from half a million, I should say, returned Prince. "Certainly, with this knowledge, as a friend of Miss Tretherick, I must say that her conduct is as ju dicious as it is honorable to her," responded

Mr. Robinson. "I shall not presume to question the wishes or throw any obstacles in the way of carrying out the intentions of my dead husband," added Mrs. Tretherick, and the interview was closed.

When its result was made known to Mrs. Starbottle she raised Jack's hand to her feverish lips. "It cannot add to my happiness now, Jack, but tell me, why did you keep it from her?" Jack smiled but did not reply.

Within the next week the necessary legal formalities were concluded, and Carrie was restored to her stepmother. At Mrs. Starbottle's request a small house in the outskirts of the town was procured, and thither they removed to wait the spring and Mrs. Starbottle's convalescence. Both came tardily that year. Yet she was happy and patient. She was fond of watching the budding of the trees beyond her window-a novel sight to her Californian experience-and of asking Carrie their names and seasons. Even at this time she projected for that summer, which seemed to her so mysteriously withheld, long walks with Carrie through the leafy woods whose gray, misty ranks she could see along the hilltop. She even thought she could write poetry about them-and recalled the fact as evidence of her gaining strength-and there is, I believe, still treasured by one of the members of this little household, a little carol so joyous, so simple and so innocent, that it might have been an echo of the robin that called to her from the window, as perhaps it

was.

And then without warning there dropped from Heaven a day so tender, so mystically soft, so dreamily beautiful, so throbbing and alive with the fluttering of invisible wings, so replete and bounteously overflowing

with an awakening and joyous resurrection not taught by man, or limited by creedthat they thought it fit to bring her out and lay her in that glorious sunshine that sprinkled like the droppings of a bridal torch the happy lintels and doors. And there she lay, beatified and calm.

Wearied by watching, Carrie had fallen asleep by her side, and Mrs. Starbottle's thin fingers lay like a benediction on her head. Presently she called Jack to her side.

"Who was that," she whispered, "who just came in?"

"Miss Van Corlear," said Jack, answering the look in her great hollow eyes.

66

Jack," she said, after a moment's silence, "sit by me a moment, dear Jack; I've something I must say. If I ever seemed hard or cold or coquettish to you in the old days it was because I loved you, Jack, too well to mar your future by linking it with my own. I always loved you, dear Jack, even when I seemed least worthy of you. That is gone now, but I had a dream lately, Jack, a foolish woman's dream, that you might find what I lacked in her," and she glanced lovingly at the sleeping girl at her side,-"that you might love her as you have loved me. But even that is not to be, Jack-is it?" and she glanced wistfully in his face. Jack pressed her hand but did not speak. After a few moment's silence she again said, "Perhaps you are right in your choice. She is a goodhearted girl-Jack-but a little bold."

And with this last flicker of foolish weak humanity in her struggling spirit she spoke no more. When they came to her a moment later, a tiny bird that had lit upon her breast flew away and the hand that they lifted from Carrie's head fell lifeless at her side.

66

IT must have been three or four years after Henry took charge of his parish, and I had entered upon the duties of my profession, that I met him one morning upon the street, wearing that peculiar smile on his face which said, as plainly as words could have told me, that he was the bearer of news.

"Who do you think spent the night at The Mansion, and is even now reveling in the luxuries of your old apartment?" said he.

"I was never good at conundrums," I replied. "Suppose you tell me."

"The Rev. Peter Mullens."
"Clothed, and in his right mind ?"

"Yes, clothed, for he has one of my coats