her maternal way. all about it - there's a dear." "Lucilla, you know," said Rose, drying her tears, "she has taken to going out in the evening, and I am sure she meets him every night. I can't be a spy on her, whatever she does, and I can't lock her up, you know, or lock the door, or anything like that. I am not her mother," said the poor little sister, pathetically, with a regretful sob. "And then she has taken to make herself nice before she goes out. I don't think she ever cared much for being nice - not for home, you know; but now she has pretty collars and gloves and things, and I can't tell where she gets them," cried Rose, her eyes lighting up passionately. "She has no money to spend on such things. Lucilla, I should die if I thought she would accept them from him." "I thought of going and begging of him, if it was on my knees " "My dear," said Lucilla, with great seriousness, "if you did, I think it is most likely he would fall in love with you, and that would not mend the matter; and I am sure Barbara would give you poison. I will tell you what we must do. I would not do it for everybody; but you know I was always very fond of you, you dear little Rose. You shall ask me for to-morrow evening to come to tea." "To come to tea!" echoed poor Rose, in dismay. She had been waiting for Lucilla's advice with a great deal of anxiety; but at the present moment it would be vain to conceal that the proposed expedient seemed to her altogether inadequate for the emergency. The light went out of her face as she opened her eyes wide and fixed them on Lucilla; and for one moment, one des"You dear old Rose, you don't know perate moment, Rose was disloyal, and lost what you are saying," said the experienced faith in the only person who could help Lucilla; "most likely, if she meets a gen- her; which, perhaps, under the circumstantleman, she is engaged to him; and they ces, was not a thing to cause much suralways give people presents, you know. If you would only tell me who it is." "Lucilla, do not trifle with me," said Rose; "it is much too serious for that engaged without papa knowing of it, nor me! You know very well that would be no engagement. I sometimes think she is is 66 fond of him," said the reverent little maiden, whose voice changed and softened under the influence of that supposition; "and then again I think it is only because he is rich," she went on, with new vehemence. Oh, Lucilla, if you only knew how dreadful it was to have such thoughts and there is nobody to take care of her but me! Papa cannot be worried, for that would react upon everything. An artist is not just like other people. It is everybody's duty to leave him undisturbed; and then, you know, he is only a man, and does not understand; and if she won't pay any attention to me when I speak to her, oh, Lucilla, tell me, what can I do?" "Let me think," said Lucilla, gravely. "You know I can't tell all in a moment. It is Mr. Cavendish, I suppose, though you won't say so. Now just wait a moment, and let me think." "I once thought of going to him," said Rose; (6 perhaps he might be generous, and go away. An artist can do many things that other people can't do. We have an exceptional position," the Preraphaelist went on, faltering a little, and not feeling quite so sure of the fact on that special occasion. prise. "My dear, you may be sure I would not propose it, if I did not feel it was the best thing to do," said Lucilla, with great gravity. "It happens precisely that I want to see Mr. Cavendish, and if he is at home he never shows himself, and I have been wondering how I could find him. I shall make him walk home with me," said Miss Marjoribanks, "so you need not be uneasy, Rose, about the trouble I am taking. I am doing it to serve myself as well as you. We shall say eight o'clock, if that is not too late." "But, Lucilla," said Rose, with consternation; and then she stopped short, and could not tell what more to say. "You don't understand it?" said Miss Marjoribanks; "I don't think it was to be expected that you should understand it. A little thing like you has no way of knowing the world. When Barbara knows I am there, she will be sure to bring him to the very door; she will want me to see that he is with her; and you may leave the rest to me," said Lucilla. For my part, I have something very particular to say to Mr. Cavendish. It is my luck," Miss Marjoribanks added, "for I could not think how to get to see him. At eight o'clock to-morrow evening "Yes," said Rose; but perhaps it was still doubtful how far she understood the mode of operations proposed. Lucilla's prompt and facile genius was too much for the young artist, and there was, as she herself would have said, an entire want of "keeping" between her own sense of the position, tragical and desperate as that was, and any state of matters which could be ameliorated by the fact of Miss Marjoribanks coming to tea. It had been Rose's only hope, and now it seemed all at once to fail her; and yet, at the same time, that instinctive faith in Lucilla which came naturally to every one under her influence struggled against reason in Rose's heart. Her red soft lips fell apart with the hurried breath of wonder and doubt; her eyes, still expanded, and clearer than usual after their tears, were fixed upon Lucilla with an appealing, questioning look; and it was just at that moment, when Rose was a great deal too much absorbed in her disappointment and surprise, and lingering hope, to take any notice of strange sounds or sights, or of anybody coming, that Thomas all at once opened the door and showed Mrs. Centum into the room. Now it would have mattered very little for Mrs. Centum-who, to be sure, knew Lucilla perfectly well, and would never have dreamed for a moment of identifying such a trifling little person as Rose Lake in any way with Miss Marjoribanks; but then Mrs. Centum happened at that precise moment to be bringing the new arrival, the stranger on whom so much depended-General Travers himself - to be introduced to Lucilla; and it was not the fault either of Rose or the General if it was on the young mistress of the Female School of Design that the warrior's first glance fell. Naturally the conversation had run upon Miss Marjoribanks on the past evening, for Mrs. Centum was full of the enthusiasm and excitement incident to that pate which Lucilla had so magnanimously enabled her to produce. "Is she pretty?" General Travers had demanded, as was to be expected. “Well,” Mrs. Centum had replied, and made a long pause "would you call Lucilla pretty, Charles?" and Charles had been equally dubious in his response; for, to be sure, it was a dereliction from Miss Marjoribanks's dignity to call her pretty, which is a trifling sort of qualification. But when the General entered the drawing-room, which might be called the centre of Carlingford, and saw before him that little dewy face, full of clouds and sunshine, uncertain, unquiet, open-eyed, with the red lips apart, and the eyes clear and expanded with recent tears— a face which gave a certain sentiment of freshness and fragrance to the atmosphere like the quiet after a storm he did not understand what his hosts could mean. "I call her very pretty," he said, under his breath, to his interested and delighted chaperone; and we are surely justified in appealing to the readers of this history, as Lucilla, who was always reasonable, afterwards did to herself, whether it could be justly said under all the circumstances, that either Rose or the General were to blame. The little artist got up hurriedly when she awoke to the fact that other visitors had come into the room, but she was not at all interested in General Travers, whom Rose, with the unconscious insolence of youth, classified in her own mind as an elderly gentleman. Not that he was at all an elderly gentleman; but then a man of forty, especially when he is a fine man and adequately developed for his years, has at the first glance no great attraction for an impertinent of seventeen. Rose did not go away without receiving another kiss from Lucilla, and a parting reminder. "Tomorrow at eight o'clock; and mind you leave it all to me, and don't worry," said Miss Marjoribanks; and Rose, half ashamed, put on her hat and went away, without so much as remarking the admiration in the stranger's eyes, nor the look of disappointment with which he saw her leave the room. Rose thought no more of him than if he had been a piece of furniture; but as for the General, when he found himself obliged to turn to Lucilla and make himself agreeable, the drawback of having thus had his admiration forestalled and drawn away from its legitimate object was such, that he did not find her at all pretty; which, after all, on a first interview at least, is all they think about, as Miss Marjoribanks herself said. "We must do all we can to make Carlingford agreeable to the General," said Mrs Centum. "You know how much depends upon it, Lucilla. If we can but make him like the place, only think what an advantage to society and we have such nice society in Carlingford," said the injudicious woman, who did not know what to say. Nothing very particular," said Miss Marjoribanks. "I hope General Travers will like us; but as for the officers, I am not so sure. They all flirt, you know; and that is almost as bad as having nobody that can flirt; which is my position," Lucilla added, with a sigh, as long as Mr. Cavendish is away." 66 "Lucilla," cried Mrs. Centum, a little shocked, "one would think to hear you that you were the greatest coquette possible; and on the contrary she is quite an example to all our young ladies, I assure you, General; and as for flirting "Dear Mrs. Centum," said Lucilla, sweetly, "one has always to do one's duty to society. As for me, I am different, you know. And I don't mean to say that the officers would not be a great acquisition," Miss Marjoribanks continued, with her usual politeness; "but then too many young people are the ruin of society. If we were to run all to dancing and that sort of thing, after all the trouble one has taken". said Lucilla. Perhaps it was not quite civil; but then it must be admitted, that to see a man look blankly in your face as if he were saying in his mind," Then it is only you, and not that pretty little thing, that is Miss Marjoribanks!" was about as exasperating a sensation as one is likely to meet with. Lucilla understood perfectly well General Travers's look, and for the moment, instead of making herself agreeable, it was the contrary impulse that moved her. She looked at him, not blankly, as he looked at her, but in a calmly considerate way, as she might have looked at Mr. Holden the upholsterer, had he proposed a new kind of tapisserie to her judgment. "One would be always delighted, of course, to have General Travers," said Miss Marjoribanks "but I am afraid the officers would not do." As for Mrs. Centum, she was quite incapable of managing such a terrible crisis. She felt it, indeed, a little hard that it should be her man who was defied in this alarming way, while Mr. Cavendish and the Archdeacon, the two previous candidates, had both been received so sweetly. To be sure, it was his own fault; but that did not mend matters. She looked from one to the other with a scared look, and grew very red, and untied her bonnet; and then, as none of these evidences of agitation had any effect upon the other parties involved, plunged into the heat of the conflict without considering what she was about to say. "Lucilla, I am surprised at you," said Mrs. Centum, "when you know how you have gone on about Mr. Cavendish when you know what a fuss you have made, and how you have told everybody". onshire Cavendishes, you know. I don't know if he had any family at all, or relations, or that sort of thing. In most cases a man gets on just as well without them, in my opinion. I wonder if this fellow you are talking of is he?" "Oh no," said Mrs. Centum. "I hope you will meet him before you leave Carlingford. He has a sister married here; but we have always understood he was one of the Cavendishes. I am sure Mrs. Woodburn always gives herself out for somebody," she continued, thinking better of it, and beginning to let the interesting sus picion enter her mind; for, to be sure, they were about of a standing, and the banker's wife had sometimes felt a little sore at the idea that her neighbour possessed distinctions of family which were denied to herself. "It is true, none of her relations ever come to see her," said Mrs. Centum, and she began to forget the General, and Lucilla's reception of him, in this still more interesting subject. It was the first time that the authenticity of the Cavendishes had been attacked in Carlingford; and, to be sure, what is the good of having fine connections if they cannot be produced? While Mrs. Centum pondered a suggestion so interesting, Lucilla, on her part, also took advantage of the occasion, and descended from the calm heights of dignity on which she had placed herself. And the General, who was a well-bred man, had got over for the moment the unlucky impression made upon him by the fresh face of little Rose Lake. "Mr. Cavendish is very nice," said Miss Marjoribanks. "I am very fond of all my own relations, but I don't care about other people's. Of course he is one of the Cavendishes. I don't see how he can help it, when that is his name. I should think it was sure to be the same. We should be so obliged to you if you would bring him back to Carlingford. I don't know, I am sure, why he is so obstinate in staying away." Perhaps somebody has been unkind to him," said the General, feeling it was expected of him. "I am sure I have not been unkind to him," said Lucilla. "He is such a loss to By the by, who is Mr. Cavendish?" me. If you are going to do us the pleasure said General Travers, interposing with that of coming on Thursday- Oh, I am sure holy horror of a quarrel between women we shall feel quite honoured, both papa and which is common to the inferior half of I-I will show you how badly off I am. creation. "I wonder if he is a fellow one It is not a party in the least, and we don't used to meet everywhere. One never could dance," said Miss Marjoribanks, "that is get any satisfaction who he belonged to. why I am a little uncertain about the offiHe never pretended to be one of the Dev-cers. It is one of my principles that too 66 many young people are the ruin of society; long as the children were well, and the but it is hard work sometimes, when one is holidays about over, she could bear anynot properly supported," Lucilla added, thing; and what did it matter to her about with a gentle sigh. the officers? - but at the same time she preferred to avert her face when she received the blow. "If I can be of any use," said the amused soldier. "I don't pretend to be able to replace Cavendish, if it is Cavendish; but ". "I am sure Miss Marjoribanks is a person for whom I shall always entertain the highest respect," said the General, and he gave a little laugh. "Was that pretty little creature a sister of hers?or a friend? or what? I don't know when I have seen anything so pretty," said the unsuspecting man; and then Mrs. Centum turned round upon him with a kind of horror. "That Lucilla's sister!-why, she has no sister; I told you so; she is an only child, and will have everything. She will be quite an heiress," cried Mrs. Centum, "if the old Doctor were to die; though, I am sure, poor dear man, I hope he will not die. There is no other medical man in the town that one can have the least confidence in, except Dr. Rider; and then he is so young, and can't have much experience with children. Her sister indeed! "No," said Miss Marjoribanks with resignation," it is not easy to replace him. He has quite a talent, you know; but I am sure it is very kind of you, and we shall be delighted to have such an acquisition," Lucilla continued, after a pause, with a gracious smile; and then she led her guests down-stairs to lunch, which was every way satisfactory. As for the General, it cannot be doubted that he had the worst of it, as was natural, in this little encounter, and felt himself by no means such a great personage in Carlingford as his hospitable entertainers had persuaded him he should be. Mrs. Centum declared afterwards that she could not form the least idea what Lucilla meant by it, she who was generally so civil to everybody. But it is not necessary to say that Miss Marjoribanks knew perfectly well what she was doing, and felt it impera- It was little Rose Lake, the drawing-mastively necessary to bring down General ter's daughter," said Mrs. Centum, with Travers to his proper level. Carlingford cruel distinctness. The General only said, could exist perfectly well without him and "Oh!" but it was in a crestfallen tone; his officers; but Lucilla did not mean that for to be snubbed by one lady, and struck the society she had taken so much pains to with sudden enthusiasm for another, who, form should be condescended to by a mere after all, was not a lady to speak of, but soldier. And then, after all, she was only only a drawing-master's daughter, was rathhuman, and it was not to be expected she er hard upon the poor man. Thus it was could pass over the blank look with which the soldier, who in ordinary circumstances her visitor turned to herself, after having ought to have been the most successful, who by evil fortune cast his eyes upon Rose began in the most cruel and uncomfortable Lake. At the same time, Miss Marjori- way his campaign in Carlingford. banks, always magnanimous, did not blame Rose, who had no hand whatever in the matter; and if she avenged herself in a lady-like and satisfactory manner, it is not to be supposed that it was simply a sense of offence which actuated Lucilla. She did it, on the contrary, on strictly philosophical principles, having perceived that Mrs. Centum was spoiling her General, and that it was absolutely necessary that he should be disabused. When they left, Mrs. Centum was almost afraid to put the question that trembled on her lips. She uttered it at last, faltering, and with a very doubtful expression, for she could not conceal from herself the fact that the General had been snubbed. "How do you like Lucilla?" she said, in the most humble way; and then she turned away her face. She could bear it, whatever it might be. She said to herself that so CHAPTER XXVIII. MISS MARJORIBANKS, except for her habitual walk, did not go out much that day. She was too much occupied with what she had in hand. She could not conceive - for Lucilla naturally took a reasonable view of affairs in general, and did not account for the action of any such unknown quantity as love, for example-why Mr. Cavendish should conceal himself so carefully from society in Carlingford, and yet run all the risk of meeting Barbara Lake in the evenings. It seemed to Lucilla inconceivable, and yet it was impossible not to believe it. Mr. Cavendish, though she had seen him on the very verge of a proposal, did not present himself to her mind in the aspect of a man who would consider the world well lost for any such transitory passion; neither, as | letter which Dr. Marjoribanks had just received was to get money to make up for his losses. Tom, who was a very good son, did not want to vex his mother, and accordingly it was his uncle whom he applied to, to sell out portion of the money he had in the Funds. She would think I was ruined, or that it was my fault, or at least that I meant to spend all my money," wrote Tom, "and you understand, uncle, that it is not my fault." Dr. Marjoribanks, as if that could possibly be brought against the unfortunate young man as a crime. "No, papa, it is his luck," said Lucilla; "poor Tom!— but I should not like to take a passage in the same boat with him if I was the other people. Though I am sure he is not a bit to blame." "I hope he does not mean to go on like this," said the Doctor. "He will soon make ducks and drakes of his five thousand pounds. A young fellow like that ought to mind what he's doing. It is a great deal easier to throw money away than to lay it by." 66 Papa, it is his luck," said Miss Marjoribanks; "it is all put into a system in political economy, you know. For my part, I am always the other way. It is very funny before you get used to it; but you know there has to be a balance in everything, and that is how it must be." was natural, did Barbara Lake appear to Lucilla the least like a person calculated to call forth that sentiment; but nevertheless it must be true, and the only way to account for it was by thinking, after all, what fools they were, and what poor judges, and how little to be depended on, when women were concerned. Miss Marjoribanks was determined to lose no more time, but to speak to Mr. Cavendish, if it was Mr. Cav-" Confound him! it is never his fault," said endish, and she could get the chance, quite plainly of the situation of affairs-to let him know how much she knew, and to spur him up to come forward like a man and brave anything the Archdeacon could do. Had it been any small personal aim that moved Lucilla no doubt she would have shrunk from such a decided step; but it was, on the contrary, the broadest philanthropical combination of Christian principles, help to the weak and succour to the oppressed, and a little, just a very little,of the equally Evangelical idea of humbling the proud and bringing down the mighty. She was so much occupied with her plans that it was with a little difficulty she roused herself to keep up the conversation with her father at dinner, and be as amusing and agreeable as ordinary; which indeed was more than ordinarily her duty, since Dr. Marjoribanks came in, in a fractious and disturbed state of mind, discontented with things in general. The truth he had got a letter from Tom Marjoribanks from India, where that unlucky young man had gone. It was all very well and natural and proper to go to India, and Lucilla had felt, indeed, rather satisfied with herself for having helped forward that desirable conclusion, especially after the Doctor had taken pains to explain to her, not knowing that she had any share in it, that it was the very best thing for Tom to do. For it has been already said that Dr. Marjoribanks, though he liked Tom, and thought it very odd that Providence should have given the girl to him, and the boy to his incapable sister-in-law, who did not in the least know how to manage him, had no desire to have his nephew for a son-in-law. Going to India was very right and proper, and the best thing to do; for a man might get on there, even at the bar, who would have no chance here; but after he had made one step in the right direction, it was only natural that all sorts of misfortunes should happen to Tom. He was wrecked, as was to be expected, and he lost his boxes, with the greater part of his outfit, either at that unhappy moment, or in the Desert, or at an after part of his unlucky career; and the object of the was, 66 I don't think it at all funny," said Dr. Marjoribanks, "unless your good luck and his bad were to be joined together; which is not an expedient I fancy." When he said this the Doctor gave a sharp glance at his daughter, to see if by any chance that might perhaps be what she was thinking of; but naturally the maiden candour and unsuspecting innocence of Lucilla was proof to such glances. She took no notice at all of the implied suspicion. But though it was very absurd for anybody to think that she would have married him, it was not in Miss Marjoribanks's nature to be disloyal to Tom. "I think he is quite right about his mother, papa," said Lucilla; "she would never understand it, you know; she would think the world was coming to an end. I would not for anything take a passage in the same boat with him, but he is nice in his way, poor fellow! I wonder what he has ever done to have such dreadful luck- but I hope you are going to do what he asks you:" and with this calm expression of her interest Miss Marjoribanks went up-stairs. When the Doctor became thus aware of his daughter's sentiments, it seemed to him that he was more at liberty to be kind to his nephew. He had never been able to divest |