"Here are your two little girls, Miss May; Lady Laura and Lady Rose. My dear children, I am sure you will welcome your governess, and tell her you are glad to see her."

They advanced and put out their hands: pretty children of nine and ten, and well behaved.

"Mais, elles ne le sont pas," began Miss May, and then pulled herself hastily up. "I beg your ladyship's pardon: I have been so much accustomed to converse in French, that I occasionally run into it when I ought not. I was about to ask if these two young ladies were all.”

"All!" laughed the countess, "all the children! There are six more, younger than they are. The last is only three months old-such a little darling! These are all who will be under your care at present. I hope you will bring them on well."

"Papa says we are backward," interrupted Lady Laura.

"Oh yes. Lord Tennygal is very clever himself, and he thinks the children ought to be. I tell him there's quite time enough."

"He has been away ever so long, papa has," cried little Rose.

Nearly nine weeks," added the communicative countess to Miss May. "He has been out yachting with some friends in the Mediterranean. But he is in Dublin now, and will be home in a day or two."

"Uncle Tod's coming with him," said Lady Rose," and he is going to bring me a real live Venetian doll in a gondola. He said so."

"I have not yet inquired what sort of a journey you have had, Miss May," said the countess. "Was it rough, crossing?",

Before Miss May could answer, the sound of a carriage was heard, and the children left their tea and ran to the window to look at it. "Mamma!" they screamed in delight, "it is papa! It is." "Never!" cried the countess, running also to look, as delighted as they "Oh, how glad I am! That's just like him, Miss May, he loves to take us by surprise."

were.

The Earl of Tennygal came in. A small, fair man, as good-natured as his wife. She met him in the doorway, received his embrace, and then flew up-stairs to carry down the baby herself, and tell the other children that papa was come. Miss May had risen, and the earl bowed to her, wondering what visitor his wife had got staying with her.

"Now who is going to be mistress of the ceremonies and introduce me?" said he to the little girls, as he stood before the stranger, with a genial smile. "Mamma seems to have flown away."

"She came this evening; she is our new governess."

"Hush, Rose," cried the more dignified Lady Laura. "Papa, it is Miss May."

Rose thought that quite enough. She pulled his arm to draw his attention. "Papa, why did not Uncle Tod come?"

"Uncle Tod is gone to London, Rosie."

"And taken my doll and gondola with him ?” Rose seemed to think much of this "Uncle Tod."

"That lady you have got in the drawing-room took me by surprise, Bessie," remarked the earl, when he was alone with his wife.

gave me the information that she was a new governess.

"Rose

"So she is. I sent you word I had engaged one when I wrote to—

where was it ?-Sicily."

"Did you? I do not remember it."

"Yes I did. Don't you think she looks as if she would suit ?" "Dear Bessie, that's one of your fallacies-judging by 'looks.' Did you engage this one for her looks ?"

"I never saw her till this evening.

Why?" added the countess, with

quick apprehension. "Do you not like her looks ?"

"Oh, her looks are well enough: if her capabilities equal them, she'll do. She does not think a little of herself, I can see that. Where did you get her from ?"

"I wrote to London, to Lady Langton. She heard of her through an agency, I think. I left it to her. Her style of playing is good, I hear, and her French that of a native."

What are her friends ?"
They are dead, I think. I

"Um!" said the earl. "Is she a lady? "Solicitors; eminent solicitors—or were. will find Lady Langton's letters and show you. I know my letter to Miss May, the one I wrote to ratify the agreement, was addressed to the care of Lyvett, Castlerosse, and Lyvett, a first-rate legal firm of long standing, Lady Langton says, and they strongly recommended her. I hope she will suit, but of course there's no telling without a trial." "A high salary ?"

"Oh no, very reasonable indeed. Only 40%. But she is young, and has not been out before. So Theodore has not come with you?"

"He will be here, I expect, in a few days. He was obliged to go on to London to see about one or two parties there; pressing ones, Bessie. Tod has been at the old game again. I don't wonder your father is sick and tired of paying his debts for him."

"Poor fellow! He is so good-natured.”

"Not much of that. He is reckless natured, if you like. To squander away his money, and leave his just debts unpaid, is not being, what I call, good-natured. From London, Tod goes down to see Sir Archibald but as to his getting from him what he wants, I am sure he won't, and Tod knows it."

"Papa said, the last time, that he would never set him straight again."

"The fact is, Bessie, he has said it so frequently, and had to say it so frequently, that it falls on Tod's ears unheeded. But he got a sharp, determined letter from Sir Archibald before he left the yacht: no more money would he advance, and if Tod went to prison, there he might stop.❞

"What will he do? How I wish we were rich !"

"If we were as rich as the Indies and could hand Tod a blank cheque to be filled up at will, it would be doing him no kindness, for he only gets out of one scrape to rush into another. It will take 2000l. now to set him only tolerably clear."

"Do you know how he is going to manage?"

"I know what he says: but if Tod says one thing to-day, he says another to-morrow. He means, in the first place, to have a rake at Sir Archibald—that is not my expression, Bessie; it is his-and get himself freed from one or two things that he must get himself freed from. So much, perhaps, Sir Archibald will do; for they are very bad.".

"What are they?" hastily interrupted Lady Tennygal.

66

My dear, I cannot explain them to you, you would not understand them. Tod's in a mess; and that's all you need trouble yourself to know."

"What has it to do with ?-this that is so bad ?"

"Oh, it has to do with bills: never mind. He has been in a mess before, and he will be in one again, or else it would not be Tod Devereux. Sir Archibald, no doubt, will help him out of that, but no further. And then Tod means to come over here, and lie perdu with us, while he considers how he is to get on his legs again."

"I have always thought it a pity he sold out."

"He could not keep in. He would have been sent to Coventry. You know it was not once, or twice, or three times, that Tod was in for it, but always. And some things got to the colonel's ears-if they did not get to the general-in-chief's,—and altogether there was no other resource. Besides, he was compelled to turn the proceeds into money, and make stop-gaps of it."

"Still, if he could have kept his commission

"But he could not," interrupted Lord Tennygal. "My dear Bessie, Tod is your brother, and I am sorry to speak harshly of him, but he is just a vagabond, and that's the best that can be said."

A few days passed on. On the following Sunday, as they were walking home across the park after morning service, Lord Tennygal suddenly addressed his wife :

"Is that governess of yours an Englishwoman, Bessie ?" "Certainly. Why ?"

Because she uses a French prayer-book in church." "No!" uttered Lady Tennygal, in an accent of disbelief. "She did this morning. I saw it in her hand. And

"Mamma!" cried little Rose, running up, her whole air, eyes, lips, one picture of admiring awe-" mamma, only think! Miss May's book is not a common book like ours: it is all in French; every bit. How I wish I was clever enough for one !"

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"That's corroborative testimony," laughed Lord Tennygal. "I don't know how you will get over the dilemma," he added to his wife, in an under and more serious tone. "It is a pity the children observed it. You cannot well speak against their governess to them: but you cannot allow their minds to retain the favourable impression that French prayerbook seems to have made."

The kind face of Lady Tennygal wore a vexed expression. could she evince so much bad taste?"

"How

"Mark me, Bessie, this proves that the lady's mind has been badly trained; and I think her talents also. Nobody ever took a French prayer-book to our service but from one motive-display. And a well educated woman knows that she has no need of that. I should say Miss May is much more superficially acquainted with French than you suspect, or she would not seek to parade it."

At this moment they turned an angle of the walk, and came face to face with a gentleman, a tall, dark man, with a profusion of black hair and whiskers, black, disagreeable eyes, and a rakish cast of countenance. He was brother to Lady Tennygal, but several years older, and no two faces could be much less alike.

"Theodore !" uttered Lady Tennygal, in an accent of surprise, as she held out her hand.

"What! have you arrived?" exclaimed the earl. "How well you kept your promise of writing!"

"I got

"Aw-I had nothing good to write," said the new comer. here two hours ago, and saw you all filing off to church. What a thundering long sermon you must have had inflicted on you! It is past one. I wonder you could sit it out!"

"Do not forget our old bargain, Theodore," hastily interrupted Lady Tennygal: "no irreverent speaking before the children. They are coming up. I wish you would break yourself of the habit."

"Oh, it's Uncle Tod," exclaimed Rose, running to him. "Uncle Tod, where's my live doll ?"

"She died on the voyage."

"It's not true," said Rose.

"It is. She was sea-sick."

The child looked very glum and disbelieving, but spoke again: "Then where's the gondola ?"

"Oh, that has sailed away."

Lady Rose turned away in supreme indignation. “Laura, did you ever know Uncle Tod bring us anything that he promised? It is always the

same."

"Uncle Tod" was no longer attending to Rose: his notice was attracted by the handsome girl who was walking with Lady Laura. She wore a lilac silk dress and a showy shawl; and he thought, as Lord Tennygal had first done, that it was a visitor. But Lord Tennygal linked his arm within his and drew him on.

"Stop a bit, Tennygal. Who's that?"

"Nobody. The governess. How have you managed over yonder ?" "I have not managed at all," was the reply, accompanied by an oath. "The old man stands out, and won't advance a stiver. I think he would have done something, but my temper got up, and we came to hard words."

"Your temper often gets up when it ought to keep down," remarked Lord Tennygal. "Well?"

have been it in my

would be for you to write to him mind, and I think a good plan

"I will not interfere between you and Sir Archibald," interrupted the earl.

“You won't?"

"I won't. I have no right to do so, and it might make it unpleasant for Bessie."

"Then Bessie shall. He'll listen to her: as he would to you. But he won't to me,"

"Bessie must do as she thinks best. I will not control her. But were she of my opinion, she would remain neuter."

"These

"What the plague am I to do?" was the angry rejoinder. confounded matters must be settled, and with speed too; you know that. Why should you put the stopper on Bessie's salving over Sir Archibald?"

"I don't put it on. I said I would not control her. But these things are not of a nature that you can explain to my wife: and how else can she do you good with Sir Archibald ?"

"Of course I am not going to give the details to her."

"But they must be given to Sir Archibald. It is only the dire necessity that will induce him to come to."

"You ought to help me with him, Tennygal," was the grumbling rejoinder.

"Nonsense, man! Write a proper statement to Sir Archibaldproperly worded, I mean, and apologising for your temper-and crave his assistance, so far as that you cannot do without it. That's the best thing to do. We will talk it over to-morrow. Come in now, and have some luncheon."

Meanwhile the governess and the little girls had retired to the former's sitting-room to dine, Rose still harping on her wrongs. "Don't you think it is a great shame of Uncle Tod, Miss May ?" she said. "Perhaps it was not his fault," suggested the governess. your uncle's name ?”

66

Why, it's Uncle Tod."

"But his other name ?"

"Captain Devereux," said Laura.

"What is

"He is mamma's brother."

"He is not a real captain now, you know, because he has no men to command," interposed Rose. Grandpapa was so angry with him." "Who is your grandpapa, Lady Laura?" inquired the governess. "Sir Archibald Devereux. He is one of the Queen's officers of state, and he makes laws."

With the last piece of information the children sat down to dinner. They were called from the room when it was over, and Miss May, unlocking a desk, took out a book. She did well to keep it, and all such, locked up it would have astonished Lady Tennygal had she seen it at Parkwater. The governess appeared, however, to find amusement from it, for she sat reading it till the bells rang out for afternoon service.

"Those droning bells again!" was her grumbling ejaculation. "Of course I shall be expected to attend and not a creature to look at one except parish rustics! Had I known this was such a wretched, out-ofthe-world neighbourhood, I might not have schemed so cagerly to get to it."

Miss May was right: she was expected to attend. But she appeared with an English prayer-book, the gift of Lady Tennygal, who, in presenting it, had made a special request that the French one might be put away, out of sight, and never be taken to church at Parkwater again. The governess wished the church at Hanover, or as much farther off as it could be induced to go. She foresaw, indeed, that she should lead but a dull life of it at Parkwater. Sober routine was not congenial to Miss May. She contrived, however, after a short while, to strike out

some amusement.

There were signs one evening of a reception at Parkwater. Rooms were lighted, and carriages whirled up, bringing guests. Not many, for the locality did not produce them still, when all were assembled, what with old and young, it was a goodly show. Lady Rose was nine years old that day, and they were keeping her birthday: children and parents were equally welcome.

The governess's eyes and senses were dazzled. On this occasion she made one with the rest. Inordinately alive to the value of rank, to the pomp and pride of courtly life, her expectations had been raised to an extraordinary pitch when about to enter the Earl of Tennygal's family,