Mrs. Blair, after tea insisted on she him Mr. Masterman's letter and a copy refusal. He rubbed his hands, laughed, almost shouted, as he crie "I suspect our little Lucy, made a conquest of the pedanti if Providence should send for N or he should think, like e Aram, that in the cause of be justifiable to remove shall have him enteri jackanapes his son, w lurking about this h

CHAPTER XII.

MRS. BLAIR CHANGES HER ABODE.

THE next day Mrs. Blair, in spite of Lucy's arguments and objections, went, escorted by Grinlay Snarl, to look at the first floor in

Street, and she was so delighted with it that she resolved, if she could coax Lucy into acquiescence, on taking it at once. Lucy, seeing her mother so flushed and so prepossessed, could not bear to thwart her, but listened patiently to the account of the large closets, the ample supply of water, the convenient store-room, the neat kitchen, the lock

up safe, larder, coal-hole, and pantry, all to themselves; and Lucy, ever ready at the noble work of self-sacrifice, gave in. Lucy's thirty pounds was to go towards furnishing, and at the end of the week they were installed in their new residence. Grinlay Snarl had been all delight and activity in promoting this change. He had been perpetually backwards and forwards between the new and the old lodging, helping to remove books and other portable articles; and Dinah, though she was in tears at the departure of the ladies, told Bob that "she was sure it was all right, Miss Blair's young man' had come forward as a young man as wished to act honourable by a gal should do, and if he was a bit elderly and no great shakes for beauty, he'd behaved handsomer than many a better-looking chap, and after all, handsome is that handsome does, and she hoped they'd be happy together."

And now for some time in their new apart

ments Lucy and her mother had nothing to complain of but the constant "dropping in"

of Grinlay Snarl, who, however, never came empty-handed, and kept Lucy so constantly and actively employed with her pen, that she had no time to trouble herself any more about teaching. She had written to Sir George Hamilton Treherne, thanking him for his kindness, but declining to renew her visits to Belgrave Square, and he had, in reply, repeated his offer of acting as reference, and had added that in case she should ever feel disposed to alter her mind, she would be welcomed with delight by himself and his daughter Augusta; he added that Lady Hamilton Treherne was on the continent, where she intended to remain for a time, to carry on the education of the younger children, and that if Miss Blair could be induced to attend Miss Hamilton Treherne again, every thing should be arranged to her satisfaction.

Lucy, however, was too fully occupied with

her writing, and too anxious to comply with her mother's wishes, to think of resuming her attendance on Augusta Hamilton Treherne. It was lucky for her at this time that occupation of mind stoned in some degree for the aching void in her heart.

No letter from Henry Greville had reached her, but yet she had been several times to Arundel Street, and two or three little notes of no consequence (one from a washerwoman she had employed, and another containing a grocer's prospectus) had been given to her, though Copley and his wife had nothing to do with the house, having been, both of them, fully convicted, at the Central Criminal Court, of the crime of having murdered poor old Mrs. Bragge.

Henry Greville's silence was the more perplexing, because Lucy heard by accident that he was safe and well in Australia, and getting on tolerably as a sheep-farmer.

This she ascertained from Cecil Sydney,