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for a few minutes to his mother talking | praise the cooking; the elderly ladies to Wenna about that sewing-club. He generally say something nice about the became impatient with himself, and cleanliness of the bedrooms and the vexed, for Wenna seemed in no wise to recognize his presence; and of course his mother did not ask his advice about the purchase of flannel. He tossed about the books on the table; he teased an Angola cat that was lying before the fire until it tried to bite him, and then he put its nose into the water of a flowervase. With the feather of a quill dipped in ink he drew a fox on one of the white tiles of the fireplace; and then he endeavoured to remove that work of art with the edge of a scarlet and gold footstool. These various occupations affording him no relief, he got up, stretched his legs, and said to his mother,

"Mother, you keep her here for lunch. I shall be back at two."

"Oh, but I can't stay so long," Wenna said, suddenly, "I know I shall be wanted at home."

"Oh no, you won't," the young gentleman said, coolly, "I know you won't. Mabyn told me so. Besides, I am going down now to tell them you will be back at four."

And so he went away, but his walk down to the inn was not as pleasant as that roundabout ramble up to the Hall had been.

CHAPTER XVII.

ONLY A BASKET OF PRIMROSES.

good attendance; and the young ladies write about anything, recommending other visitors to go to particular places, or saying what they think of the Cornish peasantry. I am sure they are all very good-natured to us, and say very nice things of the inn; but then it looks so silly. And the young gentlemen are far the worst— especially the university young gentlemen, for they write such stupid poetry and make such bad jokes. I suppose it is that the fresh air gives them very good spirits, and they don't care what they say, and they never expect that their friends will see what they have written. I have noticed, though, that the walking gentleman never write such things when they are leaving, for they are always too anxious about the number of miles they have to get over on that day, and they are always anxious, too, about the heels of their stockings. If you would like to see the book

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Wenna stopped. Mrs. Trelyon had been very good in extending a sort of acquaintance to her, and now proposed to help her in a way with her work. But she was going too far in expecting that this reserved and silent lady should become a visitor at the inn, or interest herself in its commonplace affairs. At this moment, indeed, Mrs. Trelyon was So very much reserved, that she did not notice either Wenna's tentative invitation or her embarrassment when she

"WHAT a busy life you must lead," said Mrs. Trelyon, looking with a gentle won-cut it short. der at the young lady before her. "You seem to know how to do everything." Miss Wenna coloured a little, and said something about having had to help her mother for many years past.

"And such a knowledge of the world as you have!" Mrs. Trelyon continued, unconsciously staring at the girl as if she were some strange phenomenon. "Where did you get it?"

"That I am sure I have not got," Wenna said, brightening considerably, "for the strangers who come to the inn of course don't speak to me, except one or two of the very old ladies sometimes, and all they speak about is the scenery. But Mabyn and I read the remarks in the visitors' book, and these are very amusing, especially the poetry that the young gentlemen write; and indeed, Mrs. Trelyon, if one were to judge by that book, one would think that the world was very silly. The elderly gentlemen generally

"I wish," she said absently, showing what she had been thinking about, "I wish you could get Harry to go to one of the universities."

It was now Wenna's turn to stare. Did the mother of that young gentleman seriously think that this stranger-girl had such an influence over him?

"Oh, Mrs. Trelyon," Wenna said, "how could I

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"He would do anything for you," the gentle lady said, with much simplicity and honesty. "He pays no attention to anything I say to him; but he would do anything for you. His whole manner changes when you are in the house. I think you are the only person in the world he is afraid of. And it was SQ good of you to get him to go to church."

"I am sure it was not I," said Wenna, getting rather afraid.

"But I know," said Mrs. Trelyon, quite affectionately, "for I have seen every

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And at last they came back to the proposal that Wenna should try to persuade Master Harry to go to Oxford or Cambridge.

I

body else try and fail. You see, my them, were the only sounds that accom-
dear, you are in a peculiar position. You panied their talk, as they wandered this
are young, and a pleasant companion for way and that by brilliant garden-plots or
a young man; and as you are no relation through shaded avenues, where the air
of his he is courteous to you. And then, was sweet with the fresh scents of the
you see, your being engaged to be mar- opening summer.
ried enables him to speak freely to you
and treat you as a friend, and I think,
besides, you have acquired some means
of keeping him in check, and having au-
thority over him, and I am sure he would "But, Mrs. Trelyon," the girl said ear-
do more for you than for any one I know.nestly, "I am quite sure you mistake
As for me, I have never had any control altogether my relations with your son.
over him; but he is at least civil to me could not presume to give him advice.
when you are in the room."
It would not be my place to do so even if
we were on the footing of friends, and
that, at present, is out of the question.
Don't you see, Mrs. Trelyon, that be-
cause Mr. Trelyon in coming about the
inn was good-natured enough to make
the acquaintance of my father, and to
talk to us girls, it would not do for any
of us to forget how we are situated. I
don't anyway-perhaps because I am
proud - but, at all events, I should not
presume on Mr. Trelyon's good nature.
Don't you see, Mrs. Trelyon?"

Wenna rose.

"Mrs. Trelyon," she said, "don't you think it is a pity to stay indoors on such a beautiful morning? The air is quite mild and warm outside."

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She was glad to get out. There was something in this declaration of her responsibility for the young man's conduct which considerably startled and frightened her. It was all very well for her to administer an occasional sharp reproof to him when he was laughing and joking - with herself and Mabyn, but to become "I see that you are a very practical, and the recognized monitress of so wild a sensible, and plain-spoken young lady," pupil as Master Harry to have his own her companion said, regarding her with a mother appeal to her that was quite a kindly look, "but I think you don't do different affair. And on this occasion, my son justice. It is not thoughtlesswhen Mrs. Trelyon had got a shawl, and ness that made him make your acquaintcome outside with her guest, all her talk ance. I don't think he ever did a more was about her son, and his ways, and his prudent thing in his life before. And prospects. It was very clear that with then, dear Miss Rosewarne, you must all her lamentations over his conduct, remember if I may speak of such a Mrs. Trelyon was very fond of the young thing that you will soon be the wife of man, and was quite assured too that he one of the very few friends we have had the brains to do anything he might about here; and you must excuse us if be induced to undertake. Wenna lis- we claim you as a friend already, and tened in a vague way to all these com- try to take advantage of your friendship. plaints and speculations, and covert Now, do you see that?" praises; she did not find her position so embarrassing in the open air as in that close drawing-room. They walked through the leafy alleys of the garden, unconsciously regarding the beautiful colour of the new spring flowers, and listening to the larks singing high up in the blue. From time to time, as they turned, they caught a glimpse of hills all ablaze "Oh no, I can't do that, Mrs. Trelwith gorse; and near the horizon a long yon," Wenna said, "it would be quite line of pale azure with a single white ship rude of me to do that. Besides, if you visible in the haze. On the other side of would not be displeased with me, Mrs. the valley a man was harrowing; they Trelyon, for saying so, I don't think gocould hear him calling to the horses, and ing to a university would do him any the jingling of the chains. Then there good. I don't think I hope you won't was the murmur of the stream far below, be vexed with me. where the sunlight just caught the light ficient schooling. green of the larches. These, and the examination before you could get in? Constant singing of the birds around Well, I don't know about that; but I am

Wenna was not persuaded; but she was, at all events, very pleased to see that occasionally Mrs. Trelyon could forget her brooding sentimental fancies and become, comparatively, bright and talkative.

"Now will you say a word to him when he comes home for lunch?"

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that he has had sufAnd isn't there an

little service to Mr. Roscorla for your sake."

The girl beside her did not understand; she looked up with wondering eyes.

"What money, Mrs. Trelyon ?"

I mean the money that Harry got for Mr. Roscorla - the money, you know, for these Jamaica estates; is it possible Mr. Roscorla did not tell you before he

quite sure that if he did get in, he would be too proud to put himself in competition with the other young men who were properly prepared for study, and he would take to boating, or cricket, or some such thing. Now, don't you think, Mrs. Trelyon, he would be as well occupied in amusing himself here, where you might gradually get him to take an interest in something besides shooting and fishing? He knows far more things than most peo-left?" ple fancy, I know that. My father says he is very clever and can pick up anything you tell him; and that he knows more about the management of an estate, and about the slate quarries, and about mining too, than people imagine. And "You don't know, then?" Mrs. Trelas for me," added the girl bravely, "Iyon said, with a sudden fear that she had will say this, that I think him very clever been indiscreet. "Oh, it is nothing, a indeed, and that he will make a straight-mere business arrangement. Of course, forward and honourable man, and I gentlemen don't care to have these should like to see him in Parlinment, things talked over. I hope you won't where he would be able to hold his own, I know."

"Oh, my dear!" exclaimed Mrs. Trelyon, with a joyful face, “I am so grateful to you. I am so proud to know you think so highly of him. And won't you say a word to him? He will do whatever you please."

But Miss Wenna had somehow been startled into that confession, and the sudden burst of honesty left her considerably ashamed and embarrassed. She would not promise to intermeddle in the matter, whatever she had been induced to say about the future of the young man. She stooped to pick up a flower to cover her confusion, and then she asked Mrs. Trelyon to be good enough to excuse her staying to lunch.

"Oh no, I dare not do that," Mrs. Trelyon said, "Harry would pull the house down when he found I had let you go. You know we have no visitors at present, and it will be such a pleasure to have him lunch with me; he seldom does, and never at all if there are visitors. But really, Miss Rosewarne, it is so inconsiderate of me to talk always of him, as if you were as much interested as myself. Why the whole morning we have not said a word about you and all you are looking forward to. I do hope you will be happy. I am sure you will be, for you have such a sensible way of regarding things, and all is sure to go well. I must say that I thought Harry was a little more mad than usual when he first told me about that money; but now I know you, I am very, very glad indeed, and very pleased that I could be of some

"I don't know anything about it, Mrs. Trelyon, and I hope you will tell me at once," Wenna said, with some decision in her tone, but with a strange sinking at her heart.

mention it, dear Miss Rosewarne; I really thought you might have overheard them speaking of the matter."

Wenna said nothing. The soft dark eyes looked a little troubled, but that was all. And presently, up came young Trelyon, full of good spirits, and noise, and bustle; and he drove his mother and Wenna before him into the house; and hurried up the servants, and would open the wine himself. His mother checked him for whistling at luncheon; his reply was to toss the leg of a fowl on to the hearthrug, where a small and shaggy terrier immediately began to worry it. He put the Angola cat on the table to see if it would eat some Cornish cream off his plate. His pigeons got to know of his being in the house, and came flying about the windows and walking jerkingly over the lawn; he threw up the window and flung them a couple of handfuls of crumbs.

"Oh, Miss Wenna," said he, "would you like to see my tame fox? I am sure you would. Mather, you cut round to the stables and tell old Luke to bring that fox here off you go leave the claret this side."

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"But I do not wish to see the fox; I particularly dislike foxes," said Wenna with some asperity; and Mather was recalled.

Master Harry grinned to himself; it was the first time he had been able to get her to speak to him. From the beginning of luncheon she had sat almost silent, observing his vagaries and listening to his random talk in silence; when she spoke it was always in answer to his

mother. Very soon after luncheon she begged Mrs. Trelyon to excuse her going away; and then she went and put on her hat.

"I'll see you down to the inn," said Master Harry, when she came out to the hall-door.

"Thank you, it is quite unnecessary," she said, somewhat coldly.

"Oh," said he, "you may be as nasty as you please, but I shall conquer you by my extreme politeness."

At another time she would have laughed at the notion of this young gentleman complimenting himself on his politeness; now, as she walked quietly down the gravelled path to the gate, she was very grave, and, indeed, took no notice of his presence.

"Wenna," said he, after he had shut the gate, and rejoined her, "is it fair to make such a fuss about a chance word? I think you are very hard. I did not mean to offend you."

"You have not offended me, Mr. Trelyon."

"Then why do you look so precious glum ?"

She made no answer.

"Now look here, be reasonable. Are you vexed because I called you Wenna? Or is it because I spoke about singing in the choir?"

"6 No," ," she said, simply, "I was not thinking of anything of that kind; and I am not vexed."

down, her pale face a trifle flushed, and her hands clasped tight.

"How much was it?" she said in a low voice.

"Now, now, now," he said, in a sooth-
ing way, "don't you make a fuss about
it; it is a business transaction; men
often lend money to each other what a
fool he must have been to have I beg
your pardon
" and then he stopped,

frowning at his own stupidity.
"How much was it?"

"Well, if you must know, five thousand pounds."

"Five thousand pounds!" she repeated absently. "I am sure my father has not so much money. But I will bid you good-bye now, Mr. Trelyon." And she held out her hand.

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Mayn't I walk down with you to the village?" said he, looking rather crestfallen.

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No, thank you," she said, quietly, and then she went away.

Well, he stood looking after her for a few seconds. Now that her back was turned to him and she was going away, there was no longer any brightness in the fresh spring woods, nor any colour in the clear skies overhead. She had been hard on him, he felt; and yet there was no anger or impatience in his heart, only a vague regret that somehow he had wounded her, and that they were no longer good friends. He stood so for a minute or two, and then he suddenly set out to overtake her. She turned slightly

"Then what is the matter?" For another second or two she was si-just as he had got up. lent, apparently from irresolution; then she suddenly stopped in the middle of the road, and confronted him..

"Mr. Trelyon," she said, "is it true that you have given Mr. Roscorla money, and on my account?"

"No, it is not," he said, considerably startled by her tone; "I lent him some money the money he wanted to take to Jamaica."

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"And what business had you to do anything of the sort?" she said, with the shame in her heart lending a strangely unusual sharpness to her voice.

"Well," said the young man, quite humbly, "I thought it would be a service both to you and to him; and that there was no harm in it. If he succeeds he will pay me back. It was precious silly of him to tell you anything about it; but still, Miss Wenna- you must see now don't be unreasonable. what harm could there be in it?"

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She stood before him, her eyes cast

"Miss Wenna," he said, rather shamefacedly, "I forgot to ask you whether you would mind calling in at Mrs. Luke's as you go by. There is a basket of primroses there for you. I set the children to gather them about an hour ago; I thought you would like them."

She said she would; and then he raised his cap to her-looked at her just for one moment - and turned and walked away. Wenna called for the basket, and a very fine basket of flowers it was, for Mrs. Luke said that Master Harry had given the children sixpence a-piece to gather the finest primroses they could get, and every one knows what Cornish primroses are. Wenna took away the flowers not paying any particular attention to them, and it was only when she got into her own room and when she felt very much inclined to sit down and cry that she noticed lying among the large and pale yellow primroses a bit of another flower which one of the

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children had, doubtless, placed there. I that the present and future of English art It was merely a stalk of the small pink- are wholly unlike what I had imagined. flowered saxifrage, common in cottagers' Some months ago, at one of those sogardens, and called in some places Lon-cial meetings in which the country still don-pride. In other parts of the country they tenderly call it None-so-pretty.

From The Cornhill Magazine. THOUGHTS OF A COUNTRY CRITIC.

I WONDER what were the feelings of an old-fashioned Derbyshire gentleman some three hundred years ago when the Countess of Devonshire had brought down a lot of outlandish artists and masons to build Hardwicke Hall, and instead of the good old gables and buttresses of his youth arose classical pilasters and entablatures, a new and wonderful birth of heathen art to supplant the dull but sufficient Gothic under which he and his fathers had lived for a couple of centuries.

preserves a kindliness of neighbourly intercourse which is lost to the town, there appeared a young Oxonian, the nephew of our excellent rector, a recent candidate for honours, and lately elected fellow of his college. It was interesting to meet a young man of promise, and, for his years, of some reputation; and he was cordially received by the company. After dinner the conversation (leaving for a while our favourite local topics) turned upon the exhibition of the Royal Academy. I had visited it in the month of May, and had been glad to see in it evidence that the vigour of English art was still unimpaired, in spite of the influence of pre-Raphaelitism now happily passed away, and of a too dominant French sentimentalism. It is true that a sense of staleness had sometimes interfered with my enjoyment, as I saw the same painters executing the same feats I think I have some idea: for I have which they have executed for goodness been a humble lover of art from my boy-knows how many years past. Yet I hood, and till lately fancied that I knew found plenty to praise, and just cause for some little of what was going on in that congratulating a country which had beworld. But some recent flashes of light have told me that I have been asleep, I know not how long, and am in danger of finding myself after all no better than a Rip Van Winkle.

fore it so good a hope of a progressive school of art. I was enumerating some of the pictures of the year which had seemed to me specially worthy of remark, and amongst others a painting by a Mr. Let me explain. I live in a market Moore which had puzzled me; a single town in the North Midland counties, five figure without light or shade, or any parhours from London. We are not wholly ticular colour; something like a tinted Boeotian. We take in the Saturday Re- bas-relief. I now know that Mr. Moore view and the Pall Mall Budget, and see is one of our great ones; but then I used the Quarterly Review and an occasional his name ignorantly. My young friend, number of the Fortnightly and Contem- who had been silent during dinner, porary. I myself travelled in Italy some pricked up his ears at the name, and said, years ago. I used to take in the Art in a tone which, if not disrespectful, was Journal. I have read Ruskin, have not deferential, "You do not appear to never lost an opportunity of seeing good have noticed the best thing in last year's pictures, and I am, I hope, as open to exhibition — the great Greek procession, new impressions as I was in 1850. We by the same painter." Now I had noare, I repeat, not wholly Boeotian; but ticed that picture, and spent some time the mere fact of our latitude makes us before it, and marked it with a cross in provincial; and our brightest rays of my catalogue. I had expressed my surenlightenment come rather from Man-prise to the friend who was with me at chester than from London. Yet we do the time (not a judge of painting himnot fail, once at least in two or three self) that such a picture should have been years, to visit the Royal Academy and admitted at all. It had seemed to me a the National Gallery, and any exhibitions dull and flat composition in sad green and of pictures which may be open when our grey, a dead echo of an unreal past. visits to town take place, and instruct "Ah!" broke in my young friend, with ourselves as well as we may in the prog-a regretful air, "and what have we at ress of the art and art-literature now best but an echo? There is no art-life going on in the busier world. But all my in this century; we can but try and feel ideas have been upset by the discovery the past, and make it live again as we

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