wife calmly discussing a bottle of E. T.'s old Madeira. Slowly and silently we walked along a solitary path winding through the bosom of a most romantic glen. I was silent, in sympathy with my companion's unwonted thoughtfulness. Of my own feelings I had spoken to Estelle Carlitz in the vaguest terms. Close and constant as our companionship had been within these few weeks, we had never passed beyond the boundary-line of flirtation. Poetical and sentimental we had been, in all conscience; but our poetry and sentiment had been expressed by eloquent generalities that had committed neither of us. Yet I could not doubt that the lady numbered me among her slaves; and I dared to believe my bondage was not to be an utterly hopeless captivity. 'Can you imagine anything more beautiful than this secluded glen?' said Madame Carlitz suddenly. One can scarcely fancy it a part of the same world which contains that noisy whirlpool London. I cannot tell you how this place has made me hate London. I wish E. T. had never offered me his house. What good have I done myself by coming here? I shall only feel the contrast between perfect peace and unceasing care more keenly when I go back to all my old troubles. It would have been wiser to stay in town, and go on acting, until I realised the dismal prophecies of my medical advisers. If I am doomed to die in harness, my life might as well end one year as another. What does it matter?'

6

"The words were commonplace enough of themselves, but from the lips of Carlitz the commonest words were magical as the strains of Arion to kindly Dolphin-musical as the seven-stringed lyre with whose strains Terpander healed the wounds of civil war.

'Do you really mean that you have been happy here among these rugged mountains and barren valleys-you?'

'Me-I, who speak to you. Happy! Ah, but too happy!' murmured the divine Estelle in tones of profoundest melancholy. 'My life here has been like a pleasant dream; but it is over, and to-morrow I must set my face towards London.'

'To-morrow!' I exclaimed. Surely this is very sudden.'

'It is sudden,' answered madame with a short impatient sigh; 'but it is inevitable, as it seems. H. received letters this morning; all sorts of bills and lawyers' threats-horrors which I am incapable of comprehending. I must return; I must, if I die on the journey, quand même,' she cried, becoming less English as she became more energetic. They will have it, these harpies. I must open my theatre and begin my season, and have the air to gain money à flots. Then they will tranquillise themselves. H. will talk to them. This must be. Otherwise they will send their myrmidons here, and put me into their Clichy-their Bench.'

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"I expressed my sympathy with all tenderness; but madame shook her head despairingly, and would not be consoled. I remembered the existence of the unknown Carlitz, and reflected that his accomplished

wife could scarcely be subject to the horror of imprisonment for debt while sheltered by the aegis of her coverture. But could I basely remind her of his obscure and obnoxious existence? Sentiment, chivalry, devotion, forbade so business-like a suggestion.

'My dear Estelle,' I murmured, 'remain in these tranquil regions till you grow weary of nature's solitude and my society. You need have no fear of your creditors while I have power to write a cheque.'

"I pressed the daintily-gloved hand that rested on my arm. It was the first time I had uttered her Christian name. Until this moment I had worshipped on my knees. But the tender down is brushed from the wings of Cupid when he rubs shoulders with Plutus.

"The divine Carlitz drew her hand from mine with a movement of outraged dignity.

Do you think so meanly of me as that?" she asked proudly. 'Do you think I would borrow money from you?"

"The emphasis on the last word of the first sentence revealed the nobility of the speaker's mind; the emphasis on the last word of the second sentence went straight home to the-vanity-of the hearer.

'Estelle,' I exclaimed, 'you cannot refuse the poor service of my fortune! Can there be any question of obligation between you and me? Have you not taught me what it is to be happy?-have you not

“Idem, idem, idem. Why should I transcribe the milk-and-watery version of that old story, which is only worth telling when it is written in the heart's blood of an honest man? 'Tis said that Lucretius wrote only under the sway of a philtre, or a demon-that was half Apollo's poetic frenzy, half mortal madness; and he must needs be possessed who would breathe fire and life into this hackneyed, common story of a man's fancy for a pretty face, or a graceful figure, or the divine art of putting on a shawl, or so many guineas transmuted into a Parisian bonnet, or whatever the thing is which we call a woman.

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Deep or earnest feeling I had none. By nature I was inconstant. The love that had glorified the sands of B with a light that shone not from sun or moon, had faded from my life. Like a fair child who dies in early infancy, the god had vanished; and the memory of his sweet companionship alone remained to me: I think I had tried to fall in love with Estelle Carlitz, and had failed. But I was none the less anxious to win her regard. There is a fashion in these follies; and to have been beloved by the fair directress of the Bonbonnière would have given me kudos amongst my acquaintance of the clubs-nay, even in patrician drawing-rooms to which the lovely Carlitz herself was yet a stranger.

"This was in my mind as I declared myself in a hackneyed strain of eloquence.

"The lady heard me to the end in silence, and then turned upon me with superb indignation.

'Taisez-vous. Would you offer to lend me money if I were in

your own set-if I were not an actress, a person whom you pay to amuse your idle evenings? It is not so long since they refused us Christian burial in my country. Ah, but you are only like the rest. You talk to me of your heart and your banker's-book in the same breath!' she cried passionately. It is mean of you to persecute me with offers of help which you ought to know that I cannot and will not accept. But you are in your right. It was I who betrayed my poverty. You wrung my secret from me. I beg you to speak of it no more. My affairs are in very good hands. Mr. H. will arrange everything for me; and-I shall go to-morrow. And now let us be friends. Forget that I have ever spoken to you about these things, and forget that I have been angry.'

"She turned to me with her most bewitching smile, and held out her hand. This power of transition was her greatest charm. The gift that made her most accomplished among stage-players, made her also most delightful among women. Pity that the woman who is playing a part should always have so supreme an advantage over the woman who is in earnest.

"We spoke no more of money-matters. I assured Madame Carlitz that, in the circle which she was pleased to call my 'set,' there was no one who possessed my respect in greater measure than it was possessed by herself. And at this juncture we heard the jovial voice of the jovial H. echoing down the glen, announcing that the carriage was ready for our return.

'It is agreed that we are to forget everything,' said madame, 'except that this is to be my last evening in this dear place, and that we are to spend it together.'

"To this I consented with all tender reverence and submission. Our homeward drive was gaiety itself-our dinner, the banquet of a Horace and Lydia after that little misunderstanding about Chloe and the Thurine boy had been settled to the satisfaction of both parties. After dinner Estelle sang to me, accompanying herself on the guitar, which she played with a rare perfection. The old forgotten ballads come back to me sometimes, and I hear the low sweet voice, and the sound of the waves washing that rocky headland in A—————.

"After she had sung as many songs as I could in conscience entreat from her, I asked H. to smoke a cigar with me in the garden. He came promptly at my call; and I know now, though I was persistently blind at the moment, that a little look of intelligence passed between him and my enchantress as he crossed the room to comply with my

request.

"We went out upon the lawn, lighted our cigars, and paced up and down for some few minutes in silence. Then I plunged into the middle of things.

'H.,' I said, 'how much would it take to clear Madame Carlitz of her pressing pecuniary engagements, and release her from any necessity