her son to express the first opinion, "to be of the whole of this strange affair the part that is least satisfactory."

"My dear mother, you have hit the mark. What satisfaction can one find in having a case without a key, and knowing that if we force it open there will be nothing but dust inside? Not a quarter so good as a snuff-box. I must have a pinch, my dear mother, excuse me, while you meditate on this subject. You are far more indulgent in that respect than little Alice ever is."

of birth so renowned and lofty has not "That appears to me," said the Lady been made to resemble a hand-worker, Valeria, being left in good manners by or a runaway slave, but has many stars regarding him from many generations. And now he perceives that his skill and wisdom were not given to him to be a mere personal adornment, but that he might protect his descendants to the remote futurity. To him, then it having been revealed that in the seventh generation hence, as has often come to pass with our house, or haply in the tenth (for the time is misty), a great calamity is bound to happen to those born afar off from Syennesis the sage has laboured many labours, though he cannot avert, at least to make it milder, and to lessen it. He has not, indeed, been made to know, at least up to the present time, what this bane will be, or whether after the second or after the third century from this period. But knowing the swiftness of "It is not so much that I let her take evil chance, he expects it at the earlier them. I have no voice in the matter time; and whatever its manner or kind now. She takes them without asking may be, Agasicles in all his discoveries me. Possibly that is the great calamity has discovered no cure for human evils, foretold by the astrologer. If not, what save that which he now has shut up in a other can it be, do you think?" box. This box has been so constructed that nothing but dust will meet the greedy eyes of any who force it open, in the manner of the tomb of Nitocris. But if it be opened with the proper key, and after the proper interval, when the due need has arisen - there will be a fairer sight than ever broke upon mortal eyes before.'

"There, mother, now, what do you think of all that? I am quite out of breath with my long translation, and I am not quite sure of all of it. For instance, where he says

"Roland," his mother answered quickly, "I am now much older than the prince, according to tradition, can have been. But I make no pretence to his wisdom, and I have reasons of my own for wondering. What have you done with the key of that case?"

"All gentlemen take snuff," said the lady; "who is Alice to lay down the law? Your father took a boxful three times in a week. Roland, you let that young girl take very great liberties with you.'

"Not so," she answered, with a serious air, for all her experience of the witty world had left her old age quite dry of humour; "the trouble, if any is coming, will not be through Alice, but through Hilary. Alice is certainly a flighty girl, romantic, and full of nonsense, and not at all such as she might have been if left more in my society. However, she never has thought it worth while to associate much with her grandmother, the result of which is that her manners are unformed, and her mind is full of nonsense. But she has plenty, and (if it were possible) too much, of that great preservative, pride of birth. Alice may come to affliction herself, but she never will involve her family."

"Any affliction of hers," said Sir Roland, "will involve at least her father."

"Yes, yes, of course. But what I mean is the honour and rank of the family. It is my favourite Hilary, my dear, brave, handsome Hilary, who is likely to bring care on our heads, or rather upon your head, Roland; my time, of course, will be over then, unless he is very quick about it."

"I have never seen it. It was not in the closet. And I meant to have searched throughout his room until I found out the meaning of this very crabbed postscript That fool, Memel, hath lost the key. It will cost me months to make another. My hands now tremble, and my eyes are weak. If there be no key found "He will not be so quick as that, I herewith, let it be read that Nature, hope," Sir Roland answered, with some whom I have vanquished, hath avenged little confusion of proper sentiments; herself. Whether, or no, have I laboured" although in that hotbed of mischief, in vain? Be blest now, and bless me, my London, nobody knows when he may be dear descendants.'" gin. However, he is not in London at

present, according to your friend Lady de Lampnor. I think you said you had heard so from her."

"To be sure, Mr. Malahide told her himself. The dear boy bas overworked himself so, that he has gone to some healthy and quiet place to recruit his exhausted energies."

"Dear me," said Sir Roland, "I never could believe it, unless I knew from experience, what a very little work is enough to upset him. To write a letter to his father, for instance, is so severe an exertion that he requires a holiday the next day."

"Now, Roland, don't be so hard upon him. You would apprentice him to that vile law, which is quite unfit for a gentleman. I am not surprised at his being overcome by such odious labour; you would not take my advice, remember, and put him into the only profession fit for one of his birth- the army. Whatever happens, the fault is your own. It is clear, however, that he cannot get into much mischief where he is just now-a rural and quiet part of Kent, she says. It shows the innocence of his heart to go there."

"Very likely. But if he wanted change, he might have asked leave to come home, I think. However, we shall have him here soon enough."

"And the most good-natured, and the most affectionate," said Lady Valeria, warmly. "Nothing else could keep him from being jealous, as nine out of ten would be. However, I am tired of talking now, and on that subject I might talk forever. Take away that case, if you please, and the writing. On no account would I have them left here. Of course you will lock them away securely, and not think of meddling with them. What is that case made of?"

open this case without shattering it altogether."

"I do not wish to examine the case, I wish to have it taken away, my son. There, there, I am very glad not to see it, although I am sure I am not superstitious. We shall do very well, I trust, without it. I think it is a most extraordinary thing that your father never consulted me about the writing handed down to you. He must have been bound by some pledge not to do so. There, Roland, I am tired of the subject."

With these words, the ancient lady waved her delicate hand, and dismissed her son, who kissed her white forehead, according to usage, and then departed with case and parchment locked in the oaken box again. But the more he thought over her behaviour, the more he was puzzled about it. He had fully expected a command to open the case, at whatever hazard; and perhaps he had been disappointed at receiving no such order. But above all, he wanted to know why his mother should have been taken aback, as she was, by the sight of these little things. For few people, even in the prime of life, possessed more self-command and courage than Lady Valeria, now advancing into her eighty-second year.

CHAPTER XXIII.

"How you speak, Roland! Quite as if you cared not a farthing for your only Ar the top of the hill, these lofty son! It must be dreadfully galling to themes were being handled worthily; him, to see how you prefer that Alice." while, at the bottom, little cares had equal "If he is galled, he never winces," an-glance of the democrat sun, but no stars swered Sir Roland, with a quiet smile; allotted to regard them. In plain Eng"he is the most careless fellow in the lish, Bonny and Jack were as busy as world." their betters. They had taken their usual round that morning, seeking the staff of life if that staff be applicable to a donkeyin village, hamlet, and farmhouse, or among the lanes and hedges. The sympathy and good-will between them daily grew more intimate, and their tastes more similar; so that it scarcely seemed impossible that Bonny in the end might learn to eat clover, and Jack to rejoice in money. Open air and roving life, the ups and downs of want and weal, the freedom of having nothing to lose, and the "I can scarcely make out. Something joyful luck of finding things these, and strong and heavy. A mixture, I think, of perhaps a little spice of unknown sweetshagreen and some metal. But the odd-ness in living at large on their fellowest thing of all is the keyhole. It is at creatures' labours, combined to make the top of the cone, you see, and of the strangest shape, an irregular heptagon, with some rare complication of points inside. It would be next to impossible to

them as happy a pair as the day was long,
or the weather good. In the winter
ah! why should we think of such trouble?
Perhaps there never will be winter again.

cut away; "boy, I want to talk to you."

Bonny was by no means touched with this very fine benevolence. Taking, perhaps, a low view of duty, he made the ground hot, to escape what we now call the "sacerdotal office." But Struan Hales (unlike our parsons) knew how to manage the laity. He clapped himself and his pony, in no time, between Master Bonny and his hole, and then in calm dignity called a halt, with his riding-whip ready at his button-hole.

"It is, it is, it is!" cried Bonny, coming back with his head on his chest, and meaning (in the idiom of the land) that now he was beaten, and would hold parley.

At any rate, Bonny was sitting in front of the door of his castle (or rather in front of the doorway, because he was happy enough not to have a door), as proud and contented as if there could never be any more winter of discontent. He had picked up a hat in a ditch that day, lost by some man going home from his Inn; and knowing from his patron, the pigman Bottler, that the surest token of a blameless life is to be found in the hat of a man, the boy, stirred by the first heave of ambition, had put on this hat, and was practising hat-craft (having gone with his head as it was born hitherto), to the utter surprise, and with the puzzled protest, of his beloved donkey. It was a most steady church-going hat of the chimney-pot order (then newly imported into benighted "To be sure it is!" the rector anregions, but now of the essence of a god-swered, keeping a good balance on his ly life all over this free country), neither pony, and well pleased with his own tacwas it such a shocking bad hat as a man tics. He might have chased Bonny for would cast away, if his wife were near. For Bonny's young head it was a world too wide, but he had padded it with a blackbird's nest; and though it seemed scarcely in harmony with his rakish waistcoat, and bare red shanks (spread on the grass for exhibition, and starred with myriad furze and bramble), still he was conscious of a distinguished air, and nodded to the donkey to look at him.

While these were gazing at one another, with free interchange of opinion, the rector of the parish, on his little pony, turned the corner suddenly. He was on his way home, at the bottom of the coombe, not in the very best temper perhaps, in spite of the sport in prospect; because Sir Roland had met so unkindly his kind desire to know things.

"What have you got on your lap, boy?" Mr. Hales so strongly shouted, that sulky Echo pricked her ears; and on your lap, boy," went all around.

66

Bonny knew well what was on his lap, a cleverly plaited hare-wire. Bottler had shown him how to do it, and now he was practising diligently, under the auspices of his first hat. Mr. Hales was a "beak," of course; and the aquiline beak of the neighbourhood. Bonny had the honour of his acquaintance in that fierce aspect, and in no other. The little boy knew that there was a church, and that great people went there once a week, for very great people to blow them up. But this only made him the more uneasy, to clap his bright eyes on the parson.

"Hold there! whoa!" called the Rev. Struan, as Bonny for his life began to

an hour in vain, through the furze, and heather, and blackberries; but here he had him at his mercy quite, through his knowledge of human nature. To put it coarsely- as the rector did in his mental process haply the bigger thief anybody is, the more sacred to him is his property. Not that Bonny was a thief at all; still, that was how Mr. Hales looked at it. In the flurry of conscience, the boy forgot that a camel might go through the eye of a needle with less exertion than the parish incumbent must use to get into the Bonny-castle.

"Oh hoo, oh hoo, oh hoo!" howled Bonny, having no faith in clerical honour, and foreseeing the sack of his palace, and home.

"Give me that wire," said Mr. Hales, in a voice from the depth of his waistcoat. "Now, my boy, would you like to be a good boy?"

66

No, sir; no, sir; oh no, plaize, sir! Jack nor me couldn't bear it, sir."

66

Why not, my boy? It is such a fine thing. Your face shows that you are a sharp boy. Why do you go on living in a hole, and poaching, and picking, and stealing?"

"Plaize, sir, I never steals nothin', without it is somethin' as don't belong to me."

"That may be. But why should you steal even that? Shall I go in, and steal your things now?"

"Oh hoo, oh hoo, oh hoo! Plaize, sir, I han't got nothin' for 'e to steal."

"I am not at all sure of that," said the rector, looking at the hermit's hole long

ingly; "a thief's den is often as good as
the bank. Now, who taught you how to
make this snare? I thought I knew
them pretty well; but this wire has a
dodge quite new to me. Who taught sudden corner of the lane.
you, you young scamp, this moment?"
“Plaize, sir, I can't tell 'e, sir.
body taught me, as I knows on."

as his pony could be made to go, and
casting uneasy glances over one shoulder
at his pursuer, behold, he almost rode
over a traveller footing it lightly round a

"Why, Uncle Struan!" exclaimed the No-latter; "is the dragon of St. Leonard's after you? Or is this the usual style of riding of the beneficed clergy?"

"You young liar, you couldn't teach yourself. What you mean is, that you don't choose to tell me. Know I must, and know I will, if I have to thresh it out of you." He had seized him now by his gorgeous waistcoat, and held the strong horsewhip over his back. "Now, will you tell, or will you not?"

"I'ont, I 'ont. If 'e kills me, I 'ont," the boy cried, wriggling vainly, and with great tears of anticipation rolling down his sunburnt cheeks.

Hilary, my dear boy," answered the rector; "who would have thought of seeing you? You are come just in time to defend your uncle from a ravenous beast of prey. I was going home to bait a badger, but I have had a pretty good bait myself. Ah, you pagan, you may well be ashamed of yourself, to attack your clergyman!"

66

For Jack, perceiving the reinforcement, and eyeing the stout stick which Hilary The parson admired the pluck of the bore, prudently turned on his tail and deboy, knowing his own great strength of parted, well satisfied with his exploit. course, and feeling that if he began to Why, Hilary, what has brought you smite, the swing of his arm would in-home?" asked his uncle, when a few crease his own wrath, and carry him per- words had passed concerning Jack's behaps beyond reason. Therefore he haviour. "Nobody expects you, that I offered him one chance more. "Will know of. Your father is a mysterious you tell, sir, or will you not?" man; but Alice would have been sure to "I'ont tell; that I 'ont," screamed tell me. Moreover, you must have Bonny; and at the word the lash de- walked all the way from the stage, by the scended. But only once, for the smiter look of your buckles, or perhaps from in a moment was made aware of a dusty Brighton even." rush, a sharp roar of wrath, and great teeth flashing under mighty jaws. And perhaps he would never have walked again if he had not most suddenly wheeled his pony, and just escaped a tremendous snap, well aimed at his comely and gartered calf.

"No; I took the short cut over the hills, and across by way of Beeding. Nobody expects me, as you say. I am come on important business."

"And, of course, I am not to know what it is. For mystery, and for keeping secrets, there never was such a family."

"As if you did not belong to it, uncle!" Hilary answered, good-naturedly. "I never heard of any secrets that I can re

"Ods bods!" cried the parson, as he saw the jackass (with a stretched-out neck, and crest erect, eyes flashing fire, and a lashing tail, and, worst of all ter-member." rors, those cavernous jaws) gathering) "And good reason too," replied the legs for a second charge, like an Attic rector; they would not long have been trireme, Phormio's own, backing water secrets, my boy, after they came to your for the diecplus. ears, I doubt."

"May I be dashed," the rector shouted, "if I deal any more with such animals! If I had only got my hunting-crop; but, kuk, kuk, kuk, pony! Quick, for God's sake! Off with you!"

With a whack of full power on the pony's flanks, away went he at full gallop; while Jack tossed his white nose with high disdain, and then started at a round trot in pursuit, to scatter them more disgracefully, and after them sent a fine flourish of trumpets, to the grand old national air of hee-haw.

While the Rev. Struan Hales was thus in sore discomfiture fleeing away as hard

66

"Then let me establish my reputation by keeping my own, at any rate. But after all, it is no secret, uncle. Only, my father ought to know it first."

"Alas, you rogue, you rogue! Something about money, no doubt. You used to condescend to come to me when you were at school and college. But now, you are too grand for the purse of any poor Sussex rector. I could put off our badger for half-an-hour, if you think you could run down the hill again. I should like you particularly to see young Fox; it will be something grand, my boy. He is the best pup I ever had in all my life."