Year: 1865

shouted Harry. "A six foot light-guards


man not up to anything and the best
cricketer and boldest rider to hounds in the
country Who is talking bosh now, Fred?"


Perhaps | am, and perhaps you are
but it's too much trouble to decide, yawned


Fred, lazily


And Harry knew that when his friend


eliminated to this point, there was no good


in talking to him any more. Fred was on


the cui bono school good-hearted and hon
| orable, generous, brave, afectionate In
grain but he had spoiled himself by the
| affectation of indifference, by pretending to


be SO terribly superior to all the weakness


ses of enthusiasm or emotion and by max
ing beheve-and it was only make-believe
that there was nothing in life worth liv-
ing for. In aid of which philosophy he had
put on a lazy, lounging, careless manner,in-
expressibly annoying to earnest and ener-
getic people, maintaining that the culture of


nicotine, as he called it, was the only thing


worth sensible mans devotion ; though he
added kind of bye alter to Bass.


Ills friend Harry Wynn was a very diff.


erent kind of person. Tall, muscular,
! broadly proportioned, his face not hand


some so much as honest and strong I Fred
| Whitfield was allowed to be the handsom-
| est man in the county, and the most ele-
giant in appearance and manners--when he
chose full of life and spirits and animal
energy and vigorous thought impassioned


in strong manly way, and romantic too,
always in earnest, and never frivolous
surely it was only by the law of contrast
that he was the friend of languid, used-up,


affected Fred-only by the theory of com
pensation that the conventional club-man
| about town found anything harmonious in
the country doctor who took life in heroic
doses, and even then complained of imam
itiOn But one does sometimes see these
odd friendships and Fred Whitfield loved
Harry Wynn better than he loved any hu-
man being, save perhaps, his mother; and
Harry loved him, but with that sad kind of
| love which one feels for people who might
be so much better than they are if they
would be their truest selves. So it came
to pass that Harry, who was to be grooms-
man, was invited to Freds house for the
few days now intervening before the mar
riage took place He had only just arrived
when they had the conversation given
above; and as yet had seen neither the old
lady as Fred irreverently called his mother,
nor, of course, Miss Blackett, who lived
rather more than two miles from the Hawse
the Whitfelds' place.


His introduction to the mother came first.
She was handsome, stately woman, with
the mien and manner of adutchess a cold,
courteous iron hearted kind of person, who
/ wore rich black silks and point-lace caps,
and despised poverty as on par with vice


and crime. Conventional, proud, cold,


worldly--Harvy understood now whence
had come the flaw that ran through, and so
pitially marred, the beauty of his friends
nature


Mrs Whitfield was very civil, though, to
Harry. She was in too good humor about
this marriage of her planning not to be civil
to every one for Rose Blackett was an
heiress, owning now some thousand a year
in her own right, with inheritance to come;
and she was glad that she had secured SO
rich prize for her son, when others, and
men of higher social standing (notably my
Lord Marcy Masters and Sir James Ven
tour), were pretendants in the same field !;
so that Harry only felt in general way
the ice and iron Of her nature to himself
individually she was all graciOusness, of a
stately sort, not to say grim.


But one thing he did see, and that was,
that she was feverish and overstrained and
looked i'll, and as if on the point of break
ing down His profession taught him that


besides having by nature the full use of his
eyes.


81 am glad that my mother likes you,
old fellow !" said Fred, when she left the
table " know her manner so well, | can
weigh to an ounce the measure of esteem
she gives to any one and can tell you
if you care for it--that you are in class
number one with her which makes it
more comfortable for me, you know. hope
that Rose will like you TOO, and then we
shall be all right


q hope so, too" said Harry, laughing
And then they talked of other things


The next day they went over to Lisson,
where the Blacketts lived.


Mrs Blackett was meek, mild, molten
sive creature, with weak eyes; always dom
mated by the last speaker, and given to
easy weeping She had long been under
Mrs. Whitfied's influence, whenever that
lady chose to exert it, though, since Rose
had grown up, there had sometimes been


fierce collisions, when the poor lady had
been put to terrific straits, not knowing
which sovereign to obey. Fortunately for
he:, Rose was too fond of liberty to be dom
ineering and, so long as people would
| leave her alone, was content to leave them
the same. So that, unless when Mrs. Whit


field annoyed her personally, and sought to


curtail her individually, as she chose to
| phrase it, she let her manage her mamma


as much as she liked, and gave no heed to
! the direction which that management was


taking. 1t was only when Fred asked her


to be his wife, saying, You see Rose, the
| old ladies have made it up between them ;
| but we can't do better, unless you are not
| for it." that she understood the meaning of
| the last few years.


| She did not care much about the matter


one way or the other" she said L" she liked


Fred better than either my Lord Marcy Mas


ters, who was old enough to be her father,
or than Sir James Vontour, who was half a


fool :" so she said, Yes. very well, Fred =


and there the thing rested And that was
about the exent of love making that had
| been between them


! While Harry was making himself
agreeable to Mrs Blackett,> Fred Whit
field wont out on a rowing commission to
| look for Rose, who was never to be found


like any other young lady, in the drawing
room; but always where she had no busi
narc to ba ba cfo blo or fhn dpu