Year: 1866




J which accompanies besetting desire; ant
Jess was sensible that Sandy's idlenes
and extravaganza were fatally depressing
the balance in which hung the fortunes O
her life


: Adam Spottiswoode of Birkholm likeC
jess, and there was no constraint on hit
will beyond the influence of his three sis
tiers, whom he could shake off or bring
round to submission at his pleasure. jess
Stewart would be poor, but not an insult
able mate for the Laird of Birkholm anC
far beyond the consideration of the white
house at Birkholm being grand down-set
ting for portionless bride, Jess liked the
comely, courteous, frank young man, no
half so clever as Jess herself, or Sandy
but attractive by the goodly glamour of his
superior birth and breeding, with the man
ly, honorable character corresponding t.
it. Adam Spottiswoode and Jess Stewart
had kindness for each other but so long
as it was no more than kindness, or ten
der fancy, 1t was no stigma on their liking
to say that, If the couple had no opportu
nifty of meeting, it would die the death of
starvation, gradually on the woman's part,
more rapidly on the mans. There should
be middle ground for the liking to wax
unto love. There was no middle ground
left to the couple for the kirk, where
Birkholm took his seat in the Birkholm loft
fronting the minister's bucht, and where he
and Jess were not always so engrossed
with the sermon, (in spite of Jess's despot
ism to other people with regard to their
treatment of the "heads") as they should
have been, was not middle ground.


Poor Jess had no longer gloves. shoes,
sashes, to go to the subscription balls in
the Woodend and the parties in the coun.
try-houses and when the manse family
had to dismiss one of the servants, and
Jesss hands red and her face blowsy with
continued houswork and garden-work, she
felt more and more that, without the com
monest finishes to her toilette, she was no
longer fit to appear in refined society and
be Birkholm's chosen partner


Birkholm attempted one great advance
Spas were then the height of fashion, not
foreign spas, but native, and not 80 much
as fountains of health, but as favorite re-
sorts, where men and women saw the
world, met every morning in the pump
room, drove together every afternoon, two
by two, in high-pitched gigs, to all the
show-houses and breezy views in the
neighborhood, and danced together couple
OF long country-dances without sitting
down, under the countenance of master of
the ceremonies in pumps, and with the
| powder in his hair not blown away by the
tempest of the French Revolution. Brk-
holm bribed an accommodating married
cousin and one of his sisters, by their share
of the gayety, to invite Jess Stewart to ac-
~ for ir.ht 70 6 Al
! Wells. The excursion would have been
like an admission to the Elysian fields, with
the temple of HymeG at the end of the prin-
cipal vista, to Jess. 1t would have been
the gala of the girls life, and she would
| assuredly have come home from it engaged
to Birkholm, and counting herself, with
reason, the happiest woman in the world


But nObLeese ObIige in all noble ranks
The project had become simply out of the
question. Mr.. and Mrs Stewart and Jess
herself, would not submit to Birkholm's
paying Jess's share of the travelling ex-
penses, which, in the days of travelling
post, were a serious calculation to families
with moderate incomes. But the Stewards
could and would have made push to af-
ford the necessary sum, had not Sandy's
delay at college and want of success rem
dered it impossible And Mr. and Mrs
Stewart were deficient in their duty to
their daughter, and MAIDEN account of Birk-
holm's attention to her, because they had
forgotten similar passages in their youth
in the trouble of their middle age


Jess said to herself she did not want
anybody's regrets, and told the world she
did not care for jaunting, she found too
much to do among the spring calves and
chickens at the manse, and carried her
high head as high, and looked as strong,
stately, and blooming as ever And the
worst of it was, Birkholm believed her, and
was as much piqued as the slightness of
the relation between them permitted. The
prosperous young laird could not altogeth-
er comprehend the straitness of the manse
finances, and draw his inferences from
them. He went off in huff to enjoy him
self at the Wells without the hard-hearted
mistress for whose sake he had planned
the holiday, not so much to enjoy himself
either, as to prove to Jess that he could be
foolish to the top of his bent without her.


So Jess was cut to the heart by hearing
rumors presently, now that Birkholm was
on the eve of his marriage with a beauty
and fortune he had been introduced to at
the Wells now that he and other young
men had indulged in frolics for which the
license of the time offered some apology,
but which were far more culpable than any
follies of Sandy's, and, to put the matter
ON the lowest footing, were far from be-
coming in the young man who aspired to
the honor of being the minister's son-in-
law.


And is Birkholm were utterly lost to
Jess, or if he should turn out wild and
come to grief, would not Jess lay that to
Sandy's charge as the heaviest portion of
the debt he owed her?


H.-WHAT SANDY WAS.


''To desert his post and renounce the
highest commission man can carry,-to
starve or feed off the great as painter of
false faces, an idolater of stocks and stones,
give me patience"


The minister had need of patience when
he received the letter with the tidings that
Sandy, after passing through four of his
years at college, with what effort the fami-
ly knew, had abandoned the ministry and
adopted the profession of a painter.


Mrs. Stewart and Jess were amazed and
appalled, beyond presuming to say word


1t is difficult to measure at present the
headlong dOwnal of Sandy in those good