called his study. There a few books were arranged in order, and many newspapers were strewn about; there were fishing-rods, landing-nets, hooks, materials for artificial fly-making; guns, choice revolvers, and other murderous weapons. Basil turned back. "Now we are settled, dear, in our own house, I should like to ask Eleanor to come and pay me a long visit. It would be such a pleasure to her to come to town, and such an advantage to her to go into really good society; then she would be here to attend to your comforts when I am ill, and she could write notes and answer inquiries for me."

Basil bit his lips, and looked impatient as Lilian proceeded. He had an instantaneous vision of Miss Eleanor Grey, with her rosy cheeks and her overpowering vivacity; he had a vivid recollection of her extraordinary theories of fashionable life, and he fancied her sitting in his drawing-room attired in the latest Kirby-Brough fashion, with her feet in the first position, uttering sundry trifles of small talk in indifferent English, interlarded with anti-Parisian French. He saw Lilian's colour rising, and the light shining in her beautiful dark eyes, that always kindled there when she began to be angry.

66

My dear, I am afraid we should do Eleanor no real kindness, by unfitting her for the position which she will doubtless occupy. Can you not see that she has a morbid desire to cast aside the trammels of the class in which she was born. Has she not an insane craving to bring round herself the fetters of fashionable society? Eleanor is ambitious, Lilian; she is not like my own pure, graceful Lily; she wants to make you a stepping-stone in her perilous course; she will never achieve her end; she may become the stylish wife of some excellent retired tradesman, or she may even figure as the squire's lady, and lead the

fashion and govern all the votaries of dissipation in a country town or village; but she will never establish herself within the charmed circle which those only can reach who are

Basil did not conclude; while he hesitated for a fitting expression, Lilian burst forth-" I see how it is, you despise my family; you despise me, because my father gained his money instead of inheriting it; because my ancestors were nameless and obscure, while yours led the melée in the old strife between Saxon and Norman, fought gallantly in the wars of the Roses, held command when Elizabeth Tudor speechified at Tilbury Fort, and well-nigh ruined themselves in maintaining the cause of the treacherous, luckless Stuarts. Because of this you hold my sisters in disdain, and you despise me!"

"God forbid, Lilian, that I should despise my own wife. I am not aware that I despise any oneleast of all your kindred!"

"My kindred! Are they not also yours?"

"Legally and conventionally speaking, to a certain extent they are; and at one time I intended myself to ask Elizabeth to be here in February. I have a great respect for Miss Grey, and I shall always be happy to receive her under my roof. I thought, if she were here, you would not be anxious about domestic concerns, and you would be better cared for than if trusted to the sole care of a hireling nurse. Eleanor, young, inexperienced, and fond of excitement, would be no suitable companion for a young mother in her first trial. I intended, I say, to beg Miss Grey to come to you; but your temper convinces me that such a step would be inexpedient. I have no wish to make my domestic esclandres the talk of all Brough-Dale; it is unfortunate that you and my mother cannot agree better, but I have no doubt we shall find some kind,

matronly friend who will be more serviceable than either of your sisters, and who will be so good as to afford the benefit of her experience when needful.”

Lilian had felt all the morning rather unwell; her new arrangements had wearied her, and, apart from her present delicate health, the annoyance and harass of her six months' probation at Hopelands had not improved her constitution; and now, this fresh vexation, this thwarting of a scheme which she had long nursed in silence, and which had been the subject of correspondence between herself and Eleanor, ever since Mr. Hope had desired that she should be mistress of her own house, was more than her equanimity could sustain.

She burst into a flood of passionate tears; and Basil, like the majority of his sex, hated to see his wife cry, especially when she was out of temper, so he walked out of the room, and out of the house to his club.

When he returned to dinner, Lilian's little maid met him on the staircase, and with many tears told him that her mistress had been in dreadful hysterics, and then had become so faint and strange, that cook, and Mary, and herself had wanted to find him, but no one knew where he was; and so they fetched the doctor of themselves, and he said it was a dangerous attack, and Mrs. Basil must be kept very quiet.

Basil was stricken with remorse. "What a barbarian he was not to consider her delicate health. What a wretch he had been to drive her into fits, and then leave her to servants." He went very gently to the room where he had left her; she was not there, and he proceeded to her bed-room.

She was lying on the He sat down at a dis

bed, and she had fallen asleep. tance lest he should awake her, and he gazed long and earnestly at the young pale face, still bearing the trace

of tears, and almost as colourless as the white pillow to which it was pressed.

Was that the bright, beautiful Lilian of a year ago-the lovely "Lily of Kirby-Brough ?"

She was white now as her spotless namesake, and looked nearly as fragile; might she not be as shortlived? Yes, a few weeks more, and the transplanted Lily might be seen no longer; the little one whom he longed to take to his heart and bosom, might never know its fair young mother, never gaze on the fatal beauty which had caused her removal from the scenes and joys of her youth, from the home where she had been so peaceful and happy.

There was agony in the thought. Basil did not know till that moment how precious his wife was. Large tears fell unheeded from his eyes as he continued to gaze on the sweet pale features of the sleeper. He would yield everything; give up family, position, all, so that her dear life was spared; she should have Kirby-Brough itself if it were possible!

The fire crackled, and Lilian awoke. Her husband flew to her side, and folded her in his arms. Even his tenderness was too much for her exhausted system, and she began to sob again, to his infinite terror.

"Lilian, darling!" he cried, "if you love me, do not weep any more; you will kill yourself; your heart flutters like a wild bird in a cage. You shall have Eleanor, dearest. I will write to her to-night; she shall come by express train forthwith. Elizabeth shall come too, if you wish it; only keep well and be happy, and you shall have all that I can give you. Forgive me, my Lily, for grieving you."

Lilian grew calmer as Basil spoke; she kissed and thanked him, and there was a tender little scene between the wedded lovers, and Lilian rejoiced that she was in her own house and not at Hopelands, or she would

never have gained the victory. She never imagined Basil would yield so readily; he was vulnerable, then, like other men. She thanked him so prettily for his compliance that he thought himself ten times a wretch for refusing her request.

It was settled, however, that only Eleanor should pay the first visit, and that the invitation should be posted on the following day. Lilian spent a very happy evening, lying on the sofa, petted and read to by her husband. And so the first storm of their new life came and passed.

CHAPTER VIII.

SISTERS IN COUNCIL.

"Oh, where shall rest be found,
Rest for the weary soul?

"Twere vain the ocean depths to sound,

Or pierce to either pole.

The world can never give

The bliss for which we sigh:

'Tis not the whole of life to live,

Nor all of death to die."-MONTGOMERY.

ELEANOR had been domesticated several weeks with her sister, and thanks to her quickness of perception, and her earnest desire to comport herself worthily as a relative of the Hopes, in very few instances had Basil been annoyed by the trifles which betray the incongruities of birth and breeding with present position.

They had, moreover, been very quiet. Lilian's health demanded repose, and there were not many opportunities for the display of those peculiarities