quarrel with an ostler, for you must leave your horses under his care; and if he should be ill-natured, he may do them a mischief during the night."

The Count laughed as he untied the halter and led Pollux into a loose box.

"Do not be alarmed. I never allow any man to lock up my horses if I am among strangers. I do that myself. I will lock up this place and take the key, and to-morrow at six I will come round and see them fed. No! you, must not object. It is a great pleasure of mine to look after horses, and I shall become friends with these two in a very few days. You must let me manage them always."

"And groom them twice a day ?"

"Nee, Fott bewahre! When there is a man who can do it, I will not; but when there is no one, it is a very good thing to help yourself."

Lieutenant Oswald von Rosen had clearly learned how to conjugate the verb requiriren during his sojourn in Bohemia and in France. He made another raid on the corn and split beans, got up into the loft and crammed down plenty of hay, and then bringing a heap of clean straw into the place, tossed it plentifully about the loose box devoted to Pollux, and about Castor's stall. Then he put on his upper vestments, brought away the candle, locked the door, and put the key in his pocket, humming all the time something about "die dreimal hunderttausend Mann."

When we had got to the gate of the yard, he stalked up to the small crowd of idlers, and said,

"Which of you is the man who did tumble over the pail? It is you, you little fellow? Well, you deserve much more than you got; but here is a halfcrown for you to buy sticking-plaster with."

The small ostler held back, but his companions, who perceived that the halfcrown meant beer, urged him to go for ward and take it; which he did, sayingWell, I doan't bear no malice."

"And next time you have gentlemen's horses put into your stables, don't try to steal the price of their corn," said the Lieutenant; and with that he turned and walked away.

"Who is the gentleman who came with me?" asked my young friend, as we went back to the house; "he is a nice young

man, but he does not know the difference between hay and straw, and I begged him not to remain. And he would not drink the beer of this public-house; but that is the way of all you Englishmen-you are so particular about things, and always thinking of your health, and always thinking of living, instead of living and thinking nothing about it. Ah, you do not know how fine a thing it is to live until you have been in a campaign, my dear friend; and then you know how fine it is that you can eat with great hunger, and how fine it is when you get a tumbler of wine, and how fine it is to sleep. You are very glad, then, to be able to walk firm on your legs, and find yourself alive and strong. But always, I think, your countrymen do not enjoy being alive so much as mine; they are always impatient for something, trying to do something, hoping for something, instead of being satisfied of finding every day a good new day, and plenty of satisfaction in it, with talking to people, and seeing things, and a cigar now and again. Just now, when I wake, I laugh at myself, and say, ' How very good it is to sleep in a bed, and shut yourself out from noise, and get up when you please!' Then you have a good breakfast, and all the day begins afresh, and you have no fear of being crippled and sent off to the hospital. Oh! it is very good to have this freedom-this carelessness-this seeing of new things and new people every day. And that is a very pretty young lady become, your Miss Bell: I do remember her only a shy little girl, who spoke German with your strange English way of pronouncing the vowels, and was very much bashful over it. Oh, yes, she is very good-looking, indeed; her hair looks as if there were streaks of sunshine in the brown, and her eyes are very thoughtful, and she has a beautiful outline of the chin that makes her neck and throat very pretty. And, you know, I rather like the nose not hooked, like most of your English young ladies; when it is a little the other way, and fine, and delicate, it makes the face piquant and tender, not haughty and cold, nicht wahr? But yet she is very English-looking; I would take her as a-as a-a-type, do you call it ?— of the pretty young Englishwoman, wellformed, open-eyed, with good healthy color in her face, and very frank, and gentle, and independent, all at the same time.

Oh, she is a very good girl-a very good girl, I can see that.'

"Yes," I said, "I think she will marry that young fellow whom you saw tonight."

"And that will be very good for him," he replied, easily; "for she will look after him and give him some common sense. He is not practical; he has not seen much; he is moody, and nervous, and thinks greatly about trifles. But I think he will be very amiable to her, and that is much. You know, all the best women marry stupid men."

There was, however, no need for our going into that dangerous subject; for at this moment we arrived at Dr. Ashburton's house. Von Rosen rushed upstairs to his room, to remove the traces of his recent employment; and then, as we both entered the drawing-room, we found Bell standing right under the central gaselier, which was pouring its rays down on her wealth of golden-brown hair. Indeed, she then deserved all that Von Rosen had said about her being a type of our handsomest young Englishwomen-rather tall, wellformed, showing a clear complexion, and healthy rosiness in her cheeks, while there was something at cnce defiant and gentle in her look. Comely enough she was to attract the notice of any stranger; but it was only those who had spent years with her, and had observed all her winning ways, her unselfishness, and the rare honor and honesty that lay behind all her pretty affectations of petulance, and the wild nonsense of her tongue, who could really tell what sort of young person our Bonny Bell was. She was sufficiently handsome to draw eyes toward her:

"But if ye saw that which no eyes can see, The inward beauty of her lovely spirit, Garnished with heavenly gifts of high degree, Much more then would ye wonder at that sight.

There dwell sweet Love and constant Chastity, Unspotted Faith, and comely Womanhood, Regard of Honor, and mild Modesty."

And it must be said that during this evening Bell's conduct was beyond all praise. Arthur Ashburton was rather cold and distant towards her, and was obviously in a rather bad temper. He even hovered on the verge of rudeness towards both herself and the Lieutenant. Now, nothing delighted Bell more than to vary the even and pleasant tenor of her life with a series

of pretty quarrels which had very little element of seriousness in them; but on this evening, when she was provoked into quarreling in earnest, nothing could exceed the good sense, and gentleness, and forbearance she showed. At dinner she sat between the young barrister and his father, a quiet, little, gray-haired man in spectacles, with small black eyes that twinkled strangely when he made his nervous little jokes, and looked over to his wife-the very matter-of-fact and roseate woman who sat at the opposite end of the table. The old Doctor was a much more pleasant companion than his son; but Bell, with wonderful moderation, did her best to re-establish good relations between the moody young barrister and herself. Of course, no woman will prolong such overtures indefinitely; and at last the young gentleman managed to establish a more serious breach than he had dreamed of. For the common talk had drifted back to the then recent war, and our lieutenant was telling us a story about three Uhlanen, who had, out of mere bravado, ridden down the main street of a French village, and out at the other end, without having been touched by the shots fired at them, when young Ashburton added, with a laugh,

"I suppose they were so padded with the watches and jewelry they had gathered on their way, that the bullets glanced off."

Count von Rosen looked across the table at the young man, with a sort of wonder in his light-blue eyes; and then, with admirable self-control, he turned to my Lady Tita, and calmly continued the story.

But as for Bell, a blush of shame and exceeding mortification overspread her features. No madness of jealousy could excuse this open insult to a stranger and a guest. From that moment, Bell addressed herself exlusively to the old Doctor, and took no more notice of his son than if he had been in the moon. She was deeply hurt, but she managed to conceal her disappointment; and indeed, when the boys came in after dinner, she had so far picked up her spirits as to be able to talk to them in that wild way which they regarded with mingled awe and delight. For they could not understand how Auntie Bell was allowed to use strange words, and even talk Cumberlandshire to the Doctor's own

face.

Of course she plied the boys with all sorts of fruit and sweetmeats, until Tita, coming suddenly back from the campaign in France to the table before her, peremptorily ordered her to cease. And then Bell gathered round her the decanters.

"I say, Jack," she observed, in a whisper, though looking covertly at Queen Tita all the time, "what's good for a fellow that's got a cold?"

"I beg your pardon," said Master Jack, properly.

"What's good for a cold, you stupid small boy?"

"Decidedly, Doctor."

"Eh? Ill-tempered? Why, his mother daren't talk to him, and we're glad to have him go up to his chambers again. Our young friend here is of another sort; there is no care about a woman tempering the healthy brown of the sun and the weather, eh ?—is there, eh ?”

"Why, my dear Doctor," cried the Lieutenant, with a prodigious laugh, "don't you think Lydia's lover-Lydia, dic, you know he was very glad to be away from rough sports? He had other enjoyments. I am brown, not because of my wish, but

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'Oh, haven't I! You don't know there are all sorts of colds. There's the little fairy that sits and tickles you with a feather, just now and again, you know; and there's the sweep that drives a tremendous whalebone brush up and down, and makes you blue in the face with fighting him. Mind, when the sweep does get hold of you, it's a terrible bother to shunt him out.". Bell," said my Lady, with a sharpness that made the boys look frightened, "you must not teach the children such phrases." "I think it's very hard that a grown-up person can't speak three words without being scolded," remarked Bell, confidentially, to Master Tom; and that young ruffian, looking covertly at his mother, grinned as widely as a mouthful of apple would let him.

So the boys had their half-glass of wine, and Bell swept them away with her into the drawing-room, when the women left.

"A very bright young lady-hm!-a very bright and pleasant young lady indeed," said the Doctor, stretching out his short legs with an air of freedom, and beginning to examine the decanters. "I don't wonder the young fellows rave about her; eh, Arthur, eh?"

Master Arthur rose and left the room. Touched, eh ?" said the father, with his eyes twinkling vehemently, and his small gray features twisted into a smile. "Hit hard, eh? Gad, I don't wonder at it; if I were a young fellow myself-eh, eh? Claret? Yes. But the young fellows now don't sing about their laughing Lalage, or drink to Glycera, or make jokes with Lydia; it is all dreaming, and reading, and sighing, eh, eh? That boy of mine has gone mad-heeds nothing-is ill-tempered"

all."

The Doctor was overjoyed, and, per haps, a trifle surprised, to find that this tall Uhlan, who had just been grooming two horses, understood his reference to Horace; and he immediately cried out,

"No, no; you must not lose your health, and your color, and your temper. Would you have your friends say of you, who have just been through a campaign in France,

"Cur neque militaris

Inter æquales militat, Gallica nec lupatis Temperat ora frenis?'

Eh, eh ?"

"Temperat ora frenis-it is a good motto for our driving excursion," said the Count; "but was it your Miss Bell who called your two fine horses by such stupid names as Castor and Pollux ?"

"Nevertheless," said the Doctor, eagerly, "Castor was said to have great skill in the management of horses-eh, eh ?"

"Certainly," said the Count. "And both together they foretell good weather, which is a fine thing in driving."

"And they were the gods of boundaries," cried the Doctor.

"And they got people out of trouble when every thing seemed all over," returned the Count, "which may also happen to our phaeton."

"And-and-and "-here the Doctor's small face fairly gleamed with a joke, and he broke into a thin, high chuckle-"they ran away with two ladies, eh, eh, eh ?— Did they not, did they not?"

Presently we went into the drawingroom, and there the women were found in a wild maze of maps, eagerly discussing the various routes to the North, and the

comparative attractions of different towns. The contents of Mr. Stanford's shop seemed to have been scattered about the room, and Bell had armed herself with an opisometer, which gave her quite an air of importance.

The Lieutenant was out of this matter, so he flung himself down into an easy chair, and presently had both of the boys on his knees, telling them stories and propounding arithmetical conundrums alternately. When Queen Titania came to release him, the young rebels refused to go; and one of them declared that the Count had promised to sing the "Wacht am Rhein."

"Oh, please don't," said Bell, suddenly turning round, with a map of Cumberland half hiding her. "You don't know that all the organs here have it. But if you would be so good as to sing us a German song, I will play the accompaniment for you, if I know it, and I know a great many."

Of course, the women did not imagine that a man who had been accustomed to a soldier's life, and who betrayed a faculty for grooming horses, was likely to know much more of music than a handy chorus, but the Count, lightly saying he would not trouble her, went over to the piano, and sat down unnoticed amid the general hum of conversation.

But the next moment there was sufficient silence. For with a crash like thunder—“ Hei! das klang wie Ungewitter!" -the young Lieutenant struck the first chords of "Prinz Eugen," and with a sort of upward toss of the head, as if he were making room for himself, he began to sing Freiligrath's picturesque soldier-song to the wild and warlike and yet stately music which Dr. Löwe has written for it. What a rare voice he had, too!-deep, strong, and resonant-that seemed to throw itself into the daring spirit of the music with an absolute disregard of delicate graces or sentimental effect; a powerful, masculine, soldier-like voice, that had little flute-like softness, but the strength and thrill that told of a deep chest, and that interpenetrated or rose above the loudest chords that his ten fingers struck. Queen Tita's face was overspread with surprise; Bell unconsciously laid down the map, and stood as one amazed. The ballad, you know, tells how, one calm night on the banks of the Danube, just after the great

storming of Belgrade, a young trumpeter in the camp determines to leave aside cards for a while, and make a right good song for the army to sing; how he sets to work to tell the story of the battle in ringing verse, and at last, when he has got the rhymes correct, he makes the notes too, and his song is complete. "Ho, ye white troops and ye red troops, come round and listen!" he cries; and then he sings the record of the great deeds of Prince Eugene; and lo! as he repeats the air for the third time, there breaks forth, with a hoarse roar as of thunder, the chorus "Prinz Eugen, der edle Ritter!" until the sound of it is carried even into the Turkish camp. And then the young trumpeter, not dissatisfied with his performance, proudly twirls his mustache; and finally sneaks away to tell of his triumph to the pretty Marketenderin. When our young Uhlan rose from the piano, he laughed in an apologetic fashion; but there was still in his face some of that glow and fire which had made him forget himself during the singing of the ballad, and which had lent to his voice that penetrating resonance that still seemed to linger about the room. Bell said "Thank you" in rather a timid fashion; but Queen Tita did not speak at all, and seemed to have forgotten us.

We had more music that evening, and Bell produced her guitar, which was expected to solace us much on our journey. It was found that the Lieutenant could play that too; and he executed at least a very pretty accompaniment when Bell sang "Der Tyroler und sein Kind." But you should have seen the face of Master Arthur, when Bell volunteered to sing a German song. I believe she did it to show that she was not altogether frightened by the gloomy and mysterious silence which he preserved, as he sat in a corner and stared at every body.

So ended our first day and to-morrow why, to-morrow we pass away from big cities and their suburbs, from multitudes of friends, late hours, and the whirl of amusements and follies, into the still seclusion of English country life, with its simple habits, and fresh pictures, and the quaint humors of its inns.

[Note by Queen Titania, written at Twickenham. "The foregoing pages give a more or less accurate account of our setting-out, but they are all about Bell. Men are far worse than wowrong men in imagining love-affairs, and supposing that