and he stood with half-opened mouth, waiting for Sir George to go on, evidently only half understanding what he had said already. "Such is the case," he went on. proofs, my poor boy, but believe me. "Do not ask me for the Does not nature, does not your heart, tell you that I am right, as they both do me?" Reuben looked at him one moment, and then said wondering, Father! My father!" It Sir George mistook the tone in which Reuben spoke. He thought that Reuben spoke in affectionate recognition of his claims, whereas it was simply an ejaculation of wonder. was the first time that any one had called him by the sacred old name, and he felt a strange pleasure in it. Gerty's boy used to call him papa; how sickly and artificial it sounded after "father!” He paused an instant, and then went on "Yes; I am your father, Reuben. Remember that. Impress that on your mind. There is no possibility of a doubt of it. Keep that steadily before you through everything. I have been a bad father to you, but you must forgive and forget all that." "I have never had anything but kindness from you, sir," said Reuben. "You have had very little of it, my poor boy. Never mind; there is time enough to mend all that. Now I have had, as you may suppose, a very distinct object in making this startling announcement to you this day above all others, for my conduct to you must show you that I have known the secret a long time." Reuben assented, and began to look on his new-found father with more interest as his mind took in the facts of the case. "Now," continued Sir George, "that treble-dyed, unmitigated villain, who used to pretend that you were his sonthat Samuel Burton and I are at deadly variance, and I have made this announcement to you, in order that you may know which side you ought to take, should you unhappily be called on to choose, which God forbid. I have nothing more to say to you. Come to me here at twelve o'clock to-morrow morning; for I am going a long and weary journey, and I want to say good-by to you before I go." "May not I go with you, sir?" said Reuben, in a low and husky voice. "I would be very faithful" "No, no!" said Sir George, somewhat wildly. "On any other journey but this, my boy. Stay at home, and keep watch over Lady Hillyar. I will write secretly to you, and you must do the same to me. Now go." So the next day at noon, on George's return from Croydon, he found Reuben waiting for him; and he gave him a few instructions in the library, and bade him wait in the courtyard to see the last of him. Meanwhile Gerty had sat still in her dressing-room, with the child on her bosom, in the same state of stupid horror into which she had fallen on reading the terrible letter utterly unable to realize her position, or decide on any line of action. But now she rose up, for she heard George's foot on the stair, and heard his voice, his kindest voice, crying "Gerty! Gerty But she did not answer; and George, opening the door of the room, was surprised to see her standing there pale and wan, with the terror which yesterday had been on his face reflected on hers. "Gerty, are you ill?" "Yes, George; I think I am ill. No, I am not ill. I am nervous. Nothing more." "Gerty," said George, "I am going away." "Yes, George." "For a long time a very long time." "Yes, George. Am I to come?" "No; you must stay where you are." 66 Very well. Are you going to Australia?" "No; to Paris first, and God only knows where afterwards.” "If you go to Vienna, I wish you would get me a set of buttons like Lady Brickbrack's. They are not very dear; but no one else has got them, and I should like to annoy her." 66 Very well," said George. She kissed him a cold little kiss and he was gone. "And she can part from me like that," said poor George, bitterly, little dreaming how much she knew. But she went to the window, for she knew that she could see him ride across a certain piece of glade in the park a long distance off. She had often watched for him here. It reminded her of the first time she had ever seen him, at the Barkers'. They had made him out a long distance off by his careless, graceful seat, and had said, "That is Hillyar." she had seen him the first time four years before, when he had come riding to woo; so she saw him now for the last time forever. So RUDYARD KIPLING. RUDYARD KIPLING, an Anglo-Indian poet and story-writer, was born at Bombay, Dec. 30, 1864. His father, head-master of the Lahore School of Art, sent him to England to be educated; and in 1882 he returned to India as an editor and correspondent of the Lahore Civil and Military Gazette and the Allahabad Pioneer. With wonderful rapidity he issued volume after volume dealing with English life in India. In 1889 he left India and traveled in China, Japan, America, and England, and then settled in Brattleboro, Vt.; but in 1896 returned to England. Kipling's works include: Departmental Ditties" (1888); "Plain Tales from the Hills" (1888); "Soldiers Three" (1889); "Phantom Rickshaw" (1889); The Light That Failed " (1890); "Story of the Gadsbysi (1890); The Naulahka" (1892); written in collaboration with his brother-in-law. Other books are: "Life's Handicaps" (1891); "Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads (1892); "Many Inventions" (1893); "The Jungle Book" (1893); "The Second Jungle Book" (1895); "The Seven Seas" (1896), verse; "Captains Courageous' (1897); "The Day's Work" (1898). " THE THREE MUSKETEERS. (From "Plain Tales from the Hills.") MULVANEY, Ortheris, and Learoyd are Privates in B Company of a Line Regiment, and personal friends of mine. Collectively I think, but am not certain, they are the worst men in the regiment so far as genial blackguardism goes. They told me this story, the other day, in the Umballa Refreshment Room while we were waiting for an up-train. I supplied the beer. The tale was cheap at a gallon and a half. Of course you know Lord Benira Trig. He is a Duke, or an Earl, or something unofficial; also a Peer; also a Globetrotter. On all three counts, as Ortheris says, "'e didn't deserve no consideration." He was out here for three months collecting materials for a book on "Our Eastern Impedimenta," |