glowing, behind it the beautiful details of rock and wood vanished as under the sweep of a brush of dark colour, the outlines were blurred, the beauty effaced as its finger touched them. When she reached Stone Edge, the skirts of the cloud had broken over her; she was wet to the skin; the beauty seemed to have been wiped out of her day, the cloud to be slowly gathering over her life.

CHAPTER XII.

BESSIE'S BURYING.

Many ways we wend,

Many ways and many days,
Ending in one end.

MACDONALD.

THE boy German was the only one of his family who attended old Bessie's funeral. Ashford at the last moment declared that he was obliged to obey a summons from his landlord, who lived at a distance and only visited his estate in the hills from time to time on business, and was now at the old manorhouse for a few days.

"Th' auld squire have a sent for me to see him punctial some time to-day at the Knob house,' and I canna go to Youlcliffe; ye may tell 'um a' down there. And you mind to be home betimes, German, or you'll catch it," he called out as the boy went off.

The friends and neighbours collected for the "beryin'" looked upon this message as a mere

excuse, and public opinion declared itself strongly against old Ashford.

"Sure ill will should ha' died wi' death," said one; "and hur a leavin' sich a lot o' money to his daughter, too."

""T will hurt nobody but hisself; his room's better nor's company any time is Ashford's," said another.

The world was likewise scandalized at Roland's absence. "She were like a mother to un," said society; "he should a strove to come home for to do her respect; he know'd she'd a had a fit, Nathan says."

The old woman was buried under the shadow of the spire which she was so proud of. ""Tis a cheerful pleasant place, like hersen," said Nathan to his nephew as they came away together down the steep path, "and hur will be close to the pathway where her friends can come nigh her, and alongside o' her father for company like, till I come; 'twon't be long first. I've a ordered a headstone," ended the old man sadly, "and it says,—

All you young men as passes by,
Throw a look and cast an eye;
As you is now, so once was I,

Prepare to live, as you must die.—

for to learn 'um how they're here one hour and shed

the next, like a poppy-head," sighed he, picking one

as he passed. Then, as leave, he called him back.

German was taking his "The money for Cassie

is a lent to Jones, and I shall put in her name immediate and mak' it all right. Anyhow 'tain't mine, and I wunna ha' thy feyther cryin' out like as if he were burnt, and going about 'callin' o' me and saying as how I'd choused Cassie. But ye may mak' as though I'd ha' said it shouldna be done till such times as he'd gied his consent to her marrying wi' Roland. If yer aunt hadna been tuk so sudden as there isn't a mossel o' paper about it, I'm sure she'd a left it so. It's queer, too, about Roland," the old man went on. "I canna think what ails him to kip away so long. I've got it set in my mind it's about thae York lassies, for young uns is wonderful soon took up wi' a pretty face,—and they fa's into love and out again like as if it were a pond. And 'tain't allus such a clean one either," moralized Nathan; "a lot o' muck they picks up whiles. Therefore I dunna mak' sich a stand-up fight for Roland as I mid ha' done a while back till I sees my ways more plain. Man is but flesh, and flesh is wonderful weak by times," said Nathan the wise, skilled in human nature, "and you'd best say

Cassie's to have him as she wishes to wed wi', an she's to get her aunt's money."

German returned home big with the importance of his mission, and entered the house with a sense of dignity as the protector and arbiter of his sister's future. He found to his great relief that he was beforehand with his father, who had not yet returned from the squire; the kitchen was empty and he passed through to the garden on the other side, where he found the women busy hanging out the last results of a great wash. The ornamental ground of the old hall had all been dug up and planted with vegetables, but there still remained a sort of raised flagged terrace at the upper end, sheltered by a great yew hedge, flanked with what had once been pyramids and "shapes cut out in yew, which had grown all awry and deformed, for nobody at Stone Edge had any time for garden decorations. And here German betook himself directly to deliver his unaccustomed budget of news and give his opinion on family affairs of moment. Well-a-day!" said Lydia, sadly, “it mun ha' been a sore sight to see yer aunt laid i' th' ground, and hur took so sudden. 'Tis a solemn thought-there's a something a comin' to take us all away-one's only got to be right for't; but she were a well-livin' 'ooman

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