the features of the country became more and more familiar to Pierce's eye. It was now many years since he had visited his family seat. The last time he had been there was on the occasion of his mother's funeral, and from that day to the present he had never had sufficient courage to return.

As he drove along, a line of copse-wood, a mill, a church-steeple, or some such prominent object brought back at once even the shape of the fields around them, and the very thoughts that had occurred to him when last upon the spot. What recollections filled his breast as he passed through the village of Moreton! How distinctly he remembered the many times he had walked there by the path from the Hall across the fields, accompanying his mother in her daily visits to the sick and poor! With what pleasing sadness he recalled the reverential bows and grateful looks that old and young alike showed eagerness to pay her as

she passed from house to house! The inside of all the cottages was as well known to him as the out. He could picture to himself the bed of death, the emaciated victim of decline, by whose side his mother would sit, offering little presents from the Hall of fruits and wine-himself silently watching in that sick room the awful dissolution of the sufferer, and the pious look of love and charity in his mother's face. The dusty old wooden clock too was not forgotten, with its three gilt knobs and mysterious cupboard. He could still hear it ticking that hollow sound, which rung to superstitious ears the knell of death!

The village itself was not a bit changed; the cottages stood exactly as they used to stand; perhaps the roses and creepers his mother had taken pains to train against their walls, that her village might look neat and pretty, had grown taller and more luxuriant;

but the old beech which stood in the front of

1

the public-house seemed no bigger or more ancient than of yore; old men were still sitting beneath its shade, and children were still hiding and playing about its feet. Lads were whistling to a waggon team, or rattling by in farm tumblers with a tenant's name upon them. These were not the lads he used to know. Their size, their ways and occupations were the same, but the young faces he remembered eight years ago were seldom to be recognized in the tanned and set features of manhood.

The villagers stared at the carriage as it drove through. Now and then a man or woman touched a hat or dropped a courtesy, but it was to the attorney, and not to Pierce who had ceased to be known.

"Is it very long, Mr. More," inquired Miss Bellerby, "since you last visited your place ?"

"About eight years," he replied.

"I wonder that you do not come here oftener," said Mary. "It seems such a lovely country."

"So it is; but what on earth could I do, living down here by myself? There isn't a railroad within twelve miles of me."

"I should have thought that one of the greatest charms about it."

"So I might think now; but I was not always such an admirer of solitude as I am inclined to be at present. I used to be rather fond of society-that is to say, after my mother's death there was no sort of inducement to live here; and one formed a new set of friends and acquaintances, and it is always easier to see people in London than anywhere else in the world."

"But there even you live very much by yourself, do you not?”

"Yes, perhaps rather more so than most

people; but when one cannot live with those one likes, it is as well to live apart from those one does not like. But," he added, with a sigh, "it makes little difference to me whether I live in the world or out of it, for my tastes naturally lead me to seek retirement."

"Yet you have travelled a great deal, and have seen much of the world. That must be the greatest pleasure possible, I should think. I should like to start to-morrow, and go to some wonderful place where nobody had ever been before. I do so like seeing a new place. Even this sort of thing, you can't fancy what immense fun it is to me to drive about with papa to see places when we have anybody staying with us. I expect to be quite charmed with Moreton Hall: I have heard it is so pretty. How very odd it must seem to you coming back here again after being so long away. I don't know what I should do if I were