with a thick carpet, and shutters partially closed to prevent all ingress on the part of any inquisitive sunbeam, a round centre-table laden with ornaments, a piano, a highly-polished steel fender, and two old-fashioned and extremely handsome book-cases. The walls were bare,

red-papered and high-panelled. A smell of old furniture, together with a dusty atmosphere illustrated by a thin thread of light thickly moted, informed me that this room was seldom occupied, and had not, as it stood, been used for some time. I closed the door, stared at the old pictures in the hall, faintly tapped the barometer, and turned my attention to a stained-glass door, which, gazing through it, I perceived led into the garden.

A flight of wooden steps conducted me to the lawn; I opened the door and passed out. The air was heavy and hot; the chant of bees sung drowsily, and the birds twittered feebly from the trees. Throwing a handkerchief over my head, I plunged almost knee-deep into the dry tall grass, and made for the shadows of a

long array of dense trees. No flower but the wild flower bloomed; the place was innocent of rake and scythe; Nature, unkempt, roamed at her own wild will, wantonly shaking the rich fruit from the bending boughs, and leaving it to rot on the ground catacombed by ants; trailing long sticky parasites about the trunks of the trees; throwing nettles and violets and brambles and primroses broadcast about the ground, and masking the soil with luxurious overgrowths of greenery.

I liked this wildness; its freedom suited me. Standing beneath the cool shadows I studied the back aspect of the house. A pleasant residence it looked, reposing white and low against the overtopping foliage of the trees that veiled it from the road. Near it stood a well, a little outhouse. I heard the cackling of hens and went towards it. From an open door a woman emerged looking red and dishevelled, holding some eggs, the hunt after which seemed to have made her rather torn and warm-looking. She stared at me as if I was an intruder.

'Are you the housemaid?' I asked.
'No, 'm; I'm the cook.'

'How far do these grounds extend?'

Nigh away to Mister Western's paddock.' 'And how far might that be?'

'Pretty well half a mile.'

'Then there will be hardly any need for me to leave these grounds. There is plenty of space for exercise, it seems.'

She still stared. I could see she had been too well-trained to question; so I resolved to gratify her curiosity, slightly mortified, however, that my arrival here should have been kept such a secret.

'Didn't the housemaid who opened the gate tell you I had come?'

Mary and me don't speak, if you please 'm.' 'I am sorry to hear that. I hope you will make it up, in honour of my arrival. I am Dr. Monck's wife.'

'Oh, indeed, 'm!' she exclaimed, dropping a curtsey. Her face brightened; an anxiety to be communicative at once glistened in her eyes.

'You see, 'm, the kitchen's at the back, and I don't see anything as goes on in the front. To be sure, I did hear a noise in the hall as of boxes being carried in, but Mary and me not speaking, I asked no questions.'

'You must ask Mary to make it up with you, and say that it is my wish you you should be friends,'

I said as I moved away.

It is pleasant to a girl to exercise authority. The imposition of a command is the most flattering unction a young wife can lay to her soul. Something like a sense of my importance came over me as I spoke the words 'It is my wish ;' and I felt naïvely proud of the diplomacy which had guided me at the same time to assert my authority and to leave a good impression.

I rambled about until I felt almost tired, picking here and there a flower, staring into the deep silent cold well, peering into the fowlhouse. Then, thinking it must be near halfpast one, I returned to the house. I opened the dining-room door gently and entered. The lunch was on the table; Lady Monck still

sat reading at the window; I glanced at the clock, and to my consternation perceived it was five minutes to two.

'I must really apologise for having kept you waiting, Lady Monck,' I said. She glanced at the clock.

It is a little beyond my usual time,' she said; and that was all.

The stately celerity with which she rose and took her place at the head of the table filled me with embarrassment. The suggestiveness of having been kept waiting was altogether too strong. I brought a chair from the wall, and sat down.

The meal was a most dispiriting one; the conversation infrequent, the remarks of that dead order of commonplace which characterises the ball-room dialogue of a nervous young gentleman and a spiritless young lady in the first figure of a quadrille. I remarked that my lady studiously avoided all mention of my marriage, all reference to my past. Had I been a statue she could hardly have talked to me with less