After all the trimmers had been taken up, and we had lunched in right royal fashion, close by a bubbling spring, Jack proposed a stroll, and offered his arm to his cousin Carrie, to whom he was engaged. Eva with a sly look at me took Seymour's arm, and Winnie placed her delicate little hand within mine. I don't think I have told you what she was like. Well! I am not a good hand at describing female beauty; but if you imagine her to be perfection, you will be of just the same mind as I was, and am too, for the matter of that. I was very much in love with her, and lovers' descriptions of their mistresses are apt to be very tedious, I think. She was distrait, and so was I, for I was concocting a neat little speech, which was to begin with a classical quotation meaning "while we catch, we are caught,” in allusion to the sport we had lately been engaged in. By the time we had turned I had prepared a most burning and eloquent address, and, watching my opportunity, I detained Winnie with some remarks about the scenery, until the others had rounded a point of rock, and then I commenced " Dum "-and then stuck fast-the "capimus capimur" refused to come forth, and all the fine things I had intended to say vanished to the winds.

"I beg your pardon?" she said interrogatively, and

then, seeing my embarrassment, she added mischievously, "I hope you are not really dumb, though I confess I was afraid that such was the case.”

This unkind cut threw me so completely on my beam-ends, that I forgot to remind her that she had been as silent as I; but I felt desperate, and turning round and facing her I said, "Just listen to me, Miss Morton. Winnie-the fact is—that is—I—” but I do not intend to tell you what I did say. I know I came to grief sadly with my grammar, and I was devoutly thankful that my audience could not be a very critical one. I managed, however, to make her understand what I meant, and then when I finished she stood for some minutes looking very seriously at the hole she was absently digging in the turf with the point of her parasol. When she looked up, there was a smile on her face, that told me all was well.

"Will you promise me three things?" she said.

Anything in the world," I answered.

“You must give up fishing and shooting, because they are such cruel sports."

"I promise," and may I be forgiven if there was a mental reservation.

"You must not flirt."

"My darling, do you think I would?"

"And you must be very, very good."

Then-" but there was no need for any more words. When we came to our camp, they were just beginning to pack up.

"We know that," replied he, " and next time you make a proposal on the hills, remember that sound travels a long distance; but we'll charitably suppose that certain noises like that "-clapping one hand on the other" were multiplied by the echoes to the extent we heard them."

"Pax! Jack, spare us," I exclaimed, and I verily believe I blushed. If I didn't, Winnie did.

When we came back to the hotel, I saw the river watcher who had taken such an interest in our departure, loitering about in company with a police

man, and the latter came up to me and said—

'Beg pardon, sir, are you Mr. Morton ?"

No; that's Mr. Morton," I replied.

"Ah, then, perhaps you are Mr. Hinton?"

"That is my name."

"And that gentleman's name is Seymour, perhaps?" "It is."

"Then I am very sorry," rapidly giving each of us a blue folded paper, "but when gentlemen like you break the law, what are we to expect from the lower

classes?" and with a pompous "Good evening," our friend in blue marched off with the watcher, leaving us three staring at each other, and the girls half ready

to cry.

"Just my luck," thought I, as I found the paper to be a summons for unlawfully taking samlets and aiding and abetting therein.

It took us a long time to persuade the girls and Mrs. Morton that a fine would be the only punishment, and that no particular disgrace was attached to our offence. As for me, I thought a wife was worth winning, even at the enormous expense of two pounds and costs; and she, in return for that assurance and a dozen others, was so kind as to let me off the first of my three promises.

XV.

A MORASS ADVENTURE

IN the latter part of last summer I was led in company with some relatives to spend my holidays at a little village on the Welsh coast, out of the ordinary beat of tourists, but otherwise remarkable for nothing but its general air of bleakness and sterility. The place was very quiet, but the lodgings were cheap and tolerably comfortable. These essentials being secured, we had to put up with the scenery, which was not very attractive. A long, low line of beach, surmounted by a high pebble ridge, leading on the one hand to the foot of some bold jutting cliffs, and on the other losing itself in an estuary; behind this, a black and dreary-looking bog, stretching three or four miles inland, and intersected in every direction by wide, artificial ditches, and deep, natural fissures