Johannisberg to do honour to the future

R.A."

"I have done so, papa," answered

Evelyn.

The

She had done that, and more. natural woman's instinct had moved her to see that the dinner-table, always pretty, was brighter than usual with blossoms ruthlessly torn from her tiny greenhouse, and tall, sweet, white hyacinths; so that there was an unconscious welcome in the room, which Roland felt, though he could not tell its cause.

There was more the feeling of homecoming in this evening at Fainton Cottage —in the cheerful dining-room, with its round table, its flowers, its soft light falling on the subdued hues of old oak and tapestry; in the daintily-cooked little dinner and the rare wine; and in Mr. Goring's cordial cheerfulness, and the gladness shining

in Evelyn's deep eyes-than there would be to-morrow, on his arrival at his father's house, thought Mr. Trench.

"Who was that young lady my arrival frightened away?" asked Roland, when dinner had proceeded some little way.

"Miss Anley," said Evelyn. father is the member for Haywell." "Is she a great friend of yours?" "I like her very much.

charming and very pretty

"Her

She is very

pretty. Didn't you think so?"

more than

'Your father asked me nearly the same question, but I really hardly saw her. All

I noticed was that she moved well and had wonderful hair. What is she like beyond that?"

"You had better ask papa. He is in love with her."

"A true bill," said Mr. Goring, placidly eating his fish. "She is the handsomest

woman I have seen for a very long

time."

"But I don't quite understand,” said Roland to Miss Goring. "Do you like her yourself?"

"Of course I do very much," answered Evelyn, simply. "She is very nice, I have told you so already; but you know I never can describe people well, and really she is difficult to describe."

"I don't think so," said Mr. Goring. 'She is very charming, very beautiful, and perhaps a little self-engrossed."

“Oh, papa!” said Evelyn, indignantly. "You know more of her than I do, my dear child."

"I suppose we are all self-engrossed more or less," said Evelyn.

"It isn't fair

to blame Miss Anley for a fault she shares

with her kind."

Roland looked up at the girl. agree with Blake

"Do you

"No," said Evelyn, quickly; "you don't, do you?"

"I haven't an opinion to bless myself with," answered the young man lightly. "I want to know yours."

She looked thoughtful. "If it be a truth," she said at last, "I think it is only a half one."

"An unpleasantly humiliating half," put in her father.

"A horrible one," the girl returned, rather vehemently; "and Blake couldn't always have believed it, or he wouldn't have written the other lines

"Love seeketh not itself to please.""

"H'm!" said Mr. Goring; "still it's a rather pessimist view for a poet to hold."

The evening passed very pleasantly.

Evelyn did not talk much, it was not her

wont, but her eyes lost no word of the conversation her father and Roland carried on with the aid of their cigars.

Sing us something, child," said Mr. Goring, when they returned to the drawing-room.

Evelyn obeyed. Her voice was of very usual power, but its sweetness was its own, and it had ripened during the years of Roland's absence. Its sound was very sweet to him, and when she had sung Schubert's "Wanderer," he went up to the piano.

"Thank you, Eve," he said, in a low voice, “that is a good home welcoming." She looked up, and their eyes met. "You must have been so sorry to leave Rome."

"I know I am awfully glad to be back in England."