his arm. The two children were soon on their way to the beach, Gracie with the yacht, and Harry with a spade over his shoulder, and a garden trowel stuck in his belt after the fashion of an Italian brigand's dagger.

'I couldn't come over yesterday it rained so,' Harry said as they went along.

'No, I didn't expect you, I couldn't go out either. Oh Harry, I'm going to school in two weeks.'

'Going to school,' Harry repeated slowly. Who said so?'

'Papa did; it's all settled, I'm going to be a boarder, and take my own things, and have a trunk all my own, and I'll get my name painted on my trunk. Which ought I to get," Grace' or "Gracie," put on it.'

"Oh "Gracie" is the best, I think,' said Harry, or G. Stocton, that sounds well.'

'It sounds so like a man,' said Gracie, that's the only thing.'

"Yes, it might be your father, you know,' he assented; 'but are you really going in two weeks?'

'Yes, in two weeks, but that's a long time yet; it will be awfully dull for you when I'm gone,' she added with the characteristic outspokenness of childhood. Harry admitted that it was no fun sailing a boat alone, because when you blew the boat over to one place, it wasn't pleasant if you had to run round and blow it back again.

The tide had just turned, and the water was beginning gradually its creep up the long flat beach, when the children came to the shore.

'See there, Gracie, look at that long hollow in the sand there, if we dig a canal and let the water in, we can sail the boat better!'

'Yes, we can both work at it too, as you have the trowel.'

Old Williams would be awfully mad if he knew I had the trowel," said Harry. I took it out of the conservatory, without asking him, this morning.'

Well I'm glad you brought it any

way, or I'd have nothing to dig with,' said his companion.

Both children set to work with a will, and soon a canal was dug which allowed the water to fill up the hollow, and the yacht Tiger' was successfully launched.j

'Williams says "Tiger" is the best name for a yacht,' Harry explained.

After some time they got tired of sailing the Tiger,' and went home for dinner. In the afternoon the children went to the rocks, as Harry wanted to put a new mainmast in his yacht. They worked busily away all afternoon, until Gracie said it was time to go to the station, for they would meet the carriage there, when papa came home, and all go up together. The children clambered over the rocks, playing a sort of hide-and-go-seek as they went in shore over the long lowlying bed of rocks that stretched away out to sea, and terminated in a steep cliff, that was never wholly covered, even when the tide was in.

At last just as they had nearly got off the rocks, they came to a large fissure between two great flat stones, where the water was only a foot deep between them, and indeed the rocks were hardly a yard apart. Harry with a bound gained the other side, and called to Gracie to follow him.

'I can't jump, Harry,' she said. 'Why not?' he asked, 'it's not too far.'

'No, but I've only got shoes on.' 'Well, what matter?' said Harry, 'shoes are just are good.'

'Yes, but it will hurt my feet,' she said timidly.

'You

Harry looked round for a piece of plank, but could not find any. had better try and jump, Gracie,' he said at last,' I can't find anything.' The water had only become a little deeper, but each wave as it rolled in, splashed on the loose stones, and made jumping appear a very formidable undertaking. 'Come Gracie, we can't stay here all night, I'll stand on this spot and catch you by the hand.' After a moment or

two of hesitation, Gracie stepped back and made a sort of running jump, and got over, leaving her shoe stuck in the sand, between the rocks, at the same time getting her foot quite wet, and her frock splashed :

'Oh, Harry! I've lost my shoe,' she cried despairingly; 'what will I do?'

'I don't know; mind you don't take cold,' Harry said, by way of consolation.

'Yes, that's what I'm afraid of.' 'Wait a moment and I'll see where it is.'

Harry stooped down on his hands. and knees, and tried to reach the shoe, which was stuck fast in the sand that had gathered in the break between the rocks. It was too far down for him, and he was compelled to take off his own boots and stockings and go into the water to get it, one or two of the waves rolling up over his clothes and wetting him as he did

So.

'Oh, Harry, thank you so much! But you are quite wet.'

'That does not matter much,' he said, bravely. I can stand it better than you.'

'But what shall I do, Harry, I can't put on my wet shoe?'

'Put on my boots and stockings ; they're dry,' he said, and then you'll be all right.'

The change was soon made, and off they set towards home, Gracie with Harry's boots and stockings on, and he walking beside her with bare feet, her dry shoe and stocking stuffed in his pocket, and the wet one hanging over his shoulder.

'I won't have any fun on the seashore when I'm at school,' she said, after a pause.

'No, that's a pity, but you'll get used to doing without it; everybody can get used to a thing after a time.'

They walked on some time in silence, then Harry said rather suddenly:

'Of course you'll marry me?'

'Oh, yes?' she said, in a matter-offact way, when I finish school.'

'Well, I've got to go to school my. self some day, and I'm going to ask to be allowed to go when you do.'

They reached the station; and, in a few minutes, Mr. Stocton arrived by the train, and the whole party drove off together. He was very much surprised to see the odd plight the children were in, but patted Harry on the head and called him a brave little fellow. When they got home, Mr. Stocton sent his phaeton on to Hartgrave Manor' with Harry, which was about a quarter of a mile further on, although the boy protested that he could run home in two minutes.

Harry teased to be sent to school, and Sir Gannett Northwood, who had been thinking the matter over for some time past, and who had previously decided it, was apparently easily won over. Harry could hardly sleep the night he was told he was to go, and was up and over to tell Gracie all about it long before breakfast. Harry was in his turn quite undecided as to what name he would have on his trunk, for he was certain to get one of his own now. 'I don't like Henry, it sounds as though I was naughty. Nobody ever calls me Henry, except when I'm in a scrape,' he said.

At length the day for departure drew on. Sir Gannett had made arrangements long ago for his son, so he had no trouble in entering him at school now.

Harry was allowed to have Gracie over to take tea with him the evening before their school life was to begin. Years afterwards they could both remember this evening. Tea was served in what was still called the nursery, and the children had tea by themselves. Harry thought Gracie looked particularly pretty that night, and he told her so. She had a white dress with a little white apron tied with pale pink ribbons, and her hair was fastened with a bow of the same colour. She wore also two pink rosebuds, and the

similarity of colour quite took Harry by storm, though he would probably have been unable to say exactly why he liked Gracie so much that night. After tea Harry showed her his own trunk with his name painted on it in large letters, and all the things he had to take with him. They were allowed to come down to see Sir Gannett at dessert. He had dinner alone that evening in the library as his wife had not been feeling well, and had not come down. A fire had been lighted in the old open fireplace, for the day had been cold and rainy. Sir Gannett talked to them a little while and then giving them each a final bunch of raisins, let them play hide-and-go-seek under the table and round the old suits of armour, and behind the thick, dark curtains. The baronet, as he sipped his wine watched them playing in that old room, with its quaint furniture, watched them dancing in and out among the high dark chairs, saw them, like laughing sprites mocking the flickering fire-light with their gambols, as they played with the antique curiosities. He smiled quietly to himself to see little Gracie, almost weighed down beneath a battered and war-scarred helmet, whose iron casing had never before protected such golden locks, or through whose rusty vizier no such bright blue eyes had ever looked till then. A pretty picturelittle Gracie using a long sword-scabbard as a spear, and Harry looking down over the high back of a huge arm-chair, with face of mock alarm at the daring warrior below. The father smiled as he heard her call upon his boy to surrender his castle and his life, and musing to himself of days long gone by, wondered if the changes and chances of this changing world would ever make their play a reality. Would he ever surrender to her his castle and his life? Would he ever,-for things change; but the dancing shadows mimic the children at their play.

THE

CHAPTER II.

NEW SCENES.

HE Northwoods and the Stoctons were not intimate. They had lived in the quiet little village of Hawthorne for many years; in fact, their estates joined. Each entertained for the other a very great respect, yet they were never what would be called intimate. Mr. Stocton was hard-working and devoted to his business, and had few pursuits or pleasures apart from it; while his neighbour, though of a retiring disposition, had been compelled, when younger, to mix more with the gay world, on account of his wife, who was decidedly a woman of fashion. It was perhaps well for him that she forced him to come out into the world a little, for had he been left to himself it is more than probable that a few years would have found him a confirmed recluse.

School life for Harry and Gracie was very different from what they had both looked forward to, though they were quite happy in their new employments, after the first few weeks had dragged over. Harry was at school at Harrow, while Gracie was at Waverley House,' a boarding-school of high repute, situated in one of the suburbs of London. The children, therefore, saw nothing of each other except during the holidays, and Gracie often spent the best part, if not the whole vacation, with some one or other of her school friends. Mr. Stocton was glad of this, for as she grew older he felt that home, without a mother or any society of his daughter's age, must often make it very lonely for her.

We need hardly follow the children through the various experiences of school life; suffice it to say that Harry had entered on his university career about the time that Gracie had finished her education and had come home for good. Mr. Stocton had determined

to give his daughter the advantages of foreign travel after she had finished school. With this end in view, he had made arrangements with a lady who was going to take charge of a small party of young ladies on the Continent. She was going to travel with them, and study with them when abroad, and as the party was to be gone for several years it was very probable that the young ladies under her charge would receive a species of education perhaps more serviceable in afterlife than that afforded by Girton College or Newnham Hall. Grace was delighted at the prospect, for she was passionately fond of travel; and as it was quite impossible for her father to have gone with her, or spare the time requisite for an extended continental tour, she was quite satisfied with the arrangement.

Grace and Harry had met seldom since they left Hawthorne at the beginning of their school-days, but the same firm friendship had been kept up. A friendship, though at present decidedly Platonic, had yet enough of old association about it to quite frighten Lady Northwood when she saw them walking home from church, a day or two before Grace left with her party for the Continent. There was, however, little cause for alarm, had any one been able to overhear their conversation, which consisted entirely of school and college experiences.

It was during the Christmas vacation just before Harry had completed his course at the University, when he was staying with a friend of his in London, that an incident occurred which made a great impression on him. He and his friend had been invited

to a very quiet dinner one evening, and only one or two had dropped in after to enjoy the music.

'For goodness' sake, Helsingfors,' Harry said to his friend, as they joined the ladies after dinner, 'who was that girl you took down to dinner. I've been envying you all the even

ing. piano.'

See, there she is

at the 'Oh! that is Miss De Grey. She is just splendid, and awfully pretty, as you can see."

'Yes, indeed, she is! I'll get introduced to her at once.'

'Yes, do,' said Helsingfors. She knows a girl in that party with whom your friend Miss Stocton is travelling, and will be able to tell you all about her.'

Harry lost no time in seeking the hostess, and in being presented to his enamorata, as Helsingfors afterwards called her. Harry, who was usually very self-possessed, found himself positively awkward as he sat down beside her at the piano.

I like that valse of Chopin's you were playing very much,' he jerked Chopin is my favouriteShe interrupted him with a pleasant laugh.

out.

Why, Mr. Northwood, you don't mean to say you can't tell the difference between Beethoven and Chopin?'

Harry felt more hopelessly muddled than ever, and floundered through some kind of an explanation, which was not particularly clear. Miss De Grey soon put him at his ease by entering upon a topic of which Harry was never tired talking.

Your friend is such a clever fellow,' she said.

'Yes, indeed,' Harry eagerly assented; and, finding his tongue a little more under control, he launched out in praise of the young viscount.

"You stand about as high in his estimation as he seems to stand in yours,' she said, as Harry finished an account of the way in which the last boat-race had been won for their college by his chum.

'Why, you don't mean to say that Helsingfors has so little to talk about as to say anything about me,' he replied.

'It was not because he had so little to say, certainly; and after what he told me, you may know I was sur

prised to find that Mr. Northwood should make a mistake in anything concerning music.'

'Oh, well, I sometimes lose the composer in the performer-Helsingfors could not have told you that?'

Harry felt that he was blushing just a little as he said this, and was half glad and half sorry when it was out, though it was nothing very much to say, he thought.

Well,' she said, with mock demureness, I must certainly thank you for that; if I interpret myself rather than the composer, my playing needs a good deal of attention yet; I will be more careful another time if you are listening.'

Harry thought it was all, somehow or other, very cleverly turned against him, though he could hardly tell how. He begged for one sonata before they went home, which was, however, played by some one else, Miss De Grey declaring that Mr. Northwood did not appreciate her playing in the least.

Harry talked all the way home about his new acquaintance. He told Helsingfors, in confidence, how wretchedly awkward he had been, when first introduced, and asked whether she had noticed it.

'Oh well,' says Helsingfors, 'I said something for you at dinner, so even if she did, it won't hurt you.'

'Why, what made you do that? I talked away about you, I must have tired her to death.'

'Yes, most likely you did.'

'Oh, but my dear fellow,' said Harry, it was because I could think of nothing else, I mean, but how did you come to

'Why I saw the way you were looking at her across the table, nothing very marked, of course, but still I knew you would likely want to be introduced, so I cleared the way for you, that's all, but you ought to have rewarded me better than by making her actually hate my name,' his friend said, with a laugh.

'Well, you are the queerest fellow I ever met, Helsingfors, you have a good deal of insight into human nature.'

Harry did not go straight to bed that night when he went to his room, but sat with his feet on the fender looking at the fire, and thinking of Helen De Grey. He went over the events of the night, felt his shyness come over him again, as in imagination he again encountered the first glance she gave him. He thought seriously over that speech he made to her about the music, and wondered over and over again what she thought, and whether he ought not to have said it. On the whole he felt pleased he had said it, but if he had to do it all over again he did not think he would have gone so far. When he had finished, he remembered lots of places where he could have said much better things than had come into his head at the time. It seemed to him that he had let so many chances for saying clever and witty thing slip by unimproved, that he wondered very much if she had not thought him a downright fool. It was very strange, he reflected, that so many things came to him when he had no use for them, and so few when he had. He went on after this to imagine scenes and circumstances in which he and Helen De Grey were the chief figures. He made up conversations between them in his mind. He imagined her as saying ever so many different things, and he imagined himself as answering them with the wisdom of a Solon. Indeed, so engrossing did his reverie become, that he was startled, on looking at his watch, to find it was a quarter past two, and he had come up to his bedroom at midnight.

The afternoon following, Helsingfors and Harry Northwood strolled into one of the city clubs, where, through the kindness of his friend, Harry's name had been put up as a visitor. They went up-stairs to one of the smaller smoking rooms. The only oc