"And you don't love her brother so much as mine, do you, Alice?" asked the child, thinking of her dispute with Kate. Alice laughed and coloured. "Which do you like best, Ann, old friends or new ones?" "Why old ones, a hundred times better!" "And so do I," said Alice, wishing her good-bye. Kate's visit was brought to an abrupt conclusion, for that same evening a messenger came from Winestead Hall, with a request for her immediate return, as her grandmother had been taken ill. "Do you think it is anything very serious?" asked Ralph, talking over Sir Guy's message alone with Kate. "Ought I really to go?" "I am sorry to say so, Ralph; but I think grandmother would feel hurt if she knew you were still in Hull and did not go back with me. You are a greater favourite even than I am." "Just as my wishes seemed about to be fulfilled, it is hard to go now, Kate, and Marvel haunting the house." "Dearest Ralph, you surely need not fear him now; they are only civil to each other; and although he has a pleasing face and truly the most beautiful eyes, yet I have heard nothing of the lively wit of which you and Alice speak." "Ah, but he can talk if he chooses. You would have been no match for him in conversation last year. I am not sure of my position, Kate. If only he had left I should not feel so reluctant to return with you." "Nay, I think you are too faint-hearted, Ralph. Whatever Master Andrew may be, I conceive him to be a man of honour and sense, and as such he will wait until his fortunes are mended before he thinks of wedlock." Kate's influence prevailed. She could not doubt Ralph's ultimate success, and the following morning they both departed. Andrew had absented himself for three days from the Colonel's, and Ann had not yet summoned up courage to tell him what Alice had said about old and new friends; but hearing in the town that the Hildyards had suddenly left, late in the afternoon he walked into the library. At Alice's favourite window stood her embroidery frame, that had been banished lately, over which she was bending-but not at work, for her head was resting on her folded arms. Andrew thought she was asleep, and hesitated whether to advance or to retreat, when little Mop, who was curled up on his mistress's lap, gave a shrill bark, and made her look up. She had evidently been crying, and she blushed deeply when she saw Andrew. "She is grieved at parting with Ralph," was his instant thought, and he apologised for intruding. 'Intruding, Master Andrew! 'Tis the first time you have made such an excuse for either coming to or keeping away from Colonel Lister's house." Andrew thereupon shut the door and came to the window. "If I must confess the truth and ease my soul, Mistress Alice, I must say that of late I have not considered myself as welcome as formerly. If I am wrong, I will gladly be convinced to the contrary." "Indeed, you are wrong," said Alice. ever look "When did my father upon you coldly? The Listers are not given to change; but if a Marvel deems us disloyal to our ancient motto, it is less matter of wonder that the King should flout my father with forgetfulness of it. You have heard about it?" "Not I; let me hear the story before I enter on my defence. I thought the King was well disposed towards the Colonel when he visited Hull." course. "It was at York that this happened, when my father had the boldness to remonstrate plainly with Lord Strafford on his unwise His lordship reported the same to the King, who remarked to my father (as he did him homage) that perchance he had forgotten the English for Memor et fidelis, since maybe it was long since he had conned a Latin primer." "And what said the Colonel ? "That His Majesty would ever find him mindful of his duties as a patriot, and faithful in his performance of them.' At which the King frowned, and said, 'That nowadays some men imagined that they were serving their country by casting disloyal reflections on their sovereign's judgment; that they were ready enough to quote Scripture to defend their irreverence, and yet had no memory for St. Peter's command to "Honour the King." "That was somewhat hard upon your father; I warrant he could ill brook such a rebuke as that, even from Royal lips." "It was an undeserved reproach, after my father's faithful services to the crown, and it stung him to make a reply that will for ever alienate the King's goodwill from us. He said, 'That as long as Englishmen were found so desirous of observing St. Peter's first injunction to fear the Lord, they would never dis regard his second by failing to render their King all due honour."" "It was an answer that might have been relished by King Harry; but it would be exceedingly unpalatable to our grave monarch. Yet he knighted your Cousin Will." "Ah, that was to show his marked displeasure with my father, who is too old to be won over with favours, and so, indeed, I trust, is my cousin; but he is young, and there was more hope of him. The King wished also to show his subjects in Hull that he remembered his visit here." "Yes," said Andrew; "with one hand he bestows an empty honour, and with the other he filches away substantial and dearbought rights-a wretched exchange!" "If only His Majesty could believe that those who oppose him are really his best friends," said Alice, mournfully. "Is the Colonel at the Town Hall to-day?" inquired Andrew. "No, he has accompanied Kate and her brother, but he returns to-night; he will have a cold ride, the wind is so keen." "It is from the east: an unpleasant day for a lady to travel.” "They had no choice, for Lady Hildyard is unwell, and Sir Guy sent for Kate." "You will miss her lively company very much," remarked Andrew, taking his soundings very cautiously. "Yes, I have felt the house very lonely to-day, but then all my old friends are here as usual, and I see more of my father when we are alone." "Alice," said Andrew, leaning over her embroidery frame, “do you remember the last time we had a talk together in this room, before I went back to Cambridge?" Her face quickly told him that she did remember, though she made no reply. "You could not, nay, your blushes tell me that you did not, misunderstand my real feelings towards you. I did not ask you then if I might ever hope to have my love returned—I had not courage; but Alice will not think me very presumptuous if I say that I thought she was not altogether indifferent." Andrew paused, but, as he got no answer, he continued, "When I returned, a few weeks ago, I saw how conceited I had been to indulge in such dreams, and how sel fish, too, to wish you to share the fortunes of a poor student." "Did you suppose," exclaimed Alice, locking up, "that I should prize your friendship more if your father had been a peer instead of a preacher of the Gospel? Mr. Marvel had not such a mean opinion of me." "Nor has his son. The meanness would have been mine, to take advantage of our early intimacy to blind you to my poverty." "And was it for this reason that you treated me of late as if no such acquaintance had ever existed ?" asked the maiden. "I had no intention of altering my behaviour at first; but truly I thought that you wished the past to be forgotten. I thought that some one else had gained the affection I so coveted. It is hard to be unselfish when so much is at stake, but truly I have tried to exercise that virtue. I consider myself bound to you, but I am well aware that I have not the smallest claim upon you, and I meant to have gone away with all this unspoken." "I think you would have wronged me then," said Alice, frankly. "It would have been a wrong had you wished to recognise the past; but, Alice, you have not yet assured me that such is the case." "I do not think you need any assurance," replied Alice, with a shy smile; and after this no more was said about Andrew's poverty, not even by the Colonel, when Andrew asked him boldly for his daughter. "I will take you as my son, Andrew; but I cannot talk of giving my Alice away. And you cannot have your share for a long time yet; indeed, she is only a child, although she tells me she is eighteen. Honestly, Andrew, I always hoped that this would come to pass; it is a step that I believe your own father would have approved, for he loved my little daughter; and now I suppose the sky will be clearer than it has been ?" Andrew smiled. "I only fear my father would have thought me too aspiring, having nothing but myself and my empty hands to offer." "I think more of what a man's head contains, and yours is furnished so well that your hands need not be long empty. And in the modest list of your pretensions you should not forget to add your good name, which, if God spares your life, and you use your gifts rightly, may one day become a great name." Ann Marvel was overjoyed at the intelligence. Kate's sins were all forgiven, and Ralph's too, for she still believed that they were the cause of Andrew's unhappy frame of mind while they remained in Hull. Andrew's friends at Trinity found him better company than ever when he returned to Cambridge; but they tried unsuccessfully to discover what made him so uncommonly happy and brilliant. Marvel was reverential in his love, choice even over the name of his lady; he liked not to think of its being spoken by college men over their wine, and perhaps made the subject of college jests, which if good-natured were not always refined. One morning Francis Maye saw on his friend's table a rough copy of some verses, and not being very strict in his notions of honour, and thinking it would afford some sport, Maye put the lines in his pocket, and produced them that evening in the presence of about a dozen Trinity students. "Gentlemen!" said Maye, carefully spreading out the purloined paper. There was a rattling of glasses, and a cry of "A speech from Dominus Maye!" "Scholars and gentlemen," he began again, "I have a secret to unfold, an interesting item of news to communicate-our friend Marvel is in love." A loud laugh was the first answer; then cries of "Who's the fair lady?" "Has he confessed?" "No, no; he is too merry; he looks more as if he had had a fortune left him!" "Who ever heard of him 'sighing like a furnace,' as all true lovers should do?" "Well, listen to these amorous lines, which I swear are Marvel's own: "TO MY COY MISTRESS. "Had we but worlds enough, and time, * But at my back I always hear Time's winged chariot hurrying near; Deserts of vast eternity,' &c. " "You must bring a better proof, Maye; we all know he scribbles verses, and this may be only a poet's stray fancy." Yes; if his lady-love was so reluctant, we should see him given to fits of abstraction and sickly melancholy." The lines were restored to their owner's table, but Marvel was puzzled more than once by his friends asking him if he ever expected the Jews to be converted, or whether the willow flourished on the banks of the Humber. (To be continued.) THE BIRMINGHAM MUSICAL FESTIVAL. THE Thirty-first Triennial celebration of the Birmingham worldrenowned Musical Festival is only lately over; and its sweetest and fullest strains are still ringing in the ears of many of those who were fortunate enough to form part of the vast audiences which twice a day, for four days consecutively, thronged the noble Town Hall of the midland metropolis. A very smoky, noisy town is Birmingham, a very dirty town, where the great unwashed will stare at you, and coolly jostle you as you walk along the streets—a very vulgar town, some people go so far as to say; but this at least |