Colonel Lister and his nephew met Lady Wharton and her daughter a few minutes after Lawrence had left them safely within the Beverley Gate. The Colonel instantly offered the shelter of his house to the disconsolate ladies.

"No, uncle," said Will.

"I have been Lady Wharton's guest more than once. Let me play the host now, and discharge my obligations."

"It shall be as her ladyship chooses," replied the Colonel courteously. "I can only say again that my house is at her disposal.”

Lady Wharton, after some trifling excuse, accepted the nephew's offer. She had always disliked Colonel Lister, and then Will's knighthood had some weight in her decision.

"Perhaps, uncle," said Will, as they conducted the ladies along Aldgate, "our friends would not like to be separated, or I would have suggested that Mistress Johanna should enjoy your hospitality for a time. My cousin Alice and she would be company for one another. Not that I wish to lose her society, and Kate is a very old acquaintance."

For certain reasons of her own Johanna quickly fell in with this proposal, and Colonel Lister led her home to his daughter. Alice, as we know, had little love for the heiress; but whatever she felt Johanna had no cause to complain of her reception. The house and its appointments were much better than she had expected, and while there was no profuse luxury her wants were so thoughtfully anticipated that she had no room for speaking of privations. Although Alice was quiet and sad, and would never have found much to say to Johanna, the latter found her situation anything but dull, for there was plenty of company at the Colonel's, and she had only to stand at the windows to see abundance of folks passing to and fro. The merchants and ordinary officers who frequented the house she looked upon with supreme unconcern, and hardly deigned to bend her golden head in answer to their salutations; but there was one visitor for whom she had always gracious smiles and words, and that gentleman was Sir Ralph Hildyard.

As for Ralph himself, he was very much annoyed to find Johanna domiciled with Alice, and the first time he found his sister Kate alone, he expressed his dissatisfaction.

"I can't get a word with Alice now," he said; "Johanna is always present, and she plies me with such foolish questions I can hardly answer her with civility."

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Dear Ralph," said Kate, half amused, "what hindrances you meet with in the course of your true love! Will thought that Alice wanted company, and proposed Johanna's going there. He does not know the Wharton ladies as well as we do; and it would have

been as little trouble for me to have had two as one of the same family. Lady Wharton is the last woman I would have desired to entertain; but what can one do in such straits? I am most concerned for Will's mother; she is quite discomforted by her ladyship's grand airs. She would have been overwhelmed with Johanna's disdain as well. But I wish Alice could be relieved from the inflic. tion of such a visitor."

“Mistress Johanna is—well, I will not give her the title I might do-she is of your sex, dear Kitty, but certainly she is no gentlewoman."

Ralph had made rapid progress in the Colonel's good graces since he came to live in Hull, and never for a moment did he give up the idea of one day calling Alice his wife. He now believed that fate had so decreed it. From first seeing her it had been like playing a game at which he was alternately winning and losing; after it had seemed entirely lost, everything had changed, the way had been cleared; Andrew was dead, and he feared no other rival. Surely there was something more than chance in this strange course of events. The Colonel could not fail to see that Ralph entertained no common friendship for his child, but Alice saw nothing except that Ralph was kind and much improved of late, and the improvement she attributed to the influence of Mr. Nye. She little thought that Ralph was living upon expectation centred in herself, contenting his heart for the present by frequent visits, and taking upon him the little duties of a son and brother in the Colonel's house. Alice had resumed all her accustomed duties one by one. What her face had lost ir. bloom, it had gained in sweetness; her voice was lower, and had sadder tones in it, but never a touch of querulousness. The affection between father and daughter became, if possible, more intense; yet not even to him did Alice ever refer to her lost friend, until he began to delude himself with the fond hope that she would by-and-by forget; that time would heal the wound, so that she could love again, as many another maiden had done. Kate watched and waited, too, speaking in her brother's praise when opportunities occurred, and almost vexed when Alice quietly admitted all his excellent qualities.

By the end of July those who had so earnestly prayed that peace might be restored, felt their hopes die out when the cannon from the royal batteries and the guns from the town walls day after day poured forth their destructive fire, and made the town shake to its foundations. Just before the firing had opened, Sir John Meldrum, a Scotch officer of some repute, entered the town, and took the chief command of the forces, to the great relief of many persons in Hull. One day Alice was sitting in her little parlour alone, when Johanna came in abruptly with a scared look on her face.

'Oh, Alice! the King must be close to the walls; can't you hear how much louder the firing is? Just now there was such an explosion. I thought the house was coming down upon me."

"Yes, I heard it; but I don't think there is any fresh danger." "How unconcerned you are, Alice; I wonder how you can feel so," exclaimed Johanna, petulantly; "I am frightened to death every minute."

"I am not unconcerned," replied Alice as quietly as before; "I only wish there was something for us womenfolk to do. I think ours is the hardest part, to have to sit still and listen."

"I wish some one would come and tell us how things are going on; it is not right to leave helpless ladies alone in this way," sighed Johanna, throwing herself at full length upon a settee.

Why, Johanna! you would not have our soldiers staying away from their duty to keep us company and to chide our silly fears?" "It is something more than 'silly fear,' as you call it, to expect a fireball to drop at one's feet every moment. I wish my father and Lawrence were here."

"But it must comfort you to hear that the King has not meddled with them; they are safer in Beverley than here. Would you like to go and see Lady Wharton? I will walk up the street with you.”

"Oh, no!" cried Johanna; "I would not go up the street without proper attendance for twenty crowns, with those strange soldiers everywhere."

"Why, Johanna! the soldiers are all too busy to molest us poor ladies. I have never had to complain of rudeness when I have gone abroad alone. Janet would go with us if you liked."

"An old woman like Janet would be no good," said Johanna contemptuously; "it may be all very well for you if you choose to risk being insulted and carried off, but I never forget what is due to my rank."

Alice made no reply to this rude speech, and Johanna continued to bewail their neglected condition, and to exclaim whenever a louder volley than usual made the window frames rattle.

A knock came to the door, but the echoes from the batteries drowned the gentle sound; and the applicant, after several trials, entered unbidden.

"Pardon the liberty, Mistress Alice," said Ralph, removing his hat; "I might have stood an hour and not been heard."

Johanna started up from her recumbent posture. "Oh, Sir Ralph, I am glad you have come; I am nearly frightened to death. What is the matter now?"

"Nothing new, Mistress Johanna, only that this is the hottest fire we have had yet," replied Ralph, with cold politeness; then turning again to Alice, he said, "Your father feared lest you should

think the enemy had made further advances, so he bade me come to set your minds at rest, ladies," and he bowed towards Johanna.

But that young lady was not appeased; she was jealous of the baronet's deference to Alice, and believed that the latter's indifference was only assumed, that it was an artful piece of coquetry, and she was more determined than ever to supplant her in Ralph's regard. "There is mighty small chance of rest," said she, "with the fear of being killed every moment. I think if the Colonel is so anxious about us, he had better have stayed to take care of us.”

"Nay, Mistress Johanna," returned Ralph, trying to be courteous, "the best way of showing his concern is to do what he can to keep the enemy from the gates. You are safer with him there than here."

"If you would like to pay your mother a visit, Johanna, I am sure Sir Ralph would conduct you there in safety."

“Ah, well, I suppose I may trust myself under your guardianship? Alice actually proposed that we should go alone, with only that useless old Janet. I would not hear of it, though I am longing for a little change. I will get my cloak and hood directly;" and Johanna hastened from the room to array herself with considerable care for her short walk.

"I think," said Ralph, when he was alone with Alice, "I think it is hardly safe for you to venture into the streets now without a protector, the town is so full of strangers, and some of them very coarse and rough in their behaviour."

"I don't think they would do me any harm," replied Alice.

"No; I hardly suppose anyone would mean to insult you," said Ralph, gazing attentively at her; "but some, Mistress Alice, might offer gallantries that would be quite as unpleasant to you. The Yorkshire Forget-me-not' is still remembered at the King's Head."

A faint flush came over Alice's brow. "The King would not bestow such a title on me now; he thinks we have all forgotten our loyalty and duty to him."

"Are you really not afraid, Mistress Alice?" asked Ralph, after a pause. "I came to take care of you for a little time, and you immediately give me a charge that banishes me."

"I think I have overcome all foolish timidity. Little storms used to fill me once with a thousand fears; but a great storm came awhile ago, and one of its waves carried me so high on the rocks, I sometimes think that nothing can touch or shake me again." Alice's manner was so calm when she said this, that Ralph was taken aback; that allusion to her trouble chilled him. He had almost gloried in the danger that he thought would make her turn trembling to him for protection; he had come hoping to have the

office of consoler. "But though I am without fear for myself," resumed Alice, after a moment's silence, "I am constantly anxious about my father. Is there any danger where he is just now?"

"There is hardly any place in the town where one can escape the chances of being injured," replied Ralph, "and our soldiers, of course, have to run these risks every hour when they are on the ramparts. Your father is superintending the completion of the half-moon battery; but I think it is a hopeless task under this present fire." Alice half rose from her seat with such a look of pain on her pale face that Ralph wished his words unsaid. "Indeed, there is no unusual cause for anxiety, dear Mistress Alice; and you know he is not rash like us younger men. I am to take Have you seen his place in an hour, and then he can come home.

Kate to-day?"

"Yes, she called this morning, looking so excited, and wishing she was a soldier, too. Aunt Lister dare not set her foot in the streets, but sits in her room quaking with terror, saying that Will is sure to be killed, and that Kate will be a widow like herself. But Kate is very tender and patient with her."

Johanna here made her appearance, all traces of alarm banished in the interest of a fresh and becoming toilet.

"Well," said Ralph, rising to depart, "since I can be of no service to you by returning, I will go and relieve your father that you may have him the sooner. There is another meeting for prayer to-morrow, Mistress Alice, your father will be on duty, but if you will allow me to conduct you there, I shall be honoured."

Alice agreed to go, and after lingering for a few more unimportant words, Ralph went away wondering if dead hearts ever grew warm again, and if all that poets sung of "first and only love" held good in common life. Hardly had the door closed on Ralph and Johanna, when Janet appeared and asked her young mistress

to come and speak to Lucy.

"She will hearken to all the stories floating in the town," said the housekeeper. "Simon may scold as he lists, but every time she goes out she stops to gossip at the King's Head."

Alice found her maid sobbing in Janet's room, and between her childish bursts of crying she said that someone had told her that the King had hired persons to set Hull on fire in different places, and that then he would carry the town by storm, and put everyone to death. Alice tried to pacify her, saying that it was only an idle

rumour.

"But," cried Lucy, "Cicely says she has seen a paper which describes the dreadful fireballs, as big as a drum, that have been sent from Holland by the Queen, and the King is going to throw them in upon us."