"And what did the craiture say ?" asked Dennis.

"Say, man-och! the poor thing, 'twas crying she was when she came out, and not sayin' a word, bad or good; and she took the bit of a note, and looked at the direction, and shook her head, and then peeped in under the sail; and seeing me going away, which I was, case why I might disturb her, and she reading, says she to me, Shine,' says she, you needn't go away,' says she, for I'm not going to read it at all,' says she; and with that she begun to cry again, the poor craiture, and then sat down to write an answer, and put the bit of a note inside of it, and sailed 'em both up together, and gave it into my hand."

"Oh, murder!" cried Dennis;

and is't

Mr. Pierce's own note I'm to take back to

him, and not a word of it read, and after my

writing the direction myself and all? What a pity he didn't seal it all round, and then she'd never have known who it came from ; oh, murder! he'll be distracted entirely when I give him this."

So saying, Dennis put the unwelcome packet into his pocket, and bidding his friend good-by, left Dunmanus, and sadly bent his way towards Mallow.

Pierce had passed an anxious and unhappy day. Fearing observation, he had not ventured to shew himself out of doors; and it was only when the day had closed in, that he went, under the protection of the darkness, to cool the fever of his blood in the night air. Dennis's delay caused him much surprise, and he walked in the direction of Ballydangan, in order that his suspense might be the more quickly relieved. His naturally sanguine temperament had been considerably diminished by late events, and he

walked to meet Dennis, unaccompanied by those confident anticipations of success, which, at an earlier period of his life, invariably attended his projections. Disappointment had sobered his imagination-deceit had shaken his confidence. A greater knowledge of the world had taught him, that self-interest was the only standard by which human actions could justly be calculated that generosity and benevolence, self-devotion and magnanimity, did not hold that preponderance in the composition of mankind, which his youthful fancy had depictured -that

Men's judgments are

A parcel of their fortunes: and things outward
Do draw the inward quality after them

To suffer all alike.

Pierce had not proceeded above a mile when the stillness of the night was disturbed by the approach of Dennis, who handed him the fatal

packet; on opening the seal, he found the following, written on an envelop to his own note, the latter having been sent back, unopened :"Oh! why will you from the path of duty?

urge me to swerve

why thus endeavour

to force me to an act which is irreconcilable with my principles-spare me, I entreat you; oblige me not thus, at the same time, to wound both your feelings and my own-all must be at an end for ever.

" S. L."

CHAPTER XI.

ROYAL MILITARY COLLEGE.

You have seen

Sunshine and rain at once.

Alack, 'tis he; why he was met even now,
As mad as the vex'd sea.

King Lear.

"HA! ha ha! capital, capital," cried Atlas, holding his sides, and laughing most immoderately, while a paper which he had been reading lay before him on one of the hall tables ; "the colonel and the cornet arguing the point, must have been excellent, and Sinclair has hit