Mrs. Goodman agreed with him, and Paula said, "The foliage forms the roof of an interminable green crypt, the pillars being the trunks, and the vault the interlacing boughs."

"It is a fine place in a thunder-storm," said De Stancy. "I am not an enthusiast, but to see the lightning spring hither and thither, like lazy-tongs, bristling, and striking, and vanishing, is rather impressive."

"It must be indeed," said Paula. "And in the winter winds these pines sigh like ten thousand spirits in trouble." "Indeed they must," said Paula.

"At the same time I know a little fir plantation, about a mile square, not far from Markton," said De Stancy, "which is precisely like this in miniature-stems, colors, slopes, winds, and all. If we were to go there any time with a highly magnifying pair of spectacles, it would look as fine as this-and save a deal of travelling." "I know the place, and I agree with you," said Paula.

"You agree with me on all subjects but one," he presently observed, in a voice not intended to reach the others.

Paula looked at him, but was silent. Onward and upward they went, the same pattern and color of tree repeating themselves endlessly, till in a couple of hours they reached the castled hill which was to be the end of their journey, and beheld stretched beneath them the valley of the Murg. They alighted and entered the fortress.

"What did you mean by that look of kindness you bestowed upon me just now, when I said you agreed with me on all subjects but one?" asked De Stancy, half humorously, as he held open a little door for her, the others having gone ahead.

"I implore you to be quiet, Captain De Stancy. Leave me, and look out of the window at the view here, or at the pictures, or at the armor, or whatever it is we are come to see."

"Very well. But pray don't extract amusement from my harmless remarks. Such as they are, I mean them."

She stopped him by changing the subject, for they had entered an octagonal chamber on the first floor, presumably full of pictures and curiosities; but the shutters were closed, and only stray beams of light gleamed in to suggest what was there.

"Can't somebody open the windows?" said Paula.

"The attendant is about to do it," said her uncle; and as he spoke the shutters to the east were flung back, and one of the loveliest views in the forest disclosed itself outside.

Some of them stepped out upon the balcony. The river lay along the bottom of the valley, irradiated with a silver shine. Little rafts of pine-wood floated on its surface like tiny splinters, the men who steered them not appearing larger than ants.

Paula stood on the balcony, looking for a few minutes upon the sight, and then came again into the shadowy room, where De Stancy had remained. While the rest were still outside she resumed: "You must not suppose that I shrink from the subject you so persistently bring before me. I respect deep affection-you know I do; but for me to say that I have any such for you, of the particular sort you only will be satisfied with, would be absurd. I don't feel it, and therefore there can be nothing between us. would think it would be better to feel kindly toward you than to feel nothing at all. But if you object to that, I'll try

One

"I don't really object to your sympathy," said De Stancy, rather struck by her seriousness. "But it is very saddening to think you can feel nothing more." "It must be so, since I can feel no more," she decisively replied, adding, as

for constructing it, detained him there two days: or rather a feat of resolution, by which he set himself to withstand the drag-chain of Paula's influence, was operative for that space of time.

At the end of it he moved onward. There was no difficulty in discovering their track northward; and feeling that he might as well return to England by the Rhine route as by any other, he followed in the course they had chosen, getting scent of them in Strasburg, missing them at Baden by a day, and finally overtaking them at Carlsruhe, which town he reached on the morning after the Power and De Stancy party had taken up their quarters at the ancient inn above mentioned.

When Somerset was about to get out of the train at this place, little dreaming what a meaning the word Carlsruhe would have for him in subsequent years, he was disagreeably surprised to see no other than Dare stepping out of the adjoining carriage. A new brown leather valise in one of his hands, a new umbrella in the other, and a new suit of fashionable clothes on his back, seemed to denote considerable improvement in the young man's fortunes. Somerset was so struck by the phenomenal circumstance of his being on this spot that he almost missed his opportunity for alighting.

Dare meanwhile had moved on without seeing his former employer, and Somerset resolved to take the chance that offered, and let him go. There was something so mysterious in their common presence simultaneously at one place, five hundred miles from where they had last met, that he exhausted conjecture on whether Dare's errand this way could have anything to do with his own, or whether their juxtaposition a second time was the result of pure accident. Greatly as he would have liked to get this answered by a direct question to Dare himself, he did not counteract his first instinct, and remained unseen.

They went out in different directions, when Somerset, for the first time, remembered that in learning at Baden that the party had flitted toward Carlsruhe, he had taken no care to ascertain the name of the hotel they were bound for. Carlsruhe was not a large place, and the point was immaterial, but the omission would necessitate a little inquiry. To follow Dare on the chance of his having fixed upon the same quarters was a course which did not

commend itself. He resolved to get some lunch before proceeding with his business, or fascination—whichever it was-of discovering the elusive lady, and drove off to a neighboring tavern, which did not happen to be, as he hoped it might, the one chosen by those who had preceded him.

Meanwhile Dare, previously master of their plans, went straight to the house which sheltered them, and on entering under the archway from the Lange Strasse was saved the trouble of inquiring for Captain De Stancy by seeing him drinking bitters at a little table in the court. Had Somerset chosen this inn for his quarters instead of the one in the Market Place which he actually did choose, the three must inevitably have met here at this moment, with some possibly striking dramatic results; though what they would have been remains forever hidden in the darkness of the unfulfilled.

De Stancy jumped up from his chair, and went forward to the new-comer. "You are not long behind us, then," he said, with laconic disquietude. "I thought you were going straight home?"

"I was," said Dare, "but I have been blessed with what I may call a small competency since I saw you last. Of the two hundred francs you gave me I risked fifty at the tables, and I have multiplied them, how many times do you think? More than three hundred times."

De Stancy immediately looked grave. "I wish you had lost them," he said, with as much feeling as could be shown in a place where strangers were hovering near.

"Nonsense, Captain! I have proceeded purely on a calculation of chances; and my calculations proved as true as I expected, notwithstanding a little in-and-out luck at first. Witness this as the result." He smacked his bag with his umbrella, and the chink of money resounded from within. "Just feel the weight of it!"

"It is not necessary. I'll take your word."

"Shall I lend you five pounds?"

"God forbid! As if that would repay me for what you have cost me! But come, let's get out of this place to where we can talk more freely." He put his hand through the young man's arm, and led him round the corner of the hotel toward the Schloss Platz.

"These runs of luck will be your ruin, as I have told you before," continued Captain De Stancy. "You will be for

repeating and repeating your experiments, and will end by blowing your brains out, as wiser heads than yours have done. I am glad you have come away, at any rate. Why did you travel this way?"

"Simply because I could afford it, of course. But come, Captain, something has ruffled you to-day. I thought you did not look in the best temper the moment I saw you. Every sip that you took of your pick-up as you sat there showed me something was wrong. Tell your worry."

"Pooh-I can tell you in two words," said the captain, satirically. "Your arrangement for my wealth and happiness -for I suppose you still claim it to be yours-has fallen through. The lady has announced to-day that she means to send for Somerset instantly. She is coming to a personal explanation with him. So woe to me--and in another sense, woe to you, as I have reason to fear, though I have hoped otherwise."

Dare, as he spoke, put his hand into his breast pocket, as if the said joke lay there; but after a moment he withdrew his hand empty, as he continued:

Having invented it, I have done enough; I was going to explain it to you, that you might carry it out. But you are so serious that I will leave it alone. My second joke shall die with me."

"So much the better," said De Stancy. "I don't like your jokes, even though they are not directed against myself. They express a kind of humor which does not suit me."

"You may have reason to alter your mind," said Dare, carelessly. "Your success with your lady may depend on it. The truth is, dad, we aristocrats, representatives of impoverished ancient families, must not take too high a tone. Our days as an independent division of society, which holds aloof from other sections, are past. We can only be saved, in the words of the apostle, as by fire-that is, by what burns the old prejudices of some of us like fire-by connecting ourselves with the new and coarse aristocracy of money, or at least the new and refined aristocracy of intellect; best of all with the two united. This has been my argument ever since I broached the subject of your marrying

"Then what did you come here for?" burst out De Stancy. ""Tis my belief you are no more than a- But I won't call you names; I'll tell you quite plainly that if there is anything wrong in that message to her, which I believe there is no, I can't believe, though I fear it-you have the chance of appearing in drab clothes at the expense of the government before the year is out, and I of being eternally disgraced."

"No, Captain, you won't be disgraced. I am hard to beat, I can tell you. And come the worst luck, I don't say a word." "But those letters pricked in your skin would say a good deal, it strikes me."

"What! would they strip me?-but it is not coming to that. Look here, now, I'll tell you the truth for once: though you don't believe me capable of it. I did concoct that telegram-and sent it; just as a practical joke; and many a worse one has been only laughed at by honest men and officers. I could show you a bigger joke still-a huge joke-a joke of jokeson the same individual."

wealth-all, in fact, except the historical prestige that you represent. And we mustn't flinch at things. The case is even more pressing than ordinary cases, owing to the odd fact that the representative of the new blood who has come in our way actually lives in your own old house, and owns your own old lands. The ordinary reason for such alliances is quintupled in our case. Do, then, just think and be reasonable, before you talk tall about not liking my jokes, and all that. Beggars mustn't be choosers."

"There's really much reason in your argument," said De Stancy, with a bitter laugh; "and my own heart argues much the same way. But leaving me to take care of my aristocratic self, I advise your aristocratic self to slip off at once to England like any hang-gallows dog; and if Somerset is here, and you have been doing wrong in his name, and it all comes out, I'll try to save you, as far as an honest man can. If you have done no wrong, of course there is no fear; though I should be obliged by your going homeward as quickly as possible, as being better both

tion !"

They had reached one side of the Schloss Platz, nobody apparently being near them save a sentinel who was on duty before the palace; but turning as he spoke, De Stancy beheld a group consisting of his sister, Paula, and Mr. Power strolling across the square toward them.

It was impossible to escape their observation, and putting a bold front upon it, De Stancy advanced with Dare at his side, till in a few moments the two parties met, Paula and Charlotte recognizing Dare at once as the young man who assisted at the castle.

"I have met my young photographer," said De Stancy, cheerily. "What a small world it is! as every busybody truly observes. I am wishing he could take some views for us as we go on; but you have no apparatus with you, I-suppose, Mr. Dare?" "I have not, sir, I am sorry to say," replied Dare.

“You could get one, I suppose ?" asked Paula of the interesting young photographer.

Dare declared that it would be not impossible; whereupon De Stancy said that it was only a passing thought of his; and in a few minutes the two parties again separated, going their several ways.

"That was awkward," said De Stancy, trembling with excitement. "I would advise you to keep further off in future."

Dare said thoughtfully that he would be careful, adding: "She is a prize for any man, indeed, leaving alone the substantial possessions behind her. Now was I too enthusiastic? Was I a fool for urging you on?"

"Wait till success justifies the undertaking. In case of failure, it will have been anything but wise. It is no light matter to have a carefully preserved repose broken in upon for nothing—a repose that could never be restored."

They walked down the Carl-Friedrichs Strasse to the Margrave's Pyramid, and back to the hotel, where Dare also decided to take up his stay. De Stancy left him with the book-keeper at the desk, and went up stairs to see if the ladies had returned.

CHAPTER IV.

He found them in their sitting-room with their bonnets on, as if they had just come in. Mr. Power was also present,

had gone out to a neighboring shop, in the windows of which she had seen something which attracted her fancy.

When De Stancy entered, Paula's thoughts seemed to revert to Dare, for almost at once she asked him in what direction the youth was travelling. With some hesitation De Stancy replied that he believed Mr. Dare was returning to England, after a spring trip for the improvement of his mind.

"A very praiseworthy thing to do," said Paula. "What places has he vis ited?"

"Those which afford opportunities for the study of the old masters, I believe,” said De Stancy, blandly. "He has also been to Turin, Genoa, Marseilles, and so on." The captain spoke the more readily to her questioning in that he divined her words to be dictated, not by any suspicions of his relations with Dare, but by her knowledge of Dare as the draughtsman employed by Somerset.

"Has he been to Nice ?" she next demanded. "Did he go there in the company of my architect?"

"I think not."

"Has he seen anything of him? My architect Somerset once employed him. They know each other."

"I think he saw Somerset for a short time."

Paula, was silent. "Do you know where this young man Dare is at the present moment?" she asked, quickly.

De Stancy said that Dare was staying at the same hotel with themselves, and that he believed he was down stairs.

"I think I can do no better than send for him," said she. "He may be able to throw some light upon the matter of that telegram."

She rang and dispatched the waiter for the young man in question, De Stancy almost visibly trembling for the result. But he opened the town directory, which was lying on a table, and affected to be engrossed in the names.

Before Dare was shown in, she said to her uncle, "Perhaps you will speak to him for me?"

Mr. Power, looking up from the paper he was reading, assented to her proposition; Dare appeared in the doorway, and the waiter retired. Dare seemed a trifle startled out of his usual coolness, the message having evidently been unexpected,