"THE STORY OF OUR LIVES FROM YEAR TO YEAR." YEAR ROUND ALL THE A Weekly Journal CONDUCTED BY CHARLES DICKENS. No. 157.-THIRD SERIES. SATURDAY, JANUARY 2, 1892. PRICE TWOPENCE. fellow. You should have seen his face when I said: 'Mein guten Herr, Ich ver BY RIGHT OF SUCCESSION. stand nichts von wat sie sagen.' BY ESME STUART. Author of "A Faire Damzell," "Joan Vellacot," "Kestell of Greystone," etc. etc. CHAPTER XXVII. A FRIEND INDEED. "I SAY, Gordon, did you notice that girl's face English, of course; but I haven't seen any one so pretty since I saw Miss Simpson, the London belle." "Yes, a beautiful face," said the man addressed, older by several years than the speaker, and looking older than his years. "And such golden hair! By Jove, if I were a poet, I should at once sit down and write something on Celia's tresses." "I didn't notice the hair. Yes, I did; it was not gold; more of a shining brown," "Oh, you mean the other one," said the young man, only just above the age of boyhood, in rather a disgusted voice. "I gave a glance towards her, but she was not to be compared to the fair one. I wonder what their names are and where they live. I'll ask the Professor if I can scrape up enough German for that." "You can't!" said Gordon, laughing. "That hair will inspire me. I never saw anything or anybody to come near to her," "Oddly enough, the face I looked at seemed somehow familiar to me. By the way, Sidney, don't be making the poor Professor believe you are in love." "Do you know, it was only this morning he found out my ignorance. I had always looked so enlightened, and put in my ya ya!' so exactly in the right pauses, that he thought I was a very clever "No mistaking the fact after that speech, Sidney." "By the way, do you much object to my name?" "I would rather have my own, I must own, though yours is time-honoured." "Joneses were long before the flood, of course, and before Adam and Eve too, I believe; but still-well, yes, Gordon is more aristocratic, a less multiplied race. Anyhow, the Professor this morning said—as far as I understood him, that is to say-that he thought Mr. Chones a very good name. If you did not mind, he would call you Chones too. So it will be Chones one, and Chones two." "Anyhow, he cannot confound our characters," answered Austin Gordon, smiling. "The idlest, good-for-nothing, the" "Wisest of mentors. But you are not merciful if you object to my admiring the golden hair of a passing lady." "Sirens and hard work don't agree," said the other. "At all events, I hope hard fare and hard work combine well. The Frau Pro fessorin has never seen one of our honest English dinners served up. I shut my eyes and ate in blind faith, hoping for the best results." Sidney Jones was the only son of a very rich cotton spinner, who had unfortunately brought up his son to believe that money was of no account, and was made to get rid of. For many years Sidney had succeeded admirably in wasting both his time and his coin; but eventually, what was merely youthful folly had led him into most undesirable company. One night, however, this little band had overstepped the limits VOL. VII.-THIRD SERIES, 157 of even indulgent Jones. The gambling, Austin Gordon's mind was suddenly followed by a carouse, had left him unable made up. It was not the handsome to direct his steps unaided to the haven salary Mr. Jones, senior, offered him, of his own rooms; and Sidney, when he though that was not to be scorned in returned to his senses, found that his best his present circumstances, but it was the course was to cut himself off from tempta- young man's appeal for help that decided tion. He confessed all to his father; all, him. If he refused, he felt he should be including debts, which made even Jones, answerable for his future. Heaven helping senior, flinch; but Sidney was not lost to him, he would try to raise that weak all sense of right. There was one man at mind; he would endeavour to make the college who had an influence over him, young fellow respect himself and the will one man whom he respected, and he begged which he had abused; and, if possible, his father to allow him to travel with he would lead him to that stage where, Austin Gordon and see if he could turn having learnt self-discipline, he would over a new leaf. Mr. Jones was roused need no outside influence. into action, forgave Sidney, because of his frank confession, and made Gordon a liberal offer if he would accede to Sidney's request. The difficulty was that he had known but little of Sidney Jones, and that little he had disapproved of. To go and travel about with one whom he believed to be simply a fast and worthless youth was not at all to his liking. So he refused. Then it was that Sidney had come to Gordon, and in a few simple words had told him the truth. "If you refuse, I shall stay on here and the results may be bad; I know I am an awful fool, but upon my word I don't want to be like-like some here, and you are the only fellow whom I have ever taken to, on the principle of extremes meeting, I think." In his young days Austin had also had a beloved friend, a tutor whom he worshipped as a superior being. Was it not right to pass on this influence which he knew had given him a new outlook upon life? Ever since those early days Austin Gordon had quietly chosen his own line of conduct, in spite of his mother's influence and her kindly laugh at his peculiarities, as she called his higher standard of right and wrong. Beatrice was his only confidant, though he saw her but seldom ; with the other two he did not interfere. Minnie was so pretty and fashionable that she overpowered him, and Frances was so perfectly satisfied with her own ideas that his words would have been wasted labour. But with Bee it was different; he could and did influence her as much as possible, that is, in an indirect fashion. Austin now saw the matter in a different light; but then how was he to guide a To return to Sidney Jones. He had youth who had his pockets full of money? most faithfully kept his promise, which "I want to be honest with you, Jones,' "showed that there was good stuff in him; he said. "If I went abroad myself, I he never complained of any roughness or should go because I wish to improve my-discomfort, and never threw away his self, and because I might wish to earn money so as to save my mother's slender means; on the other hand, I should wish to do things as cheaply as possible; but If I go with you it will be a different thing. Besides, I feel you ought not only to acknowledge your mistake, but also as far as possible to atone for it." "I see; of course you don't wish me to act the Nabob abroad. I'll promise you, on the word of a gentleman, I'll never have more than a sovereign in my pocket, and that you shall be leader and mentor." The words were light, but there was a ring of earnestness in the voice that went straight to Austin's heart; it was the cry of one who, having already begun to go downhill, begs for the help of a hand to pull him up again, to save him from himelf. money on useless pleasures. Not that his mentor kept him in very_strict_durance; indeed, he never hindered anything that was to give him pleasure, only he was firm about the regular work. Sidney had left college under a cloud, and he was bound, as far as was possible, to make up for this loss. One thing was certain, and this was the devotion he felt for his selfchosen guide. The tie was not less strong because it was one which Sidney could have loosed at any moment of his own accord. By this time the friends had reached home, as they now called the Professor's flat, but they had not found out that they were returning to the same house which the two sisters had but lately left, and mounting quickly with their thick English boots, they passed Fräu Hanson's door and climbed to the next flat. This was the Professor's home-the worthy man who found more than one English name too much for him. He had never mastered, or, indeed, tried to master, the English tongue, being too busy in more learned researches into more abstruse languages to trouble himself with something as easy as English, and so nearly allied to his Deutsch tongue. There was Sanscrit, for instance, of which he had calmly remarked to Mr. Chones that "every one knew a little Sanscrit," and poor Sidney at once felt how far below the level of "every one" he must be. The Professor's outward man was certainly very unlike the venerable aspect of our Oxford dons; he was a small, wizenedlooking old gentleman, who always wore a black velvet skull-cap and very thick spectacles with enormous rims; he seemed to be continually buried in a book of the dullest description, which, in pity for Mr. Jones's youth, who read with him, he changed into "Werther" to encourage him with the German language, but first telling him, for fear of any suicidal notions being implanted in his mind by the wonderful Goethe's story, that the author looked with but scant favour on this novel, that it was one of his least good works, and that Werther was a creation of the imagination, who could not have lived a day on this earth. The intensity of passion expressed by the author was greatly modified by the slow rate at which it was interpreted by Sidney. The Professor was a great philosopher himself, but this was not unusual amongst his countrymen; he believed firmly that his nation possessed the best brains now to be found since the Greek, and if he judged from Sidney's capabilities he must have put England quite out of the scale of reckoning or of competition. Now, the other Mr. Chones led him now and then into discussions which would have been profound had Austin's German been more 80. We all know how heart-rending it is to have beautiful thoughts that we wish to communicate to a foreigner, and yet to be quite unable to do so through the medium of a strange language. This evening the young men entered the common salon, which they had to themselves in the daytime, but in the evening the Professor and his wife appeared for a social talk. One thing that made German easy to learn in this household was that whenever the Professor was not reading he was talking; and whenever he paused, his wife filled up the gap. The spouse of the philosopher was a most worthy lady, but as ignorant as he was learned; contact with him had made no difference to her, and she babbled on about the town gossip quite happily, after hearing her husband expound aloud the dynasties of Egypt. The good Fräu's mind was only to be got at by her eyes, and as she had never seen Sesostris or Manetho they made not the least impression upon her. Curiously enough, however, the Professor took a secret and never-expressed interest in his neighbours; indeed, it must stand to reason that the man who cares to hear the least thing about the domestic history of Rameses the Second should also find a charm in the affairs of Baron Perthes over the way, or Fräulein Leasing next door, and of Fräu Hanson below. That evening he was, therefore, not very angry when Sidney enquired who were the two pretty English girls they had met this afternoon. "There are many English ladies in Unterberg," said the Professorin, "and most are pretty; say, then, what they were like." "Golden hair," said Sidney. "A gentle, good face; something like one's idea of a Madonna," said Austin, referring to the other. The Professorin threw up her hands, for she was a devout Protestant. "Do you hear that, Ludwig? Golden hair and the face of the Madonna ! Gracious! she must be an apparition." "Straight from the magician's goblet. Don't you remember the tales of the magic goblet, out of which the image of the fair one was conjured up by the lover, but dispelled by a word from his lips?" said the Professor. "I dare say you have a lady you would fain see there?" said the Professorin, chuckling good-naturedly, as she nodded her head. Austin laughed. "None, I assure you, Fräu Professorin ; unless-well, unless it be the face I saw to-day in the street. So you see, my wishes are not of long standing. As for my friend, I will not answer for him." "I have admired so many girls," sighed Sidney, "that I should have a great deal of trouble to say which of them I should most prefer to see again." This conversation led to a discussion on apparitions, during which the Professor related long stories on the subject, ending with: "In spite of these stories, I do not believe in any apparition. The only spirit I believe in resides here," and the Professor tapped his large forehead. "The only mover of the body is a ghost, but is never separated from its tenement. I have deeply studied the theory of the transmigration of souls, and I believe" But here the Professor's theory became couched in such mystical language, that Sidney lost the rest of the argument, which, truth compels us to say, did not distress him very much. CHAPTER XXVIII, THE PROFESSOR. A FEW days after this, Sidney rushed into the salon, where Austin Gordon was writing home letters, instead of sauntering round the Platz to see the soldiers performing exercises and wonderful evolutions in the German fashion. Sidney had gone out to improve his ideas of drill, and to satisfy a certain longing he always felt to inspect red cloth. The two young men were to start out in the afternoon for a "Well!" Gordon was bending over his writing quickly. where they live-now do." "I've found out our pretty girls. "In a young ladies' school?" "Wrong. Try again." "At the clergy man's house? doctor's? Or the "Wrong, wrong." letter, This time Gordon did look up in good earnest. "What, with Fräu Hanson ? " "Yes. I caught hold of my beloved Gretchen this morning by her pigtail, and she said, demurely: 'If you please, mein Herr, you must not hinder me, because I am going to my new teacher's room.' Whereupon I asked her who was this new teacher, and she burst forth, 'Oh, a lovely young English lady, with hair so goldenjust like a kingcup! And she and her sister are living with us. They are lovely!"" Sidney was devoted to children; it was one of the best points of his character; and he and Gretchen had early made friends on the stairs; though the maiden was very much afraid of the "other Herr.' The other Herr was serious enough now, as he said, earnestly: "I say, Sidney, there must be no nonsense, if this is really true. I am sure they are ladies; and it would be very unpleasant for them if you were to pretend to make a fool of yourself about them; it might drive them away. It isn't as if they or we were of different nationalities." "Wise mentor, you speak as if I intended to make the beauteous one an offer of my hand and heart this very evening. On the contrary, I mean to go on the other Or the line-far more in the Don Quixote line, or the northern heroes-and worship the divinity afar off. I hope that will satisfy you?" "Perhaps not English at all?" "But they are; and they live-" “It does not much concern us where." "Well, it does concern me. I have thought several times about that hair and those eyes since we met them." "I am glad you have not eaten less or slept less in consequence. But perhaps you are progressing in the sorrows of Werther." "Werther seems to me an old fool, and a fearfully lazy dog. By the way, his description of diplomatic occupation is not at all prepossessing in favour of Government officials. I won't go in for any embassy employment." "No, I'm sure you won't. Too many letters to write." "You are shirking now. Where do the sirens live-one, two, three?" Of course, what knight-errant could say more? But just at this very moment it was the mentor who began wondering still further about the English girls. "I wonder at such very young girls living alone in a town like this. There must be some reason for it. Did you hear their name? Sidney smiled. "It would be wrong of me to divulge such a secret, surely! But as far as dear Gretchen could pronounce it, the eldest is called 'Miss Evans.'" "Evans?" said Gordon, softly. "I wonder if they are any relations of Evans of Oriel? Do you remember him—a very handsome fellow?" "No, he was not in my set," said Sidney, making a wry face. "Anyhow, |