nie - cakes, muffins, and crumpets, | name. It was a little embarrassing, and sweets and she was promoted to because in our walks abroad if Winnie pour it out. She felt awed by the re- met a porter she insisted on shaking sponsibility, but full of pride and de- him by the hand and inquiring after his light; when I produced a hoard of wife and children. bones for Tobias, saved up especially for him, her happiness was complete. That astute dog had been making a careful survey of the premises, with a view of selecting comfortable sleeping quarters, and ultimately appropriated my best easy-chair. Tobias, too, had secured a recognized footing. To see Winnie, accompanied by old Dixon, starting off to do their marketing, Tobias following closely at their heels, was a beautiful sight. The first Sunday was a memorable day. Gray's Inn Chapel is, as it were, Seated opposite to me after tea Win-a fossil remnant of the Middle Ages. nie said, "I love Dixon; she let me help wash up the tea-things, and tomorrow I am to go out marketing with her." No outsider is ever beguiled into its prosy walls. Architecturally it is hideous, the stained glass of a violent and vulgar type, the pews of the usual sheep-pen description. There is a big, noisy organ, fitted into a very small gallery. Over everything there is an air of a deadly respectability. There is an atmosphere of dust and decorum. The congregation consists mainly of solemn old gentlemen, who follow the service out of colossal Prayer-books; when they come in they always stand up and bury their faces in their hatsthey are mostly too rheumatic to kneel; some of them repeat the entire service right through in a soft, sibillant murmur. I used to make up a little rogar-mance and story for each one. Next day I took Winnie for a walk in the square. I pointed out our Banqueting Hall and the old Chapel, then we went for a walk in the gardens. I formally introduced Winnie to the head gardener. It was pretty to see her hold out her little hand and express her polite hope that he was very well. The gardener picked her a bright blossom, and presented it to her with a touch of old-world gallantry; this emboldened Winnie, who looked up into his face and said: "Do you think, sir, you could allow my dog Tobias to come into the dens with me?" The gardener pointed to the board. "Agen the rules, miss, no dogs allowed; glad eno' to see you though, miss." "He is a very good dog, sir," said Winnie, sticking to her point, "and never injures the flower-beds." "Well, my little lady, perhaps, with a string; but we'll talk about it another day." "I think the London people exceedingly kind and good," said Winnie to me sententiously. In a fortnight's time it was quite surprising to me how perfectly Winnie was at home in Gray's Inn. I had lived there for some years, but had only a nodding acquaintance with the porters; but in a few days Winnie knew each porter, and was well posted up in all their family affairs, and addressed each one by his Christian Some I imagined to be authors of eminent law books in the ages gone by, when law was a science, and a very expensive one; one, of a peculiarly depressed, mouldy air, I settled had married his laundress and been miserable ever since; another, who wore grey cloth gloves, and had a tremulous motion of the head, was evidently of some intellectual power and ought to have been made a judge, and had got that palsied quiver because he wasn't. Nothing young, nothing pretty, nothing fresh or gay ever worshipped in Gray's Inn Chapel, and I think it caused some wiping of glasses and peering through them when I entered hand in hand with Winnie. She could only see over the pew-tops by standing on two hassocks. As we went out, the porters (transformed into vergers for Sunday) greeted Winnie with kindly smiles. "How very old everybody in Gray's | muffins and crumpets were ordered, Inn seems," said Winnie as we walked home to dinner. It was a week or two after that that I heard screams of laughter from the kitchen, and presently Dixon came in, mantling over with pride and pleasure. "I say there ain't such another kindhearted little miss in all the world. What do you think she wants to do now, sir?" and great preparations made. Early that morning Winnie said to me, with a very solemn face : "You know, dad, I love you very much-more than anybody or anything in all the world." "Well, I think you do, Winnie.” "I hope you won't think me unkind or rude, but Dixon and I both agree that you had better go away, and not come to our tea except just at the very end." "I can't even guess, Dixon." "Why, sir, she wants to give a tea to all the porters of the Inn, and the man “I think that a good idea, Winnie; who lights the gas, and the old post-perhaps I might cast a chill over the man who brought her a letter the other gaiety of the meeting." morning." So I went to my club for that after"Oh, do let me, dad!" cried Win-noon, and only arrived just before nie, dancing in. "They are all so Winnie's party broke up. And very kind to me. Why Tom (he is the glad I was to see at any rate the end of porter at our own lodge), he met me it. Mrs. Dixon sat at the bottom of the other day carrying a parcel across the table arrayed in the smartest of the square-Dixon and I had been caps and the whitest of aprons, and shopping, and her arms were full, and Winnie headed the table, two folio volthe parcel was very heavy, because it umes of Coke's "Digest" were placed held brown sugar and a lot of lemons upon her chair, that she might have a -and Tom saw me, and ran across the better command over the teapot. Five square, and said, 'Oh, Miss Winnie, porters, the gasman, and the postman I'll give you a helping hand;' and I formed the company. Wherever Dixon said, 'Oh, I won't trouble you;' and was there was sure to be no lack of Tom said, 'Why, it's an honor, miss ;' conversation, and when I arrived all and he carried it quite easily all the the tongues seemed going at once. way home. Then there is Richard; Winnie had finished her duties, and he is only twenty-six, but he has got relaxed her dignity so far as to sit on four children, and one is as big as me, old Timothy's knee, the other knee and he sits in the little cupboard be-being covered with his red bandanna hind the big gate at night; and he let handkerchief. She was relating to him me sit with him one evening late, and the history of Tobias; that excellent he had a lamp, and a fire inside, and I dog, meanwhile, had taken Winnie's like him awfully." seat on Coke's "Digest," and was finishing a plate of tea-cakes. "But, my dear child, I can't have the porters taking tea in my rooms; besides, they would not be happy, they would feel out of place." Winnie introduced me to her guests each one by name, with a little personal anecdote of an explanatory char "If you made tea, dad, I think per-acter for each guest. I said something haps they might; but if you'd only let me, I am sure they would be quite at home." After a while I consented, conditionally on Winnie keeping it all a profound secret, and for days Winnie and Dixon were exceedingly busy and important. Whether Winnie issued written or only verbal invitations I never knew. Cakes were made or bought, of a general welcome to all, and then old Timothy returned thanks to Winnie, and stated that the whole Inn loved her, and then proposed "Three cheers for Miss Winnie!" "Which you'll please to cheer soft," says Dixon, "as the gentleman underneath is frightful nervous of noise." Winnie was exceedingly gratified by her entertainment. a lawyer, dad, aren't "I have that honor, Winnie — barrister-at-law; and if I am good and clever and lucky I may become a queen's counsel, and then a judge, and perhaps a lord chancellor, who is the biggest judge of all.” "Dad, what is a lawyer, and what is the law?" It was about this period that I began and every morning Miss Hastings arto feel and see an indescribable change rived and retired for two hours with come over my dingy old rooms. On Winnie into my study whilst I was at the rare-the very rare occasions court, and there taught her many high when I had to attend court, I was and mighty things. The months sometimes absent all day, and when I rolled on, when one day Winnie said came in I had a feeling as of home to me :comforts in my rooms. There was a "You're row of bookshelves gorged with books you?” near the fireplace. The books always had a strange trick of tumbling forward, and crashing down, often in the middle of the night. Suddenly the books seemed to fall into better habits. They marshalled themselves neatly. There was a hole in the old Turkey carpet that had been there from time immemorial. It had tripped me up many scores of times, but I never thought of mending it. It was quite an historical rent, and I got to look for it. One day the old rent had got itself mended. When I had occasion to take down books it was only in the nature of things that one's hands should be dirtied. I took down my books now, and on preparing to wash my hands I found they were not even soiled. And yet I never found Dixon annoying me with dusting and brooming. My papers never seemed to be touched, and yet they kept themselves clean. Did the Brownies come and look after things when I was sound asleep in bed? I said to Winnie one day, "Winnie, dear, I always had an idea that my rooms were horridly dirty and dusty, but I don't think they are half as bad as I fancied." Winnie looked as solemn as a judge. "They are dear old rooms, dad; but of course the smuts do come in at times." And only to think that my little maid and my faithful old Dixon were so clever and cunning that they were always cleaning and beautifying and adorning without my ever knowing it! "I've taught her myself," said Dixon, with much honest pride; "and to see that child scrub a floor and dust a room is as pretty a sight as anything this side o' Primrose Hill." I paused a moment, whilst I hunted about for a concise definition. "It is the science that regulates all one's money and land, and makes wills and deeds. Parliament and the queen make the laws, and the lawyers explain them." "Why doesn't the queen make the laws so plain that they don't want explaining?" "Well, really dear, I never viewed it in that light before; it's what we call an anomaly. You'll find a good many as you go through life; the lawyers make people's wills, then the people die, and we ask the judges to explain what the wills mean." "That's foolish, dad. Why don't they go and ask the man who made them? He would be sure to know." I did not pursue the subject further, but one day I took Winnie into court, and she was mightily impressed. "Only," she said, "they do talk so much and use such long words, and the gentleman in the long wig seemed very cross and sleepy." So the years rolled on, until Winnie's education was finished. I had risen in my profession, and had now a large practice. Winnie was eighteen, and I thirty-five. To me she was still a child. I was a good deal occupied in the press of my work, and perhaps gave less thought than I ought to the evidently increasing difficulties of the position. It was borne in upon me I engaged a governess for Winnie, one day in an unpleasant way. One Sunday, as Winnie and I were crossing the square, we met Dalton, an old friend of mine, and with him another man, a stranger to me. I stopped to speak to Dalton, and as I left him I heard his companion say, "Oh! his ward, is she? Do many men in Gray's Inn keep their wards in their chambers ?" It became very clear to me that I must put my establishment on a very different footing-take a house in the suburbs, and have a chaperon for dear Winnie. was such an amount of persuasion put “Oh, dad, what a nice bright boy; It must have been about this time that young Alec Forbes drifted into our quiet lives. It began in this way. One Sunday (a bright, sunny day) Winnie and I went to chapel. All the old benchers knew her now and loved her well, and looked for her bright young face in chapel. Some of the tottery old gentlemen had passed away, but those that remained had seen Winnie grow up, and well remembered the day when she had first lightened the dingy little chapel with her young presence. This Sunday, to my surprise, I saw that one of the old gentlemen was accompanied by a young man. He was about twenty-two, with dark, handsome eyes and a bright, eager face. The dark, handsome eyes wandered all Two days later came a letter from round the chapel till they lighted upon old Mr. Forbes, saying he had heard I Winnie, and there they stopped. I had some students reading with me, own Winnie looked unusually pretty and might his nephew join them. The that morning- a dainty little grey bon-youth seemed bright and promising, net nestled on her golden hair, and she and I agreed. Never was there such a was as fresh and sweet and bright as pupil. He was to come twice a week any English maiden between the four for two hours, but in a very few days it seas; but that was no excuse for the seemed to me that Alec came every persistent way in which the handsome day. He always had some urgent exdark eyes came again and again to her cuse, trivial in its nature but urged face. She herself did not appear at all with tremendous eagerness - he had conscious of the eyes or their owner; forgotten his gloves or left his umbrella, but I knew enough of woman's nature or borrowed some music of Winnie, or to be sure that in reality she knew all got tickets for some concert. Winnie about it. I tried to stare the young and he became great friends. man down, but I could not look fierce enough, for he was so bright-looking and so courteous to his old companion that I felt quite drawn to him. -- It was about this time that a change came over Winnie, and a still greater change came over me. So much depends upon these moods of ours that I After service, as we were crossing must try to explain them. First of all the road, I heard a young voice saying Winnie got pale, then she always with great emphasis : snapped and snarled at poor dear Alec; "Oh, I say, Uncle John, do." There she grew cold and a little distant with me, not unkind, but I felt as if she ice had clutched at my heart. I sat up were growing away from me. The kiss at breakfast that used to be so playfully and warmly given on my lips, or on my two cheeks, or sometimes maliciously on the tip of my nose, was now reduced to a constrained kiss on my forehead. I said to myself, Winnie is ill, worried perhaps by that boy Alec always dangling at her heels; she shall go away to the sea with Aunt Betty. When I proposed it to her, she really behaved most unreasonably; she burst into tears, and point blank refused to go. I consulted old Dixon. "Well, sir, and I've 'ad it on my mind for these two weeks past, and think as I will, I can't make 'ed or tail of it." "I do hope, Dixon, there is nothing to make her unhappy about Mr. Forbes." "Says I to myself," continued Dixon, ignoring my question and pursuing the thread of her discourse, "my pet's in love, and things ain't going as they ought to; but whether it's Mr. Forbes, or Mr. Gordon, or Mr. Butler, I've no more notion than the babe unborn." "Goodness gracious me, Dixon, you don't mean to say all these men are after Miss Winnie !" "That's what I say, sir," she answered; "and says I to my sister only this morning, the master's so wropped up with his briefs and his pupils that he don't see beyond his nose." at such a thing to me." "No, she's close, is Miss Winnie, I do say she is, though it's I that love her like my own flesh and blood; and once when I just threw out a hint, promiscuous-like, she rounds on me with a light in her eye and her face going red and white." in bed, and whispered half aloud, "Oh my God, I love her!" It came upon me first of all like a crushing blow. I who was nearly old enough to have been her father; I whom she treated actually as her father! Oh, the utter, desperate hopelessness of it. I saw it now, I grasped the folly of it; but I would crush it, crush it if it killed me to do it. I remember laughing desperately in the darkness of my room, and crying aloud, "Oh, you fool! you fool!" A thousand thoughts rushed through my mind. The recollection of her dead father, who had been my dear friend, the promise I had made to him. I looked across the gulf of those seventeen years dividing her and me; and beside her I saw the bright young Alec, his eager, flashing eyes, and his ardent face. Then I understood it all he loved her, and had nothing to marry on, and she loved him, and that made her so sorrowful and pale. It was at breakfast next morning that I determined to speak. The windows were open, the rooks cawed noisily, the sound of the mowingmachine came up from the lawns, all the gardens were dappled with great patches of sunshine and shadow. I remember the dress Winnie wore, a pale blue cotton, with a bright shirt and sailor-knot tie; dainty and fresh she looked, but there were shadows round her eyes, and the morning kiss was a mere ghost of the old greeting. "But Miss Winnie has never hinted I knew the time had come when I must make a change. I knew now that I loved her, and I knew how mad and hopeless the love was; she should marry her young Alec, and I determined to be brave, and never let her know my pain. More than ever that morning I seemed to feel how high the wall was that had grown up between us; even conversation seemed difficult. Winnie was absent, and spoke but little. When breakfast was over, as her way was, she gathered the fragments from the plates and stood at the window feeding the crows. I saw her pretty figure bend and swing in curves I said nothing, but all that night I lay awake and thought. Winnie was a woman, Winnie would marry, Winnie would leave me. It is years ago, but I remember to this hour that when I began to realize that I should lose her a feeling came over me as if a hand of |