ment, stooped to pick up a paper that the wind had carried to his feet. It was an old song, very limp and ragged, and with the name 'Nelly' written on it in faded ink.

Having made his way round the house, he entered by a side door, and went in search of Miss McCrie. In the dining-room, whose door he opened first, he was greeted by four naked walls. Every one of the dark-green volumes which he had seen here last had vanished. He opened several other doors, and was met by a great many more naked walls, but of Miss McCrie there was no trace downstairs. It was in the drawing-room that he found her at last, walking briskly up and down, with her hands tightly clasped behind her back, and her mouth drooping more than usual at the corners. There was not a chair remaining in the room, which undoubtedly was one of the reasons for her walking up and down; but even had there been half a dozen chairs available, it is probable that Miss McCrie would not have sat down, but would have preferred to keep up her breathless walk, stopping only every now and then in order to throw a glance out of the window at the doings below. Here also the walls were bare, the sea-green colour which had once adorned them showing in faint green squares wherever it had been shielded by a picture, now removed.

'Miss McCrie!' broke out Bernard, unheedful of any more conventional greeting. 'Tell me, for Heaven's sake, what this all means.'

'It means that I am going away,' said Miss McCrie, standing still.

'Going away? But why? Where to? And why are you not taking any of your things with you?'

'Because I need money.'

'As badly as all that?' escaped from Bernard's lips before he had time to stop it. He was thinking of that song that had fluttered to his feet. You certainly do things thoroughly when you are about it,' he added quickly. This is the most complete clearing-out I have ever heard of.'

The matter looked so serious that evidently the best thing to do was to treat it as lightly as possible.

'The look of the dining-room quite gave me a turn. Surely the register books have not gone the way of the tables and chairs?' and he tried to laugh.

'The registry books? which registry books?' Miss McCrie was beginning, and then, with an exclamation, darted off to the

nearest window. 'It is the piano now,' she said, with something of a gulp. Poor Nelly's piano.'

'A splendid instrument, ladies and gentlemen,' was heard from below. 'Who will give more than nine and sixpence for this truly elegant object?'

'But it not make music,' objected a voice in the crowd.

'That is not true,' said Miss McCrie just above her breath. 'It is only a little hoarse in damp weather, and that only because it was unluckily swamped on the coast when it came to the house twenty-five years ago, and the salt water got into the cords.'

She gave one long look at the piano, and then turned resolutely from the window.

'You were asking me about the registers; I have got nothing more to do with registers. I handed over the books to the governor a week ago.'

་

But I don't understand. For what reason?'

'Mr. Burton. I told you that I thought it rather relieved him to have something to report; it was an outlet to his red-hot zeal, and as the governor happens to be an old enemy of mine, it turned out that a mutilated register was enough to kill me as registrar-general. Don't look so dismal, Mr. Berrincott, for pity's sake; the loss isn't so awful. My pay used only to be sixty-five pounds.'

'And what else have you got to live on besides those sixtyfive pounds?' asked Bernard, bluntly.

Miss McCrie flushed scarlet, in the way she had flushed the other evening.

'Oh, it isn't easy to starve in the tropics,' she replied evasively. 'And besides, the sale will bring in something, I suppose;' and she walked back again to the window.

Bernard, following more slowly, saw that the piano had been disposed of, probably to somebody who would use it as a sideboard or a washing table, and that the auctioneer was unpacking something white and strange-looking out of a box.

'The skeleton,' said Miss McCrie, with a quick sigh-' Harry's skeleton. I would have offered it to Doctor O'Lynn, but he is away.'

Meanwhile the mulatto's glib tongue was running over a list of the advantages which are bound to accrue to every household from the possession of a skeleton, as well as the commendable points of this skeleton in particular, which, as it turned out, was

short of only two ribs and one finger, and all the time the wind was making the skeleton dance merrily on the table to the music of its own rattling bones.

When Miss McCrie turned from the window this time she found Bernard's eyes fixed upon her.

'What are you going to do?' he asked.

'To live as best I can. I am leaving this house because I don't think I could bear to live in it without the things. I have been offered an empty house, which is smaller, down by the sea. Di goes with me, and that is really all I want.'

'But this is rubbish,' burst out Bernard. 'You must let me help you, Miss McCrie.'

'You?' was all that Miss McCrie said, but the stress she laid upon the word brought Bernard to his senses.

To be sure, I'm a duffer;' and he struck himself on his forehead.

Bernard took a turn up and down the room, and then stood still before Miss McCrie.

If I still was one of the fortunates of the earth, as you put it the other night when you gave it me so roundly,' he said, trying to smile, 'nothing would have stopped me from helping you. But one of my objects in coming here to-day was to tell you that my pockets are empty. I see, however, that you know everything. We're in the same boat, Miss McCrie.'

'Yes, I know everything;' and now the gray eyes were fastened keenly on his face. 'But you are not the same person who was here the other night. Do you know that you have grown quite ten years older in these ten days? Tell me, does she know?' 'Of course she does. Mr. Durrant must have got my second cable message long ago.'

'And what will she do?'

'Do?' repeated Bernard, impatiently. Surely she has got no choice in the matter. What else can she do but obey her father?' and he looked at Miss McCrie as though challenging her to declare that there was anything else for Sybil to do. 'Then you don't think she will stick to you?'

'No,' said Bernard, briefly, and almost bitterly this time. 'I feel for you very much,' Miss McCrie assured him in a far milder tone. Somehow she felt much more kindly towards Bernard since she knew that he was a free man. 'Won't you sit down, Mr. Berrincott?' it suddenly occurred to her to say. 'On what?' asked Bernard, looking round him. VOL. 87 (VII.-NEW SERIES).

32

NO. 518.

It ended by Miss McCrie and Bernard sitting down side by side on two overturned packing-cases, and spending the next hour in a friendly chat, the pauses of which were filled by the stentorian 'Going, going, gone!' of the auctioneer below, which came bobbing up to the surface with the persistency of a cork. 'I should say that pretty nearly everything must be "gone by this time,' remarked Bernard at last.

'Not quite everything. There is one thing more to come, and that will be the worst of all. I am not sure that I can bear to be so near;' and Miss McCrie's eyes filled suddenly with tears.

Bernard got up and looked out of the window. The auctioneer was getting down from the table which had served him as pedestal, while round the corner of the house a negro appeared leading a wicked-looking yellow horse, which lifted its feet as though it were stepping on red-hot coals.

Bernard thought he heard a faint rustle behind him, but he did not notice that Miss McCrie was looking over his shoulder. 'The last object to be disposed of, ladies and gentlemen,' announced the mulatto, with an introductory wave towards the Mosquito. Finest horse on the island. Never been known to make a stumble. Intelligent as a dog, gentle as a lamb. That's only a little natural liveliness'—as the Mosquito reared up so straight as all but to capsize his attendant, while the more nervous members of the crowd prudently drew back a little.

'Time is too short, ladies and gentlemen, for the enumeration of all the virtues possessed by this noble animal. Though capable of carrying the stoutest gentleman on the island over the highest hill that ever was scaled, a child could yet ride him with ease, and—— ’

But what other virtues the noble animal possessed were never clearly known, for at that very moment the first shriek was heard in the crowd. The Mosquito had managed by a skilful wrench to get his head free, and was now plunging about at liberty, with an expression of such diabolical wickedness in the whites of his eyes that some of the men and all the women and children flew terror-stricken down the bank, and dispersed precipitately in all directions.

This time it was a sob which Bernard heard behind him. He looked round just in time to see Miss McCrie running from the room, with her handkerchief held before her eyes.

(To be continued.)

Church History Society.

Rules.-I. This Society is open to all readers of the Magazine, by payment of an annual FEE of Is. II. Questions are set each month. The answers to them must be sent (1) addressed to Bog-Oak, care of Messrs. A. D. Innes & Co., (2) not later than the 1st of the month following, (3) written on foolscap paper, on one side of the sheet, and occupying not much more than six sheets; (4) each sheet to be signed with a nom de plume. III. Fees also are to be sent to Bog-Oak. IV. Answers will be criticised in the Magazine. No private correspondence is undertaken with regard to them. V. Information in getting up the answers may be drawn from any source. But during, and after writing the answers, dictionaries only may be consulted.

Prizes of books are given. In value and number, these depend on the number of entries. They are given for the year's work, but Competitors who have only taken six months may have a prize awarded.

THE CONFLICT IN FRANCE TO THE EDICT OF NANTES.

Questions for April.

I. Give in order, with dates, seven chief events influencing Church history in France after the massacre of St. Bartholomew to the end of the century, with an account of any one of them not set in the other questions.

2. What was the Holy League? and what did it accomplish?

3. Give an account of any two of the following: Rosny, Duplessis Mornay, Agrippa d'Aubigny, Charles Cardinal de Bourbon, the Flagellants, the Council of Seize, or Paris Sixteen.'

4. A full account of Henri IV.'s conversion to Rome, and of the Edict of Nantes.

For Juniors.

I. Give an account of the battle of Ivry.

2. Trace the punishment of some of those who caused the massacre of St. Bartholomew.

3. An account of one of the names in Question 3 above. 4. What was the Edict of Nantes?

Books recommended :-C. M. Yonge's Cameos, Series V. (Macmillan); Hardwicke's History of the Christian Church (Reformation Period); Ward's Counter-Reformation (Epochs Series); Ranke's Lives of the Popes; and any good history of France.

Answers to be sent to Bog-Oak, care of the Publishers, by May 1.