libitum. This peculiarity is detected in every retrospect in which we indulge. Take a period of ten years, and whilst we find that that interval has dealt lightly with one family, and has had no effect upon the hum-drum monotony which at the commencement of the decade characterized its fortunes, with another the case has been far different. Here the eagle has been very busy, and decimation, if not annihilation, has been the consequence.

The Nesbits, however, had been treated leniently by the ruthless despot, during the interval which has elapsed since the reader parted with them. Colonel Nesbit, it is true, had succumbed to old age, but his declining years had been solaced by his sister's restitution of that old home in which his childhood had been passed. Thither, like the hare of poetry, he had returned to die; and now, when the

last double was over, the

old form was reached

only to be left for ever. But he had the inexpressible satisfaction of being reconciled to Alice, and of knowing before he died that, however great her error had been, she was

nevertheless Elton Mowbray's wife; so, without a care, his hale old age was passed, and his declining years were spent, amid his flowers and trees, his only sorrow and sole regret arising from those capricious vicissitudes of season to which horticultural skill must sometimes yield when unseasonable frost paralyzed, or mildew cankered, a choice exotic, or when some fell tempest lowered another veteran oak in the old rookery behind the Hall.

Nevertheless had his sister survived him, she would doubtless have regarded him as but a recreant Nesbit after all, for in his case the old legend was reversed, as his last hours were spent in caring more for his soul than his feet, and he did not die with his shoes on. Still it was immaterial-he was the last of his race, the last male Nesbit who inhabited Leverton Hall, so perhaps he had a right to dispense with the traditions of his family, which, like other heirlooms, were only valuable so long as there were representatives to whom they could be bequeathed.

At his death, in accordance with the old

lady's bequest, the whole property was divided between Sage and Alice, the former, who had a son to inherit after her, taking the estates, whilst the latter received an equivalent from the vast sums which had been invested in the funds, or on mortgage, and had been allowed to accumulate year after year with the rapidity and the certainty usually attendant on that provident policy which adds interest to principle simply by never spending it.

It was just at the juncture when all these business transactions had been satisfactorily arranged, and legal documents had been signed, sealed, and delivered with an iteration most puzzling to the uninitiated, that the reader must again visit Frickney Park, and see what changes time has wrought upon the place and its inmates during that interval of fifteen or sixteen years which has elapsed since he found its owner and his bride clandestinely secreted there after their elopement.

The place itself had undergone a marvellous change, for some of old Miss Nesbit's money had been spent about it, and a good

deal of taste had been brought to bear upon, so as to regulate, its expenditure. Now the traces of decay and desolation which before were so conspicuous could no longer be detected about the premises. The house itself had been renovated, the gardens in front of it had been neatly laid out, the shrubberies and plantations judiciously thinned, so altogether there was a trim, spruce look about the place very different to that which it presented when the proprietor was non-resident, or, resident, felt his finances too crippled for the ordinary outlay which country gentlemen usually take so much pride in lavishing upon the external embellishments of the old family mansion.

To be sure, the improvements were still far from completion, if one might judge from the works which were going on near the eastern extremity of the building, for here enormous excavations had been commenced in the solid rock, prior to the erection of a range of conservatories and hothouses, which were to be heated by flues issuing from a series of subterranean compartments hewn underneath. Here

a large staff of workmen were busily engaged, and, owing to the peculiar formation of the rock and the difficulty of cutting through the solid blocks of blue elvin, with the necessary uniformity which the work required, apparently had a long and laborious undertaking before them. Nothing at present was completed, with the exception of a large paved court, where hardy plants could be conveniently located when they had finished flowering, and were no longer available for ornamental purposes; and this communicated with the main gardens behind through a sloping tunnel which led directly to the gardener's cottage. Altogether the design was very elaborate, and when finished promised to be an arrangement very convenient and very complete.

Within, the house was handsomely furnished, giving one the impression that taste had not been sacrificed for show, nor comfort been compromised in the desire for effect. The old paintings, which of yore were either cracked with the rays of the sun, or so covered with mildew from the damp as to leave the impres