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gan. After Gurney came into possession of the place, he had at different times built up or torn down to suit his whims, with the arbitrary delight of a child with some sort of adjustable toy.

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The house, originally a two-story adobe, had had a third story added whose gabled roof and dormer windows made it rather a curious piece of architecture. It was as if Mexico and the Netherlands had touched hands. To complete the incongruity he had proceeded to throw out Venetian balconies from the windows of the second floor. low that was a broad, stone-paved veranda, with a light railing around it which belonged by right to the house. Here grape and honeysuckle, rose and passion-flower, and half a dozen other ardent climbers, flung themselves in tangled plenty. Some of the more ambitious had pulled themselves up year after year, like political aspirants, a little nearer the top; and when they could go no farther floated out from among the gables ind looked in at its windows with offerings of bud and bloom. The house had been nade the color of the gray rocks when they ie deepest in shadow; the fences, where hey were visible from the house, the outuildings a little village apart in themelves were of the same silent hue and like vine-covered. Beyond them, to the ght, was a stretch of woodland which Gurey had loyally left intact, and through which e clear waters of a little arroyo came mbling down from the mountains to ench what it might of the valley's thirst. Gurney's guests had not thus far had a chance doubt his hospitality. They had been takpossession of by Tasse at the steamer; they d rested a day and night at the cheerful ho; they had been shown the lions of the Rip n Winkle town, just waking from its dozexistence into prominence as "the Saniium of the Pacific "; they had been brought the mountain side too swiftly and luxurisly to realize the thirty miles or so that behind them when they drew up before door of this quaint Castle Wonderful. There were several pretty surprises for both t and visitors. Two gentlemen instead VOL. III.-23.

of one came out to meet them, both equally self-possessed and at home. Jack Crandall, looking gayer, saucier, happier than ever, waved his straw hat in enthusiastic greeting, and sprang forward just in time to catch Tina as she tumbled out over the wheel in her usual reckless fashion. Everybody was talking at once, every one save Tina's mamma was delighted with this unexpected addition to their party.

"You mustn't be cross," called out Mrs. Lawlor, by way of salutatory, before she was fairly on her feet, "because we've brought two people you didn't expect. Miss Terry couldn't come, so I let Tessie fill the vacancy"—and she drew her daughter forward as though she were a sort of marionette; but Tessie lifted her eyes very trustfully to Gurney's for the welcome she was sure of finding there.

Still clasping her hand in his he turned to Mrs. Lawlor laughingly. "And the other intruder ?" he queried. But the widow had stepped aside, and he found himself face to face with Helen Oulton.

A look of dismay, of disappointment, crossed his face. It was swift as an electric flash, but it was unmistakable, and it turned Helen's heart to stone. The next moment they were going through the hypocritic formula imposed on persons who meet as guest and entertainer, and as in a dream Helen heard Mrs. Lawlor saying airily:

"She couldn't resist the pressure brought to bear upon her. We insisted, you know. We knew you'd never forgive us if we came without her."

"Am I not fortunate in having such an apologist-such eager friends?" interrupted Helen with careless scorn, as she turned away from them to give her brightest smiles to Jack.

It was almost incredible how much confusion this band of marauders contrived to create in the next half-hour. They wandered boldly over the house like a restless swarm of bees before they would "settle," laughing, admiring everything, relating the incidents of their trip, all in one breath. They had been agreeably disappointed from the start,

and the latest impression was the most helplessly and hopelessly of the hints and charming of all.

"Upon my word, you're a new Monte Christo, Mr. Gurney," said Mrs. Graves, looking at him with fresh interest and admiration.

"You see the place at the most favorable time," he said carelessly, "but it is rather melancholy irony to name me such names." When the rhapsodies had somewhat subsided, he put them in care of Mrs. Herling, who had been waiting in impassive patience to show them their rooms. The big, cool chambers, laid with a silky white matting and crimson lined skins-mostly trophies of Gurney's hunting days-furnished with low wicker chairs and lounges, shaded by odd rustic blinds of grateful green, made a very attractive picture after the white glare of the summer heat outside.

The housekeeper's arrangements were swept aside like chaff as they admired, compared, and redistributed the rooms. Mr. Riv ers looked so blank at the notion of little Laura and the nurse being sent upstairs that Helen quietly transferred her own belongings to the quaint little gray chintz nest under the gables and left the rest to follow their own devices. It was a trifle warmer, but the quiet and sense of solitude balanced that discomfort and gave her a good deal of satisfaction to spare. To her surprise and delight the windows swung open door-wise and showed her, from her eyrie, the long slopes where the serried lines of young olives were shaking out their blue-green, silver-lined banners in the light wind, and across the valley the grain fields bronzing in the sun. There was a light rustle of leaves about her; a fluttering bird-flight now and then from the prodigal greenery and bloom below.

harrying to which she had been subjected in the weeks gone by. Fred had lazily declared, half in earnest, that he would stay at home if she stayed and help her keep house-a proceeding which Mrs. Rivers angrily denounced as utterly incompatible with propriety. Tom, with the audacity and petulance of an invalid prince, whined that Helen alone knew just what he wanted. They might have a dozen governesses and nurses; he would have none of them.

"It's very strange that you should persist in breaking up the whole party for no reason at all," said Mrs. Rivers impatiently.

Helen had something which, if not logical argument, was reason enough for her own mind, but she knew it would not stand an instant against the practical selfishness of the family heads, so she remained stubbornly silent till Mr. Rivers for the first time referred to her obligations, and hinted that in the present instance at least she lacked gratitude.

Helen looked at him with her beautiful brown eyes full of disdain.

"I did not know this was part of the price," she said, so simply that her auditor lost all sense of the irony. "I will go wherever you please, of course."

"That's a good girl," said Mr. Rivers cheerfully. "I thought so. Get your traps ready-and if there's anything you need—” he added, with exquisite tact, taking out a handful of gold and jingling it loosely in his broad hand. "No? Well, you know where

to come," jocosely.

He went to his wife straightway. "You don't know how to manage Helen, that's all," he crowed, with the short-sighted selfconfidence of his sex.

It is but scant justice to say that if he The beauty of it all stirred her in spite could have seen the victim of his diplomacy of her bitter mood. And then all at as she stood leaning against the window once the blood rushed to her face and here at their Ultima Thule, he would have burned there like a flame with the remem- repented, or at least known a touch of brance of Gurney's look when their eyes morse. She felt trapped and prisoned met, with the consciousness of her own "They would have it so," she thought bitter anomalous position in his house. She shut ly. She looked down the white road wit her hands together till the nails pressed an intense longing to follow it away-a sharply into the soft flesh. She thought where. Her breath came and went painful

She leaned a little farther out, and something touched her cheek softly, while a delicate fragrance stole across her lips like a mute caress. Her motion had dislodged some stray rose-branches and a cluster of cream-white Lamarques and Florida roses with frail, pink petals, that had become comrades-at-arms in their slow journey upward, now met this fair stranger lovingly as of their own kin. Such a trifle ! but it was the feather weight to the balance. She caught the cool, swaying rose-bloom in her hands, and pressed it to her hot cheeks; then throwing herself on the narrow, white, cloister-like bed, sobbed like a child till she was exhausted. Tears had been so long shut away from her eyes, that her own passionate outburst frightened her. So long as she could harden herself to meet any fate with composure she felt safe.

It seemed a little life-time while she lay there dully conscious of her surroundings, but too indifferent to make any effort. Presently some one came to the door, and the nurse said that the children begged her to come for a walk. She rose hastily, and dressing herself, with scarcely a glance at the glass, went down through the lower rooms without meeting any one. Evidently the travelers were enjoying a siesta.

On the broad veranda she found Gurney alone. If her late tempest of tears had left her more composed, it had not softened her. She was languidly indifferent to the fact that her heavy lids and flushed face betrayed her. What matter that she was a little more or less misjudged? In her fresh lilac musin and a coarse straw hat that made her ook prettier than ever, she was fair enough o have found favor in the eyes of a much terner ascetic than Gurney; but the frank dmiration she read as she glanced at him with a careless question about the children eemed to her something like an insult.

"We're going on an exploring expedition," he explained, as Laura and Tom came with e nurse at that moment.

"Pray take my advice and wait till it ́ows cooler. This sun isn't very good for ir young friend here"-as Tom very famil

iarly hung on him and poured out petitions for a horse, for a dozen amusements which in his mind represented the country, and to all of which Gurney absently assented. Finding his advice thrown away after the manner of gratuitous wisdom, he said abruptly: "May I go with you?"

Miss Oulton bestowed on him a little hard, artificial smile. "Of course we should be charmed, but to take you from your guests—ah, no. The right-hand path I think you said."

Gurney looked after the retreating figures with an ominous frown, and struck his open hand against the chair beside him as if it had been a living enemy. He hesitated and seemed on the point of following them, but just then there was a swish of drapery in his doorway, and Mrs. Lawlor came out to have what she called "a good long talk."

Long before it was ended the rest appeared one by one, and took possession of the chairs and hammocks that made the shady, flagged veranda a temptation to idleness.

But

In the course of an hour the children came home with their father, who had restlessly sauntered out to hunt them up. In answer to Mrs. Rivers's minute questions, he said that Helen had dropped her vail, he believed, and gone back to look for it. the sun sank lower and lower, and still she did not appear. Fred Fessenden, who had been pacing restlessly up and down, finally approached his host and asked if it were possible for Miss Oulton to fall into any danger. If Mr. Gurney would tell him what direction she had taken he might seek her.

Gurney looked at him through half-closed eyes, and smiled cynically. "Judging from Miss Oulton's manner I should say she would not appreciate your interference," he said carelessly. "I fancy she only prefers solitude to our society."

But presently he muttered something about going to the stables, and moved slowly away. From the stables he struck off toward the wooded hillside with long swift strides, his face as anxious as Fred could. have wished. Following the footpaths, he plunged into the wood. He had not gone

a hundred yards before he heard a voice or voices. He had only time to step aside into the shelter of a friendly madrona when Miss Oulton went by, singing softly to herself. Her broad hat was hanging on her shoulders, her dainty dress was stained and crumpled, and her bright hair tangled with leaves and briars, but her face was unclouded, and she looked as if she had completely exorcised the demon. Her hands were full of vines and mosses. As she came almost opposite Gurney's retreat, she stopped, hesitated, looked toward the house, and then at her treasure-trove, and at last flung them away with sudden energy and walked on, little dapples of belated sunshine fluttering over her and falling round her as she went down the narrow path. The pantomime was clear to Gurney, and he smiled a little as he followed her leisurely. "She has found the best cure," he muttered, glad to have seen her in this softer mood, even though it intensified the consciousness of what he knew was slipping away from him bit by bit. When he got back to the house she had disappeared and did not show herself till din ner time.

Already he began to feel the incubus of unaccustomed company, to stagger under the expectation for which they seemed to hold him responsible. They all said plainly, if without words: "I want to be amused." It is such an air that invariably radiates from a newly arrived batch of guests in the country, and is such palpable, helpless, cold-blooded selfishness that it takes a stout and a merry heart to stand up against it. From the bottom of his heart Gurney thanked Fortune for so valuable a helper as Jack. Whatever his detractors might say of him, they could not call him dull; and if his indomitable good-nature and sprightliness were agreeable adjuncts to their velvet-shod urban life, they were of untold value here in this wilderness. He seemed familiar with all the resources of the place, and with Tina

built plans enough to keep them all busy for a year. Counseled by Mrs. Rivers, they consented to spend the next day in doing nothing as energetically as possible-or as Jack phrased it, "We'll rest like fury." He sang them an old fashioned hunting song by way of benediction, and echoes of the "view halloo" were borne in at the open windows now and then far into the night from the little pavilion where he and Fred had bachelor quarters.

As Helen went up to her room she met the old housekeeper, who looked melancholy enough over this bewildering confusion. She muttered some protest against the young lady having to put up with such a poor place.

"But it was my own choice," said Helen, smiling, "and it is delightful"; then took occasion to deliver some little affectionate messages from Mrs. Trauiaer, whom she had found out and visited more than once, and who had told her enough of this stern old woman's history to make Miss Oulton look at her with much more than ordinary interest. "I am Mrs. Rivers's cousin," she said, as the easiest and most familiar way of fix ing her identity.

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Yes yes, I knew you at once," answered the old woman, nodding with evident satisfaction at her own shrewdness. "I could have known you anywhere," she went on, to Helen's complete bewilderment.

But waiving for the present a solution of this puzzle, she said hesitatingly: "I'm afraid all these people will make you much trouble."

An expression of intense disapproval settled on Mrs. Herling's face. "It is al wrong-all wrong," she exclaimed with sudden energy.

Her words found an echo in Helen's heart. "Ah, I think so, too," she murmured with an impatient sigh as she turned away and sought her room, only to spend the night in sleepless dreams.

[CONTINUED IN NEXT NUMBER.]

BARBARIC PAGEANTS.

"ROLLING Stones gather no moss," says the adage. I never gathered any moss, ergo, I have been a rolling stone all my life; nor is that a matter of complaint, for accumulations, as a rule, are a nuisance. Acquaintances, papers and debts, houses, stocks and bonds, are a prickly enough moss that give the gatherer no peace of his life. Having listened to the testimony of the stones themselves for many a day, I am clearly of opinion that the rolling ones have the best time. Thus, rolling hither and thither, rolling ever, I gradually rolled round the world, and having embarked at San Francisco on a vessel that rolled persistently for eleven weeks, rolled finally into the Celestial Empire.

Magnificent to the view are the mountain bulwarks that hem in this empire from the emerald ocean. Surely, if any man could say: "This is mine, not entailed or in fee-simple, not as trustee or delegate, but mine with power absolute, unlimited, uncontrolled by deed or codicil; mine with the right to upheave and lay low, mine to bring into existence or anihilate"-then might such a ruler believe himself a god. Under this illusion the Chiese Emperor lives and dies, and only when e does die possibly finds out his mistake. Whilst alive, he is considered too sacred for ny purpose of life. He cannot be looked pon with open gaze, or by any eyes but hose of the elect. He cannot be approachd save with prostrate form and uplifted inds, as in profound worship-an attitude hich European embassadors refused to take d so failed until lately of personal audiice. He cannot be spoken with except by e privileged few whose lips have been. astened by deep humiliation. For every rthly end or aim his person is too sacred, > divine-except for death; in that he must are the lot of his meanest coolie. But the inese have a pleasant way of ignoring the entless power of death, putting it someat in the fashion of the more modern

Swedenborgians, that their friends are gone upon a journey; wherefore the survivors provide them with suitable food and shoe-leather for their travels-a more comfortable belief than that of some of our good folk who are like a friend whom I tried to console for the death of her husband. "Non, ma chere," she exclaimed, "it is impossible to take comfort; je sais qu'il ait aux enfers." With such knowledge further parley was in vain.

In

To return to the coast guardians of the Chinese Empire. They are the most satisfactorily picturesque mountains I ever beheld; the ridges and peaks so marvelously jagged and startling as to resemble our infantile delineations on a slate, when the elevation could never be sufficiently pointed nor the outline too Vandyked. These mountains in no way resemble the Sierra or the Alps, much less any of the civilized ranges which have conformed themselves to the more conventional undulation. The coast range and the chain of mountainous islands that skirt it like a naval fleet-Hongkong figuring as the flag-ship-form a line whose zigzags fairly make the eyelids blink before they can take in the eccentric slants and curves. beauty and grandeur they are fully equal to other mountains; for although not wooded like the glorious Sierra Nevada, nor snowclothed like the Alpine peaks, still the massive gray and bright red granite is tricked out in a velvety garment of feathery grass and a light green moss, which muffles up to their summits those favored stones which don't roll. And doubtless they are very happy in not rolling and in having moss. rocks and men I can only say: "Chacun à son gout." The heights of these mountains. on the mainland, as on the islands, vary from three hundred to three thousand feet; but as they rise almost vertically from the ocean, they appear higher. Their lower portions display on the surface a bright yellow marl

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