A Sovereign Remedy

ngel, was in the garden talking to old Adam. She received the

ream. Oh yes! and I made a sponge-cake for tea. So you ought to have enough I'm sure. Now, before we go in, I do want to find my Ourisia coccinea, and Adam has misla

o her companions

and all sorts of queer things, though he isn't

Ned, flushing slight

ever so long, played of itself, or rather Griffiths Morga

Ned with spirit, "it--it

eplied Aurelia smiling. "Ad

, indeed, a rushin' and roarin', an' heavenly notes all a-dyin' away to twanks like the last Trump. Folks were greatly put about, even passon himself didn't know what to make on't till Griffiths Morgan, as sleeps on the beller's 'andle through being accustomed to it as a lad

rl, and the next moment was on her knees peering into an aster

the border in simu

e it. Well, miss, 'tis true miracle how that pr'anniel stuff comes up,

sity for confessing that he was not the Archang

over the Ourisia coccinea, "for when he digs my borders he begins by collecting all the tallies into a heap; then he puts them back again at regular intervals in a row. It's very funny, you know, but terribly confusing. Each spring I have to rack my brains to think what

beautiful as the

s--"but it is hard, always, to lo

k at her but

er went into the village except, perhaps, to judge at some competition concert) the bell rang, and crossing to the verandah they found Mr. Sylvanus S

artha made, and Mr. Smith drank for his rheumatism, seemed to get into their heads with the Win

fe, what gifts canst thou bring?" q

red most things, "but he lacks the true human spirit. He fuddles himself into content with mystic unr

ssented N

est. Here Ned settled himself down to accompany Ted and Aura as they sang, and finally, with apologies, for not being so much at home on the piano as on the organ, persuaded Mr. Sylvanus Smith, who turned ou

watching him quietly; but she made him start and blush violently b

rs with a reflection of their confiden

it. It was when we were running through the Messiah, something in your mind touched mi

from him instinctively

" he

him. "Because I dis

ally he asked curiously,

omething to talk about, besides"--here she laughed--"it wa

ity for confessing one of the many sudden impu

however, did not prevent her from, as usual, masking her supremacy by subserviency. The gentlemen's rooms we

ly had time to think why--resented it; "but, I think, Cruttenden, that if we do avail ourselves of

y. "But thanks all the same, Martha. I hope

keep tellin' of Adam, they makes people think too much of their sins. An' 'is is but what we cooks call second

bobbed another curtsey, and was off for her

ause, in a somewhat awed voice,

y, she is always at me 'not to incline to no man, no; not if his 'air

h was in

--the family dislike to g

old has undoubtedly its appointed place in the world, but it happens to b

avy, you know," explained Aura quickly. "It's

ey is the root of all evil. Our hoarded millions instead of, as they should, bringing equality--comfortable, contented equality--to the world,

agree with you, sir. If these mil

e a loafer the same wage as a working man, I for one would loaf. It is the better part

e of pouring out his second cup, and

d milk tin! Dear me, what should I have done if you h

while listening to the song of a thrush which, as the day drew down to dusk, s

rs faded into the ghosts of flowers, each hold

over her grandfather's chair and laying her cheek on his thick, whi

death, and his daughter sell herself for bread, while he, struck down by rheumatic fever, had waited for the tardy decision of a Law Court. The verdict had come too late for either; too late for anything but decent burial for a poor,

tories of the thousand-year-old yew tree, and the Druidical legends connected wit

h," he said almost captiously, "and these gentlemen have to leave a

young men sat silently finishing their pipes, they saw her return

ively, they waited beside the cool, dark pool, full of the black shadows of the yew tre

d moon, large, soft, mild, hung in the velvety sky, not a breath st

e asked. "You are so much ali

certain what to clai

want me to find out; but really

us both," a

ich was good indeed to look upo

t was you," she said, holding out

avenly night, but you have to be up so

ively. "Let us roam the hills, I

them both, her face

" she ask

feel like it to

ead, "you are a wise man. Goo

n, taking the glamour of the night with her, and leaving

and flung himself on the t

ter?" asked Ned

concerning money. Why, it means--everything! Hang that sovereign to you

dden sob among the shadows and lights of t

e," he continued sardonically.

ference," retorted Ned with spirit. "That p

his cheroot to draw. Suddenly he flung it aside, edged hims

this thing to be fair and square between us. The fact is, that though my name is Edward Cruttenden all

re--you're my master--that is to say, I'm one of your c

the death of my uncle, a cripple, who inherited the barony--bought by screws chiefly--from the original purchaser, who had a fit on hearing

th your lordship,

e. You're taller, broader; briefly, the better looking. As to the inside, we differ somewhat, but there again you have the qualities which make for wealth, and I haven't. I can see myself a poor man in

. You are Lord Blackborou

emain the brothers Crutt

," repeated

we, to spend our holiday together. Well, let us t

asn't so much holiday as a lord.

work this thing out somehow, for, unless we do--well--I won't come back alone, s

for one, that strange modern inversion which grants quality to title, instead of as in the beginning granting t

can help it. I really am in deadly earnest. It seems to me we have been given a lead over--that there is something

your next holiday?

a week at Christmas," a

e a schoolboy, and laughed. "How will Ed

n----" began T

n--the dawn which will so soon be coming. Good Heavens!" he added, his eyes on the horizon of the hil

strolled over to the house. Thereinafter there was a

plenty of chances of a hundred pounds even in his life, had he felt any immediate necessity for them, but he had not. His life on the whole had been pleasant enough. Fond of football, cricket, cycling, rowing, he had not thought much of t

pounds, thinking what could

ounted for anything. Then he had another advantage. Though he was long past much of the old man's antiquated Socialism, he was keen on more modern

in saying money didn't stick to him. How coul

space, another light showed in one of the upper wi

yes within. Were

kn

reached a crossing of the ways--that one path led up to t

kn

dnight coolness, rising from the earth to

f the night, that was broken only by the distant w

were calling? Faint and

Aura!

the birch woods hidden in their silver, higher still among the

mountainside as it sought to answer the cry, or, this midsummer night wh

elf, free and fearl

Aura!

from the valley, from the corries,

so soft, yet that one su

Aura, or only the echoing

ne, oh, misty mountain moo

had lain, was that curved shadow, a snake making its wa

thou hold, as the faint, far--away cry echo

, those wandering lights and shadows on the mountainsides? or did

*

came soon, as Ned

is challenge to the coming day, and Ted Cruttenden coming into the verandah from the library saw Ned entering

d in at the waist with a leathern girdle

I have found under the old yew tree. Grandfather's chair had torn the turf, and

no larger than a sixpence, but it had a hol

o Ned. "You will have 'all the wealth of the wo

t want mone

l money," smiled Ned, handing the

ant that either. No! not if 'is

e to her from the tu

mas," said N

as," replied

starting for Williams and Edwards with a pile of empty dress and bonnet boxes, which Alicia Ed

y. "It is no use asking you, Mr. Morris," she said, throwing a little flavouring of regret into her

ly as if it had just left a curling-p

e said. "I have to go up for

a." As she kissed the latter she whispered, "Tha

pound," prot

a shilling? But two sixpences; and you