Muslin

eakfast, and, as Mrs. Barton had domestic duties to attend to, the girls were left to themselves to

she had interceded with the dear old governess, and aided Olive to master the difficulties against which the light brain could not contend singly-the hardships of

d brought from Dublin when she went to see the oculist about her eyes; and then there were other toys that suggested nothing, and whose history was entirely forgotten. But the clock that stood in the passage was well remembered, and Alice thought how this old-fashioned timepiece used to be the regulator and confidant of all their joys and hope

ember how we used to listen to the d

ng. Fancy thinking of that old clock! I hated it, f

it struck twelve. See! the hands are just

e had been apprised of the loss of a tried friend when one of

eaning over the wooden paling that defended the pleasure-ground from the cows that grazed in the generous expanse of grass extending up to the trees of the Lawler domain. Brookfield was therefore without pretensions-it could hardly be called 'a place'-but, manifolded in dreams past and present, it extended indefinitely before Alice's eyes, and, absorbed by the sad sweetness of retrospection, she lingered while Olive ran through the rosary from the stables and back again, c

ive darted off at once to execute the commission, and soon returned with a rose set round with stephanotis. The old lord, seated in the dining-room, in an

on est toujours

already suspected her of secret criticism

and talk to Milord and

school successes, and asked appropriate questions anent her little play of King Cophetua. But whatever interest the subject possessed was found in the fact that Olive had taken the part of the Princess; and, re-arrang

led, in dusty confusion, in the bookcase in Mr. Barton's studio; and, think

ed singing Il Balen,

papa; I'm afraid I a

ne's work through the smoke of a cigarette. The most beautiful pictures I have ever seen I have seen in the s

bines, it seemed as if it could never be sufficiently accomplished. Opposite the door was a huge design representing Samson and Delilah; opposite the fireplace, Julius Caesar ove

tch, but, before she had time to examine it, Arthur turned it against the wall. Why he hid two pictures from her

w he had modelled a colossal statue of Lucifer before he was sixteen, how he had painted a picture of the Battle of Arbela, forty feet by twenty, before he was eighteen;

s of Raphael and other beauties besides. He had a trick of never appearing to thoroughly believe in them and in himself. She listened interested and amused, not knowing how to take him. She had been away at school for nearly ten years, coming home for rare holidays, and was, therefore, without any real knowledge of her parents. She understood her father even less than her mother; but she was certain that if he were not a great genius he might have