"Helen," he said, when she ceased, "if temptation comes to us through neglect of proper defence it may perhaps be accounted as a sin: but temptation resisted is surely no hard thing for man to pardon. If it be, I too must make my confession. Temptation has been busy at my heart, and but for the thought that Helen loved me, I cannot feel sure my sense of right would have prevailed. Think then, was it not time for me to come when I felt that safeguard was perilled? When Helen might be wearying of an absent unhelpful man, who had done so little to requite her goodness, and when Helen felt pity for the present lover who would not be rejected?" Helen had a struggle with some rising tears, and then said: "You have tried to keep me in mind. I know you wish to love me." "It was a hard thought of yours, Helen, that I was unloving towards you. How shall I meet it? What have I now but professions to offer? I have striven, Helen, to be loyal to you in heart, and I have not striven in vain. Do you, can you, really think that I am unloving?" "I thought, indeed, at the time, that you might be regretting you were so bound to me.' "That I never did, Helen. I have never for one moment wished myself free from the vows I pledged to you, never ceased to look upon you as a good gift from Heaven. Even while present temptation beguiled me towards a path deviating from the strict line of my duty towards you, I ever, when my thoughts returned to you, held you as my good angel, my best, my only hope of happiness. Helen have you not something more to say that should be said? Something more like an accusation? Else why should you doubt my love?" "Had you not cared for me you would not have come now. I have no accusation to make." "There is a name scarcely mentioned between us even in our letters-Lady Althea." Helen a little started, and coloured not a little. "Let us speak of her now. Have you not something to question me about-about a letter? Nay then, I must question you. When Lady Althea offered to show you some verses of mine and, somehow, gave you instead a letter; what was it about ?”` Helen was not ready to speak. "Yes, I love you." "Can you give me any reason for it, my Helen ?" "Only that you are-what you are." "Then, Helen; if I were to prove something altogether different to what I am-to the image of me your heart has received; something very contrary; would you could you, though you loved me no longer, think you had been very blameworthy for loving me before? Or, could you blame yourself that the love you once felt must be unchangeable-everlasting; having been so mistaken in its object, who had proved otherwise?" "I never blamed you for it. I only wondered, and it made me sad; sad for you and for myself; since I feared you would fail to find in me what so-so charmed you in her." "You trusted me in the face of much that must have shadowed my fame. Oh Helen, there was an infinite charm to me in that trustfulness! When all frowned on me your love smiled; could I resist that charm? What was to check the impulse of my heart? Had you been coarse-minded, sour-tempered, or even illfavoured, I might have felt merely grateful; but you satisfy my taste, my heart, my reason. My own Helen, trust me, love me, still. I read the spirit of truth and earnestness in your eyes; it tells me you can not only dare but endure for one whom you love. Is it not so?" Helen's eyelids drooped and when they rose again, disclosed some tears. "I meant to be true and strong in my trust," she said, "I thought I could have endured for any time. Yet I gave way to the thought that you were careless whether I loved you or not; and then, when he-when Grant was flattering my vanity with being good for my sake, and-and so on, it seemed so cruel. But I loved you in my heart all the time, and I knew that the moment that he dared-" her voice sunk. "Dared what?" It was a painful effort to her, but she spoke it. It made the gentleman stamp his foot and for the moment release her hand. "He dared-0 Helen!" he said. Her colour rose and paled, but she looked appealingly in his face. "You forgave me the foolish the wicked moment which made me speak a word of pity to him. Indeed that was all my fault. He never had so presumed before; and I was seeking to leave him when-” I saw she was forgiven. A smile hovered about his face, and he said: "That Grant Wainwright is detestable, and you were a very bad manager to let him fall into the mistake of supposing such presumption could be tolerated. But considering he was so misled, that he did not know you were a wife, and supposing you looked as you do this minute, it was not altogether inexcusable on his part. Helen, I consider you accountable for it all and will reckon with you at once. Since you had no right to have the kiss, you ought not to keep it; so give it to your husband directly, young lady." "And you will forgive me--quite?" "Yes, afterwards." She timidly kissed his hand. "My hand? O Helen! That was not the sort of kiss, or I have nothing to forgive. Do you think to cheat your conscience and your busband in this mean way? I am sure Mrs. Gainsborough would never serve the Captain so?" Mrs. Gainsborough interposed here with "I only wish he were here; would I!" "Helen, you will not have me here long." She glanced from one to the other as we spoke; then, looking like a frightened child, gave hastily the required kiss, and essayed to spring away to me. It was not permitted. He was not disposed to let her leave his side, and she had to abide by his arrangement. I confess it gave me much contentment to see him look so entirely happy, to see that for the moment he had forgotten my existence, and was caressing her braided head with most lover-like fondness as it nestled in his bosom. He saw me smile, however, and recovered consciousness, but his hand did not cease from playing over Helen's brown locks, and, smiling, he asked, "Do we look Romeo-and-Julietish enough to satisfy you, Mrs. Gainsborough?” "I begin to entertain hopes of you." "Do you? Then pray lend me your scissors and tell me where I may with least peril of my lady's displeasure, sever a little of this soft brown hair." Helen submitted with a good grace; loosed one of her tresses and let him take a silky curl. I tied it round, and he placed it for security in his purse, wrapped in a bank-note. "The piece you sent me was given up to the jeweller for my ring; see there is all that can now meet my eye. In so diminutive an arrange ment there is nothing to recal the glory of my Helen's dark locks. You remember how they fell over you, love, when the crown I had obtained was placed upon your head? I think in return for my feat some little arrow must have reached my heart. I certainly thought you looked very bewitching, and felt much more gratulation in my success than I had at all anticipated." "You thought it was pleasant to please a simple country girl who never had had such honour done her before; that was it." "That was not all. Something in your bearing struck me, and I should have remembered you if I never had seen you again. You were free from pretension, yet your spirit did not bend to anything but kindness. I felt there was a strength in you, a spirit, that would not take the world's gauge of what most merits honour, but held a better standard of its own. I think so now, Helen. Since your dear hand redeemed me from my fetters I have had fair success in my course, and I trust good fortune may continue; but if it were otherwise, if the world held me-and it may some day-that much despised thing an unsuccessful man, Helen, I think, would maintain that while I strove with earnest purpose, and strove fairly, it were ill done to condemn me. It seems to me I could not be very unhappy, let the world frown as it would, did Helen's eyes look upon me-as they do now. Helen, my home is with you, in your heart. Keep it sacred for me, love." Time was advancing, and I began to tell of the present state of affairs at Darliston; and as my hearer was most desirous of information concerning Grant Wainwright, I mentioned that Helen had improved the occasion of her disturb er's audacious kiss by telling him a certain Mr. Mainwaring had her heart in possession. "Surely it must have convinced him that his suit was vain?" said Arden. "He has ceased since to come so much to the Hall," Helen answered, "nor has he troubled me with messages; but Nanny tells me he speaks with confidence still. If you had heard him, as I did, that evening, swear our engagement should never be fulfilled-little guessing that in that very room our hands had been joined-you would think as I do, that nothing short of the knowledge of our actual marriage would turn aside his resolution." Mr. Mainwaring was thoughtful for some moments; he then said: "I shall think myself a very poor diplomatist if I do not free you from this persecution before I return to Vienna. Do I understand you rightly that Mr. Wainwright's state of health is such that no appeal can be made to him -without danger ?" "I fear so. Dr. Meredith says any nervous excitement may bring on an attack of his disorder." "Then, as he cannot protect you, I must-I may.' "What can you do?" "Nothing that is unkind towards your grandfather, nothing against the tenor of my pledged word to him. Yet as your affianced lover and your favoured lover, I have a right to come forward and call upon Mr. Grant Wainwright to withdraw his pretensions." "But you must not meet him. Oh, I would not have him know you were here now for all the world! He would be ready to kill you." Mr. Mainwaring looked at her with an amused expression of countenance, and said, "Do you really wish me to be afraid of him, Helen ?" "I can keep upstairs except at mealtime, and if we meet then there will always be others present; and Mrs. Gainsborough-” "Helen-is your husband unfit to stand forward and protect you? Bless your true little woman's heart, is all the courage to be on your side? You had the hardihood to boast before this fierce cousin of yours that you loved a man whom you do not think equal to a contest with him !" "No, I do not say you are not. Though. for that matter, if you were as weak in physical strength as myself, I might have boasted still. But why should you interfere with a wild animal-a mad dog?” "My dear Helen, there might be reasons: for instance, if the mad dog tried to bite my wife. Be assured I have no wish to fight anybody; though if the necessity existed, could you not admit the possibility of my doing as well as my friend Merton Brown? Your imputation tempts me to drive from here to the Rood Farm that I may beard the lion in his den. My father's son must be degenerate indeed if an hour like this could not nerve him with boldness to encounter his rival. Know, darling, that my great-grandfather was a Lord St. George; and I feel certain at this moment I am descended from the original hero." The playful tone of the last sentence gave some relief to an anxiety on Helen's part I knew to be intense and not ill-founded. I was desirous of helping her, for I saw she had only fears to speak and had found them ill avail. I said calmly: "Mr. Grant Wainwright is dining out. I ascertained that a few hours ago. In all that regards him I should think you would do well to consult with your friend Merton Brown." "I am so glad you like my friend. Dear old Merton, he is truest gold; I quite long to shake him by the hand.' "Does he know you are here?" Helen inquired. "Yes; but I requested him to keep the knowledge from you. I wished to surprise you, and thought besides it might spare you the trouble of considering what Mr. Wainwright's view of the matter might be. His last letter forbade my coming to Darliston, forbade my seeing you; but my pledge to him did not imply that I relinquished the ordinary privileges of an accepted lover." A sound of chariot wheels here arrested the attention of each of us. The vehicle however, drove slowly past. It seemed to remind Mr. Mainwaring that the ostensible purpose of his visit was still unfulfilled, and he produced the bracelets. Formed of cameos linked by strings of pearl, they met with our entire approbation, as not only exquisitively beautiful in themselves, but well suited to be worn with the necklace Helen already possessed. They were being tried on her arm when I heard a low sharp rap at the hall door, and hastening there saw Mr. Merton Brown. "Your servant Barbara is close at hand," he said. "Had I not better take Miss Dalziel through the garden directly she enters, so as to avoid encountering her in the road, or here?" Mr. Mainwaring called him by name, and I ushered him into the parlour. The friends clasped hands. Arden was still half supporting Helen, and as they stood together, her dark eyes tearless, but full of suppressed feeling, a warmhearted blessing upon them both rushed to the lips of Merton Brown." I hurried them all into the drawing-room carrying the lamp there. Locking the door I assisted to put on Helen's cloak, shook hands with my friends, and, just as Barbara was going round to the kitchen entrance, opened my piano and commenced playing one of the maddest fantasias that ever bewildered a discerning public. CHAP. XLIII. ALL MOONLIGHT, LOVE, AND FRIENDSHIP. The moon had risen over St. Bride's when the friends quitted my garden. The postchaise had been drawn up under the wall near Mrs. Barncliffe's cottage, in order to be out of sight of Barbara. Merton Brown mentioned he had directed this to be done, and his friend further requested him to instruct the post-boy to drive up the road for half-an-hour, and await him near the same spot. "I am going with you," he said, "to the border of Mr. Wainwright's demesne-further I may not without direct disobedience to his mandate-then I shall have a walk back with you, Merton; we have much to say." Agreed; capital!" said Merton Brown. "I do not think anybody is about, but, if we should encounter anyone, I doubt if they could recognize you. Keep near me, though," he added, seeing that Arden was inclined to turn towards the Darliston road. "Miss Dalziel is under my escort, remember. You see it will not do for any of the villagers to assert that they saw her walking alone at this hour with a mysterious be-cloaked and moustachioed stranger!" "Go on, Merton; we will keep under your intensely respectable shadow. You don't consider though how right it was of me to walk away from that post-chaise. See, Helen, what temptation he is leading me into. I have but to lift you in and we are away!" In lower accents he proceeded. "Helen, my own Helen, my love, my wife, why should I not run away with you?" "Because you know you must not; and you should be content, having my heart." "It is mine, Helen, surely mine!" "Yes, it is yours." "Yet you send me away alone?" "Yes, and you do not wish me to come." "Not wish? O, Helen! do I not wish that I might, that I could? Yet it is true I dare not in earnest crave that more than your heart should go with me. You understand how it is, and that "I could not love you, dear, so well, "I could not love you so well if I did not believe you loved honour, true honour, better than you loved me. Feeling that, knowing that, and that you do care for me, my love for you is happiness to me. It seems as if my heart could rest upon you." [On reading over my journal as it proceeded Arden Mainwaring had heard before now from this day, I find an incoherency about it the language of feeling as exalted come from which renders revision necessary. I have the lips of a fair woman, had known the fine therefore looked it over and related events not feeling crumble to dust under the pressure of always in the order in which I witnessed or some fancied worldly necessity. Perhaps he received account of them, but rather as it scarce gave Helen credit for the depth and seemed desirable in following up their course.- reality of that she professed, and regarded M. G.] rather the beauty of the thought than the force of the fact; but it pleased him to hear her speak | Wainwright I owe a debt of obligation I never such thoughts, and it gratified him to hold so high a position in her estimation. "You trust me nobly, Helen," he said, after a momentary silence. "I may not boast when all is yet to be done that should bear witness to your faith in me, but you are my own dear lady-love, and it will be joy to bring what poor trophies I can win to the feet of one so worthy a gentleman's devoir." can hope to repay, and I must not disturb his old age by depriving him of his darling, norunless it is absolutely necessary-of this righthand man of his, Grant Wainwright. Now, what think you?" "It is a difficult case, indeed; a very difficult case to stir in. I think it can only be met by supporting Miss Dalziel as much as possible: by strengthening her defences. Do you think Mrs. Gainsborough could be induced to take up her residence at the Hall?" "That idea has occurred to me as very desirable. Do you think, if Mr. Wainwright concurred, that it is likely she would, Helen?" "I think it is possible, though I hardly like to make the request." "That, at all events, is something worth considering. You think Miss Alice Ainslie is not Under the dark shadow of my garden wall Helen had felt emboldened to speak some of her heart's feelings. Merton had been a little in advance, he now rejoined them and she was best content to lean in silence on her husband's arm and listen, as the friends conversed on some of the occurrences that had taken place since they met. Looking up with mixed feelings of delight and terror when the gleam of the moon came across her companion's face-delight pre-likely to leave you yet?" vailed. If by perverse chance Grant Wainwright crossed their path, he could not fail to discover whose arm she had taken in preference to that of Merton Brown: but, she was thus walking with him for the first time, and for the first time her heart had felt not merely that he deserved her love, nor that some time he would acknowledge her as worthy of his regard -even now she really believed he loved her. The sight of the bridge suggested to Mr. Mainwaring remembrance of Grant Wainwright's defeat by his friend, and he gave him a special shake of the hand on the spot for the service rendered. "You managed your part as a friend capitally, I will say, Merton," so he spoke. "I think it is my turn now to encounter this dragon of Darliston! He has changed his plan, and instead of excluding all comers is minded to compete with them-a more sensible proceeding, certainly. How may I best defeat him, think you?" "You should ask Miss Dalziel that." "Nay, but supposing Miss Dalziel has already done her best to discard him as a lover, and is under the necessity of retaining him as a relative; and supposing he chooses to take advantage of that position to disquiet and besiege her?" "Come Merton, consider the special difficulties of the situation, and give me the benefit of your opinion. Firstly, I am forbidden admission to Darliston; secondly, Grant Wainwright is held indispensable there; thirdly, Mr Wainwright, although nominally an efficient protector, is actually nonefficient. And now I must let you understand that gentleman has not only fully consented to my union with Helen at a certain time-a year from next April -but has further empowered me to take her at any earlier period should he be no longer able to protect her. I think it possible I might have been legally justified in carrying her off in that postchaise, as you just now tempted me to do. This little disagreeable was in the way, that I should have been requiting the greatest of benefits with the greatest of treasons. To Mr. "No: she seems really to like Darliston, and, timid and childlike as she is before strangers, you cannot conceive how much comfort and protection she affords me. Grant Wainwright is more at fault in having her to encounter than he would probably be with either of you. He don't know how to set about it." ་་ The idea amused the gentlemen. Helen was obliged to cry, Oh, pray don't laugh! You may be heard." "It seems, then," Mr. Mainwaring resumed, "that others can do something: but, Merton, you have not yet shown that I can act in my own cause!" "I think you can; I think you have, without need of my suggestion. I have spoken of increasing Miss Dalziel's defences without: your part is rather to strengthen the citadel within; and, if I mistake not, you have efficiently performed it." "I have promised myself to do more than this-to raise the siege. What measures I may take to this end I am hardly at present prepared to say. I desire to see Grant Wainwright, to judge for myself what he is, and how he can be dealt with. It is fighting in the dark until I can do so. I have scarce seen my adversary. Perhaps it may be as well to write from London. I must away to-night, for I am to have an audience with the Minister for Foreign Affairs in the morning, and have received an invitation to dinner which is equivalent to a command. I will do nothing without due consideration, but, unless some better course is apparent to me, I will write to-morrow to Grant Wainwright and call upon him to withdraw his suit.” "Mr. Mainwaring-" Helen began. "Call me Arden, dear Helen. You have not called me by my Christian name yet." I-I will try," she said," timidly. "I was going to remind you that he, my cousin, had not disturbed me since that evening. Perhaps now I feel I could speak to him better now-he might consent at my request to desist." Poor Helen was not very sanguine; but it was a chance, and she certainly thought Grant was more likely to consent at her request than at Mr. Mainwaring'e command. That gentleman was silent, so she continued. "You have said my grandfather is no protection to me, and it is true I am restricted in claiming his protection from fear of causing him excitement. Yet in one way his presence protects me, for Grant has some regard for him. When I point out to him that he cannot continue to trouble me without endangering his uncle's safety, he may desist." "Will you tell him this, Helen-that his proving your grandfather's protection is inadequate, justifies me in coming to Darliston to protect and claim you?" "I will do so." And write me fully and frankly an account of what passes?" "Yes." "Then I may defer writing till Friday. Should your cousin withdraw his suit, either at your request or mine, well and good. But it must be no half-measure: he must consent to withdraw his attentions from you, as well as cease to speak of love. That granted, I shall hope that, by providing a companion to be always resident with you, your peace may be secured. If, however, he fails to admit my claims by these means, I may stand excused by Mr. Wainwright if I insist on asserting them in per son." "I hope that may not be necessary." and, it is such a dull place. Then my grandfather will have nothing altered, not so much as a carpet or curtain renewed. You, you have been accustomed to everything so different, to everything of the best-to company, to gaiety, to courts, even." 'A very great contrast, truly, it promises, to the life I have been leading; but you have for| gotten one thing in Darliston I have not been accustomed to." "What is it?" O this new feeling! Could she, dare she believe it was so, that she was dear to him? Yes, she believed it. His earnest eyes told her so as he bent over her, looking his farewell-for they were standing now at the gate. Helen felt she would have given much for power to speak, in that last, precious moment, something of what she felt; but her heart was too full for words, and her eyes wet with tears. He asked for a word of farewell, and her lips, incapable of any other expression, offered themselves for a parting kiss. Merton Brown had considerately passed a few steps through the gate, to see if anyone was about, he said. All was quiet. Grant Wainwright had not then even left the gay party at Captain Ashton's; and when Helen's escort returned to the manor-gate, he found Mr. Mainwaring leaning upon it, with the moonlight shining upon his rather picturesque figure, and revealing enough of the expression of his face to justify the remark, "Arden, you look happy!" "What do you think of her?" questioned rather abruptly his friend, as they turned into the shadowy lane. "She has a heart; there can be no question about that, unless, indeed, we say she has given it you?" "Do not think, my dear girl, that any very serious consequence is to be apprehended from our merely meeting on such a question. The days of duelling are gone by in England, and well it is they are so, for shooting a man is only like taking him out of your path by lifting him on your back for life. While your heart is mine I may well afford to be even a little considerate towards your unfortunate lover and relation. But he must submit; he must withdraw his claims, or see an adversary in me. I will fight him, brain to brain, or hand to hand, as seems needful. He shall neither imprison nor court my lady-love. Sooner would I think it right to give up for the time my chance of preferment abroad, and devote myself to supplying his place beside Mr. Wainwright. I am not so good a "A very strong incentive, I should say, comfarmer, granted. But I might be master of asing from one like her." good a one, perchance, and do as well." "You-you come to Darliston to live ?" cried Helen, in utter surprise. "I would hardly think of asking Mrs. Gainsborough. And you-oh, could you really think of doing so for"-" for my sake?" she would have said, but her voice failed. It seemed to her too wonderful, too presumptuous for her to suppose. "I have thought of it seriously, Helen; not hastily, but throughout my journey hitherward. I know it would not be right unless other means of protecting you from this pursuit were unavailing; but, should that be so, it must be done. Mr. Wainwright, I think, could not deny me, if I promised during his lifetime that your home should be with him." "But your career in life would be checked; "In which case it were fair she should have mine. I have been thinking what witchery there is about her. There's nothing very striking in her appearance, excepting, indeed, that her eyes are fine. I have seen so little of her, so very little. Can it be only the conviction that she loves me that has such power over me?" "Yes, but the question is, am I weak, or is she a witch? Six months ago I should have deemed the idea preposterous that I could so love her. Of course it is pleasant to be so loved, but she is not quite the only woman who has loved me; yet none, like her, so trustfully, so devotedly. I need not wonder that I love her; good, generous, true-hearted girl that she is; considering how her goodness has overflowed towards me, I should be a brute if I did not. Yet, what I marvel at is, not that I love her in the sense of being fully resolved, as far as I can, to make her happy; it is that I feel so strangely happy myself in her love. I did not believe a woman's love could ever again be worth so much to me. I never felt a stronger impulse than that which came upon me when you would make us |