felt was the very antipode of his own, the conversation took the

following shape

"Miss Blake rates more highly than it deserves the slight service that accident alone permitted me to offer."

"You are right.

I think she said, was

"Larry O'Neill."

"A college student ?"

"Yes; I have not long taken my degree."

"Where ?"

"At Trinity College, Dublin."

Your name

"That's right. Stick to the old places and the old ways. Father living?"

66 No, nor mother either."

"Where do you live?"

"At Rathay, a village near here, where I have a house and a few tenants."

And your rent-roll is

"About two hundred a-year, when the tenants can pay."

"And when they can't ?"

Larry O'Neill shrugged his shoulders as he answered"Then I have to go without."

"But you look like a man who should have friends, and a future."

"The friends I have not. The future may come."

"You are seeking it?"

"I ought to be."

"Then you are not ?"

"Well, to tell you the truth, Mr. Blake, I must own I have been spending an idle life of late; but I have one excuse. Receive it for what it is worth. The last few months of preparation for the examiners took so much out of me that I have not been the same man since."

"I see.

will."

66

You feel no energy-no fixed aim and purpose—no

Possibly," said Larry (for he was growing tired of this new kind of examiner, and inclined, like the worm, to turn.)

"Well, young man, I like your frankness, and so-Goodbye." He once more held out his hand, and in the ensuing grasp there was something more cordial than before; because, as Larry said to himself, he was being got rid of.

Seeing that this was his last chance, Larry said, hurriedly, "Will you allow me to wish Miss Blake also good-bye?" "Eh? Oh, certainly, certainly."

Quickening their steps they soon came up to the party.

66

Norah, my dear, this gentleman is now leaving us."

She advanced, pale at first, through the aspect and tone of her father; but changed presently to a vivid blush, as she found

her fingers in Larry's warm grasp, and knew that his eyes were fixed upon her downcast ones.

When she did look up she was greatly moved by his tender smile, which could not conceal the sorrowful emotion beneath at this abrupt end.

While they thus stood hand in hand for a few seconds-her father looking on impatiently the aunt, in whose charge he had placed his daughter, said with utter unconsciousness of the force and effect of her words, " Mr O'Neill will come and see us,, I hope, before long."

"I shall be delighted to do so," said Larry with an eager promptitude that left the father no choice but to be silent or share the invitation. He chose the latter, and, taking a card from his pocket, said, "Oh, of course; Mr. O'Neill understands that. There is the address."

And then, with a farewell bow to all the party, Larry strode away, exulting in the belief that he still had a chance if he could but meet the father with some better credentials than those he had in his love of frank speaking so foolishly displayed, but which unfortunately were only too true.

CHAPTER III.

A LOVER'S TOILET.

Larry O'Neill was not simply one of the least conceited of men in respect to his personal appearance, but up to the present time had been noticeable among his companions for his carelessness as to dress and all the small niceties of the toilet, as well as for his utter contempt for those who made them a serious study.

Can this then be the same man who on the morning after his adventure with the sleeping maiden is standing before his glass busy with his toilet, bothered with the novelty of the requisite operations, and with the interruption they cause to the "thick-coming fancies" suggested by the "call" he is going to make to-day on the Blakes.

Once he pauses to look in the glass as if to ascertain for the first time, by ocular demonstration, the precise quality of his faee, and in so doing seems to make a new acquaintance with himself.

But even in this he has an object. He is thinking of the blunt inquiries and the stern, merciless summing-up of his character which Mr. Blake had given him as coolly as if Larry had no particular interest or feeling in the topic. Or rather, perhaps, in the spirit of a surgeon, who, operating with his knife on a patient, should explain, as he proceeds, the diagnosis of his case to the unfortunate.

"Was he, could he, be right ?" he asks of that other Larry he sees before him, very much as a judge might question a supposed criminal in the dock in a difficult case.

"No energy, eh?" What do you say to that, fellow-sufferer, I will answer for us both? Hark you, I mean to try to exhibit some energy to-day in getting through all obstacles, and winning or forcing my way to her. Mark that, Mr. Blake."

"No fixed aim or purpose?' Hem! I fancy I am forming a good aim, and a rather strong purpose, and that Mr. Blake will speedily find out."

"No will?" "

"Now, how could one test that? As I don't mean to be a martyr going to the stake, I don't see the good of thrusting my hand into the fire and patiently counting the minutes. I have resolved it shall stay there to make sure of my fortitude beforehand. But I do see that if I succeed in the least degree with Miss Blake her father will be a very efficient substitute for the bonfire and the stake, and then will come the trial."

"There, then, shall be my test. If she be what I devoutly believe, my will now is that I woo her by all the means in my power, deterred by no difficulties, and taking no offence, whatever her father may say or do."

"If I fail, not as to the end, which no man can ensure, but in one jot or tittle of the things that can alone lead to the end, I will confess to her father that he was right, and that I withdraw into the obscurity for which alone I am fit."

His glance just then falling upon his watch, he exclaimed"By heaven, I shall be too late for my train, while playing the egotist in this absurd fashion."

Subsiding at once into quiet and thoughtful activity, he finished his task, and reached the station just in time to jump into the guard's van, the door being open, and he, of course, without a ticket.

Reaching Dublin, he again took train for Bray, and readily found the house of which the address had been given.

With tremulous fingers he knocked at the door, once-twice -thrice, before there was any answer.

Then an aged and respectable-looking woman opened the door, apologising that the servants were both out of the way. "Does Mr. Blake live here?"

"He did. He and the two ladies took the packet this morning for England."

"Leaving any address ?"

"No."

"Can you tell me how I may find them ?"

"I can't, indeed. He's such a close, sharp gentleman I didn't like to ask him anything that he didn't care to tell me without."

"But pray, think. Surely something will occur to you. I go to anyone in Bray or Dublin that might aid me ?"

Can

"I'll ask the tradesmen they dealt with, if you'll call again to-morrow. I'm very sorry to lose them. I never had such nice lodgers as the aunt and the young lady who

"Had you any conversation with Miss Blake before her departure ?"

"Just a few words. I said I hoped to see them again before long, and tears were in her eyes, as she said, "No; we return no more."

For a few seconds Larry found it necessary to be silent. Then he said

"As to the tradesmen, I won't give you that trouble. Tell me their names, all of them, and I'll go myself."

He took out a note-book and wrote the addresses down, thanked the landlady, and hurried away.

Beyond a few suggestions, and those of the vaguest character, nothing could be elicited.

With a sad heart, but hardening spirit, he reached his home, pondering hour after hour what he should or could do.

Next morning he rose early and wrote to an agent in the nearest town the following letter:

"DEAR SIR,—I have been thinking some time of leaving Ireland, and busines now calls me away and may keep me a long while.

"Please, therefore, to sell my house, garden, and furniture in one lot, and my farms in another. As to the first, take any reasonable offer. As to the second I may say the same, but with the clear understanding that no tenant is to be disturbed. Conceal nothing. The arrears tell their own story. If the tenants can buy with the aid of friends by all means give them the preference.

"Send me £20 as an advance immediately. My lawyer, whom you know, wil arrange everything satisfactorily to you."

The

money came next day, and at night Larry O'Neill took the packet for England.

(To be continued.)

WELSH MEMBERS OF FORMER ADMINISTRATIONS.

VII.

LORD ROBERT EDWARD HENRY SOMERSET,

Generally known as Lord Edward Somerset, born in December, 1776, was fourth son of the fifth Duke of Beaufort. He married, in 1805, the Hon. Louisa Augusta, youngest daughter of Viscount Courtenay, by whom he left issue, and was elected for Monmouth on the death of Sir Charles Thompson, Bart., in 1799. In 1802 he was not returned for any constituency, but was elected for Gloucestershire the following year, and he retained this seat for twenty-eight years. He served in the Peninsular War, and commanded a Cavalry Brigade at Vittoria, Orthes, Toulouse, and Waterloo. He became Major-General about 1811, and was created a Knight of the Tower and Sword 1813, and of Maria Theresa and Waldimir 1815, and also in January of that year a K.C.B. Lord Edward was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-General in 1825, and was appointed LieutenantGeneral (or second officer) of the Ordnance on the 10th June, 1829. This post (salary £1,100) was abolished in November, 1830, when Lord Edward quitted office with the Duke of Wellington. In the Parliaments of 1831 and 1832 he had no seat in the House, but in August, 1834 (in which year he was promoted Grand Cross of the Bath), he was elected for Cirencester, and in December following he was appointed SurveyorGeneral of the Ordnance (salary £700). This he resigned with his party next April; he retired from Parliament at the general election of 1837, was raised to the rank of General in the army, and was Colonel of the 17th Light Dragoons till December 14th, 1829, when he was gazetted Colonel of the 1st Regiment of Light Dragoons. He was one of the Commissioners of the Royal Military College at the time of his death, which occurred in September, 1842.

LORD GRANVILLE CHARLES HENRY SOMERSET,

Nephew of Lord Edward Somerset, and second son of the sixth Duke of Beaufort, was born on the 22nd of December, 1792, and was elected for the county of Monmouth in 1816, in the room of his uncle, Lord Arthur John Henry Somerset,