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with a faint smile on his worn face. He spoke slowly, and every word dripped like blood.

'Had I come to this decision six months ago it would have been better for Mrs. Tantifer in a pecuniary sense, but as during these months she has been spending her own money, and has had an unquestionable right to spend it, it is not for me to comment on the rapidity or on the methods of her expenditure. All I have is hers, and has been hers since she entered this house as my wife.'

"

Was there then a settlement?' gasped Mrs. Winstanley. 'Settlement? No.' Tantifer flashed out in fierce disgust. 'What need for a settlement between my wife and me? Did I not say that I loved her, loved her? All I have is hers. There is not much, Maud,' he went on gently. The lease of this house has seventy years to run. The house is yours to keep or to sell. There is besides about 2,000l. well invested, all that remains of my inheritance and the savings of nine years. The stock shall be transferred to your name, and a conveyance of the house executed. We must come to lawyers' deeds now that we separate. There is, at the worst, enough to live upon quietly for an indefinite time, or to spend handsomely in a year.'

That really is most kind of you, Mr. Tantifer,' began Mrs. Winstanley, although I expect you have given us the money and the house to keep us from putting you in prison. Still it is kind, that I shall always say. The house will let easily for 80l. and the money ought to bring in eighty more. You must, of course, live with your mother, Maud-to whom can a deserted daughter fly unless to a mother?-and with your little income and my own annuity we shall get on capitally. What do you say to Bournemouth in the autumn? I was thinking of going, and now if you will share the lodgings with me'

'Be silent!' I shouted. I was maddened by the petty meanness of the woman.

Really, Mr. Gatepath' Mrs. Winstanley was beginning, but I paid no attention, for Maud suddenly broke her stony silence.

'What,' she asked hoarsely, 'what are you going to do?'

'I? Oh, my plans are quite simple. I have a few hundred. pounds represented by bullion and silver coin, of which no one will contest with me the ownership. With these-and you will please accept my word as to their sufficiency-I shall return to my old

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business. I shall become once more a manufacturing silversmith. There are many things which I cannot do; I do not make a good gentleman nor a good husband, but I can work in silver. Believe me, I shall do very well, and in a year or two shall be able to add to your small income.'

If you are a woman,' I cried silently in my angry thoughts, 'go and comfort him. Don't you see that he is stripping himself for you, and one of the finest hearts on God's earth is bleeding for you? You are not worth it, but that does not trouble him. Go and comfort him, I say.' But I said no word, and she sat

Ι still.

'I have only to say,' resumed Tantifer, 'that the necessary business shall be put through as quickly as possible. I shall leave this house immediately, and you, Maud, will stay in it or not at your convenience. I will endeavour to avoid you when I come some evening to get what I require. For the future I can promise you entire freedom from my presence.'

He hesitated, and some of his social awkwardness seized upon him. He wanted to go, but found a difficulty in leaving the room.

A hand gripped my arm-heavens, what iron fingers Mrs. Tantifer had !—and a voice murmured into my ear, 'Is he really going away—for always ?' "Yes, he is,' I retorted brutally. He is going away and

' you will never see him again. He has given you all his money, so there is no reason why he should stop any longer.'

She had turned from me and was looking at Tantifer. I saw her rise up, and I saw her hard face break into such a storm of love and pity as these eyes had never witnessed before, nor have since. She rose up, took two steps forward, and dropped on her knees at Tantifer's feet.

I sprang up too and jumped about in my excitement. Mrs. Winstanley tried also to leave her chair, but I put my hands upon her shoulders and compelled her to be seated.

Tantifer stooped over his wife. His looks softened a little not much. The mask slipped for an instant, but was quickly replaced. He clasped the woman's hands, lifted her from the ground, and courteously led her to a sofa. Then he kissed her, bowed to us, and turned to go.

* Tantifer,' I cried ; ‘Tantifer, she loves you!' But he shook his head and went away, and I saw him no

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BENNET COPPLESTONE.

A VOICE FROM THE COUNTRY,

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I am not ashamed of being called a “Country Cousin.' You townspeople regard us with an air of infinite superiority, and hint that were it not for an occasional visit to your grimy and crowded streets we should lapse into utter barbarism ; but I should like to know where you would be without us? What would you do if we did not supply you with butter, eggs, poultry, and other provisions—if, in a word, we boycotted you? Why, you would simply be famine-stricken, and after living for a time on your dogs and cats, and the few sheep that browse in the parks, you would have to surrender to us on our own terms. On the other hand, we could do very well without you. As regards the necessaries of life this is obvious; and if you deprived us of books, newspapers, ornaments, and other luxuries, we could soon establish printing-presses and workshops of our own. So there now!

Having thus sufficiently demonstrated 'to any mind of average intelligence '—that is a most convenient phrase in argumentthat we country people are far more necessary to the general welfare than you cockneys, I don't mind admitting that there are a few little apparent drawbacks to country life.

Our postal arrangements, for instance, are not first-class. In our part of the world there is only one postal delivery in the day, and the nearest postal and telegraph office is a mile distant. Then, although we do get our newspaper on the day of publication (a great triumph !) it arrives in an erratic fashion; sometimes in the morning, sometimes in the evening, sometimes--when we are particularly anxious for news-not at all. The station also is two or three miles off, and the service of trains is not grand, so that if by any chance you miss a train you may have to wait four hours for another. These are, as I said, apparent drawbacks; but if you

. look closely into them you will see that they are in reality advantages. In the first place I can say, without hesitation, that to have only one post in the day is a decided blessing. Your correspondence comes in in one batch; you read it through, and for the remainder of the day have no more bother with it. You rest in calm security, quite certain that till the next morning, at least, you will have no more bills, circulars, or begging-letters.

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Just think of that, you town folk who live in constant dread of what the postman may bring you! Why, I would not give a halfpenny stamp for your peace of mind. That ever recurring rat-tat must take ten years off your lives. No wonder that your hair turns prematurely grey, and that you are subject to nervous disorders. Telegrams, too, what a nuisance they are.-even worse than the letters! In town one's friends are always sending them, frequently on quite trivial matters; and apart from the mental shocks they occasion, they are often wrongly worded, and thus lead to most serious misunderstandings. In my opinion more than half the quarrels amongst well-educated people are due to mistakes in telegrams. Now, in the country, people seldom send them except on important occasions; (or if they do you have an infallible remedy, viz. give directions at the post office to forward no messages on which the extra fee for porterage has not been prepaid. You are troubled with no more telegrams ;) their purses are furnished far too scantily with sixpences to admit of their squandering them in telegraphing frivolous inquiries after colds and sore throats, and unnecessary birthday congratulations.

As to the newspaper, it is obvious that you appreciate it much more when you have to wait for it, and when it comes at unexpected moments. I never properly enjoyed a newspaper till I settled in the country. The reason is that in town you have too many journals, and get perfectly nauseated with them. You cannot walk down a street without some bawling urchin thrusting the latest edition under your nose. Here, on the other hand, we have only one, or at most two papers each day, and we read and digest them thoroughly, with a satisfaction to which you, with your scrambling, scrappy method of perusal, are entire strangers.

As regards the train question, I am bound to confess that when after rushing off to your country station some morning you arrive, hot and tired, just in time to see the train go off, and have to wait till the afternoon for another, it is just a little—just a little disappointing. However, it is a capital exercise for the temper, and the man who on such an occasion is able to refrain from strong language, mental or otherwise, is entitled to feel quite a glow of virtuous pleasure. And when the first little annoyance is got over, what can be more delightful to the philosophic mind than a long wait at a country station? You

You can, in the first place, study the advertisements to your heart's content;

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you can really get them up thoroughly, and ascertain the precise reasons why Jones's soap is the best, and why Brown's blacking defies competition. Then there are the station-master and porters to talk to-cheery, good-humoured fellows, who are not at all disconcerted by your having missed your train, but will converse with you on the weather or kindred topics as affably as if nothing had happened. Then if you feel hungry, you have wherewith to satisfy your cravings. There is indeed no refreshment-room within several miles, but you have at hand an automatic confectionery provider, where, if the machine be in working order, you can sip the sweets of Cadbury or Fry. No-all things considered, you cannot persuade me that the town has the better of the country in the matter of railway communication, or that the Londoner knows anything of the delight that we feel when, on an occasion such as I have described, the long-desired train at last draws in sight.

So much then for some of our supposed 'drawbacks;' and I will engage to dispose equally well of any others that may be alleged : if I could not, where would be the use of argument ? But now, with the editor's leave, I am going to make some remarks on country life in general, and my own experiences of it in particular.

My first observation is that you meet a great many more queer and interesting people in the country than in the town. Tennyson agrees with me here, for he says

Ground in yonder social mill

We rub each other's angles down,
And merge ... in form and gloss

The picturesque of man and man. The lady who formerly owned our house was one of the most ' picturesque' specimens of humanity I ever came across. Her idiosyncrasies—provided you did not suffer from them personally -were as interesting as a psychological novel. For over-reaching and double-dealing I never saw her equal; her ways were as crooked as a Devonshire lane; and these qualities were rendered especially piquant by an occasional bluntness-not to say savagery of manner-that would have done credit to the most upright and honest of mankind. It was really marvellous! While mentally calculating the extent of your gullibility, and devising the most ingenious schemes against your purse, she would contrive, by an air of injured innocence of righteous superiority, to make you

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