property might probably have been brought into our office, and such pickings as that are not to be despised now-a-days. If you had only paid a little attention to the Selbys, perhaps Arthur might have secured the prize altogether."

So saying, Mr. Carthew took up his hat, and left the room; while his wife remained for some time in a brown study, which was at length broken in upon by the entrance of her son Arthur.

"Well," said the young gentleman, "how are you off for tin? I saw the governor walk out, looking like a thunder-cloud, so I conclude you have been raising the wind; in which case, I hope you'll stump up, as I want some of the ready to go to Falmouth races.'

"You cannot have it, then, Arthur," said his mother, "but must give up idling away time and money, and stick to business. Cooch is about to leave the office, and what on earth is to be done without him, I'm sure I don't know."

"Whew!" whistled the youth. "Old Book of Proverbs going? That is a go."

"Arthur, my dear," resumed his mother, after a short silence, "I know it must be irksome to a young man of gentlemanly habits such as yours, to be tied all day long to a high stool in an office. If I were you, I would make my fortune, and enjoy life while I was young."

"Tell me how to set about it, old lady, and then I'll say you are a prime one-a regular brick, and no mistake.”

"Why, make an offer to Eleanor Selby, to be sure! And make haste about it, for Mrs. Stoneman's milksop of a boy is sent for to come home, with the hope, I firmly believe, that his wish-washy face, his lanky locks, and his trashy poetry may win the heiress. Now, you are a fine, handsome, gentlemanly-looking fellow (though I should like you better without that moustache), who know the world; and girls like that sort of thing better than a pale face and innocence; so, try your luck. Why don't you speak, Arthur? Say you will try, that's a good boy!" "That's no go," said Master Arthur.

"And why not? Take my word for it, you will stand a very good chance-especially before she begins to be sought after.” "I tell you it's no go."

"But why-why? How do you know until
you try ?"

you must know, then," replied the hopeful son, "I have tried already."

"Tried already, and been refused ?" almost screamed Mrs. Carthew. "Yes, I have," replied Arthur, rather sullenly. "I meant to stick up to her like bricks at all these parties that I heard were coming on, but, when the proud jade took herself off to Port Allan all at once, I thought it wouldn't do to wait till she came back, so I wrote to her a letter. I told her I had been in love with her for years, and all that sort of thing that girls like."

"Well, and what answer did you get?" asked his mother.

Why, she sent back my letter in a blank sheet of paper, without a word!" replied Master Arthur, indignantly. "I only wish I could serve her out for it! What a confounded shame it is that money should go to such an insignificant, poor, spiritless fool as that; and that a fellow like me shouldn't have a rap to bless himself with!"

IV.

VERY pleasantly the days passed away at Port Allan, for Mrs. Selby and Eleanor enjoyed the independence, the freedom from care, the absence of restraint, as those only can enjoy them who have known what it is to struggle on year after year, earning with difficulty their daily bread, and knowing but too well that for old age and sickness they can make little or no provision. The cares which, it is said, must ever follow money, they had not yet felt; and they were, thus far, sensible of the glad change wrought in their position. But in the midst of all this, Nelly thought often, with a sigh, of Charles Howard, and her joy was tempered with sadness.

It was in the month of September when Eleanor and her mother went to Port Allan; rather late in the season for a visit to the sea-side, but the weather was at first generally warm and fine, and there was that clearness in the sky and mellowness in the air which sometimes make this month one of the most pleasant in the year. The situation of Port Allan, too, was delightful, for it was on the eastern or inner side of a long headland, which formed the western boundary of a most beautiful and romantic bay; at the back of the headland, too, was another deep bay, but the shores of this were lower, and lined with jagged and fearful rocks. Frequent were their walks along the summits of the beetling cliffs, or over the firm yellow beach, and many were their explorations in the long, dark, dripping, echoing caverns, or their excursions on the bright, sunny waters of the bay; had it not been for one thing, Eleanor would have been perfectly happy.

At length a change came over the weather. The evening had been close and misty, with but little wind and a drizzling rain, and the night had been very calm and still, but about three in the morning Eleanor was aroused from her sleep by a sudden gust of wind, which howled and whistled among the gables and corners, rattled the windows, roared in the chimney, seemed to shake the house to its foundations, and was gone. For a minute all was still as before, and then came another gust, more violent, more lasting, and bringing with it such a crash of rain and hail upon the glass that Eleanor thought the windows must come in-there was the falling of a shutter in the street, the rattling of a slate down over the roof of the house, and that too was past. Another, and another, and another followed, the intervals between each gradually diminishing, until at length there was such a continuous roar of the storm as effectually to prevent poor Nelly from again closing an eye. She rose before her usual time, and, descending to the sitting-room, where she found that her mother had arrived before her, approached the window, which commanded a view of the bay and the pier, and looked out.

"Mamma, mamma!" she cried, starting suddenly back, with an awestruck look," come and look at the sea!"

Mrs. Selby did so, and she too shrunk back in amazement. There was indeed a new change for them in the appearance of that mighty ocean, which, as they had often remarked to each other, never seemed to look twice the same. They had seen it when the blue water looked only a shade deeper in colour than the blue sky; they had watched it when a light mist made it difficult to say where the one element melted into the

other, and when the vessels seem to hang in air by invisible threads; they had seen and heard it on the close, still days when the huge rolling ground seas sent their white foam far up the tallest cliffs, and when the deep growl of the sullen waves had been heard many miles inland, like the distant rumbling of an earthquake; they had looked at it when a merry breeze made the little white-capped billows dance and sparkle in the sunshine; and they had seen it when the reflection of the motionless ships upon the glassy sea seemed as real as the ships themselves, and when the sun, sinking into his gorgeous bed, threw a dazzling line of light upon the waters. All these, and many more, changes they had seen with never-ending delight; but the look of that same mighty ocean now was something new and terrible. It was no wonder that they shrank back from the window, for at the first glance the sea seemed close-quite close, and about to overwhelm them! Instead of appearing spread out before their eyes in a level plane, it looked like a huge black wall of water, ready to topple over, and sweep them away to destruction. Even after the eye got somewhat accustomed to it, there was something strange, indescribable, and almost unnatural in the appearance of that dark, lowering, inky-looking sea-something that oppressed the mind, and weighed upon the spirits like the presence of a thunder-cloud. No playful, white-crested billows were there now; there was no variety of shade or colour all over the wide expanse, save from some dingy, lurid streaks of foam, and the very farthest horizon seemed as close to the eye as the nearest margin of the bay. No waves were now to be seen, pausing, as it were, to gather strength, and then advancing with a roar, and flying over the rocks in glittering cataracts of foam; but huge black seas swept on resistlessly, submerging, without stop and without effort, those very rocks, the tops of which were reached at other times only by their spray. It was a fearful sight, but the sounds which struck the ear were, perhaps, still more fearful; not the sound of the sea-for the mighty dash, the sullen growl, or hollow roar were scarcely heard-but the rushing of the wind, which swept through the streets, bursting open doors, tearing slates off from the roofs, knocking down chimney-tops, and whirling up twigs and straws to send them on with headlong speed among the driving scud. Now and then was to be seen a fisherman or pilot, pea-coated and "sou'-westered," striving and struggling against the gale to get down to the pier, and look after the safety of his boat; and sometimes a man on the windward side of the basin would hail one on the opposite quay, his voice coming down like a trumpet-sound on the blast, and the other, with hands raised to his mouth, would roar and bellow himself black in the face in a futile attempt to send an answer a yard's distance on its way back.

Eleanor and her mother stood for some time watching the scene, silent and almost terrified; and then they turned to the table, and sat down to their breakfast with what appetite they might. The day passed on, and still the storm raged and blew. Eleanor, weary of confinement, made two or three attempts to walk out, but each time, unable to withstand the force of the wind, returned weary and breathless to her own comfortable room. At length, towards evening, there was somewhat of a lull, and Eleanor, seeing an old man pass who had generally attended her in her boating excursions, tapped at the window and beckoned

him in.

"Well, Thompson," she said, "what do you think of the weather now? Do you think it's nearly over ?"

"Over, miss? No, I reckon. It's only getting a fresh hand at the bellows, take my word for it."

"Has any damage been done about here ?" asked Eleanor.

"Why no, miss, not as I've heerd of as yet-that is, nothing to speak of, but many a fine craft, I'm afeard, will have left her bones between the Morte and the Land's End before we gets the last of it."

"How anxious the poor people must be," said Eleanor, "who have friends and relations at sea in this fearful weather!"

"Why yes, miss," replied Thompson, "they've got an anxious time of it; but 'tis no use to take fear before fear comes, and they must hope they're all snug in port somewhere. We don't make much here of a bit of a puff of wind, miss-'specially men that have had as much salt water go over their backs as I've had; but, to be sure, such weather as this do set us a-thinking. My daughter, home, miss-she's a widow woman, miss—have got a boy, about sixteen, that's away somewhere now-a very good boy he is too, though I say it myself. She's in a wisht away about un, poor thing! being rather onwell herself too.

I

But

says to her, says I, 'Don't be so foolish, Nanny!' I says; 'what's the use to take on so? I dare say now he's moored comfortable in port somewhere, sitting down mending his best jacket for a cruise ashore among the girls mayhap; and thinking no more about we than he is about the last sarmon he heerd.' I only said that to comfort her, you know, miss, for I believe the boy is as good a boy and as kind a boy as ever lived, though I say it myself, that shouldn't ought to say it. But 'tis no use to grieve, you know, miss; many's the time that I've bothered myself, and worked the eyes out of my head a'most, looking over the charts and the books of directions for rocks, land shoals, currents, and what not, and found out arterwards that the vessel I'd been thinking about had never been out of harbour all the time, or else had been in some place quite different from what I fancied."

"What vessel is your grandson in ?" asked Nelly.

"In a schooner called the Dolly Pentreath, miss," replied the old man, who, notwithstanding his philosophy, was evidently suffering not a little from anxiety-" the Dolly Pentreath, or the Dolly, or the Doll, as we generally calls her for shortness' sake the Dolly Pentreath, Captain Johns, as good a seaman and as civil a man as ever stepped. He went from here to Plymouth, and there he got a freight across to Guernsey, and there he got news of a freight back from Cherbourg, in France. The last we heerd of him was from a letter he wrote, saying he would be all ready to sail for home in a few days. There, miss, there," he continued, as a fresh gust of wind rushed furiously by-" there, miss! I told 'ee it was only another hand at the bellows. I only hope

"What are all the

"Look, Thompson, look!" interrupted Eleanor. people running about? Surely there is something the matter."

"I'm most afeard there is, miss, sure!" said Thompson, looking out.

"I'll just step out and see what it is."

In a few minutes the old man returned, looking pale and anxious. "It's a schooner, miss," he said, "that's trying to get round the head and

come in here. If she once get's round she'll be all right, but there's no safety for her if she goes ashore in Modrip Bay; if she gets on the rocks there, there's little chance that any of the crew will reach the shore alive. The people are all running to watch her. They tell me she's a good bit to the westward yet. I haven't seen her, but from what I hear, I'm afeard she'll have as much as she can do to weather the point. Good evening, miss; I'm just going out there to look at her."

66

Thompson," said Eleanor, "should I be too much in your way if I were to go with you?"

"In my way, miss? No! Bless your pretty face and your kind heart! It makes me feel quite young and happy again to have you with me, miss. Please to pardon my bouldness for saying so. But you'll never think of going out upon the head this weather, surely! Why men that have been used to nor'-westers all their lives can scarce stand against the wind there, much more a tender plant like you." "Oh, I shall get on very well, Thompson, if you will only give me I could not bear to stay here, seeing nothing, and knowing that this vessel is in danger."

your arm.

So saying, Nelly ran to tell her mother whither she was going; and then, taking the old man's arm, sallied forth. It was, indeed, as much as they could do to make head against the gale, though it was again blowing with somewhat diminished violence, and sometimes they were even obliged to stop for a minute under the shelter of a hedge or a rock to gain breath before they could proceed. Eleanor was not the only female there numbers of others, who had brothers, sons, husbands, or lovers at sea, though knowing, perhaps, that they were far away, had rushed forth to watch the progress of the emperilled vessel with feelings of restless anxiety, while many more were there, like Eleanor, partly from sympathy, partly to escape the suspense and uncertainty which they would have suffered at home.

:

"I hope," said Thompson, "Nanny won't hear nothing of it; but, she's poorly in bed, and we lives out of the town, you know, miss, so 'tis very onlikely."

At length Nelly and her conductor reached the summit of the headland, and gazed out to sea; but the dusk of the evening was fast approaching, they were almost blinded by the spray, which flew completely over the headland, and even the experienced eye of old Thompson could scarcely, at first, distinguish the vessel. Groups of seafaring men were scattered about, some lying flat on the ground, to escape the force of the wind; others resting their glasses on the shoulders of their companions, and gazing intently seaward, while women and landsmen hung around them, eager to catch the few disjointed words which they uttered. The two approached one of these groups, just as a tall, finelooking man, in a "sou'-wester" cap and pea-jacket, had taken his eye from the glass, after a long look, and turned around to speak to some one near him.

"Well, Harry!" shouted Thompson, "what do you make her out?" "Ah, Thompson!" said the man addressed, without returning a direct answer to the question-"ah, Thompson! you are the very man I was looking for! I had just sent a boy to see if he could find you. Have ye had a look at the schooner?"