paid out of the money due, and the balance handed over to the contractor."

"It served him right"-replied Mr. Stanley, It's no use having agreements with people if they are not to be kept. I suppose, if the contractor used bad materials he would be paid just the same as if he used good?"

Precisely," replied Nott; "and if a man puts in two or three hundred thousand inferior bricks worth, perhaps, fifteen shillings a thousand, and get paid as if he had worked with bricks worth double that value, see what a haul he gets."

"I see”—replied Mr. Stanley, "I hope your friend will keep his weather eye open.'

"The contractor does not appear to prevent you from playing croquet "said Ella, slily.

"By no means, Miss Sinclair. I am not head man, I am thankful to say. I write my reports of his conduct, and feeling satisfied I have done my duty, never trouble my head further."

"How do you employ your spare time?" asked the young lady.

"Well, I have little spare time," said Nott.

"I scribble a good deal for magazines; I used in my boyish days to be obliged to write essays upon all sorts of subjects; I believe," he added, by way of exciting Ella, "I could write an essay upon anything."

"You conceited creature," said she, "Maggie Langton was quite right when she told you the army were a conceited set, and the Royal Engineers the most conceited of all.”

"When did she say that ?" asked Nott, laughing. "She says so many impudent things that it is difficult to recal any particularly saucy speech ?"

"Why, the day we went to the party at Woodlawn, where we had bowls, Aunt Sally, croquet, and all sorts of delightful things," said Ella. "You must remember it, for you were trying half dinner time to catch a wasp, as she declared she could hold it in her hands and it would not sting her."

"Oh, I remember well, she pitched into me unmercifully," said Nott;-" I told her at last that we had pretty good reason to be conceited, as we are the only corps who can hold staff appointments without passing through the staff

college. That shut her up for a time, and when she went at me again, Mr. Lell came to the rescue, and I was able to eat my dinner in peace. I might have reminded her that her father was in the corps; but I did not; my only wonder since has been that she did not say I was the most conceited officer in. the corps.

"Well, I am not going to let you off, Captain Nott. I am going to give you two words to write an essay upon; uncle shall be judge-and if you fail, you shall give me six pair of the best French kid gloves."

Agreed," said Captain Nott; "but if I succeed I shall expect six pair of gentlemen's seven-and-three-quarters from you.

"Well, I will think about it," said Ella. "Seymour gets paid in a different way," said Nott, mischievously, in a low tone. "Be quiet, sir," said Ella, blushing, down and be good, and write your essay on the words My dear.""

What an extraordinary selection," said Nott; but he seated himself at a writing table, and Ella sat on the sofa, working at a

kettle-holder which had been in progress a long time.

"I shall watch you, Captain Nott, to see that you do not use any book, or otherwise cheat."

If the essay is inferior it will be your fault, then, Miss Sinclair."

In about an hour Nott announced he was ready. Ella summoned Mr. Stanley from the garden, and, seating herself on a footstool, with one arm round Emperor's neck, listened while Nott read in somewhat low accents the following essay on the words "My dear."

CHAPTER XI.

PRIESTLY PLOTTING.

"When such as thou with sacrilegious hand
Seize on the apostolic key of heaven,
It then becomes a tool for crafty knaves
To shut out virtue, and unfold those gates

That heaven itself had barred against the lusts
Of avarice and ambition."

BROOKE.

"MY DEAR,' is an expression perhaps more frequently heard than many others of a likekind so hackneyed in social and domestic life. A remarkable feature of the two little words is the varied meaning suggested by them, a variety, depending on the tone in which they are pronounced. Do we wish to give the coup de grace to the efforts of a foreigner labouring to master some of the intricacies of the Anglo-Saxon language mixture, we could hardly do better than engage him to prosecute the study of the numerous ideas conveyed by those remarkable monosyllables.