Mary made no answer to this flood of loved features, two warm tears for the first words; but taking her father's dressing-time rolled down her cheeks. Mother," gown out of the cupboard, she began the she whispered, "it is over. I shall remain repetition of a very peculiar scene which to take care of him; help me, strengthen took place every evening at the desire of me with your spirit." Then she slowly Mr. van Stein. put down the candle and bowed her head Any one who was ignorant of this for a moment as if in prayer. When she custom, on entering the room unexpect- raised it again, the expression of her face edly, would certainly have been much was entirely changed; her color had come astonished to see Mary walking patiently back, her eyes sparkled, whilst her fingers up and down the room in the dressing- turned over the leaves of the Bible which gown for a quarter of an hour, and would lay open on the table before her, and her probably not have guessed that the garment voice sounded almost cheerful as she read was made to receive in this way the degree aloud the passage which she seemed to of heat deemed necessary by Mr. van have been searching for: "He that taketh Stein, in order that he might not be seized not his cross, and followeth after Me, is with that most fearful of all fearful things-not worthy of Me." a cold.

Mr. van Stein and Mary had set off. Otto had seen their heavily-packed carriage pass by his window just as he had risen from his bed after a restless, sleepless

So she walked up and down the room in the old checked dressing-gown, her face so pale and sad, her heart so full of pain, longing for the moment when she should be alone, but patiently fulfilling her duty night. with all the strength of her will. When Should he go to the station to take she had helped her father to bed, she still leave of them? Should he, with his deep went about the house for some time, feeling of shame, again meet Mary's eyes? putting the last touch to all the prepara- Should he try once more whether her tions for the journey; and it was already sentence of separation was in earnest? No, past midnight when, having got everything he could not make up his mind to this. ready, she at last repaired to her own room. Mary had not even looked up to his house At last to rest, and at last alone. from the carriage-no longer thought him. But even now it was not in a passionate worthy of a bow. Could it be true that flood of tears that she sought relief for her she had ever loved him as much as he pain. Only the fixed look of her eyes had thought? Was it, after all, only for a denoted that her thoughts were far away from the practical operation of undressing, which she had just commenced.

chimera that he had suffered so much? Could Mary have parted from him so easily if she had really loved him? How calmly, how composedly had she spoken the last words which parted them! Was

her life she had brought to perfection, or was it coolness and indifference?

Nevertheless, before she went to bed, she raised her candle up towards the wall where a portrait in oil, the size of life, presented it self-command, the practice of which in a beautiful young woman. One would have sought in vain for any resemblance in Mary to this portrait, but yet there was something in the friendly, gentle expression of the face, which reminded one of her.

Suddenly cutting short these reflections, he hastily seized his coat and hat.

He would still see and speak to Mary; he would look into the very depths of her And in the contemplation of those be-soul; he would know whether the affec

tion which his conscience warned him he own wavering heart, which had brought had trifled with really existed; he would-upon him all the misery of this struggle. The whistle of the departing train And not on this day of parting only, but sounded as he arrived breathless on the on many subsequent days, the most unplatform. The train was already in mo- happy Otto had ever experienced. tion when he reached it. Peering hastily At one time he began a letter to Mary, into the first-class carriages, he discovered in which he besought her to forget the the thick great-coat of Uncle van Stein, which covered him up to the chin, whilst Mary was busy adjusting his cache-nez.

Otto called out her name; she let down the window with a sudden effort, and bent forward to wave her hand to him.

past, and to believe that he loved her more than any woman in the world; but when he got thus far the form of Celine rose up before his imagination as a warning spectre. He then tore the paper into atoms, and gave himself up to a thousand dreams and wishes, in which Mary played no past.

Once more their eyes met; once more Mary gazed at Otto with a gentle, mournful look, with tears in her eyes, while she And yet several days passed after Mary's forced herself to smile. Overwhelmed by departure before the desire of seeing the most conflicting emotions, Otto re- Celine was again awakened in his mind. mained for some time without moving on It was some weeks since he had paid his the spot where he had lost sight of the last visit to Beckley, and in the mean time train which bore Mary away. information of importance had reached In his mind, which had been so calm him, which he had every day intended to but a few months before, a tumult and bring before Mr. Arnold-namely, that discord now prevailed, which made him the inheritance, which had mainly led to indescribably unhappy. What yesterday their acquaintance, had fallen through, he had thought an impossible piece of owing to the discovery of an heir nearer in good fortune, to be free from all ties, and succession than Mr. Arnold, and that to have obtained his freedom without say- consequently further exertions in inquiry ing a single word which his strong sense and investigation had become useless. of honor and justice would have forbidden him to say this was now an actual fact. Mary was gone, and he was free.

When Otto entered the gate of Beckley at the same hour as on his first visit, it seemed to him as if years had passed since that day.

But why did not his heart rejoice, as he thought it would have done? Why did It was some relief to him that nature did he gaze at the train that took her away not now present itself to him in the full with such an inward feeling of pain? summer glow of a June morning; that the Why that inexpressible longing to see and speak to her once more? To go home was at that moment impossible to him; so leaving the station he went along the broad gravel walk which led out of the town.

He did not heed the rain, which fell in great drops; he did not feel the chill autumn wind, which blew round his ears and whistled through the trees; he could only feel the oppression and burden of his

flowers had disappeared; that the few
leaves which had resisted the autumn wind
hung yellow and withered on the trees, and
might be called solitary compared with the
numbers which crackled under his feet, or
which the wind blew against him.
It was
a relief to him that all was different, as he
was himself.

With an altered face also Mr. Arnold came to meet Otto as he entered the study. How much older, how much more fallen

away, he appeared since their first meeting, Welters, not to know what will become of and especially since the last time Otto had his daughter, for whose happiness he is spoken to him but a few weeks back. And ready to sacrifice all that he has in the what a shade of sadness overspread his face, world.” where now there was a settled expression "We must hope, Mr. Arnold," said of melancholy, the traces of which Otto Otto, warmly," that the time is farther off had often discerned before. After greeting than you think when she will require other Mr. Arnold, and excusing himself for care than that of her father; but if she has having kept away so long, Otto communi- the misfortune to lose you and to be alone, cated the tidings respecting the inherit- you may be certain that she will find in ance, which appeared to make much less me all the help and support which it is in impression on Mr. Arnold than he ex- my power to give." pected.

Mr. Arnold responded to these evi'Well, I have done what was my duty dently well-intended words with a hearty to do," he said, calmly; "and if another pressure of his hand; but before he could man has more right to it than I have, I am content. Besides, money is of no consequence to me, and Celine has enough without that. Poor child she has suffered a greater loss to-day than the prospect of the inheritance.'

say anything, they were disturbed by loud cries and a noise which, although somewhat diminished by distance, reached the room where they were sitting.

Mr. Arnold sprang up alarmed at the first sound, and Otto followed him as he

"Suffered a loss?" asked Otto, with as hastened out of the room and down-stairs, much interest as surprise.

directing his steps to the stables, whence the sound proceeded.

"I have spoken to you more than once of my friend Van Dalen, have I not, Mr. And what a spectacle met their eyes on Welters? A friend of mine and of Celine's arriving there! The door stood wide open, in the fullest sense of the word; a friend aud there, in the middle of the stable, was who promised to be a father to her when I Celine Arnold, standing before her white should be no more. Before I left India horse, which, foaming from the mouth, was everything was settled and agreed upon rearing back wildly. Celine, with a face with him and his wife, and I should have distorted with passion and her eyes flaming, tranquilly laid down my head knowing held with one hand by the collar a stable that Celine would have found a home with boy, from whom the screams proceeded, him. By the last mail I received the news while with the other she beat him with all of his death." her might with a thick riding-whip of her father's.

Overcome with emotion, Mr Arnold was silent. Otto, having said a few words of sympathy, inquired:

"There! there! there!" she cried, with a harsh voice at each repeated stroke, whilst "And his widow-cannot she be a the servants who had collected stood staring mother to your daughter, although her in horror at the scene, but not one of them husband is no longer there to aid her in ventured to interfere. the task?"

"No, no, that would not do; Celine could not be left to her guidance alone, and I believe that a plan is arranged for her to take up her abode with a married daughter. It is a hard thing for a father,

No one but her father dared even to approach her. He had no sooner entered the stable than the whip was taken out of her hand and thrown into a corner, and the stable boy released.

"For shame, Celine !" He said these

words gently and earnestly, and in a sorrowful tone. Nevertheless her passion was not subdued. With a shrieking voice she stammered out in broken sentences:

CHAPTER XII.

A NEW VERSION OF AN OLD SONG.

"My father is ill, Otto! do come to us

"CELINE."

"He has beaten Schimmel. I have again if Beckley is not out of your way. long been watching him till I caught him in the act, and I have beaten him, and shall beat him again. I'll beat him to death if he ever comes in my way again. He to beat Schimmel, poor defenceless beast! Then I'll beat him, I will—I'll beat him to death! My poor Schimmel !"

This short note reached Otto early one morning, a few days after the visit to Beckley already mentioned, a visit which, after the scene he had witnessed, he had hardly found courage to repeat. He kissed Celine's beautiful handwriting before he Now, however, came the reaction of her locked up the letter in his desk. He felt passion. She turned round suddenly, and his heart glow with the thought that it was throwing her arms round the horse's neck Celine who was calling him to her, that and hiding her head in his long white she felt the want of his presence now that mane, she burst into passionate sobs, and her father was ill, and she was herself, addressed soft caressing words in Malay to perhaps, in a serious and sorrowful frame

the animal.

of mind.

And so they left her alone. On this occasion I will for once make The stable boy had immediately taken use of the hackneyed poetical expression to flight, the servants went back to the to inform you that Otto forthwith flew on house, Mr. Arnold again retired to his the wings of love to Beckley, and hardly a

room, whilst Otto went away unobserved, and deeply affected returned to the town.

Was this the girl who had driven Mary out of his heart? Could a man hope for happiness with a woman who can change into such a fury? Was such a woman worthy of the love which a man would devote to her as the best feeling of his heart?

quarter of an hour after the receipt of Celine's letter he entered the house, or at least intended to enter it, for, as he went up the steps, Celine came out of the door, accompanied by Cæsar.

How sorrowful and careworn she looked; how cordially she pressed Otto's hand as she greeted him.

"How is your father, Celine ?"

"I fear not at all well, Otto; I sat up with him last night, and found him feverish and restless."

"May I go to him ?"

A fresh letter was written that afternoon to Mary and torn up. Poor wavering Otto ! he could not sleep that night owing to the vision which hovered incessantly before his eyes. The vision of Celine in her violent fury and unwomanly act? No, indeed; "No, not now; he has just fallen but the recollection of the glowing face, asleep, and I have taken advantage of the the sparkling dark eyes, the black locks opportunity to telegraph to Amsterdam. hanging loose and mingled with the white I hope, therefore, to have the doctor here mane of the horse, the caressing words in this evening.' the soft-sounding, strange language.

'Why did you not let me sit up with The image of the moth and the candle has your father, Celine? You know what a been too often used and abused to be bor-pleasure it would have been to me to be rowed here, but it could never have a bet- of service to you in any way," said Otto, ter application than in the case of Otto warmly. Welters.

"Yes, that I willingly believe,” an

swered Celine, again putting out her hand "No, Otto! in that sense the church to him. "You are our only friend, bells have no sound for me. I like to Otto, and when I want help I will not hear them, as a pleasant melody which hesitate to apply to you, but the nursing of charms my ear, but they have no language my dear father I will hand over to no one. for me. There is no church which can Great tears glistened in her eyes as she call me; I belong to none, and I wish to uttered these words in a soft tone. belong to none."

How lovely, how charming, how en- "And why not?" asked Otto, with tirely feminine she was, as she stood some astonishment at her decided tone. before Otto in her great distress. No "Is there no church communion with wonder he wholly forgot how he had last whose form of worship you could agree? seen her. No wonder he consented so Is there never in you a strongly felt want eagerly when she proposed to him to to hear in any church a serious word of walk with her, as she wished to take ad- consolation or encouragement? See, Cevantage of her father being asleep to get line-I am a man, and as such, may be some fresh air out of doors after her sleepless night.

thought to attach myself less to these things than women do, whose sentimental life is So they walked together in the fir-wood, more developed, from their having less which clothed the hill behind the house. occupation; yet I feel calmer and more The unchanging green of the fir-trees and contented when I have sought and found the clear blue sky, which was so bright an opportunity in church of withdrawing overhead on this morning, made the ad- my thoughts from the world to fix them vance of the season hardly perceptible. on higher interests." Celine went on, silently sunk in thought, whilst Otto did not venture to disturb her meditations by any commonplace remark, which he thought would be unsuitable to her present serious mood.

"And can you only do that in church, Otto ?" she asked, with a smile.

"No, Celine. I ought, perhaps, to be able to do so at home, but when I stay at home I cannot manage it, and just on this Yet he would willingly have interrupted account I hold that going to church is a her sad thoughts, and when Celine, having good habit. Tell me, is it on principle, reached the highest point of the hill, sat or is it a caprice on your part, to avoid down upon the seat placed there, he took belonging to any church ?” advantage of the Sunday bells of Dilburg, "It was a principle of my father's not of which the sound reached them through to make any profession for me in any the stillness of the wood, to begin a con- church communion before I was myself versation with her. able to determine my own choice by in"Do you hear the bells, Celine? Is it vestigation. To him all men-Jews, with you as with me? Do you not find Christians, Heathen, Catholics, and Prosomething solemn, something poetical, in testants are equal. He calls them all the sound of the church bells, which say brothers, as children of the same God, to you that it is the Sabbath, the day of participators in the same human nature, the Lord, and which call you to come to and having the same destiny, whether they church, to lay aside worldly cares for a believe in the name of Mahomet, of Jesus, while and to lift up your soul to the or of Mary." Creator ?"

For a moment Celine looked at Otto with surprise before she answered him.

"And this destiny is ?"

"To co-operate in the place which each creature fills, with the natural and eternal