s downfall
that the family would have been reduced to absolute poverty were it not
for a small legacy of two-hundred a year which both the children had
received from one of their uncles upon the mother's side who had amassed
a fortune in Australia. By combining their incomes, and by taking a
house in the quiet country district of Tamfield, some fourteen miles
from the great Midland city, they were still able to live with some
approach to comfort. The change, however, was a bitter one to all--to
Robert, who had to forego the luxuries dear to his artistic temperament,
and to think of turning what had been merely an overruling hobby into a
means of earning a living; and even more to Laura, who winced before
the pity of her old friends, and found the lanes and fields of
Tamfield intolerably dull after the life and bustle of Edgbaston. Their
discomfort was aggravated by the conduct of their father, whose life
now was one long wail over his misfortunes, and who alternately sought
comfort in the Prayer-book and in the decanter for the ills which had
befallen him.

To Laura, however, Tamfield presented one attraction, which was now
about to be taken from her. Their choice of the little country hamlet as
their residence had been determined by the fact of their old friend,
the Reverend John Spurling, having been nominated as the vicar. Hector
Spurling, the elder son, two months Laura's senior, had been engaged to
her for some years, and was, indeed, upon the point of marrying her when
the sudden financial crash had disarranged their plans. A sub-lieutenant
in the Navy, he was home on leave at present, and hardly an evening
passed without his making his way from the Vicarage to Elmdene, where
the McIntyres resided. To-day, however, a note had reached them to
the effect that he had been suddenly ordered on duty, and that he must
rejoin his ship at Portsmouth by the next evening. He would look in,
were it but for half-an-hour, to bid them adieu.

"Why, where's Hector?" asked Mr. McIntyre, blinking round from side to
side.

"He's not come, father. How could you expect him to come on such a night
as this? Why, there must be two feet of snow in the glebe field."

"Not come, eh?" croaked the old man, throwing himself down upon the
sofa. "Well, well, it only wants him and his father to throw us over,
and the thing will be complete."

"How can you even hint at such a thing, father?" cried Laura
indignantly. "They have been as true a