e her, and who was tender
and thoughtful as a brother, and gave no sign to her of the volcano
raging within when he thought of the Hon. John and Neil, neither of
whom sent a word to the stricken girl waiting so anxiously for news
from them. But he wrote to them both. To the Hon. John, he said:

"DEAR SIR:--Mr. Grey Jerrold and myself saw your nephew buried
_decently_ as you suggested, but there is no bill to send you, as
Miss Bessie would not allow it. I am sorry you did not find it
convenient to come to the funeral. The presence of some one of her
family would have been such a comfort to Miss Bessie, who, in that
respect, was quite alone, though I may say that hundreds of people
attended the funeral, and had the deceased been the eldest son of an
earl, instead of your nephew, more respect could not have been paid
him. I must leave here to-morrow for Trevellian Castle, and then
Miss Bessie will be quite alone, but I dare say you and Lady Jane
will soon arrive to take charge of her.

"Respectfully,

"JACK TREVELLIAN."

"That will settle him," Jack thought, and taking a fresh sheet, he
commenced a letter to Neil, which ran as follows:

"STONELEIGH, July ----.

"OLD BOY; Where in the name of wonder are you, that you neither
come, nor write, nor answer telegrams, nor pay any more attention to
your Cousin Bessie than if she were not your cousin, and you had
never been pretty far gone in regard to her and afraid a chap like
me would look at her! Don't you know her mother is on the sea, going
to America, sick as a horse, I hope, as she ought to be, and that
her father is dead and buried, and not a soul of her kin here to
comfort her? But she was not deserted, I assure you, and I call it a
dispensation of Providence which sent Grey Jerrold here the night
before Mr. McPherson died, and a second dispensation which sent me
here the day after. I never pitied anybody in my life as I did the
little, tired out, girl, who stood between Jerrold and myself at the
grave. And now, the day after the funeral, she is white as a piece
of paper and seems as limp and exhausted, as if all the muscle were
gone from her. Poor little Bessie! Foolish Bessie, too, to make the
moan she does for some of her relatives to be here--for you, old
chap, for I heard her say, 'Oh, if Neil were here.' By Jove! if I'd
had you by t