d you will
have a steady incumbent, for once there, I do not believe I shall
care to leave it. I have seen all of the world I wish to, and the
quiet and peace of Stoneleigh will be very grateful to me. I think,
however, that for the winter I shall remain in London, where I hope
to see you and Mr. Jerrold, whose father and mother I met years ago
at Penrhyn Park. I do not yet know when Neil will start for India;
probably within a few weeks, and then I shall be very lonely. That
God may bless you, my dear Bessie, and give you all the happiness
you deserve, is the prayer of your affectionate uncle,

"JOHN MCPHERSON."

CHAPTER XVII.

OLD FRIENDS.

Over this letter Bessie had a good cry, with her face on Grey's shoulder
and Grey's arms around her, and when he asked why she cried she said she
did not know, only the world seemed a very dreary world with no one
perfectly happy in it except themselves. But Bessie's tears in those
days were like April showers, and she was soon as joyous and gay as
ever, and entered heart and soul into the improvements and repairs which
were to make Stoneleigh habitable for the Hon. John, who, greatly to
their astonishment, came suddenly upon them one day when they were ankle
deep in brick and mortar and lath and plaster, and all the other
paraphernalia attendant upon repairing an old house.

Neil was away so much, he said, and he was so lonely in his lodgings,
with no one to speak to but his landlady, that he had decided to come to
Stoneleigh, though he did not mean to make the least trouble, or be at
all in the way.

But a fine gentleman, unaccustomed to wait upon himself, is always in
the way, and even Bessie's patience was taxed to its utmost during the
weeks which followed. Fortunately for her, Grey knew what was needed
better than she did herself, for while she would have torn down one day
what had been done the day before, he moved more cautiously and
judiciously, so that the work really progressed rapidly, and some time
in March John McPherson took possession of the two rooms which had been
expressly designed for him, and which, as they were fitted up and
furnished with a reference to comfort rather than elegance, were
exceedingly homelike and pleasant, and suited the London gentleman
perfectly.

"Here I shall live and die, blessing you with my last breath," he said
to Bessie, as he moved into his new quarters and seated himself in an