on and of his work seemed to act
favorably upon him. After his first welcome at the Club he came home
with bright eye and vigorous step, declaring that he was another man.

Flaxman established himself in St. James' Place. Town was deserted,
the partridges at Greenlaws clamored to be shot; the head-keeper wrote
letters which would have melted the heart of a stone. Flaxman replied
recklessly that any decent fellow in the neighborhood was welcome to
shoot his birds--a reply which almost brought upon him the resignation
of the outraged keeper by return of post. Lady Charlotte wrote and
remonstrated with him for neglecting a landowner's duties, inquiring at
the same time what he meant to do with regard to 'that young lady.' To
which Flaxman replied calmly that he had just come back from the
Lakes, where he had done, not indeed all that he meant to do, but still
something. Miss Leyburn and he were not engaged, but he was on probation
for six months, and found London the best place for getting through it.

'So far,' he said, 'I am getting on well, and developing an amount of
energy, especially in the matter of correspondence, which alone ought to
commend the arrangement to the relations of an idle man. But we must be
left "to dream our dream unto ourselves alone." One word from anybody
belonging to me to anybody belonging to her on the subject, and----. But
threats are puerile. _For the present_, dear Aunt,

I am, your devoted Nephew
HUGH FLAXMAN.

'_On probation!_'

Flaxman chuckled as he sent off the letter.

He stayed because he was too restless to be anywhere else, and because
he loved the Elsmeres for Rose's sake and his own. He thought moreover
that a cool-headed friend with an eye for something else in the world
than religious reform might be useful just then to Elsmere, and he was
determined at the same time to see what the reformer meant to be at.

In the first place, Robert's attention was directed to getting
possession of the whole block of buildings, in which the existing school
and lecture-rooms took up only the lowest floor. This was a matter of
some difficulty, for the floors above were employed in warehousing goods
belonging to various minor import trades, and were hold on tenures of
different lengths. However, by dint of some money and much skill, the
requisite clearances were effected during September and part of October.
By the end o