ffects of which
will be felt by the next, if not by the present, generation.

C. H. HARDING.

THE MARQUIS OF LOSSIE.

BY GEORGE MACDONALD, AUTHOR OF "MALCOLM."

CHAPTER LVII.

THE SHORE.

It was two days after the longest day of the year, when there is no
night in those regions, only a long twilight in which many dream and do
not know it. There had been a few days of variable weather, with sudden
changes of wind to east and north, and round again by south to west, and
then there had been a calm for several days. But now the little wind
there was blew from the north-east, and the fervor of a hot June was
rendered more delicious by the films of flavoring cold that floated
through the mass of heat. All Portlossie more or less, the Seaton
especially, was in a state of excitement, for its little neighbor
Scaurnose was more excited still. There the man most threatened, and
with greatest injustice, was the only one calm amongst the men, and
amongst the women his wife was the only one that was calmer than he.
Blue Peter was resolved to abide the stroke of wrong, and not resist the
powers that were, believing them in some true sense--which he found it
hard to understand when he thought of the factor as the individual
instance--ordained of God. He had a dim perception too that it was
better that one, and that one he, should suffer, than that order should
be destroyed and law defied. Suffering, he might still in patience
possess his soul, and all be well with him; but what would become of the
country if every one wronged were to take the law into his own hands?
Thousands more would be wronged by the lawless in a week than by unjust
powers in a year. But the young men were determined to pursue their plan
of resistance, and those of the older and soberer who saw the
uselessness of it gave themselves little trouble to change the minds of
the rest. Peter, although he knew they were not at rest, neither
inquired what their purpose might be, nor allowed any conjecture or
suspicion concerning it to influence him in his preparations for
departure. Not that he had found a new home. Indeed, he had not heartily
set about searching for one--in part because, unconsciously to himself,
he was buoyed up by the hope he read so clear in the face of his more
trusting wife that Malcolm would come to deliver them. His plan was to
leave her and his children with certain friends at Port Gordon: he would
not h