ckade in your college cap.
I return to Tredinnis to-morrow; so your news, whatever it is,
must be addressed to me there. But it is safe to be good
news."

"Your friend,"
"HONORIA."

3.

"TREDINNIS, Nov. 27, 18--."

"MOST HONOURED SCHOLAR,--Behold me, an hour ago, a great lady,
seated in lonely grandeur at the head of my own ancestral
table. This is the first time I have used the dining-room;
usually I take all my meals in the morning-room, at a small
table beside the fire. But to-night I had the great table
spread and the plate spread out, and wore my best gown, and
solemnly took my grandfather's chair and glowered at the ghost
of a small girl shivering at the far end of the long white
cloth. When I had enough of this (which was pretty soon) I
ordered up some champagne and drank to the health of
Theophilus John Raymond, Demy of Magdalen College, Oxford.
I graciously poured out a second glass for the small ghost at
the other end of the table; and it gave her the courage to
confess that she, too, in a timid way, had taken an interest in
you for years, and hoped you were going to be a great man.
Having thus discovered a bond between us, we grew very
friendly; and we talked a great deal about you afterwards in
the drawing-room, where I lost her for a few minutes and found
her hiding in the great mirror over the fire-place--a habit of
hers."

"It is time for me to practise ceremony, for it seems that
George and I are to be married some time in the spring. For my
part I think my lord would be content to wait longer; for so
long as he is happy and sees others cheerful he is not one to
hurry or worry. But Sir Harry is the impatient one: and has
begun to talk of his decease. He doesn't believe in it a bit,
and at times when he composes his features and attempts to be
lugubrious I have to take up a book and hide my smiles. But he
is clever enough to see that it worries George."

"I saw both your father and mother this morning. Mr. Raymond has
been kept to the house by a chill; nothing serious: but he is
fretting to be out again and at work in that draughty church.
He will accept no help; and the mistress of Tredinnis has no
right to press it on him. I shall never understand men and