ore from Natal now."

"You will trace him! There's a dear Anne!" exclaimed Rosamond.

"I will write to them at home; Alick knows a good many hunters, and
could put Miles into the way of making inquiries, if he touches at
Natal on his way home."

"Miles will do all he can," said Julius; "he was almost broken-
hearted when he found how Archie had gone. I think he was even more
his hero than Raymond when we were boys, because he was more
enterprising; and my mother always thought Archie's baffled passion
for the sea reacted upon Miles."

"He will do it! He will find him, if he is the Miles I take him
for! How old was he--Archie, I mean?"

"A year older than Raymond; but he always seemed much younger, he
was so full of life and animation--so unguarded, poor fellow! He
used to play tricks with imitating hand-writing; and these, of
course, were brought up against him."

"Thirty-four! Not a bit too old for the other end of the romance!"

"Take care, Rosie. Don't say a word to Jenny till we know more.
She must not be unsettled only to be disappointed."

"Do you think she would thank you for that, you cold-blooded
animal?"

"I don't know; but I think the suspense would be far more trying
than the quiet resigned calm that has settled down on her. Besides,
you must remember that even if Archie were found, the mystery has
never been cleared up."

"You don't think that would make any difference to Jenny?"

"It makes all the difference to her father; and Jenny will never be
a disobedient daughter."

"Oh! but it will--it must be cleared! I know it will! It is
faithless to think that injustice is not always set right!"

"Not always here," said Julius, sadly. "See, there's the Backsworth
race-ground, the great focus of the evil."

"Were racing debts thought to have any part in the disaster?"

"That I can't tell; but it was those races that brought George
Proudfoot under the Vivian influence; and in the absence of all of
us, poor Archie, when left to himself after his mother's death, had
become enough mixed up in their amusements to give a handle to those
who thought him unsteady."

"As if any one must be unsteady who goes to the races!" cried
Rosamond. "You were so liberal about balls, I did expect one little
good word for races; instead of which, you are declaring a poor
wretch who goes to them capable of embezzling two thousand pounds,
and I dare say Anne agrees with you!"

"Now, did I ever say so, A