me, Gerard, I will put up with the loss without a murmur: only confess, and let the worry be done with."

Gerard Hope looked at her: little trace of shame was there in his countenance. "Lady Sarah," he asked in a deep tone, can you indeed deem me capable of taking your bracelet ?"

"The bracelet was there, sir, and it went; and you can't deny it," uttered the Colonel.

"It was there, fast enough," answered Gerard. "I held it in my hand two or three minutes, and was talking to Miss Seaton about it. I was wishing it was mine, and saying what I should do with it."

"O Mr. Hope! pray say no more," involuntarily interrupted Alice. "You will make appearances worse."

"What do you want to screen him for?" impetuously broke forth the Colonel, turning upon Alice. "Let him what say

he was going to say." "I do not know why I should not say it," Gerard Hope answered, in, it must be thought, a spirit of bravado or recklessness, which he disdained to check. "I said I should spout it."

"You'll send off to every pawnshop in the metropolis, before the night's over, Mr. Officer," cried the choking Colonel, breathless with rage. "This beats brass." "But I did not take it any the more for having said that," put in Gerard, in a graver tone. "The remark might have been made by any one from a duke downwards, if reduced to his last shifts, as I am. I said if it were mine: I did not say I would steal to do it. Nor did I."

"I saw him put it down again," said Alice Seaton, in a calm, steady voice.

"Allow me to speak a word, Colonel," resumed Lady Sarah, interrupting something her husband was about to say. "Gerard-I can not believe you guilty; but consider the circumstances. The bracelet was there you acknowledge it: Miss Seaton left the apartment when you did, and went into the front-room: yet when I came up from dinner, it was there no longer."

The Colonel would speak. "So it lies between you and Miss Seaton," he put in. "Perhaps you would like to make believe she appropriated it."

"No," answered Gerard, with a flashing eye. "She can not be doubted. I would rather take the guilt upon myself,

than allow her to be suspected. Believe me, Lady Sarah, we are both innocent."

"The bracelet could not have gone without hands to take it, Gerard," replied Lady Sarah. "How else do you account for its disappearance ?"

"I believe there must be some misapprehension, some great mistake in the affair altogether, Lady Sarah. It appears incomprehensible now, but it will be un

raveled."

"Ay, and in double-quick time," wrathfully exclaimed the Colonel. "You must think you are talking to a pack of idiots, Master Gerard. Here the bracelet was spread temptingly out on a table, you went into the room, being hard up for money, fingered it, wished for it, and both you and the bracelet disappeared. Sir," turning sharply round to the officer"did a clearer case ever go before a jury ?"

Gerard Hope bit his lip. "Be more just, Colonel," said he. brother's son steal a bracelet!"

"Your own

"And I am happy my brother's not alive to know it," rejoined the Colonel, in an obstinate tone. "Take him in hand, Mr. Officer: we'll go to Marlborough street. I'll just change my coat and-"

"No, no, you will not," cried Lady Sarah, laying hold of the dressing-gown and the Colonel in it; " you shall not go, nor Gerard either. Whether he is guilty or not, it must not be brought against him publicly. He bears your name, Colonel, and so do I, and it would reflect disgrace on us all.”

'Perhaps you are made of money, my lady. If so, you may put up with the loss of a two-hundred-and-fifty-guinea bracelet. I don't choose to do so."

"Then, Colonel, you will; and you must. Sir," added Lady Sarah to the detective, we are obliged to you for your attendance and advice, but it turns out to be a family affair, as you perceive, and we must decline to prosecute. Besides, Mr. Hope may not be guilty."

Alice rose, and stood before Colonel Hope. "Sir, if this charge were preferred against your nephew; if it came to trial, I think it would kill me. You know my unfortunate state of health; the agitation, the excitement of appearing to give evidence would be-I-I can not continue; I can not speak of it without terror; I pray you, for my sake, do not prosecute Mr. Hope."

The Colonel was about to storm forth an answer, but her white face, her heaving throat, had some effect even on him. "He is so doggedly obstinate, Miss Seaton. If he would but confess, and tell where it is, perhaps I'd let him off."

Alice thought somebody else was obstinate. "I do not believe he has any thing to confess," she deliberately said; "I truly believe that he has not. He could not have taken it, unseen by me: and when we quitted the room, I feel sure the bracelet was left in it."

"It was left in it, so help me Heaven!" uttered Gerard.

"And, now, I have got to speak," added Frances Chenevix. "Colonel, if you were to press the charge against Gerard, I would go before the magistrates, and proclaim myself the thief. I vow and protest I would, just to save him; and you and Lady Sarah could not prosecute me, you know."

"You do well to stand up for him!" retorted the Colonel. "You would not be quite so ready to do it, though, my Lady Fanny, if you knew something I could tell you.”

"Oh! yes, I should," returned the young lady, with a vivid blush.

The Colonel, beset on all sides, had no choice but to submit; but he did so with an ill-grace, and dashed out of the room with the officer, as fiercely as if he had been charging an enemy at full tilt. "The sentimental apes these women make of themselves!" cried he, in his polite way, when he had got him in private. "Is it not a clear case of guilt ?"

"In my private opinion, it certainly is," was the reply; "though he carries it off with a high hand. I suppose, Colonel, you still wish the bracelet to be searched for ?"

"Search in and out, and high and low; search every where. The rascal! to dare even to enter my house in secret!"

"May I inquire if the previous breach, with your nephew, had to do with money affairs ?"

II.

Ir was in the following week, and Saturday night. Thomas, without his hat, was standing at Colonel Hope's door, chatting to an acquaintance, when he perceived Gerard come tearing up the street. Thomas's friend backed against the rails and the spikes, and Thomas himself stood with the door in his hand, ready to touch his hair to Mr. Gerard, as he passed. Instead of passing, however, Gerard cleared the steps at a bound, pulled Thomas with himself inside, shut the door, and double-locked it.

Thomas was surprised in all ways. Not only at Mr. Hope's coming in at all, for the Colonel had again harshly forbidden the house to him and the servants to admit him, but at the suddenness and strangeness of the action.

Cleverly done," quoth Gerard, when he could get his breath. "I saw a shark after me, Thomas, and had to make a bolt for it. Your having been at the door saved me."

Thomas turned pale. "Mr. Gerard, you have locked it, and I'll put up the chain, if you order me, but I'm afeared its going again the law to keep out them detectives by force of arms."

"What's the man's head running on now?" returned Gerard. "There are no detectives after me; it was only a seedy sheriff's officer. Psha, Thomas! there's no worse crime attaching to me than a slight suspicion of debt."

"I'm sure I trust not, sir; only master will have his own way."

"Is he at home ?"

"He is gone to the opera with my lady. The young ladies are up stairs alone. Miss Seaton has been ill, sir, ever since the bother, and Lady Frances is staying home with her."

"I'll go up and see them. If they are at the opera, we shall be snug and safe."

"O Mr. Gerard! had you better go up, do you think?" the man ventured to remark. "If the Colonel should come to hear of it

"How can he? You are not going to tell him, and I am sure they will not. Besides, there's no help for it: I can't go out again, for hours. And, Thomas, if any demon should knock and ask for me, I am gone to-to-an evening party up at

Putney; went out, you know, by the side door."

Thomas watched him run up the stairs, and shook his head. (C "One can't help liking him, with it all: though where could the bracelet have gone to, if he did not take it ?"

The drawing-rooms were empty, and Gerard made his way to a small room that Lady Sarah called her "boudoir." There they were: Alice buried in the pillows of an invalid chair, and Lady Frances careering about the room, apparently practicing some new dancing step. She did not see him. Gerard danced up to her, and took her hand, and joined in it.

"Oh!" she cried, with a little scream of surprise, "you! Well, I have staid at home to some purpose. But how could you think of venturing within these sacred and forbidden walls? Do you forget that the Colonel threatens us with the terrors of the law, if we suffer it? You are a bold man, Gerard."

"When the cat's away, the mice can play," ‚” cried Gerard, treating them to a pas seul.

"Mr. Hope!" remonstrated Alice, lifting her feeble voice, "how can you indulge these spirits, while things are so miserable ?".

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Sighing and groaning won't make them light," he answered, sitting down on a sofa near to Alice. "Here's a seat for you, Fanny; come along," he added, pulling Frances to his side. "First and foremost, has any thing come to light about that mysterious bracelet ?"

"It is the guilty only who flee, not the innocent," said Frances. "You don't mean what you say, Gerard.”

"Don't I! There's a certain boat advertised to steam from London-bridge wharf to-morrow, wind and weather permitting, and it steams me with it. I am compelled to fly my country."

"Be serious, and say what you mean." Seriously, then, I am over head and ears in debt. You know my uncle stopped my allowance in the spring, and sent me metaphorically-to the dogs. It got wind; ill-news always does; I had a few liabilities, and they have all come down upon me. But for this confounded bracelet affair, there's no doubt the Colonel would have settled them; rather than let the name of Hope be dubiously bandied by the public, he would have expended his ire in growls, and then gone and done it. But that is over now; and I go to take up my abode in some renowned colony for desolate English, beyond the pale of British lock-ups. Boulogne, or Calais, or Dippe, or Brussels; I shall see: and there I may be kept for years."

Neither of the young ladies answered immediately; they saw the facts were serious, and that Gerard was only making light of it before them.

"How shall you live?" questioned Alice. "You must live there as well as here: you can not starve."

"I shall just escape the starving. I have got a trifle; enough to swear by, and keep me on potatoes and salt. Don't you envy me my prospects ?"

"When do you suppose you may return ?" inquired Lady Frances. "I ask it

ment.

Alice winced, and leaned her head upon her hand she spoke in a low tone.

"You must understand what I mean, Mr. Hope. The affair has been productive of so much pain and annoyance to me, that I wish it could be ignored forever."

"Though it left me under a cloud," said Gerard. "You must pardon me if I can not agree with you. My constant hope is, that it may all come to daylight: I assure you I have specially mentioned it in my prayers."

Pray don't, Mr. Hope!" reproved Alice.

"I'm sure I have cause to mention it, for it is sending me into exile: that, and other things."

"I know no more than you, Fanny. I have no expectations but from the Colonel. Should he never relent, I am caged there for good."

"And so you have ventured here to tell us this, and bid us good-by ?"

"No! I never thought of venturing here: how could I tell that the bashaw would be at the opera? A shark set on me in the street, and I had to run for my life. Thomas happened to be conveniently at the door, and I rushed in, and saved myself."

"A shark!" uttered Alice, in dismay, who in her experience had taken the words literally-"a shark in the street!" Lady Frances Chenevix laughed.

"One with sharp eyes and a hooked

now."

"How shall you get away ?" exclaimed Frances.

"If the bashaw comes home before twelve, Thomas must dispose of me some where in the lower regions: Sunday is free for us, thank goodness. So please to make the most of me, both of you, for it is the last time you will have the privilege. By the way, Fanny will you do me a favor? There used to be a little book of mine in the glass bookcase, in the library; my name in it, and a mottled cover: I wish you would go and find it for me."

Lady Frances left the room with alacrity. Gerard immediately bent over Alice, and his tone changed.

"I have sent her away on purpose. She'll be half an hour rummaging, for I have not seen the book there for ages. Alice, one word before we part. You must know that it was for your sake I refused the marriage proposed to me by my uncle: you will not let me go into banishment without a word of hope; a promise of your love to lighten it."

"O Gerard!" she eagerly said, "I am so glad you have spoken; I almost think I should have spoken myself, if you had not. Just look at me."

"I am looking at you," he fondly answered.

"Then look at my hectic face; my constantly tired limbs; my sickly hands; do they not plainly tell you that the topics you would speak of, must be barred topics to me ?"

Why should they be? You will get stronger."

"Never. There is no hope of it. Many years ago, when the illness first came upon me, the doctors said I might grow better with time; but the time has come, and come, and come, and- -gone; and only left me a more confirmed invalid. To an old age I can not live: most probably but a few years: ask yourself, Gerard, if I am one who ought to marry, and leave behind a husband to regret me, perhaps children. No, no."

"You are cruel, Alice."

"The cruelty would be, if I selfishly allowed you to talk of love to me; or, still more selfishly, let you cherish hopes that I would marry. When you hinted at this, I

"You dislike me, I see that."

"I did not say so," answered Alice. with a glowing cheek. "I think it very possible that-if I could allow myself ever to dwell on such things I should like you very much; perhaps better than I could like any one."

"And why will you not ?" he persuasively uttered.

66

Gerard, I have told you. I am too weak and sickly to be other than I am. It would be a sin, in me, to indulge hopes of it it would only be deceiving myself and you. No, Gerard, my love and hopes must lie elsewhere."

:

"Where ?" he eagerly asked. Alice pointed upwards. "I am learning to look upon it as my home," she whispered, "and I must not suffer hindrances to obscure the way. It will be a better home than even your love, Gerard."

Gerard Hope smiled. "Even than my love: Alice, you like me more than you admit. Unsay your words, my dearest, and give me hope."

"Do not vex me," she resumed in a pained tone; "do not seek to turn me from my duty. I-I-though I scarcely like to speak of these sacred things, Gerard-I have put my hand on the plow: even you can not turn me back."

He did not answer; he only played with the hand he held between both of his.

"Tell me one thing, Gerard: it will be safe. Was not the dispute about Frances Chenevix ?"

He contracted his brow; and nodded. And you could refuse her! You must learn to love her, for she would make you a good wife."

"Much chance there is now of my making a wife of any one!"

7

"Oh! this will blow over in time: I feel it will. Meanwhile

"Meanwhile you destroy every hopeful feeling I thought to take, to cheer me in my exile," was his impatient interruption.

"I love you alone, Alice; I have loved you for months, truly, fervently, and I know you must have seen it."

"Oh! not yet!" he cried, in an imploring tone, as if it were as she willed.

"Not just yet: I hope to see you return from exile. Let us say farewell while we are alone."

She spoke the last sentence ly, for footsteps were heard. snatched her to him, and laid upon hers.

hurriedGerard his face

"What cover did you say the book had?" demanded Frances Chenevix of Gerard, who was then leaning back on the sofa, apparently waiting for her. "A mottled? I can not see one any thing like it."

"No? I am sorry to have given you the trouble, Fanny. It has gone perhaps, amongst the have-beens."""

"Listen," said Alice, removing her hand from before her face, "that was a carriage stopped. Can they be come home ?"

Frances and Gerard flew into the next room, whence the street could be seen.

"I am sorry things go so cross just now with you, Gerard," whispered Lady Frances. "You will be very dull, over there."

66

Ay; fit to hang myself if you knew all. And the bracelet may turn up, and Lady Sarah be sporting it on her arm again, and I never know that the cloud is off me. No chance that any of you will be at the trouble of writing to a fellow."

"I will," said Lady Frances. "Whether the bracelet turns up, or not, I will write you sometimes, if you like, Gerard, and give you all the news."

"You are a good girl, Fanny," returned he, in a brighter accent, "and I will send you my address as soon as I have got one. You are not to turn proud, mind, and be off the bargain, if you find its au cinquième."

Frances laughed. "Take care of yourself, Gerard."

So Gerard Hope got clear off into exile. Did he pay his expenses with the proceeds of the diamond bracelet?

ABOUT the end of the last century there lived in Copenhagen a wealthy merchant, whose name was Kraft. He was a proud, imperious man, who looked upon riches as the greatest of all advantages, and their possession as the universal, in fact, the only passport to, or rather source of, happiness. He was extremely rich. His housekeeper declared that he was not able to count his money, he had so much; he measured his ducats by the bushel, and was certainly worth hundreds of thousands

of dollars. Born in affluence, he had never seen the slightest diminution in the fortune which surrounded him, for his father's mercantile house was already in its third generation, having descended from father to son, without any lessening of its capital during that long period, as there never had been more than one son in the family. In consequence of this, the large means of the firm had remained undivided, and they had been enabled to extend their mercantile transactions over