more and

was lifted out at the end

of the five-minutes' passage just as usual.

But the two men, though they also said nothing, remembered the expression of his face to their dying day.

"Take me home, Malcolm; I will go to the Manse another time. 'Carry me in your arms the quickest way."

Malcolm lifted his master, and carried him, just as in the days when the Earl was a child, through the pleasant woods of Cairnforth, up to the Castle-door.

Nobody had expected them; and there was nothing ready.

"It's no matter,-- no matter," fecbly said the Earl, and allowed himself to be placed in an arm-chair by the fire in the housekeeper's room. There he sat passive.

"Will I bring the minister?" whispered Malcolm, respectfully. "Maybe ye wad like to see him, my Lord!"

"No, no."

"His lordship's no weel pleased," said the housekeeper to Mrs. Campbell, when the Earl leant his head back, and seemed to be sleeping. "Is it about

the Captain's Captain's marriage? Did he no

ken ?"

"Ne'er a word o't.'

"That was great lack o' respect on the part o' Captain Bruce, and he sic a pleasant young man; and Miss Helen, too. Miss Helen tauld me her ain sel that the Earl was greatly set upon her marriage, for the Captain gaed to Edinburgh just to tell him o't. And he wrote her

word that his lordship wished him no to

bide a single day, but to marry Miss Helen and tak her awa. She'd never hae done it—in my opinion, but for that. For the Captain was at her ilka day an' a' day lang, looking like a ghaist, and tellin' her he couldna live without her, and she's a tender heart, Miss Helen and she was awfu' vexed for him, ye ken. For sure, Malcolm, the Captain did seem almost like deein"."

"Deein'!" cried Malcolm, contemptuously, and then stopped. For while they were talking the Earl's eyes had opened wide and fixed with a strange, sad, terrified look upon vacancy.

He remembered it all now the last

night he had spent at Cairnforth with

his cousin the conversation which passed

-

between them-the questions asked, which,

from his not answering, might have enabled the Captain to guess at the probable disposal of his property. He could come to no other conclusion than that Captain Bruce had married Helen with the same motive which must have induced his appearance at the Castle, and his eager and successful efforts to ingratiate himself there namely, money; that the fortune which which he had himself missed might accrue to him through his union with Lord Cairnforth's heiress.

How had he possibly accomplished this? How had he succeeded in making good, innocent, simple Helen love him for that

she would

never have married without

love, the Earl well knew?

By what persuasions, entreaties, or lies the housekeeper's story involved some evident lies

he had attained his end, remained, and must ever remain, among the mysteries of the many mysterious marriages which take place every day.

And it was all over - she

was

married, and gone away. Doubtless the Captain had taken his precautions to prevent any possible hindrance. That it was a safe marriage legally, even though so little was known of the bridegroom's antecedent life, seemed more than probable certain; seeing that the chief object he would have in this marriage was its legality; to assure himself thereby of the