friends to go on the stage? My dear girl, on
your own showing, it's not a respectable man
you want in your present predicament. It's a
Rogue—like me."

Magdalen laughed bitterly.

"There is some truth in that," she said.
"Thank you for recalling me to myself and my
circumstances. I have my end to gain—and who
am I, to pick and choose the way of getting to
it? It is my turn to beg pardon now. I have
been talking as if I was a young lady of family
and position. Absurd! We know better than
that, don't we, Captain Wragge? You are quite
right. Nobody's child must sleep under
Somebody's roof—and why not yours?"

"This way," said the captain, dexterously
profiting by the sudden change in her humour,
and cunningly refraining from exasperating it by
saying more himself. "This way."

She followed him a few steps, and suddenly
stopped.

"Suppose I am discovered?" she broke out,
abruptly. " Who has any authority over me?
Who can take me back, if I don't choose to
go? If they all find me to-morrow, what then?
Can't I say No, to Mr. Pendril? Can't I trust
my own courage with Miss Garth?"

"Can you trust your courage with your
sister?" whispered the captain, who had not
forgotten the references to Norah which had
twice escaped her already.

Her head drooped. She shivered, as if the
cold night air had struck her, and leaned back
wearily against the parapet of the wall.

"Not with Norah," she said, sadly. "I could
trust myself with the others. Not with Norah."

"This way," repeated Captain Wragge. She
roused herself; looked up at the darkening
heaven, looked round at the darkening view.
"What must be, must," she said—and followed
him.

The Minster clock struck the quarter to eight
as they left the Walk on the Wall, and descended
the steps into Rosemary-lane. Almost at the
same moment, the lawyer's clerk from London
gave the last instructions to his subordinates,
and took up his own position, on the opposite
side of the river, within easy view of Mr.
Huxtable's door.

THE JAPANESE AT HOME.

To every one who has seen or heard of our
adventurous Asiatic visitors, the question will
naturally occur, "What will they think of their
own countrymen when they get back again, on
comparing the state of things Japanese with
what they have witnessed in Europe? How
will they, at first, reconcile themselves to the
absence of railways, gas, telegraphs, postage-
stamps, carriages, and operatic spectacles? What
impression are they likely themselves to receive,
on returning to give an account of their mission
to the authorities who sent them hither?"

For, experience teaches the traveller that not
until he revisits his native land can he fully
appreciate what he has seen elsewhere in relation
to what he left at home. The Dutchman has no
idea how wonderfully flat Holland is, until he
takes his rest, after a tour in Switzerland, in his
own country-house on the banks of a currentless
canal. The varied beauties of landscape
scenery are never so thoroughly felt, as after
the monotony of a long sea voyage. How
heartily do Arctic discoverers enjoy the
luxurious influence of a temperate climate! How
couriers, who have been posting night after
night, revel in the comfort of a pair of sheets in
an unjolting sleeping-place! The rustic who
returns to his village, after a first visit to
London town, never before knew how small
was that village: how noiseless, grass-grown, and
thinly-populated. And it is likely that the
Japanese ambassadors, until they set foot once
more in Japan, will hardly suspect what a
singular place is Japan, and what a singular people
are the Japanese.

Authentic accounts of those curious islands,
situated at the uttermost ends of the earth, are
not too common. A late and valuable contribution
has been furnished by the Marquis de
Moges, who accompanied Baron Gros to China,
and who gives us some idea of the contrasts to
their European experience which our Oriental
guests will meet with, as soon as they set
foot on their native shores. Their return
voyage, made on board a French ship of war,
will keep them in the midst of Frankish habits to
the last. They will not, like poor Baron Gros
and his suite, be obliged to put up with a hired
merchant steamer, be half eaten up by rats, red
and white ants, and cockroaches, on their way
homeward. And it must be confessed, however
they may regret and envy many of our accidental
wonders, they will find much at home to be
contented with, and even to be proud of. Above
all, they will meet with people willing to be
instructed, and not too conceited to profit by
the results of distant enterprise.

Simoda, the first Japanese port touched at by
M. de Moges, is small and narrow, but safe and
sheltered, except towards the south-west, where
it is a little exposed. Broken peaks, luxuriant
vegetation reaching down to the sea, pine-trees
scattered amidst the rocks, rice-fields in terraces
one above the other, delicious valleys each
with its brook, bursts of sunshine at different
points of the distance lighting up rugged and
volcanic mountains, lend enchantment to the
view. The peasantry look cheerful and happy;
the cottages are exquisitely clean, with an air of
ease and comfort about them.

If with nations, as with individuals, cleanliness
is to be regarded as a test of welfare, the
Japanese must be considered a happy people.
They were smiling and merry in their mein,
welcoming their visitors; the women did not
run away at the sight of Europeans, as in China;
nor were you surrounded with a crowd of ragged
coolies. The costume of the common people
is extremely simple—a sort of wide robe with a
girdle; but the principal feature is their