last week. Dear Alice is in perfect health, and
little Master Dick is to be christened on
Tuesday. We invite you all.

THE ALMOND-TREE
.
SPENDTHRIFT of Spring, why in the keen bright air
Thus squander all thy blossoms in the sun?
Thou art too heedless of the swift-winged care
That will o'ertake thee ere the month outrun.
Flowers before leaves? That is not husbandry.
Laugh at sorrow with thy blushing flowers.
Beware, beware! Already in yon cloud
The frost is gathering all its subtle powers.
Be not then still so heedless and so proud,
Lest thou, perchance, some rosy morn in May
(Palsied and trembling with an unseen blight),
Shalt wake and shudder at the cruel day
Of doom, that ends thy pleasure and brings night.
Be wise, beware old Winter's frozen breath,
Thy smiles will not appease the tyrant Death.

        THE SECOND MRS. TILLOTSON
         By the author of "Never Forgotten."

                       BOOK IV.
           CHAPTER XXVII.  CONFUSION.

THE cruel furies had now finally entered into
that house. Friends, acquaintances, servants
particularly, were all coming to the knowledge
of there being something wrong. This truth
might be gathered from Mr. Tillotson's worn
and despairing face. All his friends told him that
if he didn't take care " he would break down."

He had but one purpose, which he was
carrying out.

About ten days later, Captain Diamond came
limping up with a bright face and a sense of
importance quite unusual with him. He asked
for Mrs. Tillotson, but she was out. Mr. Tillotson
was, as usual, in his study. " Egad, that'll
do for me as well," said the captain, getting off
his high-collared great-coat. " And how have
you been, Martha? I declare you are looking
as young as you were six years ago.
You'll see, Martha, that no one runs away with
my third leg. Egad, it's better to me than number
two leg!" He then went into the study.

He started back when he saw his friend.
"My dear fellow, what have you been doing to
yourself? What's all this?"

"Sit down," said the other; " this is very kind
of you. I have so few friends now."

"But," said the captain, in real distress, " this
isn't the thing at all, at all. Why, you've two
pink spots here the size of half-a-crown. Ah,
now," added the captain, testily, " this is the
old thing again, playing the deuce with yourself.
It'll end badly, I tell you. Once you take
what they called the green-eyed fellow into your
head, it's all gone with you. I could tell you
a story of that, about Bouchier, as nice and
open-hearted a fellow as ever put on a shako,
and who married as elegant a woman as you
could pick out. My dear fellow, that young
woman loved him as well as you'd love your
father or mother; and Bouchier took it into his
head to be jealous of a little major we had, a
creature with no harm in him. Ah, but this is
one of Tom's long stories. It didn't end well."

"I dare say not," said Mr. Tillotson, gloomily,
"neither will this end well. But I have done
with explanations; I have only too certain proof.
O, Diamond, to think of her, for whom I
have suffered so much! To think of her first
deceiving me, and then plotting with adventurers
to ruin and expose her own husband!
I was a fool, and knew very little of life, to think
that she would get to love me."

"Folly, folly, folly," said the captain, moving
restlessly on his chair. " She dotes on you.
I know it. And, as for all these suspicions,
I have got something with me that will
prove what I say. The fact is, we are going
to get that wild scamp out of the country."

Tillotson started.

"Ah, ah!" said the captain, with triumph.
"That's something like! Is old Tom the Boijo
after that?" Then he proceeded to tell how he
had applied to General Cameron and other
friends, and how, only last night, he had got
an answer from the general, who was " as
fine a trump of a man as ever pulled a belt."

"Look here, Tillotson. Just listen to this,"
said the captain, getting on his spectacles; " he's
a true blue;" and the captain read:

"' My dear Diamond. I got yours in the
country here, where it was sent on to me. I
was very glad to see your old handwriting,
my dear Tom, and indeed I have not forgotten
you or the old Fiftieth days.

"' I am very glad you have thought of your
old friend Cameron; only I wish to Heaven
you'd ask something for yourself, and not—-as
you always were doing—-for some one else.

"' Of course, we shall do something for your
friend. They are organising a new mounted
police force at the island, and we want a dashing
savage fellow that has been in the army.
From what you say, I dare say your fellow would
be just the thing for a captain. The island will
give a good salary—-eight hundred. So I tell
you what. I shall be in town on Monday, and
you can come to me at the club and take your
bit of dinner, and we'll talk it over, and also the
poor fellows that we all knew in the old ' half-
hundred' and had such nights with.'

"There," said the captain, folding it up.
"Think of a high-up fellow like that, in the Bath
too, with his aiderkongs about him, recollecting
an old spanchelled foosterer in lodgings, like
me! Well, let me tell you now. I went off at
once, this morning, lame leg and all, to Ross,
and saw him too; and faith, didn't he take to it
at once? I knew he'd like riding about the
country and hunting down the rascals. He's
ready to go in a week."

Something like pleasure came into Tillotson's
face. " If this be so," he said, " there is some
hope. But what will she say? Do you suppose
she will consent?"

"My dear friend," said the captain, eagerly,