reproach.  The confidence you claim ought
not to have been yours.  Simple honesty
would have held me dumb, if other feelings
had been insufficient.  I had no right
to indulge in the luxury of sympathy.  I
will not have it now.  I do not need it.
Miserable I have not been: for I have done
no wrong.  No, sister, nor will I do wrong,"
— he pushed her gently from him— his colour
rose, his voice took a new tone, — " although
I love her! I love her! " he said, " with
all my strength; with all the yearning of
my soul; although I am the one who loves
her and will love her truest— deepest— best;
although all the world love her too."

He stopped abruptly, seated himself and
shaded his face with his hand.

" You have heard," he said, almost sternly ;
" you have your wish now.  You know your
brother's heart.  If I hid it from you before
it was not from shame.  I am not ashamed of
loving Rosamond Bellew.  I will carry my love
for her, with my hope of heaven, to the grave ;
pure and spotless, God helping me.  And
the life He gave me shall not be less worthy,
even if it be less happy, because of the love."

" Oh, brother, brother ! " Agnes sobbed,
clinging round his neck, " I cannot bear it ;
I, that am so happy, to see you suffer."

"My child, I know it is hard," he said,
tenderly ; " God bless you for the love that
makes it so."

" Every day, every time you see her, that
you go there " —

" I know.  Therefore, when my little bird
leaves me for her own happy nest, next spring
I shall go."

Where ? "

" Abroad somewhere.  I shall easily settle
where.  In the meantime, I shall not go
there again."  His glance unconsciously
caught the flowers that lay near him for a
single instant.  He rose resolvedly.

" Now, remember, no word henceforward."
He kissed her fondly, then led her gently,
but irresistibly, to the door.

" You must go to bed now.  Good night,
sister."

" Good night, brother."  But she lingered
yet a few minutes, — then she went.

Left alone, Leonard Ross stood beside the
fire-place, leaning his head against the high
mantelpiece.  His hands clasped themselves
together very tightly ; the one instinctive,
unconscious demonstration of rending pain.

It was a new pain, and one so mingled with
sweetness, that it defied him to put it away.
For a brief space he had tasted of a joy most
exquisite; — for once at least his life had
risen to full tide, and joy had crowned it
with a crest of light.  There is no man who
loves, and sees for the first time, the answering
electric look, which at a flash shows him
a new world radiant and glorious; into
which he alone may enter; over which he
alone holds sovereignty— there is no man, beholding
this, but would feel the rapture of the
new joy.  Leonard had tasted of the ecstasy :
now came the recoil.  The gate of the
dream-land had closed upon him, and he
stood in the cold, grey, outside world again.

In that grey reality, truths now made
themselves harshly felt. That he was not
alone in this love; that it was requited; soon
ceased to be a thought of sweetness: it
aggravated to torture, it lashed even to fierceness.
For the first time the cry of his soul
was, " It is more than I can bear."

Such strife, such struggle it is for no
earthly hand to record.  Let no man be
ashamed if, in his calmer latter days, he look
back to some such episode in his early life.
Over it, be sure, angel eyes have watched, with
divine compassion for the suffering, divine
exaltation in the victory.

In the morning Agnes came down, with
looks well tutored into cheerfulness.  Her
brother stood by the window, an open letter
in his hand.  He was very pale, she thought
to herself.  He kissed her as usual, then held
her hand still.

"Agnes," said he, in a low voice, " I have
only now just opened this letter."

" It was here last night.  Oh, Leonard, no
bad news ? "

" Uncle Fellowes is dead."

" Dead— Uncle Fellowes ! " A sudden
flash of thought made her heart beat quickly,
almost to suffocation.  She looked up in her
brother's face.

" There is no will, and I am the heir at
law."

CHIPS.

A PERPLEXING PARENTHESIS.

I HAVE had the misfortune to have a sum
of money left to me by a will which has
been drawn by an illogical (for I won't
say roguish) lawyer; who has inserted a
parenthesis in the most inconsiderate manner,
in the very heart of the most important
paragraph, totally at variance with
the context, and only calculated to create
heart-burnings and fees.

The bequest is made to three families;
and the only matter in dispute is, whether
one of the third shares should be divided.
I wished the Lord Chancellor, or one of
the Vice Chancellors as an authority on
the subject, to give me his reading of the
passage in question, and the consequence
is that I am driven to the verge of insanity.
Without there being the slightest
question as to pedigree involved in the matter,
I am required to produce somebody who
knew my grandmother before her marriage,
seventy years ago; who knew when she
was married, and where she was married,
and whom she married; and who must swear
in the most determined and awful manner that
she had four children, and no more and no less,