whimsies and fears, even though she were
his mother. As it was, he was chafing himself
to death under the restraint. If he went,
to be sure the—wretches might make an
end of him, as they had done of many a fine
fellow; but my lord would take heavy odds
that instead of being guillotined he would
save the girl, and bring her safe to England,
just desperately in love with her preserver,
and then we would have a jolly wedding
down at Monkshaven. My lord repeated
his opinion so often, that it became a certain
prophecy in his mind of what was to take
place; and, one day seeing Clément look even
paler and thinner than he had ever done
before, he sent a message to Madame de
Créquy, requesting permission to speak to
her in private.

"'For, by George!' said he, 'she shall
hear my opinion, and not let that lad of hers
kill himself by fretting. He is too good for
that. If he had been an English lad, he
would have been off to his sweetheart long
before this, without saying with your leave
or by your leave; but being a Frenchman, he
is all for Æneas and filial piety,—filial
fiddlesticks! ' (My lord had run away to sea,
when a boy, against his father's consent, I am
sorry to say; and, as all had ended well, and
he had come back to find both his parents
alive, I do not think he was ever as much
aware of his fault as he might have been
under other circumstances.) 'No, my lady,'
he went on, 'don't come with me. A woman
can manage a man best when he has a fit of
obstinacy, and a man can persuade a woman
out of her tantrums, when all her own sex,
the whole army of them, would fail. Allow
me to go alone to my tête-à-tête with
madame.'

"What he said, what passed, he never
could repeat; but he came back graver than
he went. However, the point was gained;
Madame de Créquy withdrew her
prohibition, and had given him leave to tell
Clément as much.

"'But she is an old Cassandra,' said he.
'Don't let the lad be much with her; her
talk would destroy the courage of the bravest
man; she is so given over to superstition.'
Something she had said had touched a chord
in my lord's nature which he inherited from
his Scotch ancestors. Long afterwards, I
heard what this was. Medlicott told me.

"However, my lord shook off all fancies
that told against the fulfilment of Clément's
wishes. All that afternoon we three sate
together, planning; and Monkshaven passed
in and out, executing our commissions, and
preparing everything. Towards nightfall all
was ready for Clément's start on his journey
towards the coast.

"Madame had declined seeing any of us
since my lord's stormy interview with her.
She sent word that she was fatigued, and
desired repose. But, of course, before Clément
set off, he was bound to wish her farewell,
and to ask for her blessing. In order to
avoid an agitating conversation between
mother and son, my lord and I resolved to be
present at the interview. Clément was
already in his travelling-dress, that of a
Norman fisherman, which Monkshaven had,
with infinite trouble, discovered in the
possession of one of the emigrés who thronged
London, and who had made his escape from
the shores of France in this disguise. Clément's
plan was, to go down to the Coast of
Sussex, and get some of the fishing or
smuggling boats to take him across to the
French Coast near Dieppe. There again he
would have to change his dress. O, it was
so well planned! His mother was startled
by his disguise (of which we had not thought
to forewarn her) as he entered her apartment.
And either that, or the being suddenly
roused from the heavy slumber into
which she was apt to fall when she was left
alone, gave her manner an air of wildness
that was almost like insanity.

"'Go, go!' she said to him, almost pushing
him away as he knelt to kiss her hand.
'Virginia is beckoning to you, but you don't
see what kind of a bed it is—'

"' Clément, make haste! ' said my lord,
in a hurried manner, as if to interrupt
madame. ' The time is later than I thought,
and you must not miss the morning's tide.
Bid your mother good-bye at once, and let us
be off.'  For my lord and Monkshaven were
to ride with him to an inn near the shore,
from whence he was to walk to his destination.
My lord almost took him by the arm
to pull him away; and they were gone, and
I was left alone with Madame de Créquy.
When she heard the horses' feet she seemed
to find out the truth as if for the first time.
She set her teeth together. 'He has left me
for her!' she almost screamed. 'Left me
for her! ' she kept muttering; and then, as
the wild look came back into her eyes, she
said, almost with exultation, 'But I did not
give him my blessing!'"

VARIOUS KINDS OF PAPER.

WHO among us with a grandfather in his
family—all families have not grandfathers—
does not possess bundles of old letters tied
up with red tape, written on thick, ribbed,
uncompromising post, franked by illegible
members of Parliament, and destitute of
hot-press or glaze ? Who among us, with grey
hairs and wrinkles, can ever forget the
geological formations of his early copy-books,
and how hard it was to draw the upstroke
finely over the mountain ridges? Perhaps,
too, the pen spluttered—goosequills have that
way sometimes—and how impossible to prevent
the thick down-stroke from meandering
all askew through the furrows? Do we
not all know that sheet of disguised lime
which invariably cracked and broke where-ever
it was folded, and raised up a nimbus of