in carrying out such a plan than you are
aware of. However, it shall be tried."

"The school, my lady?" I exclaimed,
almost thinking she did not know what she
was saying.

"Yes, the school. For Mr. Horner's sake,
for Mr. Gray's sake, and last, not least, for
this lad's sake, I will give the new plan a
trial. Ask Mr. Gray to come up to me this
afternoon about the land he wants. He
need not go to a dissenter for it. And tell
your father he shall have a good share in the
building of it, and Tommy shall carry the
mortar."

"And I may be schoolmaster?" asked
Harry, eagerly.

"We'll see about that," said my lady,
amused. "It will be some time before that
plan comes to pass, my little fellow."

And now to return to Captain James.
My first account of him was from Miss
Galindo.

"He's not above thirty; and I must just
pack up my pens and my paper, and be off;
for it would be the height of impropriety for
me to be staying here as his clerk. It was
all very well in the old master's days. But
here am I, not fifty till next May, and this
young, unmarried man, who is not even a
widower! O, there would be no end of
gossip. Besides, he looks as askance at me
as I do at him. My black silk gown had no
effect. He's afraid I shall marry him. But
I won't; he may feel himself quite safe from
that. And Mr. Smithson has been
recommending a clerk to my lady. She would far
rather keep me on; but I can't stop. I
really could not think it proper."

"What sort of a looking man is he?"

"O, nothing particular. Short, and brown,
and sunburnt. I did not think it became me
to look at him. Well, now for the nightcaps.
I should have grudged any one else
doing them, for I have got such a pretty
pattern!"

But, when it came to Miss Galindo's leaving,
there was a great misunderstanding between
her and my lady. Miss Galindo had imagined
that my lady had asked her as a favour to
copy the letters, and enter the accounts, and
had agreed to do the work without a notion
of being paid for so doing. She had now and
then grieved over a very profitable order for
needlework passing out of her hands without
her having time to do it, because of her
occupation at the Hall; but she had never
hinted this to my lady, but gone on cheerfully
at her writing as long as her clerkship
was required. My lady was annoyed that
she had not made her intention of paying
Miss Galindo more clear in the first conversation
she had had with her; but I suppose
that she had been too delicate to be very
explicit with regard to money matters; and
now Miss Galindo was quite hurt at my lady's
wanting to pay her for what she had done in
such right-down good-will.

"No," Miss Galindo said; "my own dear
lady, you may be as angry with me as you
like, but don't offer me money. Think of
six-and-twenty years ago, and poor Arthur,
and as you were to me then! Besides, I
wanted money—I don't disguise it—for a
particular purpose; and when I found that
(God bless you for asking me!) I could do
you a service, I turned it over in my mind,
and I gave up one plan and took up another,
and it's all settled now. Bessy is to leave
school and come and live with me. Don't,
please, offer me money again. You don't
know how glad I have been to do anything
for you. Have not I, Margaret Dawson?
Did you not hear me say, one day, I would
cut off my hand for my lady; for am I a
stock or a stone, that I should forget kindnessI
O, I have been so glad to work for you.
And now Bessy is coming here; and no one
knows anything about her, as if she had
done anything wrong, poor child."

"Dear Miss Galindo," replied my lady,
"I will never ask you to take money again.
Only I thought it was quite understood
between us. And, you know, you have taken
money for a set of morning wrappers, before
now."

"Yes, my lady; but that was not
confidential. Now I was so proud to have
something to do for you confidentially."

"But who is Bessy?" asked my lady.
"I do not understand who she is, or why she
is to come and live with you. Dear Miss
Galindo, you must honour me by being
confidential with me in your turn!"

CHIP.

THE TRADESCANTS.

REFERRING to the article on the Growth of
Our Gardens,* a correspondent writes: "A
very curious record of the Tradescant family is
to be found in the Diary of Elias Ashmole, the
founder of the museum which bears his name
at Oxford; but which, I think, would have
been with more justice called after that of the
Tradescants, of whose collection of rarities
Ashmole became possessed, and, as it would
appear, not by the most honest means.
Nothing seems to be certainly known of
Tradescant's early life, or even of the place of
his birth. He is supposed to have been a
refugee from Holland; and, for this reason, to
have assumed the name by which he was
generally known in this his adopted country.
At all events, Meopham, in Kent (the parish
of which I am the incumbent), claims the
honour of having been for some years his
habitat. Here he married, and here a son
was born to him, as the parish registers
clearly testify. From hence he appears to
have migrated to Lambeth; having been
called into the service of King Charles the
First, to whom he had probably been

* In Number 430.