Of the barleycorn well,

That has made us so happy, so nappy, so cosy, so rosy,
So sleek, and so fair, and, indeed, débonnaire,

For our monks are well-favour'd, as all will declare."
So he whisper'd one word, and the knight was bestirr'd
With motions so racy, so hearty, so bracy,

That he jump'd from his bed, tore the cap from his head,
Pirouetted and danced, like a dervish entranced,
And at length, when subdued

In his frolicsome mood,

Cried, "All right, fiddle-faddle, to boot and to saddle-
So ho, varlets, speed! and from Strawberry Mead
Bring plenty of stingo!

By the bones of Saint Jingo,
I'll brook no delay, so, rascals, away!"

A measure was brought,

Not a pint, nor a quart,
But a black-jack was fill'd to o'erflowing.

Sir Wynkyn he quaff'd,
Sir Wynkyn he laugh'd

Till his cheeks were quite puffy and glowing.
To the Abbot he cried,

Saintly man, I espied,

By your corpulent figure and feature,

That you knew of some treasure
That care could outmeasure,

And tickle the soul and the creature.

So I give you my word,

By the hilt of my sword,

I will leave a bequest that shall put you at rest-
Though still I request,

That if abbey you raise, it shall be to the praise

Of that wonderful saint, Old Jingo,
The patron of Strawberry stingo!"

VOL. LXI.

F

THROWN AWAY.

BY MRS. ALFRED M. MÜNSTER.

CHAPTER XIX.

"THE FOX and the GRAPES."

"So you know my old friend Mary Channing?" said Adelaide to Lord Serle one morning.

"Yes, I have that great pleasure," he replied.

"Of course you admire her greatly? I never knew a man who did not."

"Well, I do not exactly know that," he returned. “She is undoubtedly a very pretty creature, but

"But me no buts ?" cried Adelaide. "What is this you used to quote, Laura ?

But if, is as some gaoler to bring forth a monstrous malefactor.

What fault can you find in Mary Channing ?"

"I do not presume to find any fault," he answered, "but I cannot say I very much admire the particular school on which she has modelled herself."

"I thought fast girls were quite the rage now, and Mary is faster than the fastest. Now, tell me truly, is it not the desire to be singular which makes you demur from the prevailing taste ?"

"I deny that it prevails, excepting amongst very young men or very old ones. At all events, I, who cannot but admire everything that is young, lovely, or in any way attractive, must confess that a fast girl, however charming in other respects, is at the bottom of my list of things to be adored."

"I think that very rude of you. temned sisterhood."

"You! You don't mean that ?"

I am especially one of the con

"Worse and worse! Your first speech was irritating, the last is mortifying. But I know you must have made it only to annoy me. Of course I am 'fast;' I glory in the distinction. Every girl worth a pin is of the same mind now-a-days, and if you pretend that you don't like us, it is because some one of us has snubbed you handsomely."

Lord Serle laughed softly.

You are mistaken, however," he said. "My opinion is the result of mature consideration, but I am always open to conviction. If you see the error of my ways, why not endeavour to convert me ?"

Not worth the trouble," returned Adelaide, tossing her golden head and shrugging her pretty shoulders. "We have more than enough of spontaneous worshippers, and have no need for proselytes."

"Of that I am quite sure, but common charity might make you try what you could do for me."

"I am not sufficiently interested for you, but pray what style of

woman do you admire? Stay! I know the taste of your sort of man exactly. Let me tell you the kind of thing you like; it is one of two varieties, both of which I shall describe."

"Pray go on."

"You have for your ideal either a very tiny girl with weak, fair hair and washed-out eyes, pink and white cheeks, and a decided lisp, a contemptible, affected sugar-and-water doll, who says 'Ah!' and 'Oh!' perpetually, who would faint at a spider, and who is all smiles and graces in company, and as cross as a wasp in private. Sugar and water make capital vinegar, you know. Dear me!" she cried, laughing, "I've quite talked myself out of breath."

"Yes, and very amusing you have been. But your picture is not the least in the world like my ideal of a woman."

"Possibly not, but I have the companion-portrait quite ready: an imperious, haughty woman, who thinks it a mistake of nature that she has not been born a queen. I wonder if you have remarked that all tall women, however hideous, take up the queenly rôle on the strength of having longer backs than their fellows ?"

"I never did happen to remark that, but it may be the case all the same. I am a very unobservant man.'

"I should not have thought it. But, to go on with my description: your model of perfection has a profound belief in herself, dark eyes, arched brows, and nose to match. To dispassionate eyes this beauty of yours looks rather hawk-like even now, with all the glory of youth about her; in ten years, even to you, should you be miserable enough to marry her, she will be like an old vulture, all beak and claws. I hope you may get her; the fast girls would be well revenged for your contempt of them."

"Don't assume that, please," said Lord Serle, good humouredly. "I spoke only of a not very strong admiration, and you directly call it contempt; but allow me to tell you that your last description is quite as wide of the mark as your first."

"Then you are of the nil admirari sort, for there are but three types from which all the varieties spring; the best of all, the 'fast girl,' sometimes developing into the hoyden and the vixen, but even thus better than any of the rest-better than the insipid, petite blonde, whom I think a nuisance, and the party who looks like an empress when young, and like a hag when other women are still blooming."

"You have a very limited acquaintance with your own sex, and my 'bright particular star' is totally distinct from all the species you have enumerated."

"Describe her, then. And I beg you will understand that I consider you extremely provoking."

"And I," put in Emilie from the table where she sat drawing, "consider you extremely vulgar. Who ever before heard a lady describe another as a party'? I can't fancy where you heard such a word."

"I have learnt it from the grooms, probably," rejoined Adelaide, laughing. "You know I spend a good deal of time with them, and they always call people ' parties.'

"Oh! if you prefer to copy them, I have no more to say."

"That would be so much to be desired, that I beg you will stamp the conviction into your being that I do prefer it. Well, Lord Serle, I am waiting for your fancy sketch."

Fortunately it is not at all a fancy sketch, and I hold it too sacred to unveil it," he answered, with an air half serious, half laughing. "How very unkind of you! Is she like any one I know ?" "How can I tell whom you know ?"

"Do tell me."

"I cannot refuse you. She is a perfect woman, graceful as a woman should always be, gentle, low-voiced-a woman to trust, to respect, to love, to adore."

And Lord Serle's voice had a timbre in it, which struck with an unpleasant conviction the trifling, frivolous mood of his fair crossexaminer. People of Adelaide's class can scarcely understand serious depth of feelings on any subject, or at any time; but when they are themselves in their gayer moods, the intrusion of anything which looks like earnestness has on them the unpleasant effect of a sudden unforeseen plunge into ice-cold water.

Adelaide started slightly, and, looking up, saw Lord Serle's velvety eyes gazing straightforward into vacancy, and his whole countenance transfigured. There certainly was a wonderful charm about him. It was, it is true, merely the charm of perfect beauty, intensified by the strong individuality of the man; but the poor little silly butterfly, as she scanned his face, felt by intuition that her petty wiles and attempts at flirtation were all thrown away here, and thinking, as she thought at the moment, that anything more beautiful than Lord Serle was it would be impossible to see, she also thought that perhaps it was as well that he had no liking for her, for her shallow, heartless nature shrank back, unconsciously frightened by what it almost as unconsciously divined. She was not the only one in the room startled by Lord Serle's suppressed voice and rapt look.

Almost all the guests, as well as the host and hostess, were present; for the morning was so stormy and rainy as to forbid even the most zealous sportsman there to think of sallying forth in quest of prey, and all had adjourned to one of the smaller drawing-rooms to concert some plan for whiling away the tedium of the long dreary day. Piqued by Emilie's taunts regarding the non-effect of her fascinations on Lord Serle, Adelaide had determinedly engaged him in conversation, such as it was, and in the midst of the playful frivolity of the wordy war came his two or three sentences, not meaning much in themselves, it is true, but spoken by his peculiar voice, in that vibrating tone, they made every one look round.

Sir John Markham had made a capital breakfast, and was standing on the hearth-rug before the blazing fire, now presenting his stolid, handsome face, and now his broad back, to the cheering influence of the comfortable warmth. Just at the moment when his brother-inlaw's speech had drawn public attention on the speaker, Sir John was looking into the glowing caves of the fire, but at the strange tone and the sudden hush which followed, Sir John turned sharply round, and gazed steadily at his connexion. There were many feelings expressed

in that look; something of terror, warning, and anxiety, with a good deal of affection, for Sir John had a deep attachment for his strange, brilliant, bad brother-in-law; and although, being an eminently respectable man himself, he could not but feel constantly scandalised by the other's proceedings, yet he never once for a moment faltered in his allegiance to a nature which he did not in the least comprehend, but which, perhaps for that very reason, he believed, despite all its faults, to be infinitely superior to his own.

"Serle is a grand fellow, sir," he was wont to say; " he will do something great yet. Hitherto he has run all to seed; too much money too early in his hands, and so good-looking, the women have done their best to spoil him, but he'll tire of all that. Some day he will show what's really in him, and set his mark on the age."

Possibly; but not in any great or good sense. However, in the present instance Sir John's eager, earnest look had the effect which such looks often have, and it drew Lord Serle's wandering thoughts back to the actual realities of the moment. He returned Sir John's bewildered stare by a bright assured smile, and then looking round the room, said quietly, and still smiling:

"What is the matter? Have I said anything to shock anybody ?" "No," said Colonel Home; "nobody is shocked, but I think everybody is enlightened."

"On what subject ?"

"Yourself. We all thought you, of all men, fancy-free, and you have betrayed your own secret. There's no mistake about it now." "Not the smallest," said a certain Captain Thistlewood, looking up, with his keen clear eyes full of sarcastic meaning.

"I am delighted to have given you any information on any subject," returned Lord Serle, "but I can't see that I have said anything very particular."

"Too late," cried Colonel Home. "You did not say much, but no one who heard your voice and saw your face can for a moment doubt that you are hard hit. Come, Serle, give us name, station, and all the rest of it."

"No," he replied, quite gravely; "if you mean that the description I gave is drawn from life, you are perfectly right. It is so; but she is as much beyond all praise of mine as- But I'll not say any more

about her."

"She does exist, then ?" said Adelaide, recovering herself.

"Yes, as much as I do; and if it be any satisfaction to you to know it, you are all welcome to know that of which I am proud."

"And that is ?" asked Adelaide.

"That is, that whatever I may be doing or saying-however much I may seem to be engaged or amused-I always see one face, hear one voice; and if I take pleasure in the society of other women, it is only because she is a woman also."

"We are all much gratified by the compliment," said Adelaide, colouring; "but I, at least, want no attention of that kind. I have no fancy for being a proxy, and I think you horridly rude."

"I am sorry to hear you say so. I think you are unjust to me. You forced me to an avowal which I should certainly never have