so much harm? She ought to be drawn out of herself, to talk about her troubles. You should make her confide in you

"You forget, Captain Evelyn, that Kate is hardly my pupil even now, and at Carnochan I was only permitted to be her occasional companion-to read with her, but not to teach her, nor have any authority over her. Deeply as I am interested in dear Kate, I cannot presume to dictate to her."

"Exactly, Miss Comline; you are in the right as usual. You are not the person. I am. Send her down to me."

CHAPTER XI.

A BROTHERLY ADMONITION.

"Lay aside life-harming heaviness,
And cultivate a cheerful disposition.'

-Richard II.

Screening her face from observation as well as she could, and wrapped in the old shawl she had worn on the occasion of their first meeting, Kate obeyed the second summons. He could see at a glance that she had been weeping passionately, and that it was no time to affect a jaunty ignorance, nor to greet her with the playful reproach that might have suited another mood.

They walked in silence down the little pathway to the shore; and even when there, it was only an occasional comment on the tide, the sky, or the overhanging cliffs, which passed between them for a considerable time.

At length, having stumbled along to a good distance, and feeling confident of not being interrupted, Evelyn felt it was as well to speak.

"Sit down, Kate; I have a great deal to say, and I am sure that you will now allow me to say it. Here is a cleft in the rock, quite dry,-come. I am so sorry you got that letter," he added, in his kindest tones.

"Thank you thank you."

"Will you tell me about it?"

"I am afraid you would not understand; but

"Well ?"

A long pause.

Then came the outburst.

"They never mean to have me

back again, they mean to keep me away all my life—all my life. My room, my own little room, that papa gave me for my very, very own, has been taken from me, and all my things put away-and-and- She had no right to do it-no right to do it. Oh, you don't know the things she does, and I can't tell you, because she is your mother

"You may tell me," said Evelyn, gently, "anything. Say what you please; and believe me, Kate, that if I can help you I will."

"I don't think you can," sorrowfully.

It is

"Is it about this room that you heard to-day?" "Yes. Bertha wrote. Bertha says it is all settled,"sobbing afresh," and that papa never said a word. to be Lady Olivia's boudoir-my own little room! She never asked any one; she never told papa till the thing was done: she had given orders to have it cleared first; and then she had written for new furniture to put in it. Oh, how dared she? It was a shame, a shame. The room was mine; and to go and steal it when I was away

"It was as shabby a trick as I ever heard of," acknowledged Evelyn, candidly; "but I would not take it so to heart, if I were you. That won't do any good, you know. Come, don't cry. You speak to your father; and if Lady Olivia won't disgorge this particular domain, he'll give you another you'll like as well

"There is not another room in the house I would care to have."

He smiled.

"If you knew," continued Kate, struggling for breath and speech, "what-what-it was to me! It was the only place I was ever happy in. No one could come to me there, and-and- illogically, "I see what it all means. I am not to go home again-never to go home again; never to be taken away from here

66

"My dear child, you are mistaken altogether.

You have

taken a mere fancy into your head. It was a cruel thing to do to send you here, poor little thing!" putting his hand on her shoulder,- -"to fret among these solitudes; but I came on purpose to deliver you."

66 No, no; you did not. I see by this letter that you did Nobody sent you: oh, why did you come?"

not.

"Are you sorry I came ?"

Why did you come?" continued Kate, as though she hardly knew what she was saying. "I know you meant to be kind, and it is not your fault; but you had better have left me alone. If you had stayed there, it would have been far better you have done me no good."

You

"Now," said Evelyn, decidedly,-" now, Kate, you are going to be a good girl: dry your eyes, and talk sense. know very well that you have merely to say you are sorry, and mean to behave better in future, and a few proper little speeches of that kind, and you can come out of your corner to-morrow. Don't look so determined over it: wait a minute, and let us talk it over quietly. You and my

But it

mother don't get on; that I understand very well. appears that you were not an entirely harmonious family party even before Lady Olivia's day. Eh? Is it not so? I heard more than one hint dropped about a certain 'naughty Kate' that had no reference to the step-mother."

"By whom? By Alice?" quickly.

66

"I wonder if it is fair to say?

was the blue-eyed fairy."

But my chief informant

"Was it Maidie ?" exclaimed Kate, in such surprise and evident mortification that Evelyn, who had seen himself in a scrape, and had pitched upon the child, judging that her infantile volubility would be less likely to aggrieve than the tale-telling of an older person, perceived at once the fresh error he had fallen into.

66

Well, it was Maidie," he said, however. "Maidie is not a very formidable traitor, is she? I think she had a kind of lurking affection even for the 'naughty Kate,' at whose name she shook her head."

"Maidie!" said her sister, as though deeply hurt. "My little Maidie!"

"You are very fond of your little sister?"

She had turned her head away.

("I must bring this to bear," thought Evelyn. "It is a good idea to work upon.")

At last, and bit by bit, it all came out; nothing-so far as the narrator knew at least-being kept back or distorted from the truth; but to an unbiassed ear, it was plain that a jaundiced view of every circumstance, of every trifling word

and deed, had been involuntarily taken; that a naturally high spirit, checked, curbed, and thwarted on every handchafed by contact with grosser natures, with all its purest affections repressed, and its noblest aspirations jeered athad at length proved a soil in which the root of bitterness had taken the place of every tender blossom.

To Evelyn, accustomed as he was to the sunny side of life, to floating along its glittering surface, without a thought of deep and troubled waters, there was something in such a revelation that was not only unintelligible, but positively appalling; and had the voice which made it been one degree less feminine, and the form by his side been less fragile and willow-like, bending beneath the force of its own vehemence, he would probably have repented of his knight-errantry, and foresworn all further efforts on behalf of Kate Newbattle. As it was, he listened with a comical mixture of sympathy and consternation.

What in the world could any one do for this hare-brained girl, unstrung in her nerves, extravagant in her passions, and possessed of but one idea?

He had had no notion of anything so bad as this. How was it likely that even a temporary truce should be patched up between the opposing forces, when insubordination and hatred yes, hatred was the word,-two stubborn things to deal with, seemed to have entwined themselves around every fibre of the foolish child's nature? To look at her, who could have believed it? The face, the beautiful face, that had been such a pleasure to behold a few hours before, was now clouded like the angry sky overhead, every feature distorted by the storm which had broken forth, and which had left all disordered behind. Her whole frame was trembling. It was a-a pretty kettle of fish altogether.

One thing was obvious: Kate must be soothed and quieted, but she must also be brought down a peg.

Such gesticulation, such flashing of eyes and torrents of eloquence, were altogether disturbing and embarrassing; and though no doubt it was very funny, he did not find himself inclined to laugh.

He was fairly silenced, in short, whilst thus ruminating; and as it turned out, silence was the thing of all others most likely to have a beneficial effect upon the excited young lady. Her feelings having uninterrupted vent, they carried her to the end of her tether pretty smartly, and shame crept

in.

An uneasy sense of having gone too far began to show itself. Her tone said plainly, "Comfort me."

Evelyn, however, took no notice.

She stole a glance round. He was stolidly gazing at the grey waste of rolling billows in front, as though he intended to say no more after all he had heard; and there was time for anxiety and a new distress to awake in her bosom ere he looked round, looked into her face, and smiled.

"And now," said he, "prepare for a lecture."

"Oh yes," with a sigh of relief.

"You are a strange girl, Kate; and you are only seven

Seventeen

"Don't interrupt the court; I know you are. thinks a great deal of nonsense," continued Evelyn, with the sententiousness of eight-and-twenty; "and a certain seventeen, not two miles off, has-she must excuse me for saying so shown a peculiar aptitude for the gift."

"You take it in that way?" exclaimed Kate, bitterly. "Then I have no friend left."

"May I take it," said Evelyn, "more seriously? May I"-putting his hand on hers, but less affectionately than impressively-" speak as one who is many years older, who has seen a good deal of the world, and who-pshaw !—I can't be grandiloquent. But it is not worth it, Kate. Believe me, my dear Kate, it is not worth all this."

"Worth what?" said Kate, with some natural bewilderment. "I don't understand."

66

They say at Carnochan that you are wayward and selfwilled. You consider yourself injured and ill-treated. Shall I tell you what I see?"

"No, not homeless, dear; don't talk nonsense. Now, I must begin over again; and you spoilt the rounded period besides. I am really in earnest now, Kate; so listen. If you are motherless, you have a kind and most indulgent father. If your home be not all that you wish, it is beautiful and comfortable. If you do not find your sisters much of companions, I'm sure you love them—one of them very dearly. Now tell me, have you ever set yourself to discover if there be nothing in you" he stopped.