An Old, Old Story.

great delight , a Scotch Laird , happy and stout , and you would not suppose , if 3 > -ou saw him now , that he had ever had an unhappy hour in his life . So 1 think we need not lay over much store to the outpourings of disconsolate loveisor the vaticinations of disappointed

, bosoms . They all do get over it , somehow or other , " she-males" as well as "hemales , " and if I might be permitted to advise in any case of confirmed "heart complaint , " whether it be a young officer in the Guardsor the eldest son of a peeror

, , the fairy Ethel , or the radiant Violet , I say , " plenty of out-door exorcise , a yacht voyage , or a pleasant party on the moors , " will soon put all to rights , and restore the sentimental system , and the nervous action to their normal state of contented

calmness . Still Lucy was a young woman , and all young women have such great discernment when men admire them , so quick , that long before pater or mater , or inquisitive brother ( nay , even a jealous cousin ) has " spotted" the state of the victimthey

, are perfectly conversant with his innermost feelings , they understand all his symptoms , and have found out , from their lady ' s maid , all about him .

And therefore , though Lucy knew well what was uppermost in poor Mr . Williams ' s little mind , like a discreet maiden as she was , she kept it to herself . She never departed from the '' even tenor of her way ;" but full of kindness to Mr . Williams , she seemed to become more friendly and

familiar than ever with Mr . Mainwaring . Colonel Mackintosh , who as an old campaigner , was quite alive to what he called "light infantry movements , " was not slow or backward in giving Lucy all the encouragement in his power .

First of all , he looked upon Lucy almost as his own daughter , and secondly , as he had a little competence ot his own , he had always in his own mind considered Lucy his heiress . For as he used to say to his old chum , Dr . McVittie , who had been

the cheery Surgeon-Major of his old regiment , and always was his fast friend , a clever and enlightened old Hi ghlander" For a soldier , I am not so badly off , my boy . Soldiers , like ' rolling stones , gather no moss , ' as a general rule ; but 1 have always been prudent and cautious . My

banker ' s the safest of men , and what -with prize money in India , and my savings , and the ex-savings of my old aunt , and that what I inherited from my father ( not much indeed ) , and my half-pay , I llave enough for " bread and cheese and a glass

of whiskey toddy . " " I have always considered Lucy Lonehurst my heiress . I have no kith or kin . None of the Mackintoshes of that ilk survive . I am the last of my race , and Lowhurst and I were as brothers ; and all 1

have , save one or two legacies to old friends and to charity , shall go to that saucy and that sousie lass . " Whether Lucy knew this or not , I don ' t know ; but to tell my readers the truth , it would have made no difference to her in any way . She did not do as some people are fond of doing , " discount other peoples '

wills . " She was purely unselfish and untainted by the world ' s calculations . She had that " golden heart" of which poets have liked to sing , and which pleasant enough in man , is ever so dear and delightful in woman . I , for one , utterly

deny the truth of the imputation often cast upon women , by the sceptical and the profligate , that they are naturally cold , selfish , mercenary , only lovers of money , position and the like . As a rule a woman looks at all these

outer things from a completely opposite point of view , to that of man . She is guileless and gracious , kind and considerate , sentimental and trusting , all at the same time . She will often live against her own interests , and in the . face of her whole family , simply because in her ardent and truthful nature she scorns the

mere conventionality of lashion , the treacheries of life , the debasement of worldly teaching , even the colder calculations of prudence . 'That in every artificial state of society women will become artificial too , is not to be wondered at ; that when she hears

nothing but petty views and contracted sentiments , she becomes sometimes petty and contracted in aim and vision too , u not a matter of blame to her . On the contrary , knowing as we all must do , how the so-called refinements and exigencies o ' society , of position , of respectability , and many other things , charm us , and warp us , and depress us all here , we have no rig ht to