hand. I saw you take one out of your waistcoat-pocket."

Sir William bit his lip. " It was not a sovereign,"
he was beginning to say, but he stopped
himself prudently. " Keep that," he whispered,
as he stooped down and pressed Lily's forehead
with his lips. " Don't lose it; keep it in remembrance
of the man with the tall face and
the long legs you met at Greenwich. Keep it,
and don't, on any account, let your mamma see
it."

"Good-by, sir," said Lily, grasping something
hard and smooth that he had given her.

"God bless you!" returned the baronet. " I
heartily wish you were my little sister or my
daughter."

The landlord and the waiters were obsequiously
anxious to know whether the lady had a carriage,
or whether they should procure a carriage for
her. She had not the one, and did not require
the other, she said. She felt hot, and intended
to take a walk, and then engage a fly for her
conveyance to London.

"I have my drag here," said Sir William;
"I can drive you to town in it, if you like."

"You are wanted up-stairs. On vous demande
là-haut," the countess returned. " The
Good-for-nothings are clamorous for you back
again. Go away. Adieu." And she swept off.

But Sir William Long did not rejoin the
choice knot of boon companions in the dining-saloon.
He lighted a cigar, and ordered his
drag to be brought round. By-and-by, came
up a stately four-in-hand, with two grooms, the
horses champing. He mounted the box, covered
himself up with coats and rugs, and, amidst a
tempest of bows from the assembled waiters,
drove moodily back to town, smoking all the
way.

Sir William Long was one of the wildest
young men in London. He was immensely rich,
and his prodigality, reckless as it was, could
scarcely keep pace with his revenues. That
evening, however, he felt very little inclined
for prodigality. He did not go to Gamridge's.
He forbore to look in at Crockford's. He went
nowhere in the direction of such places. He
drove straight to Pall Mall, and went upstairs
to some chambers he had there, where
he drank soda-water, and smoked, and read
Robinson Crusoe till two in the morning.
And, when he went to bed, he had confused
dreams of being married, and sitting in a garden
with children about his knee. And all the
children were like Lily.

"Poor little creature!" he murmured, turning
on his pillow, next morning. " What a life there
lies before her! What does that monstrous
woman intend to do with the child? To
make her a rope-dancer, or a horse-rider, or
what?"

"The governor's hipped, that's sure," Mr.
Vernish, Sir William's valet, observed that day
to Mrs. Springbone, the lady who officiated as
housekeeper at the chambers, 290, Pall Mall.
"He wouldn't have no brandy-and-soda this
morning; he wouldn't have no devilled kidneys,
and no anchovy toast. He breakfasted on a
cup of tea and a roll, and he set off for a walk
by hisself in the Green Park. I think he's in
love."

"By Jove! I will get married," cried William
Long to himself that very morning. " I'll go
to Peignoir's and have my hair cut, and I'll call
on the CÅ“urdesarts."

The which he did, punctually.

MORE TRIFLES PROM CEYLON.

THE lovely harbour of Trincomalie, one of the
most beautiful spots in this beautiful island, is,
at certain seasons of the year, illuminated during
the night by hundreds of floating lights moving
hither and thither. Then the bay is full of
cuttle-fish— the fish which produces sepia— and
the lights are employed by the fishermen to attract
them. The method of catching them is
simple in the extreme. The boatman fastens a
dead cuttle-fish to a piece of string, and lets it
down over the side of his boat. From time to
time he hauls it in, when one or more cannibal
cuttle-fish are found busily feeding on their companion.
When thus removed from their native
element and thrown into the canoe, they utter
a kind of squeal, and often emit the sepia; and,
as they die, a phosphoric kind of halo surrounds
them.

At about the time when the cuttle-fish are in
season, the harbour is also full of what are there
called blubber-fish, or jelly-fish. They are so
close together in the water as to impede the
progress of a boat. Quantities are left on shore
by the tide, where they decompose, to the great
annoyance of those who live near the beach.
During the time they lie there, silver has been
known to turn black in the houses.

Towards evening, as we sit on the green before
our house, the flying-foxes come sailing
heavily overhead, on their way to their feeding-places;
next morning they return to their resting-place,
where they hang from the branches
of the trees, screaming, and apparently abusing
those who intrude upon their solitudes. I saw
a number of them thus congregated this very
morning, while I was shooting snipe, and I might
have killed several; but although their flesh is
said to be very tender, I have never been up to
trying it; and to have killed them, therefore,
would have been wanton cruelty. I hold, with
the Ancient Mariner, that

He prayeth well who loveth well,
Both man, and bird, and beast;
He prayeth best who loveth best
All things, both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made, and loveth all.

Where tough beef and skinny fowls are the
usual, and often the only, supplies procurable in
the market, a snipe, or a teal, or a hare, or a
jungle-cock, is a valuable addition to one's larder;
and after several days' hard work, a couple
of hours' shooting on a Saturday, affords the civilian,