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Dwelling with the bless'd in glory, happy now for
evermore,
Think, O think, our darling cherub is not " lost but
gone before."

THE DEAD SECRET.

CHAPTER THE FOURTH. THE SALE OF
PORTHGENNA TOWER.

"How charming! how pastoral! how
exquisitely soothing to the nerves! " said
Mr. Phippen, sentimentally surveying the
lawn at the back of the vicarage-house, under
the shadow of the lightest umbrella he
could pick out of the hall. " Three years
have passed, Chennerythree suffering years
for me, but we need not dwell on thatsince
I last stood on this lawn. There is the window
of your old study, where I had that
attack of heartburn last time, in the
strawberry season; don't you remember? Ah!
and there is the school-room! Shall I ever
forget dear Miss Sturch coming to me out of
that rooma ministering angelwith soda
and gingerso comforting, so sweetly anxious
about stirring it up, so unaffectedly
grieved that there was no sal-volatile in the
house! I do so enjoy these pleasant
recollections, Chennery; they are as great a
luxury to me as your cigar is to you. Could
you walk on the other side, my dear fellow?
I like the smell, but the smoke is a little too
much for me. Thank you. And now about
the storythe curious story ? What was the
name of the old placeI am so interested
in itit began with a P, surely?"

"Porthgenna Tower," said the vicar.

"Exactly," rejoined Mr. Phippen, shifting
the umbrella tenderly from one shoulder to
the other. "And what in the world
made Captain Treverton sell Porthgenna
Tower ?"

"I believe the reason was that he could
not endure the place after the death of his
wife," answered Doctor Chennery. " The
estate, you know, has never been entailed;
so the Captain had no difficulty in parting
with it, except, of course, the difficulty of
finding a purchaser."

"Why not his brother " asked Mr.
Phippen. "Why not our eccentric friend,
Andrew Treverton ?"

"Don't call him my friend," said the vicar.
"A mean, grovelling, cynical, selfish old
wretch! It's no use shaking your head,
Phippen, and trying to look shocked. I know
Andrew Treverton's early history as well as
you do. I know that he was treated with the
basest ingratitude and villany, by a college
friend, who took all he had to give, and swindled
him at last in the grossest manner. I know all
aliout that. But one instance of ingratitude does
not justify a man in shutting himself up from
society, and railing against all mankind as a
disgrace to the earth they walk on. I myself
have heard the old brute say that the
greatest benefactor to our generation would
be a second Herod, who could prevent
another generation from succeeding it.
Ought a man who can talk in that way, to be
the friend of any human being with the
slightest respect for his species or
himself?"

"My friend! "said Mr. Phippen, catching the
vicar by the arm, and mysteriously lowering
his voice, " my dear and reverend friend!
I admire your honest indignation against the
utterer of that exceedingly misanthropical
sentiment; butI confide this to you,
Chennery, in the strictest secresythere
are moments, morning moments generally,
when my digestion is in such a state, that
I have actually agreed with that annihilating
person, Andrew Treverton! I have woke
up with my tongue like a cinderI have
crawled to the glass and looked at itand
I have said to myself, Let there be an end of
the human race rather than a continuance of
this!"

"Pooh! pooh! " cried the vicar, receiving
Mr. Phippen's confession with a burst of
irreverent laughter. " Take a glass of cool small
beer next time your tongue is in that state,
and you will pray for a continuance of the
brewing part of the human race, at any rate.
But let us go back to Porthgenna Tower, or
I shall never get on with my story. When
Captain Treverton had once made up his
mind to sell the place, I have no doubt that,
under ordinary circumstances, he would
have thought of offering it to his brother
(who inherited the mother's fortune, you
know), with a view, of course, to keeping the
estate in the family. Not that Andrew
would have been much good in that
way, for a more confirmed old bachelor
never existed. However, as things were at
that time (and are still, I am sorry to say),
the Captain could make no personal offers of
any kind to Andrewfor the two were not
then, and are not now, on speaking, or even
on writing terms. It is a shocking thing to
say, but the worst quarrel of the kind I ever
heard of, is the quarrel between those two
brothers."

"Pardon me, my dear friend," said Mr.
Phippen, opening his camp-stool, which had
hitherto hung, dangling by its silken tassel on
the hooked handle of the umbrella. " May
I sit down before you go any further ? I am
getting a little excited about this part of the
story, and I dare not fatigue myself. Pray
go on. I don't think the legs of my campstool
will make holes in the lawn. I
am so lighta mere skeleton, in fact. Do go
on!"

"You must have heard," pursued the
vicar, " that Captain Treverton, when he was
advanced in life, married an actressrather
a violent temper, I believe; but a person of
spotless character, and as fond of her husband
as a woman could be; therefore, according
to my view of it, a very good wife for him to
marry. However, the Captain's friends, of