to Colin's half-pleased, half-impatient, ques-eyes which would not trust themselves to tioning. The new-comer sat, gaunt and answer the mother's appealing glances; “I'm strange, throwing a long shadow over the terrible fatigued with my life, and no able to sick-bed, and looking, with a suppressed take the trouble of arguing the question. emotion, more pathetic than tears, upon the Not that I consent to your proposition, which` tray which was placed on a little table by has a fallacy on the face of it; for it would Colin's side. It was a sad sight enough. be a bonnie-like thing to hear you say thanks The young man, in the flush and beauty of either to your mother or me. Since I've his youth, with his noble physical develop- been in my situation,—which, maybe, I'll tell ment, and the eager soul that shone in his you more about by and by, now that my eyes, lay helpless, with an invalid's repast mouth's opened,-I've saved a little siller, a before him, for which he put out his hand hundred pounds, or maybe mair," said the with a languid movement, like a sick child. philosopher, with a momentary smile," and Lauderdale himself looked haggard and care- I see no reason why I shouldna have my bit worn. He had travelled by night, and was holiday as well as other folk. I've worked unshaven and untrimmed, with a wild gleam long for it." He turned away just then, of exhaustion and hungry anxiety in his attracted by a gleam of sunshine at the wineyes. dow, his companion thought, and stood looking out, disposing as he best could of a little bitter moisture that had gathered in the deep corners of his eyes. "It'll no be very joyful

when it comes," he said to himself, with a pang of which nobody was aware, and stood forming his lips into an inaudible whistle to conceal how they quivered. He, too, had built high hopes upon this young head which

"Whatever the reason may be, we're real glad to see you," said Mrs. Campbell. "If I could have wished for anything to do Colin good more than he's getting, it would have been you. But he's a great deal better,-a wonderful deal better; you would not know him for the same creature that he was when I came here; and I'm in great hopes he'll no need to be sent away for the rest of the win-was now lying low. He had said to himself, ter, as the doctor said," said the sanguine mother, who had reasoned herself into hope. She looked with wistful inquiry as she spoke into Lauderdale's eyes, trying hard to read there what was the opinion of the new-comer. "It would be an awfu' hard thing for me to send him away by himsel', and him no well," said the mistress, with a hope that his friend would say that Colin's looks did not demand such a proceeding, but that health would come back to him with the sweet air of the Holy Loch.

66

I heard of that," said Lauderdale, "and, to tell the truth, I'm tired of staying in one place all my life mysel'. If a man is to have no more good of his ain legs than if he were a vegetable, I see no good in being a man; it would save an awfu' deal of trouble to turn a cabbage at once. So I'm thinking of taking a turn about the world as long as I'm able; and if Colin likes to 99 with me go "Which means, mother, that he has come to be my nurse," said Colin, whose heart was climbing into his throat; " and here I lie like a log, and will never be able to do more than say thanks. Lauderdale "

"Whisht, callant," said the tender giant, who stood looking down upon Colin with

with the involuntary bitterness of a mind disappointed and forlorn, that here at least was a life free from all shadows,-free from the fate that seemed to follow all who belonged to himself, through whom he might again reconcile himself to Providence, and reconnect himself with existence. As he stood now, with his back to Colin, Lauderdale was again going over the burning ploughshares, enduring the fiery ordeal. Once more his unselfish hope was going out in darkness. When he returned to them, his lips had steadied into the doleful turn of a familiar air, which was connected in Colin's mind with many an amusing and many a tender recollection. Between the two people who were regarding him with love and anguish so intense, the sick youth burst into pleasant laughter,-laughter which had almost surprised the bystanders into helpless tears,and repeated, with firmer breath than Lauderdale's, the fragment of his favorite air.

"He never gets beyond that bar," said Colin. "It carries me back to Glasgow, and all the old days. We used to call it Lauderdale's pibroch. Give me my dinner, mother. I don't see what I should grumble about as long as you and he are by me. Help me to

get up, old fellow," the young man said, upon the terrace and the big holly-trées holding out his hands, and ate his invalid which Colin knew so well. It was the mornmeal cheerfully, with eager questions about ing of the day on which Lady Frankland's all his old companions, and bursts of passing ball was to take place, and symptoms of laughter, which to the ears of his friend were excitement and preparation were apparent. more terrible than so many groans. As for Immediately in front of the window, when the mistress, she had become by this time Colin looked out, Miss Matty was standing accustomed to connect together those two in animated talk with her cousin. They had ideas of Colin and a sick-bed, the conjunction been loitering about, as people do in the of which was as yet misery to Lauderdale; morning about a country-house, with no parand she was glad in her boy's pleasure, and ticular occupation, for the sun was warm, took trembling hope from every new evidence though it was still only the end of January,of his unbroken, spirit. Before long the old and Matty was at the moment engaged in current of talk had flowed into its usual chan-indicating some special designs of her own, nel; and, but for the strange, novel circum- which were involved in Lady Frankland's stances which surrounded them, one at least alterations in the flower-garden, for Harry's of the party might have forgotten for the moment that they were not in the pleasant parlor of Ramore; but that one did not see his own countenance, its eloquent brightness, its flashes of sudden color, and the shining of its too brilliant eyes.

approval. She had, indeed, just led him by
the sleeve into the midst of the half-com-
pleted design, and was describing circles
round him with the walking-stick which she
had taken out of his hand for the purpose, as
Colin stood tremulous and uncertain by the
window, looking out. Nobody could look
brighter than Miss Matty; nobody more
happy than the heir of Wodensbourne. If
the sick man had entertained any hope that
his misfortune threw a sympathetic shadow
over them, he must now have been undeceived
very summarily. Colin, however, bore the
trial without flinching. He looked at them
as if they were miles or ages away, with a
strange smile, which did not seem to the
anxious spectators to have any bitterness in
it. But he made no remark until he had left
the window, and taken his place on the sofa
which had been arranged for him by the fire.
Then he smiled again, without looking at any
one, with abstract eyes, which went to the
hearts of his attendants. How far off the
world seems!" said Colin. "I feel as if I
ought to be vexed by that paltry scene on the
terrace. Don't you think 80,
mother? But
I am not vexed, no more than if it was a pic-
ture. I wonder what it means?"

But there could not be any doubt that Colin improved from that moment. Lauderdale had secured a little lodging in the village, from which he came every morning to thecallant," in whom his disappointed manhood, too careless of personal good, too meditative and speculative for any further ambition on his own account, had fixed his last hopes. He even came, in time, after he had accustomed himself to Colin's illness, to share, by moments, in the mistress's hopes. When Colin at last got up from his bed, it was Lauderdale's arm he leant on. That was an eventful day to the little anxious group in the sick-chamber, whose hopes sometimes leaped to certainty,-whose fears, with an intuition deeper still, sometimes fell to the other extreme, and were hushed in the silence of an anguish too deep to be fathomed, from which thought itself drew back. It was a bright winter day, with symptoms of spring in the air, when the young patient got up from his weary bed. Colin made very light Eh, Colin, my man, it means you're getof his weakness in the rising tide of his ting strong and no heeding about them and spirits. He faltered across the room upon their vanities! cried the mistress, whose Lauderdale's arm, to look out again, as he indignant eyes were full of tears; but Colin said, upon the world. It was an unfortunate only shook his head and smiled, and made moment for his renewal of acquaintance no reply. He was not indignant. He did with the bright outside sphere of ordinary not seem to care or be interested one way life, which had passed on long ago, and forgotten Colin. The room in which they had placed him when his illness began was one of the best rooms in the house, and looked out

66

or another, but, as a spectator might have
done, mused on the wonderful contrast, and
asked himself what God could mean by it?-
a question which there was no one to answer.

,,

"My dear Mr. Campbell," said the curate,

I am very much grieved to hear you speaking like this. Did not God give up his own Son to sufferings of which we have no conception? Did not he endure "

Later the curate came to visit him, as indeed | eth he chasteneth,'" said the good clergyhe had done several times before, praying out man. "You are young to have so much of his well-worn prayer-book by Colin's bed- suffering; but you can always take comfort side in a way which at first scandalized the in that." mistress, who had, however, become used to "Then you mean me to think that God him by this time. "It's better to speak out does not love Harry Frankland," said Colin, of a book than to speak nonsense," Mrs." and makes a favorite of me in this gloomy Campbell had said; " but eh, Colin, it's aw-way? Do you really think so?—for I canfu' to think that a man like that hasna a not be of that opinion, for my part.” word out of his ain heart to make intercession for his fellow-creatures when they're in trouble." However, the curate was kind, and the mother was speedily mollified. As for that excellent clergyman himself, he did not at all understand the odd company in which he found himself when he looked from Colin, of whom he knew most, to the mother with her thoughtful eyes, and to the gaunt, gigantic friend, who looked upon everything in a speculative way of which the curate had an instinctive suspicion. To-day Colin's visitor was more instructive and hortatory than was at all usual for him. He spoke of the mercy of God, which had so far brought the patient toward recovery, and of the motives for thankfulness; to which Mrs. Campbell assented with silent tears.

"It was for a cause," said Colin. The young man's voice fell, and the former bitterness came back upon him. "He suffered for the greatest reason, and knew why; but we are in the dark, and know nothing; why is it? One with all the blessings of lifeanother stripped, impoverished, brought to the depths, and no reason in it, no occasion, no good!" said Colin, in the momentary outcry of his wonder and passion. He was interrupted, but not by words of sacred consolation. Lauderdale was sitting behind, out of the way, humming to himself, in a kind of rude chant, out of a book he held in his hand. Nobody had been taking any notice

of him; for it was his way. Now his voice rose and broke in, in an uncouth swell of sound, not unharmonious with the rude verse,

"Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs but to do and die,"

"Yes," said Colin; and there was a little pause that surprised the curate. "It is comfortable to be better," said the patient; "but it would be more than comfortable if one could but know, if one could but guess, what meaning God has in it all. There is Frankland down-stairs with his cousin, quite well," said Colin. "I wonder does he ever ask himself why? When one is on the wrong side of the contrast, one feels it more, I suppose." " The curate had passed Harry Frankland before he came up-stairs, and had, perhaps, been conscious in his own mind of a momentary personal comparison and passing wonder, even at the difference between his own lot and that of the heir of Wodensbourne. But he had thought the idea a bad one, and crush-leaning his back against the wall. ed it at once; and Colin's thought, though more justifiable, was of the same description, and demanded instant extinction.

said Lauderdale, with a break of strong emotion in his voice; and he got up and threw down the book, and came forward into the little circle. It was the first time that he had intimated by so much as a look his knowledge of anything perilous in Colin's illness. Now he came and stood opposite him, "Cal

lant," said the strong man, with a voice that sounded as if it were blown about and interrupted by a strong wind, "if I were on a campaign, the man I would envy would be him that was chosen by his general for the forlorn hope,-him that went first, and met the wildest of the battle. Do you mean to tell me you're no ready to follow when he

"You don't grudge him his good fortune, I am sure; and then we know there must be inequalities in this life," said the curate. "It is very mysterious, but nothing goes without compensation; and then we must always remember that whom the Lord lov-puts the colors in your hand?"

From The Spectator, 25 June.
THE COMING WAR.

have broken out; and with Holstein assigned to Germany and Lauenburg to Prussia, the Danes might have remained the guaranteed and independent masters of all that is truly theirs, the Peninsula north of the river which, before Latin ceased to be a colloquial tongue, was described as the Scandinavian frontier.

THE Conference which ought never to have met has risen, and the possibilities of peace are slipping away by hours. One more formal meeting takes place to-day, and then the plenipotentiaries summoned to register and legalize an act of armed spoliation disperse to countries more deeply embittered than they That chance was thrown away, and the were before the assemblage. Throughout the second, which arose when Germany entered negotiations every country engaged has main- Jutland and commenced ravaging territories tained the attitude which it had assumed in she does not profess to claim, was also alwar; Prussia insolent, unreasoning, and ag-lowed to slip, and we stand now reduced to gressive; Austria courteous in seeming, but the alternatives of a war, the gravity of which following steadily Herr von Bismark's lead; it is impossible to exaggerate, or of a peace Denmark complaining, and moderate up to a which can by no sophism be made other than point, but pressed beyond that, hard as iron, dishonorable. If we fight, every political or as the oppressed are apt to be; Russia un-magazine in Europe-and there is one in intelligible; France watchful; and England, every country-may receive a shell; if we conciliatory to the verge, or over the verge, of national humiliation. After surrendering the treaty of 1852, which England herself prepared, after giving up Holstein and selling Lauenburg, after offering one large slice of the country whose integrity he was bound to defend, after compelling his unhappy ally to abandon the boundary of a thousand years, and suggesting that she might live without a defensible frontier, Earl Russell made his final effort in favor of peace, and accepted a crowning humiliation. He abandoned his own ultimatum, the line of the Schlei, and by agreeing to an award of any boundary between the Dannewerke and Apenrade, agreed to place purely Danish populations under the rule of their foes. Even that shameful concession was rejected, eagerly by Prussia, reluctantly by Austria, despairingly by Denmark, and then at last the uselessness of the Conference became clear even to the diplomatic mind, and it remained only to decide whether Germany should carry out the design which she has pursued all along, and Denmark cease to exist, or England should declare that concession being exhausted, she was prepared to defend the right of small nations to exist by arms. Then at last the thesis maintained from the first by Earl Grey alone among politicians, and the Spectator alone among journals, was felt to be true. Had England from the first preferred her honor and her policy to her comfort and the surplus, had she counselled the formal renunciation of Holstein, and sent twenty thousand men to the Dannewerke, the war would never

shrink, the system of Europe ends; for civili-
zation has lost its last guarantee against the
ultimate triumph of armed force.
We are
.happy to believe that at the eleventh hour the
Whig Government, which has been so weak,
has recovered its nerve, has resolved that
it will not surrender the right of England to
plead effectually for justice and forbearance
and freedom, and has agreed to encounter
the dangers which may lie behind, which do
lie behind, the armed support of the cause it
has so very nearly betrayed. Lord Palmer-
ston has promised to make his final statement
on Monday, and no one doubts that it will
contain a proposal for despatching the British
fleet to the aid of Denmark. The doubt is
whether it will contain more. There is a
strong feeling among some members of the
government and a large section of politicians
in favor of "localizing" the coming war,
that is, we fear, of waging it with as little
heart, or energy, or definiteness of object as
circumstances will allow. The country once
fairly aroused, and it is very nearly awake,
will very soon put a stop to this attempt to
play with men's lives, but we protest against
its adoption even as a theory. If by "local-
izing" the war, it is intended only to confine
it to Northern Europe, to the North Sea and
the Baltic, the plan may have some reason in
its favor. If at that price Austria will hold
aloof, no statesman will willingly force a
great power into a contest from which she is
from whatever motive willing to abstain.
Without the price, to throw away the aid of the
nationalities of Italy and Hungary and Poland

would be simple madness. But if by "lo- three bad families, that we are about to draw calizing" the war it is intended only to de- the sword. A great war by itself and for fend the Danish islands, leaving Prussia to itself is detestable; but there is one thing keep the Duchy and to ravage Jutland, to worse, and that is a little one waged by a encounter all the dangers of war without se- great country without an object adequate to curing one of its objects, then we protest the loss to be incurred and the evil to be done. against a policy which breaks up the peace If this country begins at all, it must accept of Europe for no adequate end. The minis- the magnitude as well as the existence of its try may have been right in exhausting nego- liability, be prepared with soldiers, as well as tiation before they appealed to arms, may ships, if needful strike in the Adriatic as well justify every proposal up to the ultimatum as in the North Sea, defend the principle it of the Schlei; beyond that point justifica- arms to protect even when iron-clads are as tion is impossible, but once in war feeble-powerless in the Baltic as armies within a ness is ruin. The defence of the islands will morass. To attempt very little, and that not save Denmark, which, without Jutland little with half a heart, to keep hoping for and Schleswig, ceases to be a State. It will peace when the cannon are sounding, and not conciliate the Germans, who are boiling negotiating on the eve of battle, to rise to the over with hate, and in whom we can for the circumstances only after months of contest, present hope only to inspire respect,-the re- and then sign away victory just as it has been pect which all men feel for a just but deter- finally secured, is the regular sequence of mined foe. The object of the war is to convince events in a great English war. But to adopt a great and over-military nation that what- that sequence as a policy, as something wise ever its strength, or unity, or enthusiasm, it as well as inevitable, would argue a feeblecannot be permitted to extend its boundaries by ness of judgment as well as a doubtfulness of a simple appeal to force, that strength, when it heart which would from the first chill that comes to the point, is on the side of the law, national fervor which is the root of English and that object can only be secured by a res-strength in war. If there be still a qualı as olute adherence to the British proposal, to the justice of our cause, still a doubt as to Denmark free to the Schlei. The treaty the necessity of action, still a possibility of a of 1852 has in the contest disappeared. return to reason in a German court, let us The rights of King Christian in Holstein are hesitate yet longer; but for God's sake, let us not Danish, and England does not plunge not enter on a war with seventy millions of into European wars for the sake of mere people believing that it is a light or temkings. Lauenburg is not in question on porary undertaking! For the maintenance either side except as a make-weight, and of England's word and England's imperial Denmark has herself surrendered the terri-honor, for the existence of all free States and tory between her old frontier and the Schlei. the maintenance of a threatened civilization, Up to that point concession is possible, but for honorable defence of the powerless and beyond that the aggression of Germany is conquest, the acquisition of territory by arms; and it is to prevent the success of that appeal, as well as to maintain an influence without which Europe would be the prey of

just resistance to violent wrong, we believe this war to be both righteous and expedient; but it must be as great as the principles it involves and the wrong which has provoked it.