The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

got Mr. Hntherley's clever'article in this month's Contemporary. That evening, as the sat together silmtly in the drawing room, lnifred engaged [n the feminineamusoment ofpasting admiring glan- cesjat her own walls, and Hugh poring over a serious-looking book, Winifred lanoed over him suddenly with a sigh, an murmured half aloud: “ After all, really I don’t think much of it." “ Much of what 7" Hugh asked, still bending over the book he was anxiously con. sultin . “ V5hy, of that gourd I brought home from town yesterday. You know Mrs. Walpole’s got a curd in her drawing~room ; and every time gI went into the Vicarage I said to myself: “ Oh, how lovely it is l How exquisite! How foreign-looking! If only Ihad a gourd likefthat, now. I think life would be really endurable. It gives the last touch of art to the picture. Our new drawing-room would look just perfection with such a gourd as hers to finish the wall with.” Well, I saw the exact counterpart of that very gourd the day before yesterday at a shop in Bend street. I bought it. and brought it home with exceeding great joy, I thought I should then be quite happy. hung it up on the wall to try, this morning. And sitting here all evening looking at it with my head first on one side and then on the other, I’ve said to myself a thousand times over : ‘ It doesn’t look one bit like Mrs. Walpole’s. After all, I don’t know that I’m so much happier, now I’ve CHAPTER XXIXâ€"warmer WILL Har- HEX. During the whole of the next week, the Squire and a strange artisan, whom he had specially imported by rail from London, went much about together by day and night through the grounds at Whitestrand. A certain air of mystery hung over their joint proceedings. The strange artisan was a skilled workman in the engineering line, he told the people at the Fiskernum's Rest, where he had taken a bed for his stay; in the vik‘age ; and indeed sundry books in his kit bore out the statementâ€"weird books of a scientific and diagrammatic character, chokeiul of formulae in Greek lettering, which seemed not unlikely to be connected with hydrostatics, dynamics, trigonometry, and mechanics, or any other equally abstruse and uncanny subject, not wholly alien to neoromsncy and witchcraft. It Was held at Whitestrancl by these best able to form an opinion in such dark questions, that the new importation was “ summat in the elec- tric way ;" and it was certainly matter of plain fact, patent to all observers equally, that he did in very truth fix up an elaborate I lightning-conductor of the latest pattern to the newly thrown-out gable-end at what had once been Elsie‘s window. It was Elsie's window still to Hugh : let him twist it and turn it and alter it as he would, he feared it would never, never cease to be Elsie’s window. But in the domain at large, the intelligent “Why, of that gourd I brought home from town yesterday. You know Mrs. Walpole’s got a card in her drawing-room ; and every time gI went into the vlenrege I said to myself: "Oh, how lovely it is! How exquisite! How foreign-looking! If only Ihed a gourd likefthst. now I think life would be really endurnble. It gives the last touch of art to the picture. Our new dI'EWing-room would look just perfection with such a. gourd as here to finish the well with.” Well. [saw the exact counterpart of that; very gourd the day before yesterday at a shop in Bond street. I bought it. and brought: it home with exceeding great joy, I thought I should then be quite happy. hung it up on the well to try, this morning. And sitting here all evening looking at: it with my head first on one side and then on the other. I’ve said to myself 3 thousand times over : ‘ It doesn’t look one bit like Mrs; Welpole’e1 ‘Aiter all, I don’t; That swank:ng t a sat together silmtly in the drawing room, inifredenmged lathe feminineumusomentofloautingadmiiing glan- cesjat her own walls, and Hugh poring over a serious-looking book, Winifred lanoed over him suddenly with a sigh, an murmured half aloud : “ After all, really I don't think much of it." In! I" “How cross you are l" Wlnifred cried with n. frown. " You jump at me M if you'd snap my head ofl' ! And all j ust because I didn’t like your Yemenâ€"Very well then; I’ll go and sit there alone.â€"I can amuse myself, fortunately, without your help. I've got Mr. Hatherley's clever uticleln this month's Oongemporary. At the word, Hugh flung down uh; manu- script in a. heap on the ground with a strong- er e ression than Winifred had ever before hear fall from his 11 s. “ I hate the poplar !" he said angri y ; " I detest the poplar ! I won't: have the poplar 1 Nothing on earth will induce me to si: by the pop Hugh answered her never a single word. To sucha knock-down blow as that, may answer at all is clearly impossible. He only muttered acmething very low to himself about castiu one's pearls before somo ore-.- ture innudib e. Presently, \Vlnifred a he again. “ Let‘s go out," she said, rising mm the sofa, " and sit: by the Sea on wtheirciots o! the ppplar.” “ Well, surely, Winifred,” he cried at last after a long ause, “ you think those other lines good, 011': you '2â€" And when like some fieroe whirlwind through the land. The wrethful Teubon swept, he only dared To hope and act when every heart and hand, Buu his alone, deepaired.” “ My dear Hugh,” Winifred answered candidly, “ don’t; you see in your own heart that; all this sort of thing may be very well in its own way, but; it isn't originalâ€"in isn’t inspiration ; it: isn't the true uored fire : it’s only an echo. Echoes do admirably for the young beginner ; but in a man of your ageâ€"for you are gettin on nowâ€"we expect something native and i osyneratio.â€"I think Mr. Hatherley called it idlosyncratlo.â€"You know Mr. Habherley said to me once you would never be a poet. You have too good a. memory. “ \Vhenever Musiuger sins down at his desk to write about anything,” he said in his quiet way, “he remembers such a perfect flood of excellent things other people have wrinton about the same subject, than he's absolutely incapable of origin- ‘ ality." And the more I see of your poetry, l dear, the more do I see that Mr Hatherley ‘ was rightâ€"right beyond question. You're clever enoug 1, but you know you’re not original.” ’ Hugh bit his lip in bitter silence. The criticism was many times worse than harsh ; it: was true; and he knew it. But a. truth- ful critic is the most galling of all things. " Think ?" Winifred answered. “Why, I think, Hugh, that if Swinburne had never written his Ode to Victor Hugo. you would never havn written that Funeral Much for yolr preeiouu_Ga_r_nb<_atta_. '_’ Our own Republic stretclf her arms again To ruin the weeping daughters of Alsace, And lead thee home, Lorraine. " Well, what do you think at that, Wln‘ nie I" he asksd at last triumphantly, with the air of a. man who has trotted out: his best ws.r~horso for public inspection, and has no fear of the effect he is producing. . clcau‘writben wpy of hi: immortul' threnody. Ho began reading out the lu-‘ gnbrioul Lima in a sufficiently grmndinse and sepulchral voice. Winifred listened wmh careless Attention, as to a matter littlel worthy her sublime consideration. Hugh cleared hie throat and rung oul magullo- guently: "She aim once more upon her uncient throne, The fair republic of our steadfast vows; A Phryglnn bonnet binds her queenly brown; Athwart her neck her knotted hair is blown. A hundred ultiea nestle in her lap, Girl; round their atately locks with mural crownl : The folds of her imperial robe enwnp A thousand lesser Downs.” ' “ Mural crown!” is good,‘ Winifred mur- mured satiricully; ‘it reminds one so vivldly of the atone smtues in the Place do ll. Cou- oorde.” ' Hugh took no notice of herintercelary criticism. He went on with ten or twelve alumna more of the same bombeetio, would- be aubllme cherubâ€"er, and wound up at In" in thunderous tones with a prophetic out- burst M to the imagined career of some future Gembetteâ€"himself possibly : “ He etill shall guide us award the distant goal; Calm with unerrlnw tact our week alarms; Train all our youth in will of manly arms, And knit; our sires in unity of soul; Till burstingiron bars and getes of brass THE THREAD OF LIFE 1' Band m_e Gambaua," Winifred said with qmogxmpen‘zuanm. b ” I’ll Bee if I like that any etwr an t is f 1‘ ' Philowphy'” - on lab maundermg _ iHughA hirned over hie papers for the piece u by raqnasc," and ufser some searching among quirevtlslmd sheets, qamfa-at 19m: upoq CHATER XXVIII.â€"(Coxmunn.) SUNSHINE AND SHADE. As he rose from the desk, he glanced hail involuntarily out of the study Window. It pointed south. The moon was shining full on the water. That hateful poplar stared him straight in the iaoe, as tall and gaunt and immovable as ever. On its roots, 8. wo- man in a white dress was standing, looking ‘out over the angry sea, as Elsie had stood, ‘ for the twinkling of an eye, on that terrible ‘evening when he lost her for ever. One se- ,cond, the sight sent a shiver? through his frame, then he laughed to himself, the next, for his roundless terror. How childish I How ' antilel It was the gardner’s wife, in her light print frock, looking out to sea for her boy's smack, overdue, no doubtâ€"for Charlie was a fishermanâ€"But it was intol- erable that he, the Squire of Whitestrand, should be subjected to such horrible turns as theseâ€"He shook his fist angrily atthe ofl'end-‘ ing tree. “ You shaleay for it, my friend,”‘ he muttered low but hoarse between his‘ clenched teeth. You shan't have many more chances of frightening me 1” GENTLEMEN- Please forward me to the above address, at your earliest: convenience, our most powerful form of Ruhmk on} {nduction Coil, with secondary wires attach- ed, for which cheque will be sent in full on receipt of invoice or retail price listâ€"Faith- fully yours, HUGH MASSINGRR. As soon as she was gone, Hugh rose from his chair and walked slowly into his own study, Gordon's “ Electricity ” was still in his hand, and his finger pointed to that inâ€" criminating passage. He sat down at the sloping desk and wrote a short note to a. well-known firm of scientific instrument makers whose address he had copied a week blfOl'e from the adverfiaemenb sheet of “ Nature.” W'inifred took up a bedroom candle and liphted it: quietly without a word. Then she went up to muse in her own bedroom over her new gourd and other disillusionment. v “ Bub ‘ Mr. Hatherley said to me once you would never be a. poet,’ " Hugh repeated with a smile, exactly mimicking. Winifred’s querulous little voiae and manner. “ As m own wife doesn’t: consider me a poet, Win - fred, I shall venture to do as I like myself about my private propqrty.” answered in a breath, with wlfely promp- tltude. " i htning never hurt the house yet, emf it's not going to begin hurting it now, just because an Im- mortal Poet with a fed for electricity has come to live and compose at Whitesrrand. If anything, it ought to go the other way. Bards, you know, are exempt; from thunder- bolbs. Didn't; you read me the lines your- self, ‘God‘a lightnings spared, they said, Alone the holier head, Whose laurels screened it,’ or something to char eflrct? You're all right, you see. Poets can never get struck. I fancy.” _ I “Conductors! F‘lddleetlcks I” Winifred Wimfred t-ook Ehe book from his hand, wondering, with a. masterful air of erfecb authority. He yielded like a lamb. n im- material questions it was his policy not to re- sisther. Sheturnedtothepagewherehisfiu er had rested and ran it down lig‘lzxnly with er quick eye. The key-words showed in some degree am what it was drivin : “ Franklin's Experiment "â€"â€"” Means 0 Collection "â€" “ Theory of Lightning Rods"â€"“ Ruhm- korff's Coils”â€"“ Drawing down Electric Discharges from the Clouds.”â€"Why, what was all this ? She turned round inquiringly. Hugh shuffled in an uneasy way in his chair. The husband who shufiies betm s his cause. ” \Ve must put up conductors, 'innie," he said hesitatlngly, with a bot face, " to pro- tech those new gables It the east wing.â€" ' 5's dangerous to leave the house so exposed. I’ll order them down from London to-mor-i row." Hugh hesitnbed, and seemzd half inclined for a moment to abuts the book with a bang Ind hide is away from her. Then he made up his mind uich a froah resolve to brazen it out. " Gordon's Electricitg and Magnetism," be answeredlquiotly, as am; asked as possible, holding the Volume half-closed with his fore; finger as the page he had just hunted up' “ I'mâ€"I'm interested at present: to some ex- tent in the subject of electricity. I’m think- ing getting it? up a little.” By and bv .Winifred rose and crcsasd the room. “ What'a that you‘re studying so intently 7" she naked, with a suspicious glance at. the book in his fiagem. Hugh groaned. The unconscious allegory was far we obvious in its application not to sink into the very depths or his soul. He turned haek to his hook‘ and sighed inwardâ€" ly to think for what a. feeble, unsatisfactory shadow of a. gourd he had agelificed his own lifeâ€"not to speak of Winifred’a and Elnie‘a. got is, than 1 was before I had a. gourd my own an all to look at.’ ” WHITESTRAFD HALL, Amwmun, Sumnx. This particular thunderstorm, as chance ‘ “Ly Beawwm' would have it, came late at night, after Hugh slept but: little that eventful night; three sultry days of clone wemher, when’his mind addressed itself with feverish big black masses were just beginning to eagerness to somsny hard and doubtful quee- other in vast battalions over the German titans. He rob-Jed and turned and asked him. cean: and let loose at lost its fierce art- a self ten thonsmd times overâ€"W55 the tree illery in terrible valleys right: over the bums throughâ€"burnt down to the ground? village and grounds of VVhitestmnd. Hugh ‘ W's“: the room and the trunk consumed Massinger was the first at the Hall to ; beyond hopeâ€"or rather beyond fearâ€"of nl observe from afar the distant flash, beforel “more recovery? Was the hateful popla The reuon for this is not far to seek. In hilly countries the hills and trees act as natural lightning- conductors, or rather as decoys to draw aside the fire from heaven from the towns or farm-houses that nestle far below among the glens and valleys. But in wide level plains, where all alike is flat and low-lying, human architecture ferms for the most part the one salient point in the landscape for lightning to attack: eve church or tower with Its battlements en lanterns studs in the place of polished knobs on an electric machine, and draws down up on itself with unerring certainty the deg» tructivo bolt from the over-charged clouds. Owing to this cause, the thunder-storms of East Anglia are the most spelling and dee- tructive in their concrete results of any in England. The laden clouds, big with electric energy, g low and dark above one's very hes , and leCI loose their accumulated store of vivid , flashes in the exact; midst of towns and villages. l The plot was all well laid now. Hugh had nothing further left to do but to possess his soul in patience against the next t'nun derstorm. He had not very long to wait. Before the month was out, a thunderstorm did indeed burst in full force over White- stmnd and its neighbourhoodâ€"one of those terrible and destructive eastcoast, electric displa s which invariably leave their broad mark hehind them. For along the low, flu', monotonous East Anglizm shore, where hills are unknown and big trees rare, the light ning almost inevitably singles out for its onslaught some aspiring piece of man‘s handiworkâ€"some church steeple, some. castle keep. the :urrets on some tall and loci-ted manor-house, the vane above some ongient castellated gateway. _ The Whitester labourers, who passed by the oplnr and the London worxmsn, time an again, with a jerky nod and their pipes turned downward, never noticed a. certain slender unobtrusive copper wire which the strange artisan fastened one evening, in the gray dusk, right up the stem and bolus of the big tree to a. round knob on the very summit. The wire, how- ever, as its fixer knew, run down to a. large deal box well buried in the ground, which bore outside a. Green label, “Ruhmkorif Induction Coil, 4 liott's Patent.” The wire and coil terminated inn. pile close to the four full petroleum barrel-a. Vthn the London workmen had securely laid the entire apparatus, undisturbed by loungers, he reported adversely, with great solemnity, on the tidal outfall and electric light scheme to Hugh Messingar. No sufficient power for the purpose existed in the river. This adverse report was orally delivered in the front vestibule of VVhitestrand Hell ; and it was also delivered with sednlous care â€"ll perorders receivedâ€"in MrsJAMssinger’s own presence. When the London workmen went out again after making his carefully worded statement, he went out clinkinq a coin or the roslm or two in his trousers’ pocket, and with his tongue stuck, some- what nnbecomingiy, in his right cheek, as who should pride himself on the successful ontwitting of an innocent fellow-creature. He had done the work he was paid for, and he had done it well. But he thought to him- self, as he went his way rejoicing, that the Squire of VVhitestrend must be very Well held in hand indeed by that small pale lady. if he had to take so many cunning precau- tions in secret beforehand when he wanted to get rid of a single tree that offended his eye in his own gardens, 0] their side In a queer apparatus, con- nected apparent y in some remote way with electric lighting. The Squire himself. however, made no secret of his own personal snd private intentions to the London Work- man. He paid the man well, and he extcted silence. That was all. But he explained precisely in plsin terms what i: was that he wanted done. The tree was an eyesore to him, he said, with his usualfrank noesâ€"Eu h was always frank whenever possibleâ€" ut his wife, for sentimental rea- sons, had a. s eclal fancy for it. He wanted to get rid o it, therefore, in the least 01)- trasive way he could easily mansge. This was the least obtrusive way. So this wow what he required done with it. The London workman nodded his head, pocketed his pay, looked unconcerned, and held his tongue with trained fidelity. It was none of his business to pry into any employer's motives. Enough for him to take his orders and to csrry them out faithfully to the very letter. Thejob was odd: an odd job is always in- teresting. He hoped the experiment might prove successful. Still, it was a. curious feet in its own my thatthe installation appeared to progress moat. easilywhen nobody happened to belookingOn, and that the skilled workmm in the en- gineering line generally stood with his hands in his pockets, surveying his handicraft with languid interest, whenever anybody from the village or the Hall lounged up by his aide to inspect 3r wonder at it. More curious still was another small fact, known to nobody but the skilled workman in mm persona. that four small cask: of petroleum from a London stare were stowed away, by Hugh Massinger’s orders, under the very roots of the big poplar ; and that by their side lay a queer apparatus. conâ€" artisnn with the engineering air, who was surmised to he “ sman in the electric way," carefully examined, under Hugh' directions, many parts of the grounds 0 Whitestrnnd. Squire was going to lay out the garden and terrace afresh. the servanrs conjectured in their own society : one or two of them, exceedingly modern in their views, even opined in an off hand feshion that he mustbe bent on layingelectric lights on. Con- servative in most things to the backbone, the servants bestowed the mood of their hearty approval on the electric light: it saves no in Jimmng and cleaning. Lamps are the bugbear of big country houses : electricity, on the other hand, needs no tending. It was near the poplar that Squire was going toput his installation, as they call the ar- rangement in our lmtur day jargon ; and he was going to drive it, rumour remarked, by a tidal outfall. What a tidnl outfall might be, or how it could work in lighting the Hall. nobody knew: but the intelligent artisan had let the words drop casiullv in the oourst of conversation; and tho FiJwr-man's Rest snnpped them up at once, and retailer] them freely with profound gusto to all after-com~ ers. rapidity into its prim A man man be 3: Hugh leaped towards it; open wildly. “I “ Ring the bell for aavage glee in his voi4 His enemy was low, but he would at least of magnnnimitf'. “‘ hose l” he exc aimed save it 1” Winifred hon-or. “Let it but cried. “\Vlw cares I Hugh slept but) little that eventful night ; his mind addressed itself with feverish eagerness to so many hard and doubtful ques- tions. He tossed and turned and asked him- self ten thousmd times overâ€"was the tree burnt throughâ€"burnt down to the ground? Were _the roots and the trunk consumed save it!” Winifred clung to his arr; in horror. “Let it burn down, Hugh !” she cried. “\Vho cares for the poplar? I'd sooner ten thousand poplars burned to the ground than that you should venture out on such an evening I" one living mass of rampant flame, is flaring beacon, irom top to bottom. The etroleum, ignited and raised to flashing-p0 nt by the fire which the induction coil had drawn down from heaven, gave cfiits blazing vapour in huge rolling sheets and forked tongues of flame,which licked up the craokllnzbranches of the dry old tree from base to summit like so much touohwood. The poplar rose now one solid column of crimson fire. The red glcw deepened and widened from moment to moment. Even the drenching rain that followed the thunder-clap seemed powerless to check that frantic onslaught. The fire leaped and danced through the tall straight boughs with mad exultation, hissin out 'ts defiance to the big roun drops which burst of? into tiny balls of steam before they could reach the red hot trunk ‘ and snapping branches. Even left to itself, the poplar, once ignited, would have burnt to the ground with startling rapidity ; for its core was dry and light as tinder, its wood was eaten through by innumerable worm-holes, and the hollow centre of mouldering dr -rot, where children had loved to play at ide- and-seek, acted now like a roaring chimney flue, with the fierce draught that carried up the circling eddies of smoke and flame in mad career to the topmost branches. But the fumes oi the petroleum, rendered instant] gaseous by the electric heat. mode the war; of destruction still more instantaneous, ter- rible, and complete than it would have prov- ed if left to unaided nature. The very at mosphera revolved itself into one rolling pil~ lar of fluid flame. The tree seemed envelop- ed in a shroud of fire. All human efl‘ort must be powerless to resist it. The poplar dissolved almost as if by magic with a wild rapidity into its prime elements. A man must be a man come what may. Hugh leaped towards the window and flun it open wildly. “ I must go !" he crie . “ Ring the bell for the servants.” The savage glee in his voice was well repressed. His enemy was low, laid prone at his feet, but he would at least pretend to some spark of magnanimity. “ We must get out the ' hose 1” he exc aimed. " We must try to save it I” “linifred clung to his arm in Winifred opened her eyes with an effort, and saw him standing there, as if spellbound, by the window. She dared not get up and come any nearer the front of the room, but, raisins: her eyes, she saw from where she sat, or rather crouched, that; the p‘nplar stoofi out, For nextinstnnt a sheet 0! liquid flame seemed to surround and engulf the Whole house at once in its White embrace. The world became for the twinkling of n eyen one surging flood of vivid fire, one rear and crash and see of deafening tumult. VVini- fred buried her face deeper than ever on Hugh's shoulder, and put up both her emall hands to her tingling eirs, to crush ifpossible the hideous roar out. But the light and sound seemed to penetrate everything: she was aware of them keenly through her very bones and nerves and marrow; her entire being appetu‘ed as if pervaded and over- whelmed with the horror of the lightning. In another moment all was over, and she was conscious only of an abiding owe, a deep-seated afterglow of alarm and terror. Bu; Hugh had started up from the sofa. now, both his hands clasped hard in front of his breast, and was gazing wildly out of the big bow-window, and lilting up his voice in aparoxysm of excitement. "It’s hit the poplar I ' he cried. “ Its hit the poplar I It must be terribly near, Winnie! It’s hit ; the poplar l" ,,__ _....- u...“ . \- her poor throbbing aching head with a lov- er's careaa upon his own broad bosom. Winifred nessled close to him with a sigh of relief. The nearneea of danger, real or izno agined, romea all the most ingrained and profound of our virile feelings. The instinct of protection for the woman and the child comes over even bad men at such momenta of doubt with irreliatible might and majesty. Small differences or tifiu are forgotten and forgiven: the Woman clings naturally in her feminine weakness no the strong man in his primary “peak as comforter and protector. Between Hugh Ind Winifred the eetmngemenb as yet was but vague and unacknowledged. End is yswned far wider, had it: soak for deeper, the awe and toxror of that supreme moment would ainpr have sufl'iced to bridge ii: over, 9 atleasn win the orgy of the thunderntmm lasted. xu its old place unnn Hugh‘s shoulder. “Ic's coming this way, " she'cried nervously after is while. "The! last flush must have bCCD awfully near us." Evan as she spoke. a terrific volley seemed to burn all at onoe right: oventheir heads and shake the house with its irresistible majesty. Winifred buried her face deep in the cush- ions. “0 Hugh," she cried in a ternfiod (one, “ this is awfulâ€"awful 1" Much as he longed to look out of the win- dow, Hugh could not resist that unspoken appeal. He drew up the blind hastily no its full height, so that: he might see out to wnsoh the success of his deep-laid stratagem; then he hurried over with real tenderneea to Winifred’s side. He drew his arm round her and sor shed her with his hand, and laid her poor throbbing aching head with a lov- like lightning. Winifr: apparently. I wonder mwardn us 2â€"Whew- precious near. I expe: ourselves shortly." The clouds rnlJed n] rapidity, and the clup4 and nearer. Winifrcd swim in terror. She d; she was too proud to ac nevertheless have givex her frightened little hen in its old place upon Hu coming this way, " she' a while, " That last fl awfully near us." am! [tying (flown the fimnuscrips of “A Life's Pmlouophy ’ which he was languidly correc- ting in its later am: 5.13, "that's something like lightning. \Viuifred 1 Over Shade wny, appurently. I wonder if il'fl going to drift mwardn us 3â€"Whewâ€"what a ‘clap {It’- nrb.;:l~lua .‘A‘- r the thunder had made ibseIf audible in their ears. A pale light to westward, in the direction of Suede, attracted. as be real, his passing attention. “By Jove I" he cried, rising with a yawn from _hi5A chair, null. -,.. 1-”, n his arm thrilled through him Her words stung him with a meanness. Something very rf remorse came over his spirit. own and kissed her beqderly. h struck over towards tl'le e thunder was rolling gradu- Whew-whatoa “214i; 135; ngpeco we shall catch is ed up with extraordinary 31-p4 cams fast and thick ifrcd cnwered down on the be dreaded thunder; but to oonfew what she would given Worlds to doâ€"hide 0 head with ache and tears ‘Y- of the new embankment of the Yellow river, 3 which was commenced last autumn at tho - spot where the old embankment gave way. be has been completely swept away by the d- summer floods. It is said to have cost about r ‘5 2,000,000 sterling (9,000,000 of teels). As '1‘ the flood rose, in was seen that the strain 1° was becoming dangerous, and Li Hang-team, F0 the high official in charge of the work, was “1 g sent for in hot haste, but before he could ,‘e l i ‘rive the whole bank went down before the d I flood, and of the 8,000 feet of river-wall lately ‘3 completed not an inch ‘ remains, and the n f wrters are pouring unchecked through the immense gap into the Honen province. n V From 800 to 1,00013bourers who were on 8- I the bank were e130 swept away and drown- y l ed. It is reported from Pek'm that all the t- lofiiciais concerned are being severely pun. '- ' ished. Li Hang-tsao and the governor of e i the province are being (liem'iseed and degrad: I It is reported from China that the whole I ed {another high official is being banished to Mongolia. and the late High Commission- er of the Yellow river is to be banished to the Amoor. The disasters can scarcely stop as they are now, because the volume of silt- laden wabers will create shallows which will still further increase the inundated area, and may cause an overflow into the Y which will make th conservation of that: great water-way a matter of urgent impor- £8008. Dr. Mackenzic’s Book. Public interest in the Whitechapel mur- ders was speedily, if but temporarily over- alls/lowed by the excitement due to the appearance of Dr. Msckenzie's Book of De- fence of himself and his treatment of the late Emperor against the attacks of the Ger- man physicians. According to this book of his the famous Scotch specialist was a griev- oust persecuted man against whose preem- inent skill the jealous hosts of profes- sional Philistines rose up in wrath but fortunately for him and the Emperor, rose up in vein. The book has of course received no end of attention, hmtile and otherwise. The German police have'done it the very stupid honor of seizing all on ies of it on which they could lay their ban 5. It has been the occasion of tremendous enter- prise on the part of one New York new:- paper, and of humiliating disappointment to at least another because of the terrribly awkward slip between the cup and the lipof which it was the victim. Then there has been mourning and lamentation in the camp of A publishing firm because of the bud faith of somebody which has made their commercial venture anything but the success it might have been head things gone in the way they expected. All Eu- rope and America has been turned intoa battle ground of confliczing profession- al opinion In which learned doctors not only disagree, but give the lie to one another in 3 way which does not encourage the merely lay mind to place that reliance on scientific knowledge and skill which might be desirable. The unprofessional mind enjoys the fight, but wonders more and more why science can persist in sneering in so consciously superior s manner at the Odmm Theologicum, which has so long been the object of its wonder and contempt. All the way up to the “ Fisherman’s Rut” be repeated agniuand aguin below his bxeath: So much the worse in the end for White- sbr and.’ syllogisbic ramming or apriori scepticism. Th6 Whitester poplar was really gone. Not a. stump even remained as its relic or ite monument. That same evening, as u was growin‘ dusk, Warren Rclf and Potts, navigating the Mud Turtle around by sea from Yeak mouth Roads, put in for the night to the Char at Whitestrand. They meant lie by fora Sunday in the estuary, nnfl to walk across the fields, if the day prov- ed fine, to service at Suede, As they approached the month they looked about in vain for the familiar landmark. Ah fimt they cuuld hardly believe their eyes : to men who knew the east coast) well, the disappearance of the Whitestrand poplar from the world seemed almost as in- credible aa the sudden removal of the Baa? Rock or the Pillars of Hercules. Nobody would ever dream of cutting down the; glory of Suffolk, that time-honoured m mark. But a») they strained their eye through the deepenimv gloom, the stern logic of facts left them at last no further room for played uexvously with the button of his was. “I wiuh you could have keph i'b \Vinnio," he said 1105 unkindiy. “But in’u no: my imamâ€"And I ban no malice. I’ll even forgive you for telling mo I'd never make a. poet; though that, you’ll admit, Was a hard saying. I think, my child. if you don’t mind, I'll ask Huber- ly down nexa week to vial; us.â€"â€"-1!here'a nothingliko advexso opinion to improve 006'» work. Habherley'u opinion is more ,V_ .. flay-urn one‘s work. Hatherley‘a opinion is more than adverse. I’d like his criticism on A Life's Philosophy betoro I rush into prints) last: with the greateab and deepest work 0 my lifetime." had done its duty bawdy. No: L taco. of de- sign could be observed u.be era. The Rnbm- knrff Induction (‘Nil hurl melted into air. Nobody ever so much as dreamed that human handicraft. had art or art in the burning of the celebrated S hilescrand popmr. Tm: “Times” gave it a line of passing regret; and the Trinit House deleted it wibh pains an :1 Ian ndmuk from their sailing directions. Hugh set his workmen instantly tostub up the roots. And Winifred, glzmg mourn- fully nextduy at the ruins, observed with a. sigh: “You never liked rho dear “Id trees Hugh ; and it Ieema as if fate had interposed in your favour to destroy it. I'm sorry in gone ; but I'd sacrifice a. hunrlred much free! any day tohave you as kind to me as yol were last evam’ng.” The saying sm played uexvousl; 005$. “I win} \Vinnio." he as teally done for! Would an y trace remain c be barrels that bed held the tell-tel pet;- roleumhm relic be left: of the Rubin otfi‘ Induction ‘ il? “'11:: job or tittlo of the evidence of design would now aurvive to be- tray and convict him 3 What ground for reasonable eusplciun would Winifred use that the fire was not wholly the result of Moi- den‘ But when next morning's light dawned and the sun arose upon the scene of cocflogration, Hugh smv n; a glance that all his fears had indeed been wholly and utterl groundless. The poplar was as though it hm never exist- ed. A bare block patch by the mouth of th: Char, ocvnred with ash and dust and cindel alone marked the «pot when: the famous fire had once stood. The Very roots were burn ed deep into the grrnnd. The petroluu I...) A"..- h.â€" _‘__A,, I The Yellow River. (To BE CONTINUED.) m Hugh's heart lore. He