A Masonic Address.

" Miller neA'er said ill-natured things about people , " and I repeat it here , because it seems to me very high praise for a . very rare virtue . We can all remember how often he would , AA'hen others Avere speaking hardly of the absent , interpose AA'ith a kindly remonstrance , or plead extenuating circumstances ; and I think we must all have noticed how seldom he initiated any conversation upon the faults or failings of others , and AA'hen a friend or brother Avas attacked , he Avoidd often A \ 'ax warm in his defence . BrethrenI must now closehaving , I fearvery imperfectly discharged dut .

, , , my y The task is a difficult one . It is like the artist taking up the pencil to portray a departed friend . To the imagination the thing seems easy . Every feature and line of the countenance is easily recalled ; but when the attempt is made , the lines are uncertain and faint , tho paper is blotted AA'ith tears , and the result is but an indistinct outline of the face and form , Avhich , in the mind ' s eye , are photographed with clearness and precision . So is it with the attempt to draw AA'ith loAdng hand a sketch from memory

of our departed friend and brother . Each one of us can call up in imagination the living presence of the departed , the honest , open face AA'ith its ever , kindly smile , the hearty voice , the cordial grasp of the hand , these memory can reproduce for us with unerring accuracy ; but Avhen we come to try and paint the portrait of the man , we can only put in a line here and there , and produce but a shadoAvy impression of what he \ A'as . Ton , howev'er , know , Avithout the help of feeble words of mine , AA'hat be AA'as , and it is for us to strive to follow the example he lias left us , that , Avlien our time shall come , it may be said of . each of us as it truly can be said of him , "He was a true and faithful brother . "

Amabel Vaughan.*

AMABEL VAUGHAN . *

BY BEO . EMRA HOLMES . Author of " Mildred , an Autumn Romance ; " " M y Lord the King f " The Path ° f Life , an Allegory ; " " Another Fenian Outrage ; " " Tales , Poems , and Masonic Papers ; " etc ., etc .

CHAPTER X . AN AITCOJYJIOUS LETTEB AND ITS BEST / MS . A EOBTUNATE REITCOHTBE . TT is said that misfortunes never come singlcertainlMabel found it for few

y ; y so , a x days after the melancholy event chronicled in the last chapter she received an anonymous letter , which ran thus : — " Knowing the interest 3-011 take in Eeginald Fitzgerald , I am desirous of showing yon his real character , and wish to enli ghten you on certain points of his conduct . You remember the bespeak at the Theatre in Novemberand Mr . Fitzgerald ' s absence from

, your box almost all the evening . He was behind the scenes with one of the actresses , your rii'al , Miss Nellie Longmore . Ask him if he lifted her CIOAVU after the balcony scene . As , perhaps , he may deny my statement ( and , like the rest of his countrymen , I ' believe , he is not remarkable for veracity ) , I send you his OAVU card , making an appointment with the young lady in question . All this is well knoAvn , and everyone pities you . " Yoini FIHESD AND WEUAVISILEB . "