A Mason's Story.

With this the subject dropped . While her lover was thus striving after a knowledge of the unattainable , Mary was living the same quiet life in her English home . The summer , with its many and varied glories , was drawing to a close , and already the hay-making season had endedand those round about her were resting for a . short time

, before commencing the harvest . The wheat was already ripening , and in the dales and on the sunny hillsides nature glowed with a golden beauty , while the grain rocked and swayed in the breeze , its music bringing back old songs long since forgotten , but with old memories re-awakened . Soon winter would be on them again , and the winter would not find her idle , but it would not find her so happy as before .

Pelham had recovered from his well-merited snubbing at the picnic , and was prosecuting his suit with renewed ardour . His efforts at success w ere now seconded by her father , whose views in regard to Falconer had blotted out all feeling of honour and ri ght . If his conscience ever pricked liim concerning the dishonourable j > art he was playing in the little drama , he would adopt the Jesuitical motto that the end fully justified the means . Besides thathe reasoned

, , " Falconer is away ; and though he probably may and will come back , he will not prove so pliant a son-in-law as Pelham . " That Falconer certainly -would not , for where any 2 ioint of honour or right was concerned he would prove as obstinate as Mr . Morton himself . One day her father said to Mary : " Mary , I wish you would listen to what Pelham has got to tell you , I think he is a God-fearing young man who would

be calculated to make your life happy . " Mary had replied : " Look here , father , the less you say about him to me the better , for I heartily despise the fellow . " With that it had ended , save for such little hints and inuendos as he had ventured to throw out , all of which were altogether lost on his fair listener . Mary was as constant as Falconer , and she could wait , although the waitingwas weary , until he could come back to claim her as his own , when all this would be forgotten as some disagreeable dream .

On the same night as the events narrated took place , Falconer awoke from a troubled sleep , with a disagreeable impression that he was not alone . There was no one in sight , however , and he arose and approached the window to look out . The stars were shining fiercely in the Indian sky , and the moon was shining with a powerful radiance . While gazing on them , and wrapt in profound contemplation , a hand was placed quietly on his arm , and the voice of his old friend in the morning bade him look on the scene before him and say was there no God ?

" Oh , man , said he , " thou hast need of God , and He is self-sufficient and to be praised . Be not thou afraid , neither be dismayed , for for ever will He be with thee , both here in this world and also in the next , wheresoever thou shalt go . " Ere Penrhyn could look round he had vanished ; but it was as though a ray of li ght had suddenly burst upon him and he had been left alone once more in his darkness . He again sought his couch , but sleep w as out of the

question , and the words kept ever recurring to his mind : " God ever present . " Verily God was revealing Himself to Falconer . ( To be continued . )