Mildred: An Autumn Romance.

his tea ( which was 16 s . a pound and worth adulterating ) , and otherwise pleasantly cheating the lieges by such simple and unadorned contrivances as woidd scandalize our more ingenious adulterators of the present day . The General himself churns a Norman ancestry , and says he is a descent of the lords of Mathew , who accompanied the Conqueror to England , ancl held estates in the West Riding of Yorkshire hi the 11 th century . There is , it is true , a little blank in

the pedigree of three centuries or so—but what of that ? There are a few more families in Burke besides the Mathews who have similar blanks of four or five hundred years carefully bridged over by the great genealogist , and the descent of the General was quite clear from J . Mathew , Esq .. J . P ., 1760 ( supposed to be identical with Israel Matthew , grocer , of Bisbopsgate Within—so the General's enemies said ) , and what more woidd yon want than a Justice of the Peace for the county of Cambridge as your great-grandfather , with the recently purchased Abbey in the Isle of Ely as his place of residence ?

The General has not seen much service—but he boasts of being in the Crimean war ; and so he would have been , no doubt , only peace was declared just as he landed his regiment , ancl before they were called to the front . Still , in these clays of Abyssinian and Ashantee wars , a soldier who bad no chance of fighting in the Indian Mutiny * has bad small opportunities of distinguishing himself , and the General , if he knows little of cannons and cannon balls , is well acquainted with

all the tactics of party warfare , for has he not sat as Liberal member for Cambridge for twenty years , and contested the election , first with the Duke ' s brother , ancl then his son , six times during that period" ? Ancl now the General is growing old , ancl others must take up the cry of Disestablishment , vote by ballot , the Irish Church '; for , at the time of my story , not many years ago , none of these questions were settled .

Marmaduke Mathews , the General ' s youngest son , —who has gone into the army , but failed to distinguish himself , and who , suddenly , two years since or more , exchanged into a line regiment from the Guards , for reasons best known to himself , went to the West Lidies , and caught the yellow fever , —is now returning home invalided ; and let it be briefly stated that young Mathew was always looked upon as a gallant gay Lothario , a A ery lovable young rascal , who was generally regarded as bis own worst enemy . Everybody liked himancl felt sorry for himfor he was always in scrapes and

, , vexing the pious soids of his elderly relatives by his wild harem-scarem life . The General ' s eldest son was a learned methodical barrister in chambers , -with a tendency to heart disease ancl a good conveyancing business . He was obliged to eschew politics as too exciting , and the General , on the death of his second son , began to think of Marmaduke as his possible successor , as knight of the shire—if only the lad woidd settle down and manyand become a decent member of society .

, Hitherto that young scapegrace , now nearly twenty-four , had not shown any disposition to further his father ' s views , and had volunteered for the West Indies when Yellow Jack was raging there , ancl the probabilities of a war with America were by no means remote .

He was now returning , having himself nearly fallen a victim to the dire disease which haunts that part of the British Empire , and having only just been brought back from death ' s door . He was thus an object of interest to the good folks of St . Benet ' s , who were , if the truth must be told , rather enamoured of the devil-may-care son of the Squire , and liked him , perhaps , none the less because he was a good-looking good-for-nothing .

Many were the bright glances directed towards the Squire ' s pew on the first Sunday in August , 186— , as the ' Squire himself , followed by a young man about six feet in height , fair , light-haired , well-featured , wearing a long , tawny-coloured , drooping moustache , and looking very pale and haggard , advanced wearily up the nave , and took their seats in the abbey pew . From thence there was an excellent side view of the congregation , being placed east and west close under the three-decker pulpit in true Irotestant fashion . There was no view at all of the chancel nor yet of the altar , which