The Volume Of The Sacred Law.

and finally instal her , under the deputy guardianship of her mother , into possession of their present abode at Chertsey . " The Cottage " was on the Middlesex side of the river , a stone ' sthrow from the lock , and within hearing of the music of the waters ceaselessly flowing over the weir . Its

verandah at this time of year was always crowded with bloom , for Gertrude loved flowers , and trained her roses and wisteria , her honeysuckle and garden-hops with her own hands . Jinks , the old gardener , was her

greatest friend . Hours and hours they worked together , getting the lawn into perfect condition , nurturing the standard rose-trees , and attending to the flower-beds , which were crowded

. with plants . They had even carried their exertions outside the precincts of " The Cottage , " and had perseveringly cultivated the banks of the stream opposite

the house , so that passers-by commented upon the industry of the inmates . But Gertrude was not helping Jinks this particular morning . She

had found a fascination in the river , and tried to hide in its gliding eddies the secret wish of her heart that her husband would come soon . She had gathered all the flowers he was fond of hours ago , and had arranged them in dishes in every corner of the

'' JINKS . THE Ol . ll OARI 1 ENER , WAS HER CREATES' ! ' FRIEND . "

house . The gravel outside had been watered and swept for the want of something better to occupy her thoughts , and there she was , at half past three , watching for her husband-lover , who had not even left London yet . But Time is a just dealer with us all ; it neither

hastens or retards its existence for any of us , and so Richard Rawlinson came just when Time had arranged he should . Gertrude had been watching at the gate for the past half-hour . The best of the day had spent itself , and the sun had dipped its glorious golden face behind the tallest elms tip-stream . Presently a figure

came over the bridge on to the tow-path , and walked along in the direction of "The Cottage" with a swinging manly stride that belongs to men who hold their heads up high among their fellows . It was Rawlinson , and Gertrude saw him . When he drew near to the gate , his step visibly quickened ,

" THE TALLEST ELMS UP-STREAM . ' and the happy wife stepped out to meet him , and smiling as only happy people smile , and locked arm-in-arm they walked up tlie garden path , crossed the verandah , and entered the house together .

CHAPTER II . Oh . ' God . Could I so close my mind , Anil clasp it with a clasp . RICHARD BF . XTI . EY GREY CULVERHOUSE , Earl of Culverhouse ,

Baron , of Culverhouse Court , Count }' Durham , Lord of the Manors of Chilldington and Crowdley , the Lord-Lieutenant of his County , and Provincial Grand Master of Durham , surveyed his broad acres from the

loveliest spot in the northern counties of England , and he was happy . A fine and a good man was Lord Culverhouse , beloved of his tenantry , beloved of his servants , beloved of

everybod )' , and none grudged him of his good name or of his fortune . He could trace his ancestors from the days when William came over from Normandy with his fearless

warriors , and could point out each successive owner of Culverhouse Court in the collection of family portraits hanging upon the walls of the Culverhouse Gallery .

The Kings and Queens of Great Britain had from time immemorial honored the Culverhouses with their august presence at least once during their reigns . Henry the Reveller had had high jinks in the park , and

spent a whole week in feasting and the chase among the oaks in the Crowdley woods . Elizabeth slept

here two nights on her way to the North , and Charles I . had ransacked the cellars in search of the Burgundy that he loved so well . Yes ! the Culverhouses were a favored race , and never had the honor of their name been tarnished with the follies of youth .

CULVERHOUSE COURT . The man who had first built Culverhouse Court was a man of no mean mind , for he had planted his house upon a hill that had made it a land-mark within the radius of human vision . Each succeeding generation had added something to the pile until it had quite

outgrown its original conception ; and there it stands to this day , the most historical residence in the northern parts of the kingdom . When John Thorpe had altered the main front , and carried his terraces round three sides of the building , it was possible on a clear day to detect the villages of Chilldington and Crowdley—one to the

east and the other to the west of the mansion—tucked away amid the woodland glories of a century ago . Then far away northward , across pasture lands and over the Petticoat range of hills , with that curious line of elms running along its summit from one end to the