"O, my gossip, tell me quickly,
Shall I find her still the same,
Setting roughest things to music
When she speaks my humble name?"

"Soldier, simple-hearted soldier,
Home returnèd from the wars,
I must give thee wounding deeper
Than thy many battle-scars.

"Yonder, where the sun is making
Folding shadows round the trees;
Yonder, where the grass is growing
Damp and tangled under these;

"Yonder, where the frighted woodquest
In among the branches shoots;
Where the happy lambs are bounding
O'er the agèd knotty roots;

"Where the thistle sheds the silver
Of its tresses on the air,
And the brambles give a shelter
To the weary-footed hare;—

"There the lovely little maiden,
As you knew her, is at rest;
For the cruel Death, last summer,
Laid his hand upon her breast."

THE DEAD SECRET.

CHAPTER THE TWENTY-FOURTH. WAITING
AND HOPING.

THE week of expectation passed, and no
tidings from Uncle Joseph reached
Porthgenna Tower.

On the eighth day, Mr. Frankland sent a
messenger to Truro, with orders to find out
the cabinet-maker's shop kept by Mr. Buschmann,
and to inquire of the person left in
charge there whether he had received any
news from his master. The messenger
returned in the afternoon, and brought word
that Mr. Buschmann had written one short
note to his shopman since his departure,
announcing that he had arrived safely towards
nightfall in London; that he had met with a
hospitable welcome from his countryman, the
German baker; that he had discovered his
niece's address by an accident which saved
him all trouble in finding it out; and that he
intended to go and see her at an early hour
the next morning. Since the delivery of that
note, no further communication had been
received from him, and nothing therefore was
known of the period at which he might be
expected to return.

The one fragment of intelligence thus
obtained was not of a nature to relieve the
depression of spirits which the doubt and
suspense of the past week had produced in
Mrs. Frankland. Her husband endeavoured
to combat the oppression of mind from which
she was suffering, by reminding her that the
ominous silence of Uncle Joseph might be
just as probably occasioned by his niece's
unwillingness as by her inability to return
with him to Truro. Taking into consideration
her excessive sensitiveness and her
unreasoning timidity, he declared it to be quite
possible that Mrs. Frankland's message,
instead of reassuring her, might only inspire
her with fresh apprehensions, and might
consequently strengthen her resolution to
keep herself out of reach of all communications
from Porthgenna Tower. Rosamond
listened patiently while this view of the case
was placed before her, and acknowledged that
the reasonableness of it was beyond dispute;
but her readiness in admitting that her
husband might be right and that she might be
wrong, was accompanied by no change for the
better in the condition of her spirits. The
interpretation which the old man had placed
upon the alteration for the worse in Mrs.
Jazeph's handwriting, had produced a vivid
impression on her mind, which had been
strengthened by her own recollection of her
mother's pale, worn face, when they met as
strangers at West Winston. Reason, therefore,
as convincingly as he might, Mr. Frankland
was unable to shake his wife's conviction
that Uncle Joseph's silence was caused solely
by the illness of his niece.

The return of the messenger from Truro
suspended any further discussion on this topic
by leading Mr. and Mrs. Frankland to occupy
themselves in considering a question of much
greater importance. After having waited one
day beyond the week that had been appointed,
what was the proper course of action for
them now to adopt, in the absence of any
information from London or from Truro to
decide their future proceedings?

Leonard's first idea was to write
immediately to Uncle Joseph, at the address which
he had given on the occasion of his visit to
Porthgenna Tower. When this project was
communicated to Rosamond, she opposed it
on the ground that the necessary delay before
the answer to the letter could arrive would
involve a serious waste of time, when it
might, for aught they knew to the contrary,
be of the last importance to them not to risk
the loss of a single day. If illness prevented
Mrs. Jazeph from travelling, it would be
necessary to see her at once, because that
illness might increase. If she were only
suspicious of their motives, it was equally
important to open personal communications
with her before she could find an opportunity
of concealing herself again in some place of
refuge which Uncle Joseph himself might not
be able to trace.

The truth of these conclusions was obvious,
but Leonard hesitated to adopt them, because
they involved the necessity of a journey to
London. If he went there without his wife,
his blindness placed him at the mercy of
strangers and servants, in conducting
investigations of the most delicate and most
private nature. If Rosamond accompanied him,
it would be necessary to risk all kinds of
delays and inconveniences by taking the
child with them on a long and wearisome