' she not chafe at the banishment, if she found out that somewhere there was a home; that she had 'belongings' like all the rest of the world? These were little feeble barriers which she set up against the strong tide of consciousness in her that she was to be trusted, that she ought to know. Whatever it was, and however she might bear it, was it not true that she ought to know? She was not a fool, or a child. Frances knew that her eighteen years had brought more experience, more sense to her than Tasie's forty; that she was capable of understanding, capable of keeping a secret-and was it not her own secret, the explanation of the enigma of her life as well as of his ? This course of reflection went on in her mind until the evening, and it was somewhat quickened by a little conversation which she had in the afternoon with the servants. Domenico was going out. It was early in the afternoon, the moment of leisure, when one meal with all its responsibilities was over, and the second great event of the day, the dinner, not yet imminent. It was the hour when Mariuccia sat in the anteroom and did her sewing, her mending, her knittingwhatever was wanted. This was a large and lofty room, not very light, with a great window, looking out only into the court of the Palazzoin which stood a great table and a few tall chairs. The smaller anteroom, from which the long suite of rooms opened on either side, communicated with this, as did also the corridor, which ran all the length of the house, and the kitchen and its appendages on the other side. There is always abundance of space of this kind in every old Italian house. Here Mariuccia established herself whenever she was free to leave her cooking and her kitchen-work. She was a comely middleaged woman, with a dark gown, a white apron, a little shawl on her shoulders, large earrings, and a gold cross at her neck, which was a little more visible than is common with Englishwomen of her class. Her hair was crisp and curly, and never had been covered with anything, save, when she went to church, a shawl or veil-and Mariuccia's olive complexion and ruddy tint feared no encounter of the sun. Domenico was tall and spare and brown, a grave man with little jest in him; but his wife was always ready to laugh. He came out hat in hand while Frances stood by the table inspecting Mariuccia's work. 'I am going out,' he said; and this is the hour when the English gentlefolks pay visits. See that thou remember what the padrone said.' What did the padrone say?' cried Frances, pricking up her ears. Signorina, it was to my wife I was speaking,' said Domenico. 'That I understand; but I wish to know as well. Was papa expecting a visit? What did he say?' "The padrone himself will tell the Signorina,' said Domenico, all that is intended for her. Some things are for the servants, some for the family; Mariuccia knows what I mean.' You are an ass, 'Menico,' said his wife calmly. Why shouldn't the dear child know? It is nothing to be concerned about, my soul-only that the padrone does not receive, and again that he does not receive, and that he never receives. I must repeat this till the Ave Maria, if necessary, till the strangers accept it and go away.' 'Are these special orders,' said Frances, 'or has it always been so? I don't think that it has always been so.' Domenico had gone out while his wife was speaking, with a half-threatening and wholly disapproving look, as if he would not involve himself in the responsibility which Mariuccia had taken upon her. 'Carina, don't trouble yourself about it. It has always been so in the spirit, if not in the letter,' said Mariuccia. 'Figure to yourself Domenico or me letting in any one, any one that chose to come, to disturb the Signor padrone! That would be impossible. It appears, however, that there is some one down there in the hotels to whom the padrone has a great objection, greater than to the others. It is no secret, nothing to trouble you. But 'Menico, though he is a good man, is not very wise. Che! you know that as well as I.' 'And what will you do if this gentleman will not pay any attention-if he comes in all the same? The English don't understand what it means when you say you do not receive. You must say he is not in; he has gone out; he is not at home.' 'Che! che! che!' cried Mariuccia; 'little deceiver! But that would be a lie.' Frances shook her head. 'Yes; I suppose so,' she said with a troubled look; 'but if you don't say it, the Englishman will come in all the same.' 'He will come in, then, over my body,' cried Mariuccia with a cheerful laugh, standing square and solid against the door. This gave the last impulse to Frances' thoughts. She could not go on with her study of the palms. She sat with her pencil in her hand, and the colour growing dry, thinking all the afternoon through. It was very certain, then, that her father would not expose himself to another meeting with the strangers who called themselves his friends; innocent people who would not harm any one, Frances was sure. They were tourists-that was evident; and they might be vulgar-that was possible. But she was sure that there was no harm in them. It could only be that her father was resolute to shut out his past, and let no one know what had been. This gave her an additional impulse, instead of discouragement. If it was so serious, and he so determined, then surely there must be something that it was certain she, his only child, ought to know. She waited till the evening with a gradually growing excitement; but not until after dinner, after the soothing cigarette, which he puffed so slowly and luxuriously in the loggia, did she venture to speak. Then the day was over. It could not put him out, nor spoil his appetite, nor risk his digestion. To be sure, it might interfere with his sleep; but after consideration, Frances did not think that a very serious matter, probably because she had never known what it was to pass a wakeful night. She began, however, with the greatest caution and care. 'Papa,' she said, 'I want to consult you about something Tasie was saying.' e 'Ah! that must be something very serious, no doubt.' 'Not serious, perhaps; but teach me to play.' She wants to "To play What? Croquet? or whist, perhaps? I have always heard she was excellent at both.' "These are games, papa,' said Frances with a touch of severity. She means the piano, which is very different.' "Ah!' said Mr Waring, taking the cigarette from his lips and sending a larger puff of smoke into the dim air; 'very different indeed, Frances. It is anything but a game to hear Miss Tasie play.' 'She says,' continued Frances, with a certain constriction in her throat, that every lady is expected to play-to play a little at least, even if she has not much taste for it. She thinks, when we go home-that all our relations will be so surprised' She stopped, having no breath to go further, and watched as well as she could, through the dimness and through the mist of agitation in her own eyes, her father's face. He made no sign; he did not disturb even the easy balance of his foot, stretched out along the pavement. After another pause, he said in the same indifferent tone: As we are not going home, and as you have no relations in particular, I don't think your friend's argument is very strong. Do you?' O papa, I don't want indeed to be inquisitive or trouble you, but I should like to know!' What? he said with the same composure. 'If I think that a lady, whether she has any musical taste or not, ought to play? Well, that is a very simple question. I don't, whatever Miss Tasie may say.' 'It is not that,' Frances said, regaining a little control of herself. 'I said I did not know of any relations we had. But Tasie said there must be cousins; we must have cousins, everybody has cousins. That is true, is it not?' 'In most cases, certainly,' Mr Waring said; 'and a great nuisance too.' laughed softly while she gathered all her strength together to regain command of herself, and the laugh had a jarring effect upon her nerves, of which she had never been conscious till now. 'I don't suppose that he would care much whether you played the piano or not; or that you would care much, my dear, what he thought.' For all that, papa,' said Frances, recovering herself, it is a little interesting to know there is somebody, even if he is not at all what one thought. Where does he live, and what is his name? That will give me one little landmark in England, where there is none now.' 'Not a very reasonable satisfaction,' said her father lazily, but without any other reply. 'In my life, I have always found relations a nuisance. Happy are they who have none; and next best is to cast them off and do without them. As a matter of fact, it is every one for himself in this world.' Frances was silenced, though not convinced. She looked with some anxiety at the outline of her father's spare and lengthy figure laid out in the basket-chair, one foot moving slightly, which was a habit he had, the whole extended in perfect rest and calm. He was not angry; he was not disturbed. The questions which she had put with so much mental perturbation had not affected him at all. She felt that she might dare further without fear. When I was out to-day,' she said, faltering a little, I met that gentleman again.' 'Ah!' said Mr Waring-no more; but he ceased to shake his foot, and turned towards her the merest hair's-breadth, so little, that it was impossible to say he had moved, and yet there was a change. 'And the lady,' said Frances, breathless. 'I am sure they wanted to be kind. They asked me a great many questions.' He gave a faint laugh, but it was not without a little quiver in it. What a good thing that you could not answer them,' he said. 'I don't think it would be a nuisance to have 'Do you think so, papa? I was rather unhappy. people about one's own age, belonging to one-It looked as if you could not trust me. I should not strangers-people who were interested in you, to whom you could say anything. Brothers and sisters, that would be the best; but cousins-I think, papa, cousins would be very nice.' 'I will tell you, if you like, of one cousin you have,' her father said. The heart of Frances swelled as if it would leap out of her breast. She put her hands together, turning full round upon him in an attitude of supplication and delight. O papa!' she cried with enthusiasm, breathless for his next word. 'Certainly, if you wish it, Frances. He is in reality your first-cousin. He is fifty. He is a great sufferer from gout. He has lived so well in the early part of his life, that he is condemned to slops now, and spends most of his time in an easy-chair. He has the temper of a demon, and swears at everybody that comes near him. He is very red in the face, very bleared about the eyes, very' O papa!' she cried in a very different tone. She was so much disappointed, that the sudden downfall had almost a physical effect upon her, as if she had fallen from a height. Her father have been ashamed to say I did not know; which is the truth-for I know nothing, not so much as where I was born!' cried the girl. 'It is very humiliating, when you are asked about your own father, to say you don't know. So I said it was time for breakfast, and you would be waiting; and ran away.' "The best thing you could have done, my dear. Discretion in a woman, or a girl, is always the better part of valour. I think you got out of that very cleverly,' Mr Waring said. And that was all. He did not seem to think another word was needed. He did not even rise and go away, as Frances had known him to do when the conversation was not to his mind. She could not see his face, but his attitude was unchanged. He had recovered his calm, if there had ever been any disturbance of it. But as for Frances, her heart was thumping against her breast, her pulses beating in her ears, her lips parched and dry. 'I wish,' she cried, ‘oh, I wish you would tell me something, papa! Do you think I would talk of things you don't want talked about? I am not a child any longer; and I am not silly, as perhaps you think.' Jan. 24, 1885.] 'On the contrary, my dear,' said Mr Waring, 'I think you are often very sensible.' 'Papa! oh, how can you say that, how can you say such things-and then leave me as if I were a baby, knowing nothing!' 'My dear,' he said (with the sound of a smile in his voice, she thought to herself), 'you are very hard to please. Must not I say that you are sensible? I think it is the highest compliment I can pay you.' in, that the windows must be shut; and she hurried in, brushing by Domenico, who had come to close everything up, and who looked at her reproachfully as she rushed past him. She came behind her father's chair and leaned over to kiss him. I have got a little wet, and I think I had better go to bed,' she said. 'Yes, surely, if you wish it, my dear,' said Mr Waring. Something moist had touched his forehead, which was too warm to be rain. He waited politely till she had gone before he wiped it off. It was the edge of a tear, hot, miserable, full of anger as well as pain, which had made that mark upon his high white forehead. It made him pause for a minute or two in his reading. Poor little girl!' he said with a sigh. Perhaps he was not so insensible as he seemed. IN TWO PARTS.-PART II. O papa Disappointment and mortification, and the keen sense of being fooled, which is so miserable to the young, took her very breath away. The exasperation with which we discover that not only is no explanation, no confidence to be given us, but the very occasion for it ignored, and our anxiety baffled by a smile-a mortification to which women are so often subjectflooded her being. She had hard ado not to burst into angry tears, not to betray the sense CLOUD AND SUNSHINE IN LANCASHIRE. of cruelty and injustice which overwhelmed her; but who could have seen any injustice or cruelty in the gentleness of his tone, his soft reply? Frances subdued herself as best she could in her dark corner of the loggia, glad at least that he could not see the spasm that passed over her, the acute misery and irritation of her spirit. It would be strange if he did not divine something of what was going on within her, but he took no notice. He began in the same tone, as if one theme was quite as important as the other, to remark upon the unusual heaviness of Amidst much that is pathetic and infinitely the clouds which hid the moon. 'If we were saddening, ludicrous touches now and then crop in England, I should say there was a storm up. Seeing a great crowd round the hospital brewing,' he said. 'Even here, I think we shall have some rain. Don't you feel that little creep in the air, something sinister, as if there was a bad angel about? And Domenico, I see, has brought the lamp. I vote we go in.' 'Are there any bad angels?' she cried, to give her impatience vent. He had risen up, and stood swaying indolently from one foot to the other. 'Bad angels? Ŏ yes,' he said; 'abundance; very different from devils, who are honest-like the fiends in the pictures, unmistakable. The others, you know, deceive. Don't you remember? How there looked him in the face He turned and went into the salone, repeating these words in an undertone to himself. But there was in his face none of the bitterness or horror with which they must have been said by one who had ever in his own person made that discovery. He was quite calm, meditative, marking with a slight intonation and movement of his head the cadence of the poetry. Frances stayed behind in the darkness. She had not the practice which we acquire in later life; she could not hide the excitement which was still coursing through her veins. She went to the corner of the loggia which was nearest the sea, and caught in her face the rush of the rising breeze, which flung at her the first drops of the coming rain. A storm on that soft coast is a welcome break in the monotony of the clear skies and unchanging colour. After a while her father called to her that the rain was coming AMONGST the women-patients, again, one meets with frightful injuries, which, upon inquiry, are found to have been caused by him who should have been the protector of her whom he has sworn to love and cherish. He punced me,' was the very usual answer, when asked how these hurts were caused. 'He' invariably meant the husband, and 'punced' appears to be a Lancashire equivalent for various forms of kicking and bruising. This doors, when returning from a walk one day, while "Eh, mon,' said a rough but very genuine diamond once to the writer, 'yon womanpointing to the head-nurse of his ward-' has been more than a mother to me.' The tears were in the poor fellow's eyes, and there was no idea of anything but the utmost respect and courtesy. 'I say, Stephens, come here and look at meit's my turn first,' some new-comer, who had not quite slipped into hospital ways, would yell at the top of his voice to one of the visiting surgeons. 'Doctor Stephens, you should say,' remonstrated the horrified nurse. "Eh, what dun yo mean?' would be the vacant reply. As tame elephants are set to decoy wild ones, so will patients of some standing help to teach others the outward tokens of respect and decorum. When brought under such entirely new conditions as the routine of hospital life, many of these men are very like children, and it is astonishing what a long way a little consideration for their comfort goes, and with how much gratitude even a very slight act of kindness is received. Outspoken, these people most certainly are, and very touchy when they think their independence menaced; and on this ground young doctors who come a wife from.' 'Yes,' she laughingly replied; 'I think any man who did so would show his good sense.' 'Many a true word is spoken in jest,' says the proverb; and so it proved this time; for when next a deputation from the same workshop visited the hospital, this man got his son put on it, who, to make a long story short, in a very brief period caused the hospital to lament over the loss of an exceptionally good cook, while he himself gained an equally good wife! fresh from the amenities of what they would consider more civilised-and which certainly is a more polished-life, not unfrequently make grievous mistakes when judging of or dealing with such very rough diamonds. This friction is of course chiefly noticeable in intercourse with the out-patients; and most assuredly to listen to a long string of marvellous symptoms, recounted in a jargon many words of which are absolutely unintelligible to the hearer, would try the patience of a Job. Then, too, it is strange to find how long it From some of the workshops, as they are called is before an hospital is looked upon with any-machine-works these, mostly-really large sums feeling save a vague sense of distrust by those were contributed to the hospital, fifty pounds whom it is primarily intended to benefit. This annually being no unusual amount to receive is in great measure due to the marvellousand equally, though not of necessity intentionally, false-tales spread about by those who are admitted to see their friends amongst the patients on visiting days. A woman will go, say, to see her husband, who is, as she finds, kindly treated and in every respect well cared for; much better, as she is bound to admit, than could possibly be the case in his own home. When asked by sympathising friends and neighbours how she has found him, she will tell them that who's gettin' along reet weel; th' nurse says he'll happen be out soon; but'-this in a fearsome whisper-'I'clemmed' to death. seed a chap in th' verra next bed, and th' doctors had done summat to him, gied him some stuff as sent him out o' hissel, asleep-like, and when th' nurses browt him back, he'd swelled this high! Yo never seed sich a sight in yore life-I were fair skeert. This 'swelling,' as the poor woman termed it, being neither more nor less than the 'cradle' which is put over a broken or amputated limb, to preserve it from all risk of accidental injury. Most effectually, however, does it serve the purpose of a 'bogey,' by inspiring terror where there should be confidence. from the men employed by only one firm. But the good done by letting those who were really most interested in the matter see for themselves how things were managed, was incalculable, and not to be measured by a pecuniary standard merely. Frequently, the men in a deputation have become most enthusiastic after being shown round. "Why, yon chap tells me he gets as many as five meals a day,' was said once in the hearing of the writer, in tones expressive of the utmost pleased astonishment, the popular notion being that hospital patients were well-nigh The In this particular hospital, a wise and liberal rule was at that time exercised, so that the five meals a day was a literal statement of absolute fact, though two out of the said five consisted of nothing more substantial than dry bread and good new milk. In no provincial hospital have we ever seen patients better cared for. Improved appliances of every kind were forthcoming whenever needed; and no narrow-minded parsimony on the part of governors thwarted the medical staff in their endeavours to keep the hospital well up to the mark in every respect. management had its reward in the more speedy and complete recovery of patients; for, though terrible machinery accidents were brought in, and nearly all the wards were devoted to surgical cases, it was very seldom indeed that erysipelas or any form of pycemia supervened. And this we take to be a matter for triumphant rejoicing, especially when it is remembered that by inherited constitution and total neglect of sanitary regulations, these patients were of the very sort most likely to do badly. For this, Listerism, carried out in all its minutiæ, had largely to be thanked; and many a workman now rejoices in a leg upon which he can walk, or a hand which is of service to him, who in the pre-antiseptic days would assuredly have lost it entirely. In one town, where there existed what might be termed almost a model hospital, so far as its sanitary and other arrangements were concerned, a very effectual plan was hit upon for securing public confidence, and a consequent influx of subscriptions. Every Saturday afternoon, parties of workmen who bore a note of authorisation from the honorary secretary of the hospital, the medical officer of Health for the borough, their employer, or some other responsible person, were admitted and shown over every part of the institution. They were encouraged to talk freely to the patients; and for that purpose, the lady superintendent who usually showed them round took care to go right away quite beyond all possibility of hearing. One of these visits had rather an amusing result. A lady who was Those who have not actually worked amongst temporarily in charge, being informed that a the poor, either as medical officers in crowded deputation from one of the large workshops towns, or as hospital surgeons or nurses, can have wished to see through the hospital, took them no conception of the filthy personal conditions over every part, a two-hours' task, so minute was under which so many of our fellow-creatures live. the inspection made. Even into the kitchens We remember a story told by a doctor, who, upon and wash-houses these men solemnly followed; remonstrating with a patient in comparatively not the smallest detail escaped their notice. The easy circumstances for not paying more attention exquisite cleanliness and perfection of all the to such matters, as certain small living creatures kitchen arrangements, presided over by a par- were unpleasantly obtrusive, was met by the ticularly good-looking and in every way attrac-indignant reply that she was as clean as ever tive cook, who was herself a model of neatness, a woman in M—, and had never more than impelled one elderly man to whisper in an aside five or six' of the said entomological specimens to the lady who was conducting the party: upon her at once!' 'Where ignorance is bliss, 'This would be a good place for a man to choose 'tis folly to be wise;' so we are told. Certainly this woman appeared perfectly happy to be ignorant. We retain to the present hour a vivid recollection of seeing a probationer-nurse take away a heap of clothes with a pair of tongs. She was rather new to the work, and the disgust depicted on her countenance was something quite too intense to be expressed in words. of filling one or more beds in a seaside children's sanatorium, so that the cure commenced in the ward may be perfected by the fresh pure air and hygienic surroundings of the seaside Home. Little Janie, we remember well-a poor, stunted child, suffering from apparently incurable hip-disease. When first admitted, she could not After such experiences, we could believe in raise herself in bed. After many weary months, the truth of the following anecdote, which had extending in fact to years, she slowly improved; always before seemed to us a somewhat overdrawn but it still seemed that she must be discharged and decidedly unkindly satire on the habits and as incurable, to make way for other and more ways of certain Lancashire folk. In this county, urgent cases. She was a gentle, sweet child, and Whitsuntide is the great annual carnival, for with her influence over the others really helpful, for nothing else can its utter devotion to holiday- she could-being somewhat older-lead them in making be compared. Wednesday, Thursday, singing, and in many ways, from her bigger bed Friday, and Saturday in this week are given in the corner, be a sort of little mother to them. up entirely to pleasuring;' mills, workshops, Did a wee bit of a child suddenly begin to cry and warehouses all being closed during that not from pain, but probably because of some period. Sunday-schools organise tea-parties, processions, and excursions for their scholars; and cheap trips are the order of the day. It is like a London bank holiday quadrupled in duration and intensity. Most of the Lancashire towns have their going-away clubs,' organised and managed by the workmen, into which each man puts weekly what he can spare. As this goes on through a great part of the year, a very tidy sum is gathered together. We remember seeing in a local paper the amount drawn out on the eve of one particular Whitsuntide. The sum named seemed almost incredibly large, amounting to several thousand pounds. Looked at from one point of view, it seems a matter for regret that so much should be spent on a few days' pleasure-taking, when it might go to make the house bright or be stored up for old age. On the other hand, none but those who have actually lived amidst the continuous din of machinery, the smoke-laden atmosphere, the dismal ugliness of a town given up wholly to the cotton manufacture, can understand the intensity of longing to get away from it all, and, if only for a day, to breathe the purer air of some country place, or inhale the salt spray as it dashes on the strand charged with life-giving freshness. And if these benefits might be obtained at a cheaper rate, were thrift brought into play, we at least would not too harshly judge those who can only on these rare occasions spend freely without a conscience-sting, reminding them that Johnnie must go unshod, or Janie lack a frock, perchance the whole family suffer, because of the father's self-indulgence. In judging, the force of the temptation must be taken into account, for, as Burns puts it dim home recollection-the kindly nurse would place him on Janie's bed, to talk to her for a bit, when very speedily the tears would cease, and bright sunshine succeed the transient storm. Once, a little boy, Charlie by name, was allowed to bring a pet kitten into the hospital with him, and that tiny animal was the most wonderful nurse of all. His irresistibly droll antics amused the children mightily; and Janie's bed was always a place of refuge for him too, when Kit was tired, but the children were not. What's done we partly may compute, During her stay in hospital, Janie made many friends amongst ladies and others who came to look through the wards; and it was their kindness in subscribing and obtaining 'recommends' that enabled the authorities to keep her for so long a time. At last she seemed well enough to be removed, and was sent to the seaside sanatorium, where, by means of the same kindness, she remained for some months. On her return home, there was no longer any question of re-admission to the hospital; in the tall, healthylooking girl, almost young woman, few could have recognised the pale, sickly cripple. an occasional and very slight limp remained to indicate how great a sufferer she had been. Only Then there was little Michael, a most lovable child. His father was a widower, and while at work had to leave the boy to hired care or-as it proved to be-neglect. Hip-disease again; and what that small mite suffered is almost unrealisable. In his case, too, nourishing food and good nursing resulted in very real, though slow improvement. When fit, he also went to the sanatorium, with equally happy results as regarded his physical well-being. Alack, that we should have to record the change from angelic sweetness to fractious ill-temper! But perhaps the most touching case of all was poor little Frankie. The greater part of his Perhaps the children's ward is at once the short life was spent in hospital. On him, too, brightest and the most sad part of hospital life. the fell scourge, hip-disease, had laid its scathing Sad, because so much of the suffering and disease hand. Having even greater hereditary ills to is preventable, and results purely from the sins contend against than the others, his case seemed of the parents. 'The fathers have eaten sour hopeless from the very first; yet every expedient grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.' was tried. At one time it seemed as if amputaBright, from the sweet patience of the little tion might save his life; a doubtful boon to one sufferers, and the many cases in which some in his position, for what could a poor 'lameter' alleviation is possible, and the poor, helpless do? And yet it seemed only right to let him child restored to comparative-occasionally permanent-health and strength. This happy result is of special frequency when-as with so many in the cotton districts the hospital has the right have the chance. On recovering somewhat from the shock consequent on this operation, he really did seem better, and after a time rallied suffciently to be sent to the sanatorium; and it is |