Mildred: An Autumn Romance.

MILDRED : AN AUTUMN ROMANCE .

BY BRO . EMRA HOLMES , Author of " Tales , Poems , and Masonic Papers ; " "Amabel Vaughan ; " " Notes on the United Order of the Temple and Hospital , " etc ., etc . CHAPTER IX . HOT AVISELY BUT TOO AVELL .

A YEAR had passed aAvay since the events related in our last chapter . It AA'as the middle of autumn—loA'ely September Aveather—and Mildred and Aunt Fanny Avere staying at Seaton CareAv on the coast of Durham , Avhere they had once been before . She knew all about Marmaduke , yet her heart yearned to him as of yore . When everyone spoke of his conduct as shameful , a man going about as a bachelor for two or three years , and deceiving his OAVU father all the Avhile , being a married man , they declared

it Avas monstrous , and they Avere not surprised at his father cutting him off in his will , she bravely took his part . But the General's awf ally sudden death someAvhat stopped the gossip for a time , and there ivere not Avanting those , strange to say , amongst the ladies , Avho pitied Marmaduke , and said they behoved he had been the victim of some designing Avicked Avoman . How near they were to the truth you , gentle reader , know . In all this Mildred , Avho had been so silent before , now came boldly to the front , and

no one dared in her presence to say one word against her heart ' s idol . At Seaton Carew in the same lodgings with them at a large house at the corner of the Green , from Avhence you had a lovely view of the splendid reach of sand , three miles in length , the sea , and the noble range of Cleveland Hills Avith Roseberry Topping in the background , there Avas staying an invalid lady , —a shoAvy fair-haired looking Avoman she had been , but she Avas very faded UOAV . This lady died , she had been ill long : no one seemed to know anything about her , but about a month after a new tombstone Avas placed in the little churchyard over a newly made grai'e—the grave of the invalid lad y —and Mildred passing it on her Avay to church read the inscription thereon : —

Sacred to the Memory of - GEOBOIANA MATTHEW , Only daughter of Jeremiah Jarvis . of Colchester , Essex , Died 25 th , September , 186— , Aged 32 Years .

Then Mildred knew her rival Avas dead , and a strange feeling of happiness stole over her—a happiness undefined—undefinable . Two or three mornings afterward there came a letter to her , re-addressed , from St , Benet ' s , Avhich moved her strangely . It ran as follows : —

Hotel de Flandres , Bruges , DEAE MISS BETHUNE , — 1 st Sept ., 186— . I do not apologise , though a perfect stranger , for addressing you noAv , as I feel sure beforehand that you will forgive me . Yesterday , on coming to this hotel on iny wedding trip , I heard that an Englishman was staying here A'ery ill . On making tnrther inquiries , I discovered his name was Mathew , ' the landlord ' spelt it Mathieu ; but I thought I recognised it as the name of a former brother officer in the Dragoons . . ° ™ ingly , I sought his room , and Avas much troubled to find that the invalid was mcleed my dear friend Marmaduke Mathew , that he had been very ill and had be-