set his heart beating, his blood tingling, I got to do the payin' back o' all that he's a and filled him with a desperate longing spent." to tell the man to land him at Sharrows. But no, it might give pain to his mother if he went anywhere before going to her, so he curbed his impatience; and, when Sharrows came in sight, he only sat straining his eyes to see if he could discern any speck, which he might reasonably suppose to be Hero. "Tine a by!" exclaimed Mother Tapson contemptuously, "Why, how can they take from un what he arn't a got; whether 'tis hisn or theirn, folks must ate and drink, and ha' garments to their backs." Four o'clock was one of the hours when the Hard at Mallett was comparatively free from its usual company, so that not more than half a dozen men drew near to see who the Fanny of Dockmouth was bringing, and great was the excitement manifested when her fare was found to be no other than Sir Stephen. A sudden beaming satisfaction in their weather-beaten faces was so expressive, and so far beyond anything words could convey, that Stephen anticipated them by calling out cheerily, "Well, my men, I'm glad to see you and old Mallett again." "Thank'ee, sir, we'm main glad to have 'ee back, I can tell 'ee," answered one, while several voices chimed, "Iss, and if we'd only know'd yer honour was comin', you would ha' had all Mallett out to tell 'ee so too, sir." "I'm quite sure of that, but say from me, that I was in such a hurry to get back that I could not stop to send word," and with a pleasant nod, and saying something about seeing them to-morrow, he made a little scrambling detour so as to avoid the village street. Delighted to be the bearers of such welcome news, the little knot strolled into Mother Tapson's for the double pleasure of telling those who might be there assembled, and drinking health and prosperity to Sir Stephen. "Which I'll stand treat, call for what you may," exclaimed that enthusiastic lady in the exuberance of her joy. "All I axes is, tell me what his looks is like, and every blessed word he give mouth speech to." "He spoke up as cheerful as ever," said one of the men, "didn't he, Tom?" To which Tom assented, while Ned Briggs, who, from having brought him in the Fanny, felt he was in a position to speak authoritatively, added And from what I seed I don't believe not a half o' what I've a heerd." "How do 'ee mean, mate?" asked the others. Why, this, the talk to Dockmouth's bin that taint only the givin' up, but he's 66 Iss, that's true," replied Ned, slowly draining the measure which was being handed round. Then setting it down with an unctuous smack of his lips, he ran his mouth slowly along his jacket sleeve, adding with a sly look round, There may be punchin o' heads, mates, but there's no rippin o'" and the conclusion of his sentence was conveyed by the pantomimic movement in which he indulged. CHAPTER XLI. HOW ABOUT THIS MARRIAGE? "MOTHER!" "Stephen!" And in another moment the mother's sorrow-stricken head was bowed upon her son's breast, while her pale, trembling lips tried to shape words of sorrow and self-reproach words to which her son refused to listen. Bidding her hush them, he told her it was she who had taught him how to bear reverses and to endure disappointments. Then stretching out his hand towards Katherine, who at a little distance stood watching them, he drew her to them, saying that he had yet much to love and live for. "Ah, Stephen! I can never, never, tell you all Katherine has been to me," exclaimed Mrs. Prescott, her tears gushing forth afresh. If it had not been for her, what should I have done, what would have become of me?" "My dear mother, what would have become of either of us?" Stephen answered, filled with fears at his mother's anguish. "Come," he added cheerfully, "let us try at least for the present to put away this unfortunate subject. You will make the effort for my sake, I know. I have been terribly tried during the few past weeks, and coming home is the first gleam of anything approaching to sunshine." This appeal was the surest inducement to self-control, and it was not long before Mrs. Prescott was calm enough, to listen with apparent interest to the details of her son's movements during his absence - whom he had seen, the various people who had called upon him, and the several proofs of kindness he had received. "Yes," said Stephen, "my cousin tells me that you have been working wonders about the place." The Captain shook his head in denial of this flattery. "No, no, nothing of the sort, only as my poor old father used to say after he'd been beating to quarters for a day or two, "What's the use of having a temper if you don't show it?' so there's no use in being left first lieutenant unless you let "And one instance more particularly," he said, "for the offer came from a man who was a comparative stranger to me, Lord Fareham," and he turned to Katherine, "who has just been appointed to Vienna, came and asked if I thought there was anything which he could obtain for me. It was not only the thing itself, but the way in which it was done. I had no idea that he was such a nice fel-'em know it; and as soon as your back low." was turned, I sent for Joe and old Mat"I have always liked Lord Fareham," they Simmons, and we regularly overKatherine said, quietly, while if a little hauled the place. The consequence is sigh which rose to Mrs. Prescott's lips now"- and the old man went through a had spoken, it would have said, "Fare-mock salute "we're ready for a general well to hopes and fears, alike past and inspection." gone." Come along, then," said Stephen, After leaving the house, some little time was taken up in seeing a fence which had been repaired, and then Stephen asked, "And now about Mallett. Which are" and we'll make it. I want to have a lit the victors, Katey, you or the villa- tle chat with you, and we can manage the gers? two things together." Katherine laughed. "Well," she said, "perhaps there is a little on both sides." "I shall never forget their devotion," said Mrs. Prescott, and a delicacy of feeling that I could not have credited such a rough set of people with possess ing. I entrusted Captain Carthew to convey to them my thanks and grati tude. "That was right," said Stephen, heartily pleased. "You could not have found a more fitting ambassador, mother. He has been very busy, has he not?" Here he is to answer for himself," said Mrs. Labouchere, as the door opened, and Captain Carthew was announced. Very great was the old gentleman's astonishment to find that Stephen Prescott had arrived a full hour before, and that he had not known of it. "Well," he said, "you have sloped in quietly this time. Why, where had all the quay fellows got t?" "I don't know, but I always notice that about four o'clock the Hard seems to be pretty clear, so I managed to land about that time." “Are you going to Sharrows? Then I will walk there with you. Shall I find your daughter at home?" Lord bless ye, there's been no getting her under weigh lately," and he gave a perplexed sigh, after which the two walked on in silence. Suddenly, in front of a gate the Captain made a stand. "There now," he said, flourishing his stick towards a newly made path. "What do you think of that? Wherever there's a gate leave a gangway; so I set Mr. Joe to work there, and a very nice job he's made of it. Capital fellow, that Joe; wets the other eye a little too often, but a first-rate workman. Puts his back into a thing. That's what I like to see." "How about his marriage? Has Betsey consented to fix the day yet?" "Not she, nor never will whilst she's got that youngster of mine to busnack after. She'd die in a week if she couldn't get at Hero; God bless her for it." "But you cannot keep Hero forever." "Well, no," said the old man, "I sup pose not. I began to feel rather shaky, I can tell you, when I found out the course Master Leo was shaping; but it's all right, though it would cost you your commission to say so to Aunt Lydia, poor old soul. What do you think of a flagstaff here? It would be uncommonly handy for the Winkle men." Stephen did not answer, and the Captain turning to see the cause, found his hand suddenly seized by his companion, who said with nervous haste, "Captain Carthew, will you give Hero, your daughter, to me?" "Will I do what?" roared the Captain emphatically, the visible astonishment in his face and manner so irresistibly comic, that Stephen could not help smiling as he again proffered his demand. "I want your consent to my asking Hero to be my wife. She knows that I love her." "The deuce she does! Why the young monkey," he exclaimed, a sudden light breaking in upon him. "I asked her to marry me some months ago," interrupted Stephen. "Then she fancied herself bound in a way to somebody else. But now that she is free, I think that is, I hope I have a chance." The Captain's face assumed a comical expression as he said, "Well, I suppose it's time I was laid on the shelf, for you've both stolen a march on me, it seems" and then gripping Stephen's hand, he added with a rather quavery attempt at cheerfulness, "However, as I am to be superseded, thank the Lord it's by one after my own heart; so luck with you, my boy. I believe you're worthy of her, and I can't say more than that; an opinion in which Stephen Prescott evidently shared, for putting his arm through that of his elected father-in-law, he began telling him the various details which related to his income, prospects, and so forth. This conversation engrossed them until they reached Sharrows gate, which Stephen held open for the old man to enter. "Well, no," he said with a laugh, "I think I'll go and see if I can't run foul of one of my old chums." "Good-by, then, for the present," Stephen said, holding out his hand. as he passed the windows, without knocking he entered the house, and pushing open the door of the room, found himself in the presence of Hero. Suddenly he seemed to realize the joy which lay so close to him, and this gave the quiver to his voice as he almost whispered, "Hero!" A startled look, a low cry, as she sprang up, a tremor running through her lithe form, these gave her answer; then as she turned her face to his, she caught the soft contagion of his eyes. "Stephen," she tried to say; but before the sound had left her lips she was folded in his arms, while her heart spoke to his in language known but to those who love and are beloved again. THERE are few scientific questions of greater interest than the inquiry whether it is possible to find a means of predicting the weather for a long time in advance. In former ages many attempts were made Good-by, and I hope there'll be no to solve this problem by a reference to hitch in the block, and that you'll come the motions of the heavenly bodies. off with flying colours. As a messmate of Other methods of prediction were, indeed, mine used to say (poor Tommy Holmes, in vogue; but I am not here considering and no bad judge either, though he made ordinary weather portents, or mere sciena mess of it at last, and married a wo- tific schemes for anticipating the weather man old enough to be his grandmoth- of two or three coming days and with er), You may circumnavigate the world a few trifling exceptions, depending on and circumvent the devil, before you'll observations of plants and animals, it is course a woman's the case that the only wide rules for predicting weather were based on the motions of the sun and moon, the planets and the stars. It must be remembered that even astronomers of repute placed faith, until quite recent years, in the seemingly absurd tenets of judicial astrology. calculate the exact steering in." . mark when they hit, and never mark when they miss." We cannot greatly wonder, therefore, if the more reasonable thesis that the heavenly bodies determine weather chang- It is noteworthy, indeed, that the very es, was regarded with favour. Accord- circumstance which appears to present ingly we find Horrocks, more than two a fatal objection to all schemes of predic centuries ago, drawing the distinction tion based on the motions of the celestial here indicated, where he says that in an- bodies, supplies the means of imagining ticipating "storm and tempest" from a that predictions have been fulfilled. The conjunction of Mercury with the Sun, he objection I refer to is this, we know coincides with the opinion of the astrol- that the weather is seldom alike over very ogers, but in other respects despises their wide regions, while nevertheless the cemore puerile vanities." We find Bacon in lestial bodies present the same aspect like manner remarking that "all the plan- towards the whole extent of such regions, ets have their summer and winter, wherein or an aspect so nearly the same as to sugthey dart their rays stronger or weaker, ac-gest that the same conditions of weather cording to their perpendicular or oblique should prevail if the weather really de direction." He says, however, that "the pended on the position of the heavenly commixtures of the rays of the fixed stars bodies. It appears, then, that the inwith one another are of use in contem-ventor of a really trustworthy system plating the fabric of the world and the must have a distinct scheme for each nature of the subjacent regions, but in no part of every continent, nay, of every respect for predictions." Bacon remarks country, if not of every county. This ob again that reasonable astrology (Astrolo-jection is not taken into account, howgia sana) "should take into account the apogees and perigees of the planets, with a proper inquiry into what the vigour of planets may perform of itself; for a planet is more brisk in its apogee, but more communicative in its perigee: it should include, also, all the other accidents of the planets' motions, their accelerations, retardations, courses, stations, retrogradations, distances from the sun, increase and diminution of light, eclipses, &c. ; for all these things affect the rays of the planets, and cause them to act either weaker or stronger, or in a different manner." ever, by the inventors of systems, while the fact on which it depends affords the means of showing that each prediction has been fulfilled. Thus, suppose "bad weather and much wind" have been predicted on a certain day, and that day is particularly fine and calm in London. If this were urged as an objection to the soundness of the system, the answer would run somewhat on this wise-"Unquestionably it was fine in London, but in North Scotland (or in France, or Spain, or Italy, as the case may be) there was very gloomy weather, and in Ireland (suppose) quite strong winds are reported to have prevailed in the afternoon." The readiness with which men satisfy them selves in such cases, corresponds with that mischievous ingenuity wherewith foolish persons satisfy themselves that a fortune-teller had foretold the truth, that a dream had been fulfilled, a superstition justified, and so forth. It is a remarkable circumstance that systems of weather prediction based on such considerations were not quickly exploded owing to their failure when tested by experience. Yet singularly enough it has scarcely ever happened that any wide system of interpretation has been devised, which has not been regarded with favour by its inventor long after it had been in reality disproved by repeated instances of failure. This remark applies to recent systems as well as to those invented in earlier times. Within the last twenty years, for example, methods of prediction based on the moon's movements, on the conjunctions of the planets, and on other relations, have been maintained with asIt may be remarked, in passing, that tonishing perseverance and constancy, in this new phase of the inquiry does not the face of what outsiders cannot but re- reject planetary influences altogether. gard as a most discouraging want of The theory is entertained by many wellagreement between the predicted weather known students of science that changes and the actual progress of events. Here, in the condition of the sun are dependent as in so many cases of prediction, we find on the varying positions of the planets; the justice of Bacon's aphorism, "Men so that if it should be established that The tendency, at present, amongst those who are desirous of forming a scheme of weather prediction, is to seek the origin of our weather-changes in changes of the sun's condition, and by determining the laws of the solar changes to ascertain the laws which regulate changes in the weather. our weather-changes are connected with solar changes, we should infer that indirectly the planets in their motions rule the weather on our earth. of the work which is at present accomplished at Greenwich, great though that value is, would sink into utter insignificance, in my judgment, compared with I propose now to consider the evidence the results flowing in the supposed case relating to the sun's influence, and to from the proposed "exhaustive and sysdiscuss the question (altogether distinct, tematic study" of the great central lumibe it remarked) whether a means of accu-nary of the planetary system. rate weather prediction may be obtained if the sun's influence be regarded as demonstrated. The seasons are due The subject we are to discuss is manifestly therefore of the utmost importance, and cannot be too carefully dealt with. There is one strong point in favour of It would be a misfortune on the one hand the new theory, in the fact that the sun is to be led by careless reasoning to underunquestionably the prime cause of all estimate the chances in favour of the proweather changes. To quote the words posed scheme, while on the other it would of Lieut.-Colonel Strange, an enthusiastic be most mischievous to entertain unadvocate of the theory (and eager to have founded expectations where the necesit tested at this country's charge), "there sary experiments must be of a costly nacan hardly be a doubt that almost every ture, and where science would be grievnatural phenomenon connected with cli-ously discredited should it be proved mate can be distinctly traced to the sun that the whole scheme was illusory. as the great dominating force, and it is a We note, first, that besides being "the natural inference" (though not, as he says, great dominating force" to which all an unavoidable one) that the changes, natural phenomena connected with cliand what we now call the uncertainties mate are due, the sun has special influof climate are connected with the con-ence on all the most noteworthy variastant fluctuations which we know to be tions of weather. perpetually occurring in the sun itself." I may proceed, indeed, in this place, to quote the following words in which Colonel Strange enunciates the theory itself which I am about to discuss, and its consequences: "The bearing of climatic changes on a vast array of problems connected with navigation, agriculture, and health, need but be mentioned to show the importance of seeking in the sun, where they doubtless reside, for the causes which govern these changes. It is indeed my conviction that of all the fields now open for scientific cultivation, there is not one which, quite apart from its transcendent philosophical interest, promises results of such high utilitarian value, as the exhaustive systematic study So soon to solar influence; and here we have an instance of a power of prediction derived from solar study, though belonging to a date so remote that we are apt to forget the fact. It seems so obvious that summer will be on the whole warmer than winter, that we overlook the circumstance that at some epoch or other this fact, at least in its relation to the apparent motions of the sun, must have been recognized as a discovery. Men must at one time have learned, or perhaps we should rather say, each race of men must at one time have noticed, that the varying warmth on which the processes of vegetation depend, correspond with the varying diurnal course of the sun. as this was noticed, and so soon as the periodic nature of the sun's varyIt cannot be doubted, I think, that if ing motions had been ascertained, men anything like what is here promised could had acquired in effect the power of prebe hoped for from the study of the sun, dicting that at particular times or seasons, it would be a matter of more than national the weather on the whole would be warmimportance to undertake the task indi-er than at other seasons. In other words, cated by Colonel Strange. The expense as soon as men had recognized the period of new observatories for this special sub-we call the year, they could predict that ject of study would in that case be very fully repaid. It would be worth while to employ the most skilful astronomers at salaries comparable with those which are paid to our Government ministers; it would be well to secure on corresponding terms the advice of those most competent to decide on the instrumental requirements of the case; and in fact the value of the sun." one half of each year would be warmer than the other half. Simple as this fact may seem, it is important to notice it as the beginning of weather prediction; for as will presently appear, it has an important bearing on the more complex questions at present involved in the prognostication of weather-changes, It became manifest almost as soon as |