the young fellow, and had not even been answered again, the old man did not feel very triumphant; he did not seem to have had the best of it at all in the encounter that was just over, but rather very much the worst of it. He had a vague idea that he had taken an inglorious part altogether, and felt rather small and contemptible in his own eyes. "Nonsense, nonsense," he said to himself at last, "of course I was quite rightquite right-any father in my place would have done the same-impudent young scoundrel and how was I to know the girl would take it in that meek way? girls don't generally. I didn't like the look in her face, though, when she went out. I hope it won't make any difference between her and me, though. Oh, she'll get over it fast enough! I think I'll give her a new saddle; she wants one badly-yes, I'll do that for her; that will please her, I know." And no sooner had this brilliant idea come into his mind than he sat down and wrote to his saddler in London to send down as soon as possible a new lady's saddle of the very best that money could buy. When he had directed and stamped this letter, and dropped it into the letter box outside in the hall, he felt happier in his mind, and went upstairs and joined the rest of his family in the drawing-room, but Georgie was not there. No word was said between Georgie and her father of what had passed between them either the next day nor any of the days that followed. The girl went about her duties as usual, but very quietly and unobtrusively. She wrote her father's letters and read the papers to him, and walked up to the stables and kennels with him as she was always accustomed to do, but silently, listlessly, without any of her natural energy and enthusiasm. You could see there was no longer any pleasure or spirit in her life for her. She was not in the least sulky, she was perfectly sweet and gentle and submissive to her father, and when the new saddle came down she showed as much affectionate gratitude to him as he could possibly have expected, and yet everything was different. There was no longer that unity in thought and purpose, that perfect confidence that had always bound the two together in a tie that resembled a devoted friendship rather than the relation which father and daughter generally bear to each other. The next hunting day Georgie, much to her father's relief, for he had been dreadfully afraid that she might refuse to go out, appeared at breakfast as usual in her habit. She rode the new brown mare, who, although she fidgetted a good deal at starting, and lashed out once or twice at the covert side in an unpleasant looking way, still, when she was once fairly going, certainly acquitted herself as if she knew her business. Wattie Ellison was not there, and Georgie and her father both overheard Sir George Ellison say, in answer to some enquiries after him, that his nephew had taken a fit of industry and gone to town to court fortune in his old chambers in the Temple. To Juliet Blair the girl said a few words concerning her trouble. Juliet saw at once that something had gone wrong with her little friend. "What has happened, Georgie?" she asked in a whisper, as the two found themselves side by side during a check in a deep lane. "You look so miserable." "I am miserable, Juliet," answered the girl, and her lip quivered. "It is all over between me and Wattie; he has gone away; papa won't hear of it; he was very angry." "What a shame! why should he be angry? angry? I am sure Wattie is a man anybody might be proud of." Thanks, Juliet dear, but papa was quite right," answered Georgie, loyal as ever to her father; I knew he would not allow it. You see, Wattie has no money and no prospects whatever; one's sense tells one it was impossible." "How I wish I could help you!" cried Juliet, ever ready for a generous action. "Now, don't you think I could make you a good fat allowance, just to start you in life, you know? You wouldn't be proud, I know, for after all half the use of money is that now and then one can make somebody one cares for happy-don't you think we could manage it?" "I am afraid not, you dear good Juliet ! not that I should be proud a bit; but you see papa would not hear of such a thing, nor Wattie either; that is the worst of these men," added Georgie with a sigh. "What, not even if I was your sister-inlaw?" said Juliet, laughing. "Ah yes, then, perhaps. Oh dear, Juliet, how I wish you could manage to marry Cis. Papa would be so pleased; poor papa! it is hard on him that both his children give him so much trouble and anxiety in their love affairs." At this instant a halloa was heard, and Juliet, who was going home, waved her hand in farewell to her friend, who put the brown mare neatly over a style and galloped off across a grass field to join the hounds. CHAPTER IX. COLONEL FLEMING ADVISES HIS WARD. “I WONDER when he will come back," said Juliet to herself as she rode slowly up to her own hall door. "Not till the day after to-morrow, I suppose." It still wanted two days of the week he had said he would be away, and Juliet, as she dismounted and went in, felt that she had never known a week to be so interminably long as this one had been. She went into the little morning room. The short winter afternoon was drawing in, and the room was but dimly lighted by the flicker of the firelight. "Let us have some tea," said Juliet, flinging down her hat and gloves on the table and ringing the bell, and then she stooped down in front of the fire and began warming her hands. "The three-thirty express. My business was over; there was no longer any reason for my staying away." And then Higgs and the footman came in with the tea-tray and the candles, followed almost immediately by the rustle of Mrs. Blair's silk dress along the passage. "Why, Colonel Fleming !" exclaimed the lady, "when did you come back? I never heard you arrive! Why, how quickly you have done all your London business; how much more lively I should have thought it must be for a man to be up in dear delightful London, with all the clubs, and Bond Street, and the shops, and the theatres, than down in the wilds of the country with only two women to amuse him; shouldn't you have thought so, Juliet?" "You underrate your own fascinations, Mrs. Blair!" said Hugh with a gallant bow, whilst Juliet, still thrilling from head to foot with the memory of that kiss, busied herself silently at the tea-table. About that same kiss, Hugh Fleming took himself afterwards very seriously to task. It was not at all in the programme of grave coldness and guardian-like severity of demeanour which he had drawn out for himself, and was quite incompatible with that stern line of duty and high principle to which he had determined most strictly to adhere. It was wonderful how, at the first sight of that graceful girl, with her small "I am very cold," she said. dark head and soul-inflaming eyes, all these "Are you?" said a voice that was cer- good resolutions had vanished and melted tainly not Mrs. Blair's. Somebody rose from the sofa in the half light and came and stood behind her on the heart rug. She thought it was her step mother. She jumped up with a glad cry of surprise. "Hugh!" she exclaimed in her delight, unconsciously calling him by his christian. name for the first time, and holding out both hands to him; and he took the hands and held them tight in his own, and then, with an impulse which he was unable to resist, drew her suddenly towards him and kissed her once on the forehead. Ah! How many days were to pass away ere ever his lips repeated that unexpected and all too deliciously sweet caress ! "You are glad to see me again, then?" he asked, as Juliet drew back from him a little confusedly. away, and left him so weak that he had not been able to resist even the small temptation of kissing her. It was only by going over and over again all the old arguments of honour and duty and right feeling during the course of a somewhat restless and sleepless night, that Hugh Fleming could at all bring himself round again to the very proper determination which Mr. Bruce's arguments and his own conscience had succeeded in implanting deeply in his mind. He must do this hard duty by her; he must plead his rival's cause; he must, if possible, persuade her to look more favourably on Cis Travers's suit, and then he had The adaptation purports to have been written by Mr. Daly of the Fifth Avenue Theatre, New York; but if report speaks truly that gentleman is not the author of any of the plays which pass under his name. Be the adapter who he may, however, the drama is a most admirable one; in fact we exaggerate nothing when we class it as the strongest play of the purely modern type that we ever remember to have seen. The dramas which will best bear comparison with it are "The Big Bonanza " and "The Two Orphans." The former, however, is merely a "society" play, and "The Two Orphans" is almost altogether sensational. "Pique" combines the merits of both; it has all the brilliancy of dialogue of "The Big Bonanza," and very much of the thrilling dramatic interest of "The Two Orphans ;" and it is stronger in character-drawing and altogether more natural and realistic than either. Good, however, as the play is, the acting of Mr. McDowell's fine company was quite equal to it. It was, in fact, throughout the best acted play we have seen in Toronto since the Fifth Avenue Company appeared here in "The Big Bonanza." Pique," however, is a more difficult play to act, and taxes the resources of a company more severely. Indeed one of the most remarkable things about it is the large number of admirably drawn and thoroughly | individualized characters it brings prominently on the stage. Foremost among them, as the one in whom the interest centres, is Mabel Renfrew, a haughty belle who, out of "pique," marries one man while in love with another. It is a very arduous part, but it was acted throughout with great and unflagging power by Miss Weaver. Whether as the cold and scornful beauty of the earlier acts, or in the emotional scenes of the later, this fine actress was equally admirable. Miss Weaver has youth on her side, and we see no reason 66 why, with study and hard work, she should not rise to the top of her profession as an emotional actress. Her principal defects are a trifling lack of genuine feeling in pathetic passages, and a certain throatiness," or want of clearness in her voice, and an occasional over-rapidity of utterance, which slightly mar her otherwise excellent elocution. Next in importance among the characters is Matthew Standish, a fine specimen of the rigid but noble old Puritan of New England. It was played to perfection by Mr. Neil Warner. On a level with these two in naturalness and delicacy of drawing is Mary Standish, the "angel" of the Puritan home-gentle, patient, and loving. For this part Miss Reeves's beautiful voice, her clear and pure elocution, and her singularly graceful figure fitted her admirably, and she acted it exquisitely. The beautiful language put into her mouth seemed to gain an added beauty from her simple and unforced utterance of it. Another remarkable character, remarkably well-played, was Raitch_(Miss Newcombe), a wild, harum-scarum, Topsylike servant girl. We have not space to notice the other characters in detail. To name all that were well acted would be to go over almost the whole list: suffice it to say that Mr. McDowell was earnest and manly as Captain Standish; Mr. Chippendale, natural and forcible as Doctor Gossit; Messrs. Chester and Selwyn, extremely amusing as Sammy Dympie and Thorsby Gill, the college chums, fresh from Harvard; Miss Thompson, genuinely realistic as Aunt Dorothy, the Puritan old maid; and Messrs. Thompson and Gwynette exceedingly humorous and picturesque as the two ruffians, Ragmoney Jim and Padder, his mate. Well as these two gentlemen acted, however, the play would have gained by their absence from the last scene, where they were absurdly out of place. LITERARY NOTES. We have received from Messrs. Belford Bros. copies of Canadian reprints of "The Earnest Student," and "The Golden Thread," both by the late Rev. Norman Macleod, D.D.; "One Summer," by Blanche Willis Howard; and Their Wedding Journey," by W. D. Howells. We are in receipt, from J. B. Magurn, publisher, of Toronto, of a copy of a work entitled the "Best Thoughts and Discourses of D. L. Moody." It contains portraits on steel of Messrs. Moody and Sankey, a sketch of Moody's life and work, by Abbie Clemens Morrow, and an introduction by the Rev. Emory J. Haynes. Messrs. Appleton, of New York, have sent UR Dominion, Provincial, and Municipal loans, negotiated during the past three or four years in Great Britain, have been of considerable magnitude; and, apart from their immediate, direct results, they have attracted the attention of monied men to the Dominion, and better information now prevails regarding the character and resources of the country. Though the success and continued high character of any individual loan on the London money market may seem to concern only the Province or Municipality which seeks the loan, it is nevertheless true that this success and high character have a wider effect in directing attention to the whole country at large, and indirectly aid in the success of subsequent loans of the other Provinces and Municipalities. It is equally true that the failure of even a single Province or Municipality to meet in London its semi-annual interest, or its maturing bonds, would be long remembered, and would not only affect existing securities of other Provinces and Municipalities, but also render it more difficult to float new issues, especially of localities previously unknown on the money market there. Each Province and Municipality has thus in no small degree an interest in maintaining a high credit for the securities of all the other Provinces and Municipalities, as well as of the Dominion. Our public indebtedness has arisen from several causes-public works and improvements undertaken by the Government or municipalities; bonuses to railways or other private corporations; and increased educational facilities provided for the people. Thus, the Dominion indebtedness has largely arisen from the Intercolonial and other railways undertaken, and from canals and other improvements; the Province of Quebec's loans of 1874 and 1876 are essentially railway loans; whilst those of our cities have been for such purposes as waterworks, drainage, public buildings and parks, and providing funds for school purposes. The funded and unfunded debt of the Dominion, including that of each of the Provinces previous to their confederation, was, on 1st July, 1875, $151,663,401. In reduction of this were certain assets, consisting of sinking fund and miscellaneous investments and bank balances, amounting to $35,655,023, leaving a net indebtedness at that date of $116,008,378. The average rate of interest paid on the funded debt was a fraction over 42 per cent. Among the Provinces, since their confederation, Quebec has been the only borrower. Its loans of 1874 and 1876 aggregate $8,030,000, carry 5 per cent. interest, and, so far as issued by its negotiators, are held entirely in Great Britain. It is difficult to even approximate the municipal indebtedness of the Dominion. In two of the Provinces annual returns are required to be furnished to the Government, showing the indebtedness, by debenture or otherwise, of each city, county, township, and town; whilst in the other Provinces these returns do not appear to be provided for. Only in Ontario have the returns been published. The latest accessible reports for that Province are those for 1872, and in these are some facts of considerable interest when compared with the estimated indebtedness of the present time. One noticeable feature is the large increase in the lia bilities of Ontario municipalities during the past three years. This increase has taken place chiefly through affording aid in railway construction; and it is suggestive, judging by the railway projects which have been aided and yet have fallen through, whether the municipalities are not sometimes too easily induced to vote bonuses to, and take stock in, railways. It is doubtful if sufficient consideration is always given to the question whether these railways have such financial resources as will ensure their being completed to the anticipated termini, and whether they are of the alleged advantage to the municipalities through which they pass, and are not, perhaps, only depreciating the value of other lines which run through or near the same districts, by taking away from or sharing with them a traffic not generally large enough for one railway. In 1869 the municipal indebtedness of Ontario is stated by the official reports to have been $15,845,520, including the old municipal loan fund debts. In 1872 this had been reduced to $14,583,800. In the absence of official returns it is difficult to approximate the indebtedness at the present time; but, taking into account the re-arrangement of the municipal loan fund debt, and giving credit for the respective amounts received by certain municipalities under the same Act, which gave effect to that re-arrangement- a considerable part of which amounts were probably devoted to the reduction of their indebtedness-and further, taking into consideration the bonuses which have been voted to railways, and which either have been or will, in all probability, soon have to be paid, the municipal indebtedness of Ontario now probably exceeds $19,500,000, or an increase of $5,000,000, or thirty-four per cent. in the course of four years. With regard to this increase, it is to be observed that a considerable portion of the railway bonuses paid during that period had been voted by the municipalities previously. These railway bonuses gave rise to a large portion of the new issues of debentures, and the extent to which municipal indebtedness has increased from this source may be judged from the fact that, since the Confederation Act took effect in 1867, the bonuses voted to railways in Ontario by municipalities alone, and quite irrespective of Government grants, have amounted to $6,465,980. Pending the completion of some of the lines, a portion of this amount has not yet been paid. Another feature in this enhanced indebtedness is, that some of the cities and towns of Ontario have added considerably to their liabilities, among others, Toronto. Ottawa, and St. Catharines. In each of these particular instances, however, the greater portion of the increased debt has been incurred on account of water-works, which of themselves form a reproductive asset. The aggregate debenture debts of the cities in 1876 appear to be as follows :— The three cities of Toronto, Hamilton, and Ottawa have thus a united liability of more than one half of the whole municipal debt of Ontario. Some of the counties have, however, also considerable debts. Among them, Huron, Bruce, Middlesex, and Perth have debentures outstanding-chiefly issued in aid of railway construction-which aggregate $2,748,000. In the Province of Quebec it is not so easy to arrive at approximate returns. The Municipal Loan Fund debt amounts to $2,399,465; and, taking into account the bonuses given to railways and the known liabilities of the cities and towns, the municipal debt of the Province would appear to |