Magnum Bonum

by which onc

long unlov

my heart wa

, waiting

can be cla

r I cannot sl

d rocks, paddled, boated, hunted sea weeds and sea animals, lived on the beach from morning to night; and were exceedingly amused by the people, who insisted on addressing the senior of the party as "Miss," and thought them a young girl and her brothers under the charge of Mrs.

hose great, lively, spirited boys, who never seemed to think of disobeying her first word, and, while all made fu

w's absence. One morning Mr. Acton sought Mrs. Brownlow on the beach, where she was sitting with

him to bid him to carry her the tidings that good old Mrs. Brownlow

, but said only "Oh! wh

isted, almost commanded, that they should be left under her charge, and reminded her that their father wished them to be out of London; nor did Allen and Robert show any wish to return to a house of mourning, being just of the age to

that she had been indeed a mother. The idea of her absence from home for ever was too strange, too heartrending to be at once embraced, and as she neared the end of her journey on that long day, Carey's mind was chiefly fixed on the yearning to be with her husband and Janet, who had suffered such a shock without her. She seemed more able to feel through her husband-who was so devoted to his mother, than for herself, and she was every moment more uneasy about her little daughter, who must have been in the room with her grandmother. Comfort them?

a heart beating so fast that she could hardly breathe, found herself i

Janet was in the drawing-room, but the master was out. It sounded desolate, and Carey ran up stair

g accustomed to the darkness, she discerned a little heap lying curled up before the ottoman, her head on a great open book, asleep-poor child! quite worn out. Carey moved quietly across and sat down by her, longing but not da

, my poor child," said Carey, as she felt

dn't want her," said Janet, "so I told her

is fa

m Court Road sent for him just a

t out a

not be spared; and he was out all yesterday till bedti

thoug

let me say a word to him. She made me promise not, but b

she flung herself to the other end of the room. It was more from nurse than from Janet that Carey learnt the particulars, such as they were, namely, that the girl had been half-dressed when she had taken alarm from her grand

ul orders and written a few letters before going to his patients, for the i

should come in, and assuring her that the throbbing headache which disgusted her with all thoughts of eating, would be better for the effort. Perhaps it was, but it would not allow her to bring her thoughts into

er mother, herself unwilling to be alone, came with her to her room, undressed her, and sat with her in the darkness, hoping

, and darted down stairs, meeting indeed the welcoming eye and smile; but "Ah, here she is!

go to bed directly, and then we will see to him. Not another

Caroline turned in dismay to the kind, fatherly old man, who had always been one of the c

tioners and of all those who could give extra help; but this would probably have done little harm, but for a cold caught in a draughty room, and the sudden stroke with which the day had begun. Dr. Lucas had urged him to remain at home, and had undertaken his regular work for the day, but summonses from his p

they would be alone, consented to sleep in another room, after having

with his wife's hand in his, or sometimes smoothing her cheek, but not speaking without necessity. Once he told her that her head was aching, and made her

t her to bed, but she begged off, and a sign from her husband seemed to settle the matt

om, and not finding them there, was about to run down to the consulting-room, when Janet came out already dressed,

o make him wave her back from kissing him, and she took refuge at the foot of the

on the slate the wo

" read his wif

wrote; "lock all in my

ne, bewildered as to his intentions, and find

ing it under, "not till o

boys!" in ut

himself," he wrote, "

e a discovery which will save life. It is my pr

"It is not developed enough to be listened to by anyone. Keep it

ree. He could not work it out sooner. These is peril to self and others in experimenting-temptation

only to confide it to the one that seems fittest, when he has taken his degree, and is a good, religious, wise, able man, with brains and balan

a kiss, he took up the slate again and wrote, "My dear comfort, you have alwa

absorbed in attending to him, as not to look beyond the moment. He wrote presently, after a little more, "You know all my mind f

atients. The husband and wife had little more time for intimate communings, for the strangulation grew worse, more r

n, with a good-humoured, weather-beaten face, and an unwieldy, gouty figure; and he stood, with his eyes brimming over with tears,

dear fellow. But you'll soon be better. Horr

more took up the pencil-once to write the name of the clergyman he wished to see, and lastly to put dow

before that deadly suffocation had finished its

t Kyve three days ago; and finding poor old nurse too entirely broken down to be of any use, he put his own kind wife in charge of her, and was unwilling to admit anyone else-even Mrs. Robert Brownlow, who arrived in the course of the day. She was a tall, fine-looking person, with an oval face-soft, pleasant brown skin, mild brown eyes, and much tenderness of heart and manner, but not very well known to Caroline; for her periodical v

e feeling at having her home meddled with, but answering questions and giving opinions, called or uncalled for. Her longing was for her brothers, and it was a great blow to find that her uncle had written to both Allen and Mr. Acton that they had better not come home at present. She thought it cruel and unjust both towards them and herself; and

her's dressing-room, she found both it and the tablets among a heap of other small matters that had been, cleared away when the other chamber had been arranged into the solemnity of

overy in medical, science that her father had been pursuing, with many disappointments and much incredulity from the few friends to whom it had been mentioned, but with absolute confidence on his own part. What it was she did, not know, but she had fully taken in the injunction o

tell her that her mother had been saying something, about a slate, and Dr. Lucas thought it was one

no need for injunctions to do so softly and cautiously, for she was frightened by her mother's dull, half-closed eye, and pale, leaden look; but there was a little

as need of anxious watch lest fever should set in, and therefore all that was

stairs, she started nervously, and

you unless you wish it," seeing her a

ough Mrs. Lucas had no doubt that she knew; and when he came home, Colonel Brownlow called fo

e to rummage their things,"

resented her feeling; "you may trust me not to rummage, as you call it, unnecess

fronted as she always was b

trouble and distress if I can take steps towards acting on them at once;

sly saying, "I'll get them;" and presently returned with her grandmother's key-box, full of the housekeeping keys, and a little

said her uncle, as she

t quietly dropped downstairs with the key she had taken from her father's table on her way to the consulting-room. She intended to prevent any search, by herself prod

some with people's names, some with a Greek or Latin word, or one of the curious old Arabic signs, for which her father had always a turn, having, as his mother used to tell him, something of the alchemist in his composition. One of these parcels, fastened with elastic ring

y, "There was something that I know fath

uncle, gravely-"much that I am fitte

ut there could be no reply, and to burst out crying would only make him think her younger still; so as he turne

l papers, and pushing them aside from where she had pulled them forward, searched till he had found a long cartridge-paper envelope, which he laid on the table behind him while he shut up the bu

keys in his pocket, either not seei