and then the
first serious change, for many a year past, had stolen over the family
atmosphere. When was that atmosphere to be clear again? When were the
clouds of change to pass off before the returning sunshine of past and
happier times?

The spring and the early summer wore away. The dreaded month of July
came, with its airless nights, its cloudless mornings, and its sultry
days.

On the fifteenth of the month, an event happened which took every
one but Norah by surprise. For the second time, without the slightest
apparent reason--for the second time, without a word of warning
beforehand--Frank suddenly re-appeared at his father's cottage.

Mr. Clare's lips opened to hail his son's return, in the old character
of the "bad shilling"; and closed again without uttering a word. There
was a portentous composure in Frank's manner which showed that he had
other news to communicate than the news of his dismissal. He answered
his father's sardonic look of inquiry by at once explaining that a very
important proposal for his future benefit had been made to him, that
morning, at the office. His first idea had been to communicate the
details in writing; but the partners had, on reflection, thought that
the necessary decision might be more readily obtained by a personal
interview with his father and his friends. He had laid aside the pen
accordingly, and had resigned himself to the railway on the spot.

After this preliminary statement, Frank proceeded to describe the
proposal which his employers had addressed to him, with every external
appearance of viewing it in the light of an intolerable hardship.

The great firm in the City had obviously made a discovery in relation to
their clerk, exactly similar to the discovery which had formerly forced
itself on the engineer in relation to his pupil. The young man, as they
politely phrased it, stood in need of some special stimulant to stir
him up. His employers (acting under a sense of their obligation to
the gentleman by whom Frank had been recommended) had considered the
question carefully, and had decided that the one promising use to which
they could put Mr. Francis Clare was to send him forthwith into another
quarter of the globe.

As a consequence of this decision, it was now, therefore, proposed that
he should enter the house of their correspondents in China; that he
should remain there, familiarizing himself thoroughly on the spot with
the tea trade and the silk trade fo