riends, it's the end of one year, and it will soon be the
beginning of another. Let's hope that the new year will be better than
the last. I don't suppose I shall have many more to spend amongst you,
and that is why I wish to introduce--so to speak--my little boy to you.
As my son and heir, my friends, he will one day stand in the place which
I now occupy, and speak to you perhaps as I am speaking now. I can only
ask you to behave as well to him as you have always behaved to me. I
trust that he will prove himself worthy of his name and of his race, and
that generations yet unborn will bless the day when Beechfield Hall came
into the hands of a younger Richard Vane. My friends, if you drink my
health to-night, I shall ask you also to drink the health of my boy--to
wish him happiness, and that he may prove a better landlord, a better
magistrate, and a better man than ever I have been."

There was a tumult of applause, mingled with cries of "No, no!"--"Can't
be better than you have been, sir!" and "Hurrah for the General!"

Hubert, smiling with pleasure at his host's genial tone, was amazed at
the gloom which sat upon the brows of three persons in the
room--Florence, Enid, and the woman in black. There was no other
likeness between them, but that air of reserve and gravity made them
look as if some incommunicable bond, some similarity of feeling or
experience, held them back from the general hilarity which surrounded
them.

"A happy New Year to you all, my friends!" said the General, in his
hearty voice. "Here's to your good healths! There, Dick, my man--drink
too, and say, 'A happy New Year to all of you!'"

Little Dick took a sip from his father's glass, and gravely uplifted his
childish treble.

"A happy New Year to all of you!" he said; and men and women alike broke
out into delighted response.

"Same to you, sir, and many of them!" "Bless his little heart," one of
the women was heard to murmur, "he's just the image of his mamma!" But,
if she thought to give pleasure by this remark, she was far from
successful. Mrs. Vane threw so angry a glance in her direction that the
woman shrank back aghast; and the girl in black, who stood in the
background, laughed between her teeth.

The function was over at last. The choir trooped away to the servants'
premises, where a substantial supper awaited them; the General kissed
little Dick, and strode away with him to his nurse; and Mrs. Vane rose
from the table with an air of