at breakfast with my mother.

"Jeff," she said (my name is Jeffry Childers); "Jeff, what do you think
of doing now? Being twenty-four, you ought, you know, to have some
fixed idea as to the future, for, of course, though independent, you
don't intend to be idle."

"Right, mother, right," I replied, "I don't mean to be an idler,
nevertheless I don't mean to be a doctor. I shall turn my mind to
chemistry, and talking of that, I expect to test the powers of a
particular compound today."

"And what," said my mother, with a peculiar smile, "is the nature of
this compound?"

"Violently explosive," said I.

"Ah, of course, I might have guessed that, Jeff, for most of your
compounds are either violently explosive or offensive--sometimes both;
but what is the name of this one?"

"Before answering that," said I, pulling out my watch, "allow me to ask
at what hour you expect Bella home to-day."

"She half promised to be over to breakfast, if cousin Kate would let her
away. It is probable that she may arrive in less than an hour."

"Curious coincidence," said I, "that her lover is likely to arrive about
the same time!"

"What! Nicholas Naranovitsch?"

"Yes. The ship in which he sailed from St. Petersburg arrived late last
night, and I have just received a telegram, saying that he will be down
by the first train this morning. Love, you know, is said to have wings.
If the pair given to Naranovitsch are at all in keeping with his
powerful frame, they will bear him swiftly to Fagend."

It may interest the reader at this point to know that my only sister,
Bella, had been engaged the previous year to one of my dearest college
friends, a young Russian, whose father had sent him to finish his
education in England. My own father, having been a merchant, many of
whose dealings were with Russia, had frequently visited St. Petersburg
and twice my mother and sister and I accompanied him thither. While
there we had met with the Naranovitsch family.

Young Nicholas was now in the army, and as fine-looking a fellow as one
could wish to see. Not only was he strong and manly, but gentle in
manner and tender of heart. My sister Bella being the sweetest--no, not
quite that, for there _is_ a pretty young--well, no matter--Bella being,
as I may say, _one_ of the sweetest girls in England, he fell in love
with her, of course. So did she with him; no wonder! During a visit to
our place in Devonshire at the end of his college c