ne in common; and so he came back, a bronzed, brave
soldier, true-hearted and daring, and, if a little stern, no more so
than might be deemed natural in one who had met such a heavy reverse on
the very threshold of life.

Father and son were at supper in a little arbor of their garden near
Weimar, when the post brought them the startling news that May Leslie,
who was then at Malta, would be at Paris in a few days, where she
expected to meet them. When Sir William had read through the long letter
of the lawyer, giving an account of the late General Leslie's will, with
its strange condition, he handed it to his son, without a word.

The young man read it eagerly; his color changed once or twice as he
went on, and his face grew harder and sterner ere he finished. "Do you
mean to accept this wardship?" asked he, hurriedly.

"There are certain reasons for which I cannot decline it, Charley," said
the other, mildly. "All my life long I have been Tom Leslie's debtor,
in gratitude, for as noble a sacrifice as ever man made. We were both
suitors to your mother, brother officers at the time, and well received
in her father's house. Leslie, however, was much better looked on than
myself, for I was then but a second son, while he was the heir of a very
large estate. There could not have been a doubt that his advances would
have outweighed mine in a father and mother's estimate, and as he was
madly in love, there seemed-nothing to prevent his success. Finding,
however, in a conversation with your mother, that her affections were
mine, he not only relinquished the place in my favor, but, although most
eager to purchase his troop, suffered me, his junior, to pass over his
head, and thus attain the rank which enabled me to marry. Leslie went to
India, where he married, and we never met again. It was only some
seven or eight months ago I read of his being named governor of a
Mediterranean dependency, and the very next paper mentioned his death,
when about to leave Calcutta."

"It is, then, most probable that, when making this will, he had never
heard of our reverses in fortune?" said the young man.

"It is almost certain he had not, for it is dated the very year of that
panic which ruined me."

"And, just as likely, might never have left such a will, had he known
our altered fortunes?"

"I 'm not so sure of that. At all events, I can answer for it that no
change in our condition would have made Tom Leslie alter the will, if he
h