Allen, who came home next, only sighed at the cruel necessity of selling such a work.  He was in deplorable spirits, for Gilbert Gould was superintending the refitting of a beautiful steam yacht, in which Miss Menella meant to sail to the West Indies, with her uncle and aunt.

“I knew she would!  I knew she would,” softly said Babie.

That did not console Allen, and his silence and cynicism about his hosts gave the impression that he had outstayed his welcome, since he had neither wealth, nor the social brilliance or subservience that might have supplied its place.  He had scarcely energy to thank his mother for her faultless transcription of “The Single Eye,” and only just exerted himself to direct the neat roll of MS. to the Editor.

The next day a note came for him.

“Mother what have you done?” he exclaimed.  “What did you send to the ’Weathercock’?”

“‘The Single Eye.’  What?  Not rejected?”

“See there!”

“DEAR MR. BROWNLOW,-—I am afraid there has been some mistake.  The story I wished for is not this one, but another in the same MS. Magazine; a charming little history of a boy’s capture by, and escape from, the Moorish corsairs.  Can you let me have it by Tuesday?  I am very sorry to have given so much trouble, but ‘The Single Eye’ will not suit my purpose at all.”

“What does she mean?” demanded Allen.

“I see!  It is a story of the children’s!  ‘Marco’s Felucca.’  I looked at it while I was copying, and thought how pretty it was.  And now I remember there were some pencil-marks!”

“Well, it will please the children,” graciously said Allen.  “I am not sorry; I did not wish to make my debut in a second-rate serial like that, and now I am quit of it.  She is quite right.  It is not her style of thing.”

But Allen did not remember that he had spent the £15 beforehand, so as to make it £25, and this made it fortunate that his mother’s group had been purchased by the porcelain works, and another pair ordered.

Thus she could freely leave their gains to Armine and Babie, for the latter declared the sum was alike due to both, since if she had the readiest wit, her brother had the most discrimination, and the best choice of language.  The story was only signed A. B., and their mother made a point of the authorship being kept a secret; but little notices of the story in the papers highly gratified the young authors.

Armine, who had returned from a round of visits to St. Cradocke’s, Fordham, Kenminster, and Woodside, confirmed the report of Elvira’s intended voyage; but till the yacht was ready, the party had gone abroad, leaving the management of the farm, and agency of the estate, to a very worthy man named Whiteside, who had long been a suitor to Mary Gould, and whom she was at last allowed to marry.  He had at once made the Kencroft party free of the park and gardens, and indeed John and Armine came laden with gifts in poultry, fruit, and flowers from the dependants on the estate to Mrs. Brownlow.