which will be open free to all travellers. I want to get up a company for building a Casino; we will undertake to place half the shares; and I mean next summer but one-it is too late for this to get up an international boat-race on the lake here-between English and American amateur crews, of course and in the autumn we must have both flat races and steeplechases; and I am organizing a system of circular notes and cosmopolitan credits that will place us in communication with every respectable banking-house in the civilised world. We must spare no effort to attract attention to the place, and make it so fashionable and attractive that no traveller can feel that he has done the continent at all unless he has spent a few days at Geneva. It is a big enterprise, I know, but I am determined to carry it through, and I attach great importance to your co-operation and the influence of the Helvetic News."

All this was said with great energy and rapidity and almost in a breath.

"We will do all we can, you may be sure of that," Leyland answered warmly, "your interest is our interest, more travellers mean more money-changing for you, more subscribers and more advertisements for us. You may count on our hearty co-operation in all those schemes you have been mentioning, Harman. The paper is always at your disposal for paragraphs and articles, anything you like in fact. But then you must not talk of stopping the tap, you know."

"I was not talking of stopping the tap. I was only asking you to draw it mild, and be as moderate as you can. I am quite satisfied; but our New York and London houses may not see matters in precisely the same light, remember."

"Hallo, the whistle again; what is it, Mayo?"

"Mr. Gibson and Mr. Balmaine would like to know when they can see Mr. Leyland and Mr. Mayo."

"Say we are engaged, and tell them to come in an hour."

Let them come in now," interposed the banker. "I have very little more to say, and I want to speak to Gibson and make the acquaintance of his new assistant."

So the newcomers were ushered into the room and Balmaine was introduced in due form to the assembled trio, who gave him a gracious reception, though Leyland's manner was marked by a certain condescension, as if to signify to Alfred that the proprietor of a newspaper was something very different from its assistant editor.

"I am glad to make your acquaintance, Mr. Balmaine," said the banker warmly. "I hope we shall be good friends, and if you will let me, I may sometimes profit by your literary skill. I have bothered Mr. Gibson occasionally, but now, when I want an article put into shape, I shall come to you. An editor-in-chief ought to write very little. His business is to supervise others, revise what they write and furnish them with ideas. Is not that so, Gibson ?"

"It is exactly what I have been saying ever since I came here; and I have no doubt that with Mr. Balmaine's help I shall be able to give more time to the general supervision of the paper; and I hope we shall succeed in making it even brighter and better than, as everybody admits, it is at present."

"That is hardly possible, I think, Gibson," said Harman, the suspicion of a smile playing about the corners of his mouth. "Considering the means at your disposal the Helvetic News is admirably edited. And now I want all of you to lunch with me, second breakfast they call it here, at my hotel on Sunday. I mean the entire editorial staff and Mr. Leyland and Mr. Mayo. Can that be managed, Gibson? I mean with reference to the duties of the paper, for you unfortunates have to work on Sundays."

Gibson declared that it could be managed very easily, and accepted the invitation on behalf of Delane and Milnthorpe. Alfred accepted it on his own, and it was accepted as a matter of course by the manager and proprietor.

"I like your Mr. Balmaine," said Harman, when the former and Gibson had taken their leave, "he has a good face, and is of better breeding, I should say, than either the chief or his subs."

"Yes, he seems a likely sort of chap; I dare say he will do," answered Leyland carelessly. "I say, Harman, it's awfully good of you to invite those fellows to breakfast."

"Not at all. I honour writers of every class, and like to stand well with them."

"That is all very well; but I cannot say that I honour newspaper writers much-I know too much about them. They have no principles; they write anything you tell them. Take Balmaine, now, I know absolutely nothing of him, but I would bet my bottom dollar that I could make him write a Tory leader one day and a Radical leader the next."

"I don't believe you could, Leyland; he is not a man of that sort, and I would back

my opinion with a bet if there were any way of bringing it to a test."

"Which at present there is not," said Leyland half jestingly, "unless we become Conservative."

"Which you won't," returned Harman, who did not seem to appreciate the joke, "unless you want to forfeit my support." "That settles the matter," laughed Leyland, "for we don't want to forfeit your support; anything but that. And we will assume, if you like, that Balmaine is that phenomenal being, a journalist with principles."

"You may say what you like about him," said the banker, who appeared just a little huffed by the other's chaff; "I have taken a fancy to that young man, and, if he can write a smart letter, I will try to throw something in his way.'

"Those are the three men who control the destinies of the Helvetic News, and, to a certain extent, our destinies," said Gibson to Alfred, when they got outside; "what do you think of them?

"I will tell you when I know them better," was Alfred's cautious answer; "you cannot learn much of people's character in a casual interview of a few minutes. What do you think of them, Mr. Gibson? You have had far more opportunities of judging them than I have."

"That is quite true. Well, I will tell you my opinion when you have had an opportunity of forming yours."

Balmaine had called at the office a few minutes previously to ask if he would be wanted before Sunday. Gibson replied in the negative, and, as we have seen, took him below to pay his respects to the proprietor and manager. As they passed through the spacious and well-appointed offices, Alfred noticed with some surprise how large was the staff of clerks, all of whom seemed to be fully cccupied; but the most prominent object was a huge thief-proof, fire-resisting safe that could hardly fail to impress casual visitors, paper merchants, type founders, and others with a sense of the importance of the Helvetic News, and of the vastness of the cash and other securities that needed so much safeguarding.

CHAPTER XIX.-ON THE LAKE.

IN after years a great many things both grave and gay befell Balmaine; but the impression of his first sail round the lake remained ever green in his memory. The day was perfect, the early morning air fresh and elastic, the scene about the port striking and

animated. The shore, lined with fresh-leaved trees and handsome buildings, the quaint houses of the old town, climbing up the heights crowned by the grey towers of St. Peter and the golden cupolas of the Russian Church-all was new to him; and although the picturesque never palls on the lover of nature, the sense of novelty and the gratification of long-cherished desires add piquancy to enjoyment. The reality, too, exceeded his expectation. The hour being early the Alps were not yet visible, and on the rugged sides of the Jura were reposing masses of cloud so white, so still, and in form so fantastic and weird, that they might have been vast snowfields, icy crags, and tremendous glaciers, blocking up the horizon and reaching high as heaven. Yet, still as they seem, the clouds move. They creep slowly up the gullies and roll back from the pine forests, and then, between the white mass and the dark background, mountain and forest show a tint of blue so deep and tender that it might be one of heaven's own windows, or the way into fairyland. Now to the south the morning glory is retreating before the advancing day, and the diademed peaks of the Pennine Alps, emerging from a silvery sea, stand revealed in all their beauty and fill the sky with their majestic presence. A few minutes later and all the vast stretch of country, from the mountains of Savoy to the Dent du Midi, from the snows of Mont Blanc to the gorges of Mont Reculet, is bathed in brilliant sunlight, and the crystal waters of the lake sparkle like liquid diamonds in a setting of azure.

The region round about is, moreover, rich in historic associations. Westward, the Fort de l'Ecluse guards the famous pass cleft unnumbered years ago by the great Rhone glacier, and through which, by comparison only the other day, the greatest of the Cæsars followed on the traces of the flying Helvetians. Atilla and his Huns wasted the land with fire and sword, Teutonic tribes marched along the shores of the lake to the sack of Rome, and the valley once echoed to the tread of Napoleon's legions as they marched to the conquest of Italy.

Yet, charmed with the beauty of the landscape as Balmaine undoubtedly was, and delighted as he might be with the clearness of the sky and the serenity of the weather, I would not aver that all the fore-mentioned reflections were suggested to his mind or that he gave much heed to the historic associations of the scene before him. For he had more companions than he counted on, and was too much disturbed with questions and exclama

tions to give himself up to thoughts of the sublime or contemplation of the beautiful.

In the Pension Guichard, as the reader is already aware, were three lady lodgers, each of whom, as Alfred, when he took up his quarters there, speedily learnt, bore the name of Von Schmidt and represented a distinct generation of that ancient and respectable family. There were Madame von Schmidt, the grandmother; Madame Karl von Schmidt, the mother; and Mademoiselle von Schmidt, the daughter. Being Germans, they naturally all played on the piano. Madame von Schmidt had been a teacher of music, Madame Karl was a teacher of music, and Mademoiselle, a pretty little blonde of seventeen, was learning to be a teacher of music. Except early in the morning, before the other lodgers went out, and in the evening when they had come in, Madame Guichard's piano was seldom silent, for when Madame Karl was not giving lessons her daughter was generally practising with preternatural energy. A distracted neighbour, who stayed at home all day long and was writing a book, threatened Madame Guichard with an action; but Switzerland being a free country, she defied him, and bade the Von Schmidts, with whom she was very intimate, to play on.

On the Friday evening Delane told Alfred, in a sheepish sort of way, that he had invited Madame Karl and her daughter to go with them round the lake.

"It will not cost us anything," he said. "I have got tickets for all."

This announcement did not seem very greatly to delight Balmaine. He foresaw that he should have to escort and entertain the elder lady, who happened to have a very decided moustache, a very loud voice, and rolled in her walk like a sailor, while Mademoiselle would fall to the lot of the sub-editor. "They are very nice," urged Delane deprecatingly, "and not too rich, and have to work hard all day long. The trip will be a great pleasure for them and do Mademoiselle a power of good; she is looking very pale, as you may have noticed."

It was impossible to resist the young fellow's appeal. "By all means let them come,' Alfred said, "and we will do our best to make the trip pleasant for them."

It was pleasant for all. Madame and Mademoiselle were in ecstasies of delight, and Alfred found the elder lady a much more agreeable companion than he had expected. Despite her moustache and ungainly walk, she was a highly cultivated woman, and had

a frank matronly manner, which at once engaged Balmaine's liking, and her story won his respect. He had already heard something of it from Madame Guichard and Delane. Her husband, much older than she, was an Austrian officer of high rank, who had died a few years previously at Vienna very much in debt, owing to some unfortunate speculations in which he had embarked. All that he possessed did not suffice to discharge his liabilities, and Madame Karl found herself utterly destitute, and with her old mother and a young daughter absolutely dependent on her. A brilliant pianist, she might possibly have earned a livelihood in the Austrian capital by giving lessons, but the humiliation was greater than she could bear, and, having a few friends at Geneva, she went thither and set up as a teacher of music. Her undoubted ability soon brought her some good paying pupils, and she was earning an income that would have made them very comfortable if she had not thought it her duty to pay off her husband's debts. All that remained, after providing for their modest wants, was, every quarter, remitted to his creditors at Vienna.

"As I helped my poor husband to spend his money," she said, "it is only right that I should help to pay his debts."

And then she spoke of her life in Austria, Milan, and other places.

"So you have not only visited Italy, but lived there?" asked Alfred.

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Certainly. During the occupation we lived in Northern Italy many years. Ida, my daughter, was born at Venice."

It struck Balmaine that Madame Karl could, perchance, give him some information about the Hardys. She was evidently a woman whom he might trust, and he proceeded to give her an outline of the case, without, however, saying anything very definite about the fortune. It was not necessary that he should, and both Warton and Artful had warned him that to make much noise about it would almost certainly bring forth false claimants.

Madame Karl listened to the tale with great interest. "I wish I could help you," she said; "but I don't think I ever heard of this man; at any rate, under the name of Hardy. It is not likely I should. I was or the other side, you know."

"If he was taken prisoner or executed, I thought you might possibly have heard some mention of him.

"It is not likely, there were so many of them; and if I did, I have forgotten. If we

had not been turned out of Italy I have no doubt I could find out whether he was taken by the Austrians. You may, however, be sure of one thing he is not in prison now. Why should our Government care to keep Italian prisoners after we left the country? They were all released."

"That is a new light," answered Alfred musingly. "I never thought of that before; it knocks Mr. Artful's theory on the head. Well, if Philip Hardy is not in prison where can he be?"

"Dead, I should say," returned Madame Karl promptly; "conspirators and soldiers of fortune have short lives, and your Monsieur Hardy appears to have been both. But why don't you ask Colonel Bevis? If anybody can tell you he can."

"Who is Colonel Bevis ?"

Why, don't you know? It is he who keeps the Helvetic News going-the best advertisement canvasser, they say, on the Continent. He has served in the British army, I think. At any rate, he was one of Garibaldi's men, and deeply implicated in every revolutionary movement in Northern Italy."

"How did he come to be an advertisement canvasser?"

"By being poor, I suppose. Men like him generally are poor. We cannot always choose our destinies, or I should not be a music mistress. He is very fortunate in having secured such a position. M. Delane says that he makes very much money, and he spends his winters in the Riviera and in Italy, and his summers in Switzerland and South Germany. It is, perhaps, not so fine a thing to be a canvasser as to command a regiment, but I am sure Colonel Bevis is better off now than when he was organizing secret societies in Lombardy and Venice, or fighting with the Red Shirts in Naples. He is the man for you; he knows Italy well. So does M. Corfe; but I would rather speak to the Colonel if I were you."

"I am much obliged to you for suggesting the idea, Madame von Schmidt, and I shall certainly profit by it; but you do not tell me where I shall find this remarkable colonelcanvasser. Is he in Geneva ?"

"Not at all; he is probably on a journey. I dare say M. Delane will tell us.'

Delane, who was promenading round the deck with Ida, being called, informed them that Colonel Bevis was travelling, and would no doubt, in accordance with his usual custom, be at Geneva some time during the

summer.

"But not a very profitable one, I fear." "I beg your pardon, Madame Karl, for some people it is very profitable."

Ah, yes, but not for such people as you and our friend, M. Delane."

"Not at present, perhaps; but there is no telling what the future has in store for us, and Delane is a very clever young fellow, I think."

"The future! No, as you say, there is no telling what the future has in store for us. You think it has something good-young people always do-but those who are verging on fifty know that it must have some evil, and may have much. Make the most of your youth, M. Balmaine; it will not last too long. Do you know, I am rather anxious about Ida?"

Why She looks very well."

And so she did, for though she was rather petite, and her face somewhat too broad, Ida, with her flaxen hair, dreamy blue eyes, cream white neck and pink cheeks did not come very far short of being a typical Teutonic beauty.

"She looks very well," repeated Alfred.

Yes, the child is pretty, is she not?" said the mother, proudly, "but she is excited and flushed now. Poor girl, I can neither give her a dot nor leave her a fortune, so she must work-perhaps I make her work too hard. But she is very clever and ardent, and besides singing and the piano she learns the modern languages, so she is sure to get her living, don't you think so, M. Balmaine?"

"Very sure, I should say; and with that face of hers, and so many accomplishments, she is sure to get a husband."

"So much more reason why she should learn to make money, M. Balmaine," returned Madame Karl, with rather a bitter laugh, "she may have to keep her husbandsome women have-or to pay his debts. I was a music mistress's daughter, and teaching music myself, when General von Schmidthe was captain then-became my husband. It was a love match, though to look at me now you wouldn't think so. But what would have become of us if I had not been able to turn an honest penny!"

Alfred inferred from this conversation, and

even more from Madame Karl's manner, that she had some fear that Delane and her daughter might become too fond of each other. The vigilance with which she watched them was amusing: she seldom let them go beyond earshot, never out of sight

CHAPTER XX.-HARMAN'S BREAKFAST. CORFE'S supper was a decided success; none the less so, perhaps, owing to its somewhat Bohemian character, for his rooms were on the third floor of a ramshackle shabby-looking house, in an unfashionable quarter, and his guests were far from belonging to the crême de la crême of Genevan society. They were very merry fellows, however, and one of them, whom from his long dishevelled hair and generally harum-scarum appearance Alfred took to be an artist, kept the table in a roar. Corfe did the part of host to perfection, sang a good song to his own accompaniment on a guitar, told some excellent stories, and his manner was as genial and agreeable as it had been unpleasant and repelling on the day Balmaine first met him. He seemed to be quite another man, yet the hard lines about the mouth, and a fleeting frown that once or twice overshadowed his face, showed that he had it in him to be as cynical and ill-humoured as he was now amiable and good-tempered.

"What do you think of Corfe ?" asked Alfred of Delane, as they walked home together across the plain. "He rather puzzles

me."

He

"He puzzles everybody, I think. was very nice to-night, wasn't he? He has two quite opposite humours, and you have seen him now in both. I sometimes think that he is one of those fellows who have missed their tip somehow, and come down in life. And that's what Gibson says, and Gibson is uncommonly shrewd. He says if ever he saw a disappointed, discontented man, that man is Corfe. All the same, some people like him and speak well of him, and in spite of his ill-temper and that, I fancy he is a very good fellow at bottom. Only he is very ready to take offence, and when he falls out with anybody he lets 'em have it hot."

"You think he is a sort of man that one ought to keep on good terms with, then?" "I am sure.

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'Well, then, I will try to keep on good terms with him, and if he continues to be half as amiable as he showed himself tonight I shall have no difficulty."

Harman's breakfast was not nearly so pleasant as Corfe's supper. The wines were

exquisite and the viands everything that could be desired; they had all the luxuries of the season, but the meal was intolerably long, and as the banker, Leyland, Mayo, and Gibson kept the conversation pretty much to themselves, and Delane and Milnthorpe, awed by the presence of their superiors, never opened their mouths, except to eat and drink, Balmaine did not find it very lively, and felt it a decided relief when the senior sub-editor, speaking for the first time, suggested that it was about time they went to the office.

"Indeed it is," said Gibson in a rather thick voice, for he had taken very kindly to his wine; "why it is actually after three o'clock. I must go too and get my leader done. I shall be over in a few minutes, Delane. I will just stay and finish this cigar."

"If you think this suitable," observed Alfred in an undertone, drawing some "copy" from his pocket, "it may perhaps save you the trouble of writing a leader. It is an article on the Eastern Question.

"Thank you very much," returned the editor with a gratified smile; "will you let me cast my eye over it for a moment?"

"It will do very well, Mr. Balmaine" (turning over the leaves); "just the thing we want-crisp, lively, and not too long. You can let Lud have it. But you need not go just yet. If Lud gets the copy in an hour it will be quite time enough."

"Yes, stay a few minutes longer," put in Harman, who had overheard the conversation, "and won't you take another cigar? I have something to say to you."

Thus pressed Alfred took another cigar and resumed his seat, and the banker, after a few indifferent remarks, asked him if he would like to write some letters for an American paper. Alfred said he should very much like to write some letters for an American paper.

"I thought so," said the banker. "Well, you call at my office to-morrow about eleven and I will introduce you to the editor of a paper at Pitsburgh, who, I think, on my recommendation, will be glad to make an arrangement with you."

Balmaine replied that nothing would give him greater pleasure, and shortly afterwards he took his leave and betook himself to the office of the Helvetic News.

During the week that followed Alfred got fairly into harness, and for some time afterwards his life, so far as appeared, was regular and uneventful. So far as appeared, because,