He could recall the fierce and sudden excitement of finding himself face to face with his first tiger in India, and putting the contents of both barrels into him, just as the monster was in the act of tearing down the shrieking mahout from his perch behind the ears of his shikaree elephant in a jungle where the twisted branches had to be torn aside at every step; and the nearly similar emotion with which he speared his first wild hog--an old boar, but too likely to turn like an envenomed devil when hard pressed and the pace grew hot; he could recall its glistening bristles that were like blue steel, its red eyes, and its fierce white tusks, as he whetted them in his dying wrath against a peepul tree; he could recall, too, the shock of the first bullet that took him in the arm, the vague terror of a barbed arrow that pierced his thigh, and which, for all he knew, might be poisoned; but never was mortal shock or emotion equal to the horror that burst upon him that night in the drawing-room of Carnaby Court, when a grasp of iron seemed to tighten round his heart, 'when the hair of his flesh stood up,' the light went out of his eyes, and he sank into oblivion. * * * * * Brighter times come anon. None can sorrow for ever; though that of the inmates of Carnaby Court did not pass away with the snows of winter--nay, nor with the sweet buds of spring or the roses of summer, when they climbed round the oriels and gables of the grand old mansion. Thus it was not for many months after that night of dread and dismay--that most mournful Christmas Eve--that the merry chimes were heard to ring in the old square tower of the Saxon church for the marriage of Clare and Trevor Chute, who passed, with chastened looks and much of tender sorrow, amid their long-deferred happiness, the now flower-covered garden of the gentle sister who had been indirectly the good angel who brought that happiness to pass. THE END. BILLING AND SONS, PRINTERS, GUILDFORD AND LONDON.