But Tom, who had followed the Princess, and who now appeared in the open doorway, soon explained the cause of the outbreak. ‘Look here!’ he said, as he held out a yellow parchment. ‘It is a terrible blow to your aunt, Charlie. There has been some mistake. You are not descended from the royal Stuarts at all. A similarity of names and some careless copying are responsible for the error.’ Charlie seized the manuscript, and having hastily glanced at it, threw it aside, and went to his aunt, who was already being attended to by Catharine. The Princess had fainted; but ere long she recovered, and was able to tell her version of the story. She had been completing the pedigree; she had almost arrived at the last link, when the whole chain had been snapped by this hideous discovery. She would never get over the shock. To think that after all she was a nobody! It was too dreadful! They led her to her own room, and in time succeeded in calming her. Then, in order to convince himself, Charlie carefully examined the parchment. Its statements could not be gainsaid. The Stuarts of Balquhalloch had no connection with royalty; and he would not now be required to seize the throne of Great Britain. To him the revelation came, it must be remarked, as a welcome relief; but for days and weeks it made his poor aunt miserable; and when she finally reconciled herself to her lot, it seemed as if her energy and pleasure in life had departed for ever. Indeed, she never entirely got over the blow, and at the beginning of this year she died. Charlie and Catharine were with her to the last, and she bequeathed everything to them. Balquhalloch, therefore, is now theirs; and Tom Checkstone, who, rightly or wrongly, regarded himself as Charlie’s good genius, holds sway as his friend’s secretary, man of business, chum, and general factotum. THE MONTH: SCIENCE AND ARTS.