hands without giving the matter a thought. Such negligence was not without its charm. After that second meeting, Dan made up his mind to see her again; but though he watched the whole of the next day, he caught not a glimpse of his charmer. He had no excuse for calling on Dr. Merle, else he might have taken advantage of it, and so passed at least a few minutes by her side. It then struck him that Mother Jericho might know her haunts, and he was on his way to the gipsy encampment for the purpose of inquiry, when Fate provided him with an excuse for calling at the doctor's house. On the path through the pine wood he picked up a red coral necklace which he had noticed her wearing. She had doubtless lost it on one of her excursions. "Good!" said Dan, slipping it into his pocket; "with this I can call on Dr. Merle and find out more about the huntress. If I introduce myself to the father, he may ask me to renew my visit, though I'm afraid my position does not warrant such a hope. However, I'll try; at least, I shall see her again." Contrary to her promise, Meg had not been near the dell, so Dan supposed that she had told her father of the invitation, and had been forbidden to accept it. When he saw Dr. Merle, this idea was dispelled. No one had less influence over his daughter than her surviving parent. But Dan did not come to this conclusion for some weeks. The doctor's house was built of grey stone, and placed as it was among the sombre pines, looked singularly funereal. It was not even enclosed by a fence, nor was there the slightest attempt at cultivating a garden. There it stood, square and gloomy, as though dropped suddenly into that savage solitude. It could be easily seen that the owner had no care for his surroundings. "If the father is so careless, I do not wonder that the daughter is allowed to run wild," murmured Dan, as he came in sight of this mausoleum. There was no bell, and though he knocked hard at the door, it was quite five minutes before it opened. A bent old man, dressed in dingy black, appeared, and, on being questioned, intimated in a surly voice that Meg was at the Court. "Is Dr. Merle in?" "A' be sleeping," was the crabbed response. "Then wake him and say that I wish to see him," said Dan, enraged at this uncivil reception. "Don't close the door till you have delivered my message." Somewhat startled by this determined bearing, so different to that of the meek Farbis folk, the surly Cerberus shuffled away, and returned in a few minutes with the information that the doctor would receive him in his study. Dan followed his guide, who led him into a dark apartment like a cell, and, pushing him in, the man shut the door as though to prevent his escape. "Well, what is it?" said a querulous voice at the other end of the room. "Why do you come at this hour? Don't you know it is my time for sleeping?" "Sleeping at three o'clock!" said Dan, with great astonishment.