At eleven precisely the last "Er-rum" is heard in the hall, and peace-- truly a blessed peace--falls on the pleasant Cornish home. Three months after we have the return visit, Richard Trevor and Valentina, his wife, being up at Frank Pratt's old-fashioned house at Highgate, where the only trouble happy little Fin can complain of is that Frank is so bunted by the solicitors that he has no peace. Fin has quite made up her mind that he will be Lord Chancellor; but Frank thinks it more than doubtful, and is very fond of teasing his wife, his great coup being to tell her that she asked him to marry her at last. There is a quiet, grave look in the faces of Richard and his wife, for they have paid two visits that day--one to the living, one to the dead. Mrs Vanleigh is living in a pleasant little cottage in a Highgate lane, and from her they learn that Sir Felix Landells marries the daughter of an earl in a few weeks; also that Captain, now Major, Vanleigh is still in India, where he is likely to stay; but that he writes regularly to his neglected wife, and has devoted himself heart and soul to his profession. The visit to the dead was made in Highgate Cemetery, where there is a neat little railing round a grave--green in summer, purple in spring with violets; and as husband and wife stand hand in hand there, the tears of the latter fall fast, while his eyes are blurred and misty as he pictures the past, and seems to see the slight, fragile form slowly wasting day by day, till once more, for the thousandth time, he conjures up the dimly-lit room, and the solemn scene wherein he was an actor. He knows that the long, dark tress of hair lies upon his wife's bosom; and he knows, too, that in her gentle heart there is no tinge of jealous feeling, or want of faith; for as he raises his head with a muttered "God rest her!" he meets the loving look of a sweet, trusting pair of eyes. Lastly, they gaze together at the simple headstone, but his are even now too blurred to read the simple inscription--"Netta." The End. End of Project Gutenberg's Thereby Hangs a Tale, by George Manville Fenn