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way, in the belief that their spouses would not have waited so long.

‘However, be left a direction in the town that a lookout should be kept, though this was arranged privately, the bere possibility of an clopement being enough to make him reticent ; and, full of misgivings, the two remaining ones hastened to catch the last train ont of Budmouth-Regis ; and when they got to Castelbridge drove back to Upper Longpuddle.”

“ Along this very road as we do now,” remarked the parish-clerk.

“To be sure—along this very road,” said the curate. “However, Stephen and Olive were not at their homes; neither had entered the village since leaving it in the morning. Emily and James Hardcome went to their respective dwellings to snatch a hasty night's rest, and at daylight the next morning they drove again to Casterbridge and entered the Budmonth train.

“Nothing had been heard of the couple there during this brief absence. In the course of a few hours some young men testified to having seen such a man and woman rowing in a frail hired craft, the head of the boat kept straight to sea; they had sat looking in each other's face as if they were in a dream, with no consciousness of what they were doing, or whither they were steering. It was not till late that day that more tidings reached James’s ears. The boat had been found drifting bottom upward a long way from land. In the evening the sea rose somewhat, and a cry spread through the town that two bodies were cast ashore in Lullatead Bay, several miles to the eastward, They were brought to Budmouth, and inspection revealed them to be the missing pair. It was said that they had been found tightly locked in each other’s arms, his lipa upon hers, their features atill wrapt in the same calm snd dream-like repose which