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82° THE PANELLED HOUSE.

them. ‘Burton wants you to go in after Thorndale,
if you don’t mind.”

« All right,” said Escott ; and was on the point
of departure when his father stopped him.

““Escott, do you know any thing of a certain
Algernon Smith who they tell me is playing for
Ereonbury ?”

“J know him by sight,” said Escott.

“‘Ton’t have more to do with him than you can
help. As far as I can make out, he is good for
very little but cricket. Heydon gives him the
worst of characters.”

Poor Colonel Armyn was still so infatuated as
not to see that to warn his son against the com-
pany of any person was to make him especially
desirous of his acquaintance. And the warning
had just ‘the same effect as the proverbial “ Don’t
put him under the pump.” Escott said to himself
that he would see this Algernon Smith for himself,
and judge with his own eyes, not his father’s : and
a few minutes brought him to the conclusion that
he was a much maligned person, for Mr. Smith
had most agreeable manners, in which there was
no shade of patronage. He treated Escott as an
equal, and took the boy’s fancy accordingly.

Escott played well and steadily when he went
in, and made a longer score than any Erconbury
man had yet done, to the surprise of both friends
and foes. He read his congratulations in Winny’s
face when he retired at last, and she was eager in
her rejoicings when Erconbury ended the first
innings at a hundred and twenty. After dinner
Southshire again went in, and brought up the
score to two hundred ; and then Erconbury again
struggled upwards, though under difficulties, for
the bowling was changed, and several wickets
succumbed to it. At last the ninth wicket went
down, and Escott took his place there, with
Algernon Smith opposite to him, having twenty-
one runs to get to save the game.

They were both on their mettle, and knew what
they were about, and first by ones and twos, then
by twos and threes, the score mounted up to sixteen.
The partisans of Erconbury grew intensely excited:
Southshirve had made sure of bowling out the last
wicket, but their faces grew longer when they saw
the steadiness of the two men’s play. Finally,
Escott struck a mighty stroke, and sent the ball
to the very end of the ground, getting six runs,
and thus conquering. The applause that followed
was glorious to his ears, as he sat panting on the
ground, the process of getting his breath still
further retarded by the approving slaps on the back
bestowed by admiring friends.

When he went back to his own.party, his father
was not among them.

“Fe will be so vexed,” said Winny. ‘ He had to go
to that volunteer drill. I dowish he had been here!”

Escott had been thinking that his father would
now confess that every one did not hold him as cheap
as he did, and he was considerably vexed that he
had not been there to behold his prowess. Possibly
Colonel Armyn might not have thought a successful
hit in a cricket-match so noteworthy a thing as to
change his opinion of his son’s character for it, as
it seemed to Escott in his excitement that he ought
to do. ‘He would not have cared, I suppose ; he
never does care for any thing that happens to me.
Well, never mind, Winny ; you saw it, and I kept
my word.”

“Oh, I did mdeed. I can’t tell you how glad I
was,” said Winny enthusiastically.

“Good-bye; we are going off to dine at the
Swan,” said Escott. ‘Iam glad you stayed to see
it, Winny.”

Not many weeks afterwards, Escott came up to
the Panelled House to say good-bye to them, or
rather to Winny—before he went to his tutor’s in
Devonshire. Fortune favoured him; the others
had gone out, but Winny, who had had a suspicion
that he might turn up this afternoon, had stayed at
home to garden, and he found her stooping over a
heap of gleaming purple hyacinth-bulbs, which she
was planting fer an early show.

“T’m off to-morrow, Winny!” he said with a
sigh which might have been either of relief or of
remorse.

“T congratulate you,” said Winny demurely.
‘“ Of course you are very glad.”

“ Well, I thought I should be,” said Escott;
“but now it’s come to the point, I don’t know.”

‘Why not?”

“ Why,” said Escott rather sheepishly, “ I should
not be glad if I thought you’d forget all about me
as soon as I am out of sight.”

Winny looked up and laughed, “ Why, Escott, I
never should have thought of your making me a
pretty speech !”

‘Now, Winny, if you are going to chaff, I shall
shut up ; I’m serious. Look here, ever since I’ve
been here, you’ve been quite different to me to what
other people have ; you’re the only person in the
world that don’t think me a brute. Now tell you
what ; I should not care what I did as far as the
governor or Flora were concerned ; they would
just say they always knew I should turn out bad,
and leave me there ; but if you tell me you care
about it one way or the other, I shall look out how
I behave. Sometimes Ive thought you did care.”

“JT do care, indeed!” said Winny, very earnestly,
not laughing now, and holding out her hand to him.

** Well,” he said, holding it tightly, “if you care,
Winny, I mean to try to be as you would like me
to be. Ishould not like to vex you. But then, you
know, you must go on caring and not forget me.
| If you did, I should just go to the bad altogether,