early in the afternoon and the waterloo railway station. a gentleman got out of a first-class carriage, and made his way to one of the waiting hansoms.

"stop at the first hatter's you come to," he said to the driver.

leaping out when his directions were obeyed, he entered the shop and asked for a mourning band to be put on his hat; a "deep one." you do not need to be told who it was, and what the black band was for. vincent had died about eight o'clock in the morning, and the natal traveller was sir roland yorke.

save for the fact that he had some money in his pockets, in actual reality, which afforded a kind of personal ease to the mind, he was anything but elated at the change of position. on the contrary, he felt very much subdued. roland could not be selfish, and the grief and shock brought him by the unexpected death of his cousin vincent, outweighed every thought of self. he had already tasted some of the fruits of future power. servants and others had referred to him that morning as the new baronet and their master; his pleasure had been consulted in current matters touching the house and estate, his orders been requested as to the funeral. roland was head of all now, the sole master. setting aside the sadness that filled his heart to the exclusion of all else, the very suddenness of the change would prevent him as yet realizing it in his own mind.

with the conspicuous band on his hat, stretching up rather above the top of the crown, roland entered the cab again, and ordered it to the office. there he presented himself to mr. greatorex.

"well?" said the lawyer, turning round from his desk "so you are back again! what did sir vincent want with you? has he made you his bailiff?"

roland sadly shook his head. and mr. greatorex saw that something was wrong.

"what's amiss?" he hastily inquired.

"if you please sir, i am sir roland now."

"you are what?" exclaimed mr. greatorex.

"it's only too true," groaned roland. "poor vincent is dead. mr. greatorex, i'd work on all fours for a living to the end of my days if it could bring him to life again. i never thought to come in, i'm sure; and i wouldn't willingly. he died at eight o'clock this morning."

mr. greatorex leaned back in his chair and relieved his mind by a pastime he might have caught from roland--that of staring. not having heard of sir vincent's accident, this assertion of his death sounded only the more surprising. was roland telling the truth? he almost questioned it. roland, perceiving the doubt, gave a summary of particulars, and mr. greatorex slowly realized the facts.

sir roland yorke! the light-headed, simple-minded clerk, who had been living on a pound a week and working sufficiently hard to get it, suddenly transformed into a powerful baronet! it was like a romance in a child's fairy tale. mr. greatorex rose and held out his hand.

"i must congratulate you on your succession, sir roland, sad though the events are that have led to it."

"now don't! please don't!" interrupted roland. "i hope nobody will do that, sir: it sounds like a wrong on poor dick. oh, i'd bring him to life again if i were able."

"i trust you will make us your men of business, sir roland," resumed mr. greatorex, still standing. "we have been solicitors to the head of the yorke family in succession for many years now."

"i'm sure if you'll be at the trouble of acting for me, i should like nothing better, sir: bad manners to me if i could have any different thought! and i've put your name and mr. bede's down in the list for the funeral, if you'll please attend it. there'll be but a few of us in all. gerald (though i shouldn't think he will show his face at it), william yorke, arthur channing, two or three of dick's friends, and you and mr. bede. poor dick said to me when he was dying not to have the same kind of show he had for his father's funeral, he saw the folly of it now, but the quietest i could order. i think he has gone to heaven, mr. greatorex."

but that the subject was a solemn one, mr. greatorex had certainly laughed at the quaint simplicity of the concluding sentence. one reminiscence in connection with the past funeral rose forcibly in his mind--of the slighting neglect shown to the young man now before him. he, the real heir-presumptive, only that nobody had the wit to think of it, was not deemed good enough to follow his uncle to the grave. but stood in his place now.

bede would not be able to attend the ceremony, mr. greatorex said aloud: he was already in france, having crossed over with his wife by the last mail train.

"what is the matter with him?" asked roland. "he looked as ill as he could look yesterday."

"i don't know what the matter is," said mr. greatorex. "he has an inward complaint, and i fear it must be making great strides. his name will be taken out of the firm tomorrow, and give place to frank's. it was bede's own request: it is as if he fears he may never be capable of business again."

"i'm sure i hope he will," cried roland in his sympathy. "about me, mr. greatorex? of course i'd not like to leave you at a pinch; i'll come to the office tomorrow morning and do my work as usual for a day or two, until you've found somebody to replace me. i should like to take this afternoon for myself."

but mr. greatorex with a smile, thought they should not need to trouble sir roland: which was no doubt an agreeable intimation: and roland really had a good deal to do in connection with his new position.

"if i'm not forgetting!" he exclaimed, just as he was taking his departure. "there's the money you lent me, sir, and i thank you for the loan of it."

in taking the sovereign from his pocket, he pulled out several. mr. greatorex jokingly remarked that he had apparently no longer need to borrow.

"it is from poor dick's desk," sadly observed roland. "he told me there was enough money in it to repay the pound to you and get my clothes out of pawn, and that it would be all my own when he died. well, what do you think i found there when i opened it today?--nearly a hundred pounds in gold and bank notes!"

"but you have not got all that about you, i hope?"

"yes i have, sir; it was safer to bring it up than to leave it. i shall pay it into the banker's. i've got to show myself there, i suppose, and leave my signature in their books; it won't be so neat a one as poor dick's."

roland departed. looking in for a moment at the office as he went out, and announcing himself as sir roland yorke, upon which mr. hurst burst out laughing in his face. he dashed in on mrs. jones with his news, ate nearly the whole of a shilling madeira cake that happened to be on the table, while he talked, and made a voluntary promise to that tart and disbelieving matron to refurnish her house from top to bottom.

then the cab was ordered to the banker's, where his business was satisfactorily adjusted. gerald's chambers were not far off, and roland took them next. the servant met him with the bold assertion that his master was out.

"don't bother yourself to deny him, my good man; i saw his face at the window," said roland, with frankness. "you may safely show me in: i am not a creditor."

"well, sir, we are obliged to be excessively cautious, just now, and that's the truth," apologized the man in a tone of confidence. "mr. yorke, i think?"

"sir roland yorke," corrected roland.

"sir?" returned the man, looking at him as if he thought he saw a lunatic.

"sir roland yorke," was the emphatic repetition. "have the goodness to announce me."

and the servant opened the room door and did it.

as roland saw gerald's quick look of surprise, he would, under other circumstances, have shaken in his shoes at the fun. but sadness wholly reigned over him today. and--if truth must be told--a terrible aversion to gerald for his work and its fruits held possession of the new heir.

"oh, it's you," cried gerald, roughly. "what on earth possessed the fellow?"

"the fellow did right, gerald. i gave him my name, and he announced it."

"don't come here with your fool's blabber. he said 'sir roland yorke.'"

"and it is what i am."

gerald's face grew dark with passion. he had an especial dislike to be played with.

"vincent's dead, gerald."

"it is a lie."

"vincent died this morning at eight o'clock," repeated roland. "i was with him: he telegraphed for me yesterday. look at this mourning band"--showing his hat--"i've just been to get it put on. do you think i'd have the face to invent a jest on this subject? vincent yorke is dead, poor fellow, and i have come into things as sir roland. not that i can fully believe it myself yet." the tone of the voice, the deep black band, and a kind of subtle instinct within himself brought conviction of the truth home to gerald yorke. had it been to save his fame, he could not have helped the loud brazen tone from going out of his voice, or the dread that took possession of his whole aspect.

"what--has--he--died--of?"

"the gunshot wound."

a pause. gerald broke it.

"it was going on well. i heard so only two days ago."

"but it took a sudden turn for the worse; and he is dead."

gerald's face assumed a tinge as of bluish chalk. was he to have two lives on his soul? hamish channing's had surely been enough for him without vincent yorke's. pushing back his damp hair, he met roland's steady look, and so made believe to feel nothing, went to the fire, and stirred it gently.

"why did the doctors let it take this turn?" he asked, flinging down the poker. "it was as simple a wound as ever was given."

"i suppose they'd have helped it if they could."

another pause.

"well--of course--as you have succeeded, i must congratulate you," said gerald stiffly and lamely. absently, too, for he was buried in thought, reflecting on what an idiotic policy his, to roland, had been: but this contingency had never occurred to him more than it had to roland.

"vincent had a good lot of property that was not entailed," resumed gerald. "do you know who he has willed it to? did he make a will?"

"he made a will yesterday, before telegraphing for me," gerald lifted his face with a transient hope.

"i wonder if he has remembered me?"

"i think not. except some legacies to the servants, and a keepsake for miss trehern--his watch and diamond ring, i fancy--he said nobody's name was mentioned in the will but mine. it has not been opened: i thought i'd leave it till after the funeral. i am the executor."

"you!--you don't want his ready money as well as his inheritance, spoke gerald, in a foam.

"i'm sure i didn't want any of it, i only thought to be his bailiff; but i can't help it if it has come to me," was roland's quiet answer, as he turned to depart. "good afternoon, gerald. i thought it right to call and tell you of his death: you may like to draw your blinds down."

"thanks," said gerald, sarcastically.

"you will receive an invitation to the funeral, gerald. but i'd like to intimate that if you do not care to attend, i shall not look upon it in the light of a slight," added candid roland, who really spoke in simple good nature. "we shall be enough without you if you'd rather stay away."

before gerald's awful rage at the speech was over, for he looked upon it as bestowed in a patronizing light from the new baronet, roland was vaulting into the waiting cab. gerald had the pleasure of peeping on from the window.

"sir roland yorke!--sir roland yorke!" he spoke aloud in his horrible mortification. "sunny mead for his home, and four thousand a year landed property, and heaps of ready money. curse the beggar! curse the shot that has brought him the luck of the inheritance! i'd sell my soul for it to have been mine. i should wear the honours better than he. i wish to heaven he could die tonight!"

and mr. gerald yorke, looking after the receding cab with a dark and sullen countenance, could indeed have sold his soul; if by so doing he might have annihilated his brother and stepped into his place. he was in that precise frame of mind for which some few men in the world's actual history, and a vast many in fiction, have stained their hands with crime for the greed of gain.

* * * * * *

tread lightly, speak softly; for death is already hovering in the chamber. as roland enters on tiptoe he takes in the scene at a glance. hamish lying, with closed eyes, and the live ball, miss nelly, tucked outside beside him her golden curls mingling with his damp hair. a sea of old helstonleigh faces seems to be gathered round; save that roland silently clasps arthur's hand, he takes notice of none. edging himself between annabel and tom channing, as they stand side by side, he bends his face of concern downwards. the slight stir arouses hamish, he opens his eyes, and holds up his feeble hand with a remnant of the old smile.

"back again! head bailiff?"

roland bit his lip. his chest was heaving with emotion, his face working. hamish, who retained his keenest perceptive faculties to the last, spoke again in his faint voice.

"is it good news?"

"it's good news. good news, hamish, and at the same time awfully bad. vincent's dead, and i'm--i'm in his shoes."

hamish did not seem to understand. neither did the others.

"it's me to come after him, poor fellow, you see. i am sir roland now."

as the words fell upon the previously silent room, you might have heard a pin drop. cheeks flushed, eyes looked out their questioning surprise at the speaker. upon hamish alone the communication seemed to make no impression: earthly interests were to him now as nothing.

"you will give me annabel with a will, hamish, now that i have come into the family inheritance?"

"i had already given her to you, so far as my best will was good to do it. roland----"

the voice seemed to be fading away altogether, but in the eyes there was an eager gaze. roland bent his head lower to catch the sounds about to issue from the lips.

"there's a different and a better inheritance, roland; one of love, and light, and everlasting peace. you will both of you strive for that."

"yes, that we will. and gain it too. oh, hamish, if you could but stop with us a bit longer!" burst forth roland, letting his suppressed emotion come out with a choking sob. "it's nothing all round but dying. first vincent, and now you! i never knew such a miserable world as this. i'd have laid down my own life to keep either of you in it."

there stole a smile of ineffable peace over the dying face. it seemed to have caught a ray of the heavenly light in which it would so soon be shining.