"Now, be a good fellow, and send me a long letter by return of post, with the scandals and everything else you can remember, or invent, for you always amuse me, provided you only write.

"Ta, ta! Ever yours,

"S. M."

CHAPTER XV.

HOW THE COLONEL WAS SAVED.

ONE morning, about the beginning of July, Ada Harlingford was chatting with her father at breakfast, looking as bright and as fresh as a rosebud sparkling with the early dew, when Aurora kisses her rosy fingers to welcome the coming dawn.

A tap came at the door, and the bustling kellner entered with a bundle of letters and

newspapers.

Ada took hers, and with feminine impatience at once dived into their contents, with which, as far as this story is concerned, we shall have but little interest.

The Colonel carried out his established doctrine of finishing his meal before opening the despatches; for, as he wisely said, "if the news be bad, it will only spoil my temper and

I

digestion; and, if good, can very well keep for another half-hour." Fortunately they contained nothing of immediate importance, beyond the information that some old friends had left England, and were looking forward to meeting them shortly at Baden-Baden.

66

Well, dad dear, what news have you received?" asked inquisitively his daughter. "My letters are from Mary Maynard and Alice Singleton; but there is very little in them beyond pleasant chat. Jane Ferrier, Alice's favourite cousin, is engaged to young Charlie Beacham, of the Guards, and they are to be married in the autumn; and Mary's principal trouble seems to be that her father will take her off to Scotland this year, instead of making the long-promised trip through Switzerland and Italy."

"I have not much to tell you from mine, my child," replied the Colonel, " except that an old Indian chum, Sir Henry Hunter, is on his way to Baden-Baden, by way of Paris and Strasbourg, and that he hopes to meet us at that lovely village' on the Oos in a few

days. Lady Hunter and their two daughters accompany him."

"Then I suppose we ought to start off at once, papa; especially as you have promised. to show me Ems, and Nassau's wonderful Brunnens of Schwalbach, and Schlangenbad."

"I think to-morrow will be quite soon enough, Ada; for it will give us leisure to answer any of these letters, and for you to bid adieu to Balaam, your faithful donkey, and to poor honest Fritz, who looked so disconsolate when you told him yesterday we were so soon going away."

"Very well, dad; although I shall really be sorry to leave them, for we have quite enjoyed ourselves, and I feel so much stronger since arriving here."

The morrow came with clouds and misty rain; as unpromising a morning for a voyage on a steamboat as could well be imagined for any one wishing to view the ever-varying beauties of the river.

Still the Colonel and his daughter were not to be deterred by the threatening appearance

of the weather, and as the clock struck eleven they were safely on board the "Kron Prinz,' bound upwards to Coblentz; comfortably ensconced under the awning of the deck "abaft the binnacle," fairly protected from the drifting showers, occasionally snatching glimpses of the picturesque ruins crowning the numerous villages studding the shores on either bank. Passing Rolandseck and Nönnenwerth, on to Remagen, where the sparkling Ahr, favourite nursery of the finest trout, adds its rapid stream to the mighty Father Rhine; just where the celebrated "Holy Chapel" of St. Apollinaris crowns the mountain summit in all its architectural beauty, and attracts vast crowds of pious pilgrims to devoutly worship at its world-known shrine; besides giving its name to the now equally well-known Brunnen, springing in gushing grandeur from Nature's bounteous fount, whence unsentimental commerce draws annually its millions of bottles to invigorate and refresh the thirsty soul of man in every European city-bold supporter of the then unknown