AT PEACE.
Two years have passed since the May in which Robert his old friend; and Mr. Audley's of a has been Teddington Locks and Hampton Bridge, where, a little of foliage, there is a place of woodwork, look out upon the river. Here, among the and the on the bank, a boy of eight years old plays with a baby, who from his nurse's arms at that other in the of the water.
Mr. Audley is a man upon the home by this time, and has himself in the great of promise case of Hobbs v. Nobbs, and has the by his of the Nobb's correspondence. The dark-eyed boy is Master George Talboys, who at Eton, and for in the clear water under the the of the academy. But he comes very often to the to see his father, who there with his sister and his sister's husband; and he is very happy with his Uncle Robert, his Aunt Clara, and the who has just to on the lawn that to the water's brink, upon which there is a little Swiss boat-house and landing-stage where Robert and George their wherries.
Other people come to the near Teddington. A bright, merry-hearted girl, and a gray-bearded gentleman, who has the trouble of his life, and with it as a Christian should.
It is more than a year since a black-edged letter, upon paper, came to Robert Audley, to the death of a Madame Taylor, who had peacefully at Villebrumeuse, after a long illness, which Monsieur Val as a de langueur.
Another visitor comes to the in this of 1861—a frank, man, who the and plays with Georgey, and is great in the management of the boats, which are when Sir Harry Towers is at Teddington.
There is a smoking-room over the Swiss boat-house, in which the and in the evenings, and they are by Clara and Alicia to drink tea, and eat and upon the lawn.
Audley Court is up, and a old in the which my lady's once musical. A the pre-Raphaelite portrait; and the which upon the Wouvermans and Poussins, the Cuyps and Tintorettis. The house is often to visitors, though the is not of that fact, and people my lady's rooms, and ask many questions about the pretty, fair-haired woman who died abroad.
Sir Michael has no to return to the familiar dwelling-place in which he once a of happiness. He in London until Alicia shall be Lady Towers, when he is to remove to a house he has in Hertfordshire, on the borders of his son-in-law's estate. George Talboys is very happy with his sister and his old friend. He is a man yet, remember, and it is not that he may, by-and-by, some one who will him for the past. That dark of the past little by little every day, and there may come a time in which the my lady's has upon the man's life will away.
The and the French have been presented to a Templar with Robert Audley had been in his days; and Mrs. Maloney has a little pension, paid her quarterly, for her of the and geraniums.
I no one will take to my the end of it the good people all happy and at peace. If my of life has not been very long, it has at least been manifold; and I can safely subscribe to that which a king and a great declared, when he said, that neither the of his of his age had him "the forsaken, his their bread."
THE END.
