Welsh Journals

WHAT CANNOT LOVE DO. 127 very important step, indeed, in the advancement of his future, and towards the ulterior aim to which everything was dedicated in advance. CHAPTER VI. A NEW HOME. In the course of a few months Larry had formed so many acquaintances—some attracted by his criticisms, others by the simple bonhommie of his character—that he began to find the small, cheap lodgings he had taken on his first arrival in London unsuitable alike to his tastes and circumstances. The original literary engagement did not long form his only one. He became fully occupied, was well paid, and had only to choose his new apartments and go in. But there was a secret idea in his mind that still kept him where he was. One day, however, he began to stir to some purpose. A letter from the Irish agent came to say he had received an offer for the house and garden —six hundred pounds—but the gentle¬ man who made it had furniture of his own, and could not, therefore, buy Mr. O'Neill's. The agent suggested it was a fair price, and that he would venture to advise the keeping of the furniture, for it was choice and valuable, though old. It could be safely packed and forwarded to London. He would himself see to that, if desired. " Accept the offer—send me the money, and see the furni¬ ture packed and sent off directly." That was Larry's answer the very instant he had read the letter. And so deeply did the circumstance interest him that he would not wait to write, but telegraphed the message at once. " The time, then, has come," he said to himself, as he stood thoughtfully looking out of the window of his room in Camden Town. " Am I now going to make another and in every way more costly experiment than before, leading to the same end— failure ? Or having secured one step—an income—am I about to realise a second step of the scheme I so roughly shaped out to myself the day of my journey to London, and so prepare for the third and final one, when all may be crowned with success ?" Groing to the nearest stables from which he had seen issue carriages on hire, he engaged one for the day, with a pair of good horses, warning the owner he was going a long round, perhaps thirty or forty miles. " Can they do that having a rest between ?"