GERTRUDE ERLE. Continued. ‘ No ; but, Claud, I have no money, and you have none ; and if you cling to it so much, how is it going to end for us ?’ she asked in an anxious voice that went straight to his heart. Gertrude's words flashed across him. ‘ I may have money some day, A lice ; then I shall be Lord of Burleigh, and you my bride,’ he said, kissing her ardently. She lifted up a radiant face. ‘ 0 Claud, it would kill me to lose you !’ and she wound her arms round him, and held him passionately to her, as if nothing should divide them. Claud looked at her ; then he remembered Gertrude, and he was silent. » * * * Mr Erie died, and died quite suddenly, after all; and Gertrude, in the first days of her bitter loss, had no heart to think of any one but him who had been the best of fathers. But when he was taken away and she grew calmer, a sense of rectitude would not allow her to keep silent any longer on the matter of the will. She_ did not even shrink from the task, strong in her faith in her lover ; desperately reliant on the love and truth that were but broken reeds after all. Robed in heavy black, and the sunny beauty of her face dimmed by tears, Gcr trude looked ten years older when she walked slowly into the room where Claud awaited her. She did not approach him, but sank down into the first chair near, and closed her lids for a moment. Then she plunged into her subject at once. ‘ Claud, I have something to say to you - something that ought to have been said long ago.’ He looked at her anxiously. Her tone was ominous. Was she going to throw him over now, at the last moment, when he had made up his mind to sacrifice himself without a murmur at the shrine of Plutus ? Her manner was strange and her words a little incoherent. 