expressed themselves content with the verdict that he had come accidentally by his death, Marguerite took occasion to congratulate herself, and all concerned, on the fact that what she vaguely called "things" were beginning to straighten themselves out.

"We are round the corner," she said, decisively. "And now papa and I shall go home again, and Miss Williams will come back. Miss Williams-oh, lor! She is one of those women who have a poker inside them instead of a heart. You know the sort, Dorothy. They live for moral appearances - presumably because all other appearances have longed ceased to live for them. And papa will trot out his young men-likely young men from the city. Papa married the bank, you know. And he wants me to marry another bank, and live gorgeously ever afterwards. Poor old dear!"

"I think he would rather you were happy than gorgeous," said Dorothy, with a laugh, who had seen some of the honest banker's perplexity with regard to this most delicate financial affair.

"Perhaps he would. At all events, he does his best-his level best. He has tried at least fifty of these gentle swains since I came back from Dresden-red hair and a temper, black hair and an excellent opinion of one's self, fair hair and stupidity. But they wouldn't do they wouldn't do, Dorothy!"

Marguerite paused, and made a series of holes in the sand with her walkingstick.

"There was only one," she said, quietly, at length. "I suppose there is always-only one-for women, eh, Dorothy?"

"I suppose so," answered Dorothy, looking straight in front of her.

Marguerite was silent for a while, looking out to sea with a queer little twist of the lips that made her look older-almost a woman. One could imagine what she would be like when she was middle-aged, or quite old perhaps.

"He would have done," she said. "Quite easily, hands down. He was a million times cleverer than the rest-a million times... well, he was quite differ ent, I don't know how. But he was paternal. He thought he was much too old, so he didn't try-"

She broke off with a light laugh, and her confidential manner was gone in a flash. She stuck her stick firmly into the ground, and threw herself back on the soft sand.

"So!" she cried, gayly. "Vogue la galère! It's all for the best. That is the right thing to say when it cannot be helped and it obviously isn't for the best. But everybody says it, and it is always wise to pass in with the crowd and be conventional-if you swing for it."

She broke off suddenly, looking at her companion's face. A few boats had been leisurely making for the shore all the afternoon before a light wind, and Dorothy had been watching them. They were coming closer now.

Dorothy, do you see the Three Bro

thers?"

"That is the Three Brothers," answered Dorothy, pointing with her walking-stick.

For a time they were silent, until, indeed, the boat with the patched sail had taken the ground gently, a few yards from the shore. A number of men landed from her, some of them carrying baskets of fish. One, walking apart, made for the dunes, in the direction of the New Scheveningen Road.

"And that is Tony," said Marguerite. "I should know his walk-if I saw him coming out of the Ark, which, by-the-way, must have been rather like the Three Brothers to look at. He has taken your brother safely away, and now he is coming-to take you."

He may remember that I am Percy's sister," suggested Dorothy.

"It doesn't matter whose sister you are," was the decisive reply. "Nothing matters" Marguerite rose slowly, and shook the sand from her dress. "Nothing matters - except one thing, and that appears to be a matter of absolute chance."

She climbed slowly to the summit of the dune under which they had been sitting, and there, pausing, she looked back. She nodded gayly down at Dorothy. Then suddenly she held out her hands before her, and Cornish, looking up, saw her slim young form poised against the sky in a mock attitude of benediction.

"Bless you, my dears!" she cried, and with a light laugh turned and walked towards the Villa des Dunes.

and America in the early part of 1897 to the effect that Queen Victoria would mark the completion of the sixtieth year of her reign by stepping down from the loneliest and loftiest seat ever occupied by a woman, and handing over to her eldest son the honors and burdens of the English

crown.

It is said by those in a position to know the facts that the Queen herself was then not only ready but anxious to renounce in favor of the Prince of Wales the burdens of her throne. There are, in fact, grounds for believing that the question of abdication actually came before the cabinet in one shape or another, that a serious examination was made into the merits and demerits of the proposal, and that, as each individual cabinet minister was strenuously opposed to the idea of the Queen's abdication, it was unanimously rejected. Considerations were presented which determined the government to advise her Majesty to remain, as long as

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so well known as they deserve. Constitutional in all things, and especially in regard to advice from her ministers on grave matters touching the welfare of Britain, Queen Victoria accordingly entered the seventh decade of her reign with the announcement of a resolve that until her last sleep nothing should part her from her beloved people. That resolve was communicated to the nation in a letter which went straight to the hearts of loyal Britons all over the world. king could have written that letter, because it is not given to any man to sweep the chords of feeling with the sure hand of a good and loving woman, whether she be the greatest of queens or of humble station. Kings may appeal to national pride, to ambition, and to duty. Our Queen can do more. She can touch the heart of a great people at her will.

No

Even the letter in which the Queen told her people that she would continue to fulfil her duties as long as life shall last" did not finally get rid of the rumor

of abdication. Specific statements continue to be made in responsible quarters that the abdication was about to take place, that the coronation robes of King Edward VII. were being made, partly in Paris and partly in London, and that the details for inaugurating the new reign were actually worked out. There is not a word of truth in those reports. The Queen will not abdicate. The Prince of Wales remains a subject during the life of his mother. Any one who considers the problem as it presented itself to the British cabinet could see for himself some of the graver reasons for this decision.

In the first place, both historical precedents and constitutional convenience are against abdication. In England no monarch can abdicate without consent of Parliament. In Great Britain there has been no case of voluntary abdication. Edward II. and James II. were forcibly driven from the throne for the best of reasons,

untary abdication of a reigning sovereign.

Of these foreign precedents there are just half a dozen. In 79 B.C. Sulla abdicated the dictatorship of Rome. In 305 A.D. Diocletian abdicated the imperial throne. In 1555 Charles V. of Spain abdicated. Then there are the abdications of Christina of Sweden in 1654, Philip V. of Spain in 1724, and Louis Bonaparte of Holland in 1810. Not one of them throws any light on the case of Queen Victoria, or presents a parallel to the situation that is worth serious consideration.

If historic precedents refused to throw light on the subject, ministers were beleaguered with constitutional difficulties of a kind almost insuperable, preventing them, even had they been willing, from tendering to their sovereign advice that she should renounce her throne. It seems ungracious and almost sordid to refer to mere pecuniary obstacles, but undoubted

(that is, the salary of the Queen), at an annual allowance of $1,925,000, lapses with her death. What is to happen if the Queen ceases to reign, but does not cease to live, is not provided for in any of the acts of Parliament relating to the crown, its succession, or the administration of the crown lands which were surrendered at the time of the Queen's accession. Furthermore, provision for the dignity of the new sovereign on the demise of the crown from whatever cause must be the subject of a new arrange ment between Parliament and the crown, as the present arrangement is specially restricted to the lifetime of the Queen. Parliamentary intervention would have been indispensable, since her Majesty enjoys no power of hypothecation over the revenues provided by the nation for her dignity and use. With the exception of an annual sum of $300,000 granted on account of the privy purse, every dollar of the crown revenues is now allocated by Parliament to its specific purpose, and cannot be alienated from that purpose for any reason whatsoever unless with Parliamentary sanction, and expressed in an enabling act.

In order to make the foregoing clear I should explain that in 1837, the year of the Queen's accession, a bargain between the sovereign and Parliament was made by which the former renounced the hereditary revenues of the crown enjoyed by her royal predecessors in consideration of a civil list granted during the Queen's lifetime and occupancy of the throne. In 1837 this was an excellent bargain for the country. To-day, owing to the fall in values, the nation annually pays some $20,000 more to the crown than it receives from the hereditary revenues relinquish ed by her Majesty in 1837. The cabinet was thus confronted with a grave and complex problem. If the Queen were advised to abdicate, the whole question of the crown lands would come up in an inconveniently intractable form. By the 1 and 2 Vict. cap. ii. 1837 it is expressly provided that after the demise of the crown the hereditary revenues surrendered by the Queen are payable to her successors (c. ii). By clause XVII. it is enacted "that this Act shall continue in force for six months after the death of Her most Excellent Majesty (whom may God preserve), unless the heir or successor of Her said Majesty shall sooner signify to

both Houses of Parliament His or Her Royal will and pleasure to resume the possession of the several Hereditary Rates Duties Payments and Revenues hereby surrendered by Her Majesty."

The meaning of this clause is that, assuming for the moment that the same conditions would hold good on the sovereign's abdication as on the demise of the crown from natural causes, the Prince of Wales for six months would be free to exercise an option to resume possession of the hereditary revenues of the crown, and to make such disposition of or charges on them as might seem good to his Royal Highness. It is notorious that for many years the provision made by Parliament for the Prince of Wales and his family is miserably inadequate to the obligations publicly imposed on him. Practically, the more costly social and public duties of monarchy have devolved almost entirely on the Prince of Wales, together with enormous charges for entertainment, hospitality, and charitable subscriptions compulsorily entailed on the leader of English society by the Queen's practical retirement from the public eye. For more than a generation the Prince has borne the larger part of the social and pecuniary burdens that naturally fall on the sovereign, and has sustained them on a modest Parliamentary grant of smaller proportions than the income of many Americans and Englishmen of private station. These things being so, it is obvious that when the time comes for the Prince of Wales to succeed the Queen (whom may God preserve!) the ministry in office at the time will be equitably bound to take into consideration the burden of obligations met and discharged by the Prince of Wales in the course of his difficult, prolonged, and patriotic services to his country. To raise this thorny Parliamentary question during the lifetime of the Queen is practically out of the question, and no cabinet would be likely to anticipate for itself the complex difficulties inseparable from a resettlement of the civil list and the question of crown lands. Unless, however, this matter were satisfactorily settled, which would probably include a permanent arrangement as to the ownership of crown lands, no question of the abdication of the Queen could enter the arena of practical politics.

Such are some of the pecuniary and