The Unfinished Prayer. OW I lay-repeat it, darling, 'Down to sleep.' 'To sleep,' she murmured, "Pray the Lord'-the sound came faintly, And the child was fast asleep. But the dewy eyes half opened M Ladies and Gentlemen. CHAPTER IV. RS. SINCLAIR was as good as her word in procuring a suitable situation for Richard Turner. Mr. Ralph Trevor, the invalid brother of a wealthy baronet, was glad to engage so steady a young man, and the place not demanding a person of very robust health, it exactly suited Jane's brother. Every winter would be spent abroad, while Trevor Court was at all times the English home of Mr. Trevor, between whom and the unmarried baronet a strong affection existed. Richard was the great writer of the family, and Jane frequently now received letters from parts of the world she had never heard of before, and as to the geography of which she had to apply to Lady Aveline to enlighten her. It was the romance of the schoolroom at that time, Jane's brother going to the top of the Pyramids, looking down the crater of Vesuvius, and standing on Mars' Hill, where the footsteps of St. Paul might have left their prints when he declared unto the Athenians that Unknown God' which they ignorantly worshipped. Mr. Ralph Trevor, who was Aveline's godfather, and a friend both of the Lovells and the Vernons, came to the Abbey with Richard one summer, and laughingly declared that he was completely outdone by Richard and his letters home; the children, after questioning him on his travels and adventures, always winding up with, 'Oh yes, Richard wrote to Jane about that: we know all about it.' 'Master was such a kind gentleman,' Richard told his sister, 'so considerate to every one.' A martyr to asthma, though quite young, he yet would not allow his servant to share his disturbed nights. 'And I know how little he sleeps,' said Richard, 'by the candles he burns. I have to put him half-a-dozen by his bedside, and put his favourite books near him, and then I'll hear him often pacing about the room if Ladies and Gentlemen. I happen to wake: but he sends me off if I go near him, and says I can do no good, and had best get my sleep. If he only had his health,' Richard continued, very proud of his master,' He'd be a real grand picturepainter, I've heard say; and when he has a good turn he is always at it, for he likes to bring away pictures of the places we go to. We're to stay in Italy all next winter, and Sir Charles is coming out to us,' he added. Richard was rapidly identifying himself with his invalid master, the while he held him in the greatest respect; 'Good masters make good servants,' it is said, and this was certainly a case which proved the truth of the proverb. In the second winter of Richard Turner's service with Mr. Trevor the young valet was able to give his master a clear proof of his devotion and fidelity. As had been previously arranged, Sir Charles Trevor had come out in his yacht to the Mediterranean, meeting his brother at Naples; and the early spring being unusually warm and genial they resolved to devote themselves to sketching excursions in the neighbourhood. The wild passes and grand scenery of the Abruzzi mountains, selected for this purpose, had a special charm for the baronet, who had greater powers of endurance than his brother, and with whom, in fact, sketching was less of a passion than climbing. These mountains had won for themselves an unenviable notoriety in former days, as the favourite haunt of brigands; but the band was now supposed to be dispersed, and the country of late had been pronounced safe. Young Englishmen are not prone to apprehend danger when it is not forced on their notice; consequently, the two gentlemen and their servant enjoyed to the full their excursions in a new country, where every turn of the road furnished pleasant employment for brush and pencil. Even Richard had become a botanist, and had his collection of new and strange wild flowers to show his friends in England. The head-quarters of the party were generally only a country inn; but its meagre supplies were always supplemented by a mule-load of comforts, collected for his master's welfare by Richard, who day by day became a valuable travelling companion. On one of these excursions the trio had wandered a three-days' journey from Naples, when an unlucky accident deprived them of a valued box of colours necessary to their work. Sir Charles, perhaps a little weary of his sketch-book, proposed to return to Naples in search of the desired colours, while his brother and Richard remained quietly at the little mountain inn they had lately patronised till his return. A country carriage took him up, in addition to the half-dozen rustics already clinging to it, and in due time he arrived in Naples. There, as bad news travels quickly, a report followed him in a few hours that two young Englishmen had been seized and carried off by brigands in the very neighbourhood he had just left. Later in the day the accounts became more detailed and distinct, and left no doubt that the two were Ralph Trevor and his servant. Sir Charles was for hastening to the spot at once with such a force as he could get together. But this, he was told, would be useless, as the brigands would certainly convey their prisoners to some of their fastnesses, from which they would treat, doubtless, for the hoped-for ransom. Besides, he would only be exposing himself to danger by Ladies and Gentlemen. such a course of action, since it appeared that the brigands thought that they had succeeded in securing the wealthy baronet himself. So, fretting and fuming, the young man had to content himself with inaction; or rather, in rushing from palace to palace in Naples, demanding assistance there, offering money here, bribing and threatening in turn the various officials he encountered. It was not likely, seeing they thought they had secured a rich prize, that the lives of the captives would be in any danger from the brigands themselves; but exposure of any kind was likely to prove speedily fatal to an invalid like Ralph, and therefore the despair of Sir Charles was redoubled when the weather changed with a violent thunderstorm, and steady rain set in. The telegram sent to England had hardly struck terror into the hearts of the relatives of the unfortunate prisoners, when a second followed on its steps, more difficult to understand. It was addressed to Lord Vernon, and ran as follows: : Ralph has been set free, but Richard Turner is still detained; send money, as desired by previous telegram.' The master freed and the servant detained! how had the rapacious brigands been led to consent to that? The tale was often told in the days that followed; but Richard's account, as he wrote it down for his favourite sister, was perhaps the one of deepest interest; so it shall be given here: 6 'I told you, Janie,' it began, that we were going to make a tour among some mountains which used to be infested by robbers-me, and my master, and Sir Charles. They wanted to go because the scenery was so beautiful, and I had heard there were many strange flowers growing. high up on the cliffs; and every one said the brigands, as they call them, had all left the neghbourhood, and, if we didn't mind roughing it, travelling was quite safe. So we started one fine Monday morning by carriage, meaning to send it back at the end of two days' journey, and trust to mules to carry us on as much further as we wished. Master was so wonderfully well just then, he seemed to have spirit for anything, and Sir Charles had set his mind on going where no English went, he said; so we took a lot of things with us-wraps, and tea and coffee, and potted meat, and such-like-and determined to enjoy ourselves. All went well, till one day out sketching Master's big colour-box fell into a torrent, and got washed away; and Sir Charles set off for Naples to buy more paints. He joked a bit with us as he started alone, and said if we didn't hear any more of him we might conclude the brigands. had got hold of him: but we never thought that it was ourselves who were in most danger. In fact, we hadn't a thought that we were running any risk. My master and I went straight up the mountain after seeing Sir Charles start, to a place he had noticed overnight, as a good spot for a sketch; but it didn't seem to suit him, and we climbed on and on, up the most solitary places, till we came to a beautiful view. Then we sat down; and he got out his book and pencil, and I got to my flower-hunting, and we quite forgot how time went till master stretched himself, and said, "I can see no more, it's getting quite dark; come and pack up, Richard ?" 'I had been asleep a little way off for the last half-hour, but I gave |