THE DYNAMITER

TO MESSRS. COLE AND COX, POLICE OFFICERS

Gentlemen, --In the volume now in your hands, the authors havetouched upon that ugly devil of crime, with which it is your gloryto have contended. It were a waste of ink to do so in a seriousspirit. Let us dedicate our horror to acts of a more mingledstrain, where crime preserves some features of nobility, and wherereason and humanity can still relish the temptation. Horror, inthis case, is due to Mr. Parnell: he sits before posterity silent, Mr. Forster's appeal echoing down the ages. Horror is due toourselves, in that we have so long coquetted with political crime;not seriously weighing, not acutely following it from cause toconsequence; but with a generous, unfounded heat of sentiment, likethe schoolboy with the penny tale, applauding what was specious. When it touched ourselves (truly in a vile shape), we proved falseto the imaginations; discovered, in a clap, that crime was no lesscruel and no less ugly under sounding names; and recoiled from ourfalse deities. 

But seriousness comes most in place when we are to speak of ourdefenders. Whoever be in the right in this great and confused warof politics; whatever elements of greed, whatever traits of thebully, dishonour both parties in this inhuman contest;--your side, your part, is at least pure of doubt. Yours is the side of thechild, of the breeding woman, of individual pity and public trust. If our society were the mere kingdom of the devil (as indeed itwears some of his colours) it yet embraces many precious elementsand many innocent persons whom it is a glory to defend. Courageand devotion, so common in the ranks of the police, so littlerecognised, so meagrely rewarded, have at length found theircommemoration in an historical act. History, which will representMr. Parnell sitting silent under the appeal of Mr. Forster, andGordon setting forth upon his tragic enterprise, will not forgetMr. Cole carrying the dynamite in his defenceless hands, nor Mr. Cox coming coolly to his aid. 

Robert Louis StevensonFanny Van De Grift Stevenson

A NOTE FOR THE READER

It is within the bounds of possibility that you may take up thisvolume, and yet be unacquainted with its predecessor: the firstseries of NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS. The loss is yours--and mine; or tobe more exact, my publishers'. But if you are thus unlucky, theleast I can do is to pass you a hint. When you shall find areference in the following pages to one Theophilus Godall of theBohemian Cigar Divan in Rupert Street, Soho, you must be preparedto recognise, under his features, no less a person than PrinceFlorizel of Bohemia, formerly one of the magnates of Europe, nowdethroned, exiled, impoverished, and embarked in the tobacco trade. 

R. L. S. 

NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS

A SECOND SERIES

THE DYNAMITER

PROLOGUE OF THE CIGAR DIVAN

In the city of encounters, the Bagdad of the West, and, to be moreprecise, on the broad northern pavement of Leicester Square, twoyoung men of five- or six-and-twenty met after years of separation. The first, who was of a very smooth address and clothed in the bestfashion, hesitated to recognise the pinched and shabby air of hiscompanion. 

'What!' he cried, 'Paul Somerset!'

'I am indeed Paul Somerset, ' returned the other, 'or what remainsof him after a well-deserved experience of poverty and law. But inyou, Challoner, I can perceive no change; and time may be said, without hyperbole, to write no wrinkle on your azure brow. '

'All, ' replied Challoner, 'is not gold that glitters. But we arehere in an ill posture for confidences, and interrupt the movementof these ladies. Let us, if you please, find a more privatecorner. '

'If you will allow me to guide you, ' replied Somerset, 'I willoffer you the best cigar in London. '

And taking the arm of his companion, he led him in silence and at abrisk pace to the door of a quiet establishment in Rupert Street, Soho. The entrance was adorned with one of those giganticHighlanders of wood which have almost risen to the standing ofantiquities; and across the window-glass, which sheltered the usualdisplay of pipes, tobacco, and cigars, there ran the gilded legend:'Bohemian Cigar Divan, by T. Godall. ' The interior of the shop wassmall, but commodious and ornate; the salesman grave, smiling, andurbane; and the two young men, each puffing a select regalia, hadsoon taken their places on a sofa of mouse-coloured plush andproceeded to exchange their stories. 

'I am now, ' said Somerset, 'a barrister; but Providence and theattorneys have hitherto denied me the opportunity to shine. Aselect society at the Cheshire Cheese engaged my evenings; myafternoons, as Mr. Godall could testify, have been generally passedin this divan; and my mornings, I have taken the precaution toabbreviate by not rising before twelve. At this rate, my littlepatrimony was very rapidly, and I am proud to remember, mostagreeably expended. Since then a gentleman, who has really nothingelse to recommend him beyond the fact of being my maternal uncle, deals me the small sum of ten shillings a week; and if you beholdme once more revisiting the glimpses of the street lamps in myfavourite quarter, you will readily divine that I have come into afortune. '

'I should not have supposed so, ' replied Challoner. 'But doubtlessI met you on the way to your tailors. '

'It is a visit that I purpose to delay, ' returned Somerset, with asmile. 'My fortune has definite limits. It consists, or ratherthis morning it consisted, of one hundred pounds. '

'That is certainly odd, ' said Challoner; 'yes, certainly thecoincidence is strange. I am myself reduced to the same margin. '

'You!' cried Somerset. 'And yet Solomon in all his glory--'

'Such is the fact. I am, dear boy, on my last legs, ' saidChalloner. 'Besides the clothes in which you see me, I havescarcely a decent trouser in my wardrobe; and if I knew how, Iwould this instant set about some sort of work or commerce. With ahundred pounds for capital, a man should push his way. '

'It may be, ' returned Somerset; 'but what to do with mine is morethan I can fancy. Mr. Godall, ' he added, addressing the salesman, 'you are a man who knows the world: what can a young fellow ofreasonable education do with a hundred pounds?'

'It depends, ' replied the salesman, withdrawing his cheroot. 'Thepower of money is an article of faith in which I profess myself asceptic. A hundred pounds will with difficulty support you for ayear; with somewhat more difficulty you may spend it in a night;and without any difficulty at all you may lose it in five minuteson the Stock Exchange. If you are of that stamp of man that rises, a penny would be as useful; if you belong to those that fall, apenny would be no more useless. When I was myself thrownunexpectedly upon the world, it was my fortune to possess an art:I knew a good cigar. Do you know nothing, Mr. Somerset?'

'Not even law, ' was the reply. 

'The answer is worthy of a sage, ' returned Mr. Godall. 'And you, sir, ' he continued, turning to Challoner, 'as the friend of Mr. Somerset, may I be allowed to address you the same question?'

'Well, ' replied Challoner, 'I play a fair hand at whist. '

'How many persons are there in London, ' returned the salesman, 'whohave two-and-thirty teeth? Believe me, young gentleman, there aremore still who play a fair hand at whist. Whist, sir, is wide asthe world; 'tis an accomplishment like breathing. I once knew ayouth who announced that he was studying to be Chancellor ofEngland; the design was certainly ambitious; but I find it lessexcessive than that of the man who aspires to make a livelihood bywhist. '

'Dear me, ' said Challoner, 'I am afraid I shall have to fall to bea working man. '

'Fall to be a working man?' echoed Mr. Godall. 'Suppose a ruraldean to be unfrocked, does he fall to be a major? suppose a captainwere cashiered, would he fall to be a puisne judge? The ignoranceof your middle class surprises me. Outside itself, it thinks theworld to lie quite ignorant and equal, sunk in a commondegradation; but to the eye of the observer, all ranks are seen tostand in ordered hierarchies, and each adorned with its particularaptitudes and knowledge. By the defects of your education you aremore disqualified to be a working man than to be the ruler of anempire. The gulf, sir, is below; and the true learned arts--thosewhich alone are safe from the competition of insurgent laymen--arethose which give his title to the artisan. '

'This is a very pompous fellow, ' said Challoner, in the ear of hiscompanion. 

'He is immense, ' said Somerset. 

Just then the door of the divan was opened, and a third youngfellow made his appearance, and rather bashfully requested sometobacco. He was younger than the others; and, in a somewhatmeaningless and altogether English way, he was a handsome lad. When he had been served, and had lighted his pipe and taken hisplace upon the sofa, he recalled himself to Challoner by the nameof Desborough. 

'Desborough, to be sure, ' cried Challoner. 'Well, Desborough, andwhat do you do?'

'The fact is, ' said Desborough, 'that I am doing nothing. '

'A private fortune possibly?' inquired the other. 

'Well, no, ' replied Desborough, rather sulkily. 'The fact is thatI am waiting for something to turn up. '

'All in the same boat!' cried Somerset. 'And have you, too, onehundred pounds?'

'Worse luck, ' said Mr. Desborough. 

'This is a very pathetic sight, Mr. Godall, ' said Somerset: 'Threefutiles. '

'A character of this crowded age, ' returned the salesman. 

'Sir, ' said Somerset, 'I deny that the age is crowded; I will admitone fact, and one fact only: that I am futile, that he is futile, and that we are all three as futile as the devil. What am I? Ihave smattered law, smattered letters, smattered geography, smattered mathematics; I have even a working knowledge of judicialastrology; and here I stand, all London roaring by at the street'send, as impotent as any baby. I have a prodigious contempt for mymaternal uncle; but without him, it is idle to deny it, I shouldsimply resolve into my elements like an unstable mixture. I beginto perceive that it is necessary to know some one thing to thebottom--were it only literature. And yet, sir, the man of theworld is a great feature of this age; he is possessed of anextraordinary mass and variety of knowledge; he is everywhere athome; he has seen life in all its phases; and it is impossible butthat this great habit of existence should bear fruit. I countmyself a man of the world, accomplished, CAP-A-PIE. So do you, Challoner. And you, Mr. Desborough?'

'Oh yes, ' returned the young man. 

'Well then, Mr. Godall, here we stand, three men of the world, without a trade to cover us, but planted at the strategic centre ofthe universe (for so you will allow me to call Rupert Street), inthe midst of the chief mass of people, and within ear-shot of themost continuous chink of money on the surface of the globe. Sir, as civilised men, what do we do? I will show you. You take in apaper?'

'I take, ' said Mr. Godall solemnly, 'the best paper in the world, the Standard. '

'Good, ' resumed Somerset. 'I now hold it in my hand, the voice ofthe world, a telephone repeating all men's wants. I open it, andwhere my eye first falls--well, no, not Morrison's Pills--but here, sure enough, and but a little above, I find the joint that I wasseeking; here is the weak spot in the armour of society. Here is awant, a plaint, an offer of substantial gratitude: "TWO HUNDREDPOUNDS REWARD. --The above reward will be paid to any person givinginformation as to the identity and whereabouts of a man observedyesterday in the neighbourhood of the Green Park. He was over sixfeet in height, with shoulders disproportionately broad, closeshaved, with black moustaches, and wearing a sealskin great-coat. "There, gentlemen, our fortune, if not made, is founded. '

'Do you then propose, dear boy, that we should turn detectives?'inquired Challoner. 

'Do I propose it? No, sir, ' cried Somerset. 'It is reason, destiny, the plain face of the world, that commands and imposes it. Here all our merits tell; our manners, habit of the world, powersof conversation, vast stores of unconnected knowledge, all that weare and have builds up the character of the complete detective. Itis, in short, the only profession for a gentleman. '

'The proposition is perhaps excessive, ' replied Challoner; 'forhitherto I own I have regarded it as of all dirty, sneaking, andungentlemanly trades, the least and lowest. '

'To defend society?' asked Somerset; 'to stake one's life forothers? to deracinate occult and powerful evil? I appeal to Mr. Godall. He, at least, as a philosophic looker-on at life, willspit upon such philistine opinions. He knows that the policeman, as he is called upon continually to face greater odds, and thatboth worse equipped and for a better cause, is in form and essencea more noble hero than the soldier. Do you, by any chance, deceiveyourself into supposing that a general would either ask or expect, from the best army ever marshalled, and on the most momentousbattle-field, the conduct of a common constable at Peckham Rye?'{1}

'I did not understand we were to join the force, ' said Challoner. 

'Nor shall we. These are the hands; but here--here, sir, is thehead, ' cried Somerset. 'Enough; it is decreed. We shall hunt downthis miscreant in the sealskin coat. '

'Suppose that we agreed, ' retorted Challoner, 'you have no plan, noknowledge; you know not where to seek for a beginning. '

'Challoner!' cried Somerset, 'is it possible that you hold thedoctrine of Free Will? And are you devoid of any tincture ofphilosophy, that you should harp on such exploded fallacies?Chance, the blind Madonna of the Pagan, rules this terrestrialbustle; and in Chance I place my sole reliance. Chance has broughtus three together; when we next separate and go forth our severalways, Chance will continually drag before our careless eyes athousand eloquent clues, not to this mystery only, but to thecountless mysteries by which we live surrounded. Then comes thepart of the man of the world, of the detective born and bred. Thisclue, which the whole town beholds without comprehension, swift asa cat, he leaps upon it, makes it his, follows it with craft andpassion, and from one trifling circumstance divines a world. '

'Just so, ' said Challoner; 'and I am delighted that you shouldrecognise these virtues in yourself. But in the meanwhile, dearboy, I own myself incapable of joining. I was neither born norbred as a detective, but as a placable and very thirsty gentleman;and, for my part, I begin to weary for a drink. As for clues andadventures, the only adventure that is ever likely to occur to mewill be an adventure with a bailiff. '

'Now there is the fallacy, ' cried Somerset. 'There I catch thesecret of your futility in life. The world teems and bubbles withadventure; it besieges you along the street: hands waving out ofwindows, swindlers coming up and swearing they knew you when youwere abroad, affable and doubtful people of all sorts andconditions begging and truckling for your notice. But not you:you turn away, you walk your seedy mill round, you must go thedullest way. Now here, I beg of you, the next adventure thatoffers itself, embrace it in with both your arms; whatever itlooks, grimy or romantic, grasp it. I will do the like; the devilis in it, but at least we shall have fun; and each in turn we shallnarrate the story of our fortunes to my philosophic friend of thedivan, the great Godall, now hearing me with inward joy. Come, isit a bargain? Will you, indeed, both promise to welcome everychance that offers, to plunge boldly into every opening, and, keeping the eye wary and the head composed, to study and piecetogether all that happens? Come, promise: let me open to you thedoors of the great profession of intrigue. '

'It is not much in my way, ' said Challoner, 'but, since you make apoint of it, amen. '

'I don't mind promising, ' said Desborough, 'but nothing will happento me. '

'O faithless ones!' cried Somerset. 'But at least I have yourpromises; and Godall, I perceive, is transported with delight. '

'I promise myself at least much pleasure from your variousnarratives, ' said the salesman, with the customary calm polish ofhis manner. 

'And now, gentlemen, ' concluded Somerset, 'let us separate. Ihasten to put myself in fortune's way. Hark how, in this quietcorner, London roars like the noise of battle; four milliondestinies are here concentred; and in the strong panoply of onehundred pounds, payable to the bearer, I am about to plunge intothat web. '

CHALLONER'S ADVENTURE: THE SQUIRE OF DAMES

Mr. Edward Challoner had set up lodgings in the suburb of Putney, where he enjoyed a parlour and bedroom and the sincere esteem ofthe people of the house. To this remote home he found himself, ata very early hour in the morning of the next day, condemned to setforth on foot. He was a young man of a portly habit; no lover ofthe exercises of the body; bland, sedentary, patient of delay, aprop of omnibuses. In happier days he would have chartered a cab;but these luxuries were now denied him; and with what courage hecould muster he addressed himself to walk. 

It was then the height of the season and the summer; the weatherwas serene and cloudless; and as he paced under the blinded housesand along the vacant streets, the chill of the dawn had fled, andsome of the warmth and all the brightness of the July day alreadyshone upon the city. He walked at first in a profound abstraction, bitterly reviewing and repenting his performances at whist; but ashe advanced into the labyrinth of the south-west, his ear wasgradually mastered by the silence. Street after street looked downupon his solitary figure, house after house echoed upon his passagewith a ghostly jar, shop after shop displayed its shuttered frontand its commercial legend; and meanwhile he steered his course, under day's effulgent dome and through this encampment of diurnalsleepers, lonely as a ship. 

'Here, ' he reflected, 'if I were like my scatter-brained companion, here were indeed the scene where I might look for an adventure. Here, in broad day, the streets are secret as in the blackest nightof January, and in the midst of some four million sleepers, solitary as the woods of Yucatan. If I but raise my voice I couldsummon up the number of an army, and yet the grave is not moresilent than this city of sleep. '

He was still following these quaint and serious musings when hecame into a street of more mingled ingredients than was common inthe quarter. Here, on the one hand, framed in walls and the greentops of trees, were several of those discreet, bijou residences onwhich propriety is apt to look askance. Here, too, were many ofthe brick-fronted barracks of the poor; a plaster cow, perhaps, serving as ensign to a dairy, or a ticket announcing the businessof the mangler. Before one such house, that stood a littleseparate among walled gardens, a cat was playing with a straw, andChalloner paused a moment, looking on this sleek and solitarycreature, who seemed an emblem of the neighbouring peace. With thecessation of the sound of his own steps the silence fell dead; thehouse stood smokeless: the blinds down, the whole machinery oflife arrested; and it seemed to Challoner that he should hear thebreathing of the sleepers. 

As he so stood, he was startled by a dull and jarring detonationfrom within. This was followed by a monstrous hissing andsimmering as from a kettle of the bigness of St. Paul's; and at thesame time from every chink of door and window spirted an ill-smelling vapour. The cat disappeared with a cry. Within thelodging-house feet pounded on the stairs; the door flew back, emitting clouds of smoke; and two men and an elegantly dressedyoung lady tumbled forth into the street and fled without a word. The hissing had already ceased, the smoke was melting in the air, the whole event had come and gone as in a dream, and stillChalloner was rooted to the spot. At last his reason and his fearawoke together, and with the most unwonted energy he fell torunning. 

Little by little this first dash relaxed, and presently he hadresumed his sober gait and begun to piece together, out of theconfused report of his senses, some theory of the occurrence. Butthe occasion of the sounds and stench that had so suddenly assailedhim, and the strange conjunction of fugitives whom he had seen toissue from the house, were mysteries beyond his plummet. With anobscure awe he considered them in his mind, continuing, meanwhile, to thread the web of streets, and once more alone in morningsunshine. 

In his first retreat he had entirely wandered; and now, steeringvaguely west, it was his luck to light upon an unpretending street, which presently widened so as to admit a strip of gardens in themidst. Here was quite a stir of birds; even at that hour, theshadow of the leaves was grateful; instead of the burnt atmosphereof cities, there was something brisk and rural in the air; andChalloner paced forward, his eyes upon the pavement and his mindrunning upon distant scenes, till he was recalled, upon a sudden, by a wall that blocked his further progress. This street, whosename I have forgotten, is no thoroughfare. 

He was not the first who had wandered there that morning; for as heraised his eyes with an agreeable deliberation, they alighted onthe figure of a girl, in whom he was struck to recognise the thirdof the incongruous fugitives. She had run there, seemingly, blindfold; the wall had checked her career: and being entirelywearied, she had sunk upon the ground beside the garden railings, soiling her dress among the summer dust. Each saw the other in thesame instant of time; and she, with one wild look, sprang to herfeet and began to hurry from the scene. 

Challoner was doubly startled to meet once more the heroine of hisadventure, and to observe the fear with which she shunned him. Pity and alarm, in nearly equal forces, contested the possession ofhis mind; and yet, in spite of both, he saw himself condemned tofollow in the lady's wake. He did so gingerly, as fearing toincrease her terrors; but, tread as lightly as he might, hisfootfalls eloquently echoed in the empty street. Their soundappeared to strike in her some strong emotion; for scarce had hebegun to follow ere she paused. A second time she addressedherself to flight; and a second time she paused. Then she turnedabout, and with doubtful steps and the most attractive appearanceof timidity, drew near to the young man. He on his side continuedto advance with similar signals of distress and bashfulness. Atlength, when they were but some steps apart, he saw her eyes brimover, and she reached out both her hands in eloquent appeal. 

'Are you an English gentleman?' she cried. 

The unhappy Challoner regarded her with consternation. He was thespirit of fine courtesy, and would have blushed to fail in hisdevoirs to any lady; but, in the other scale, he was a man aversefrom amorous adventures. He looked east and west; but the housesthat looked down upon this interview remained inexorably shut; andhe saw himself, though in the full glare of the day's eye, cut offfrom any human intervention. His looks returned at last upon thesuppliant. He remarked with irritation that she was charming bothin face and figure, elegantly dressed and gloved; a ladyundeniable; the picture of distress and innocence; weeping and lostin the city of diurnal sleep. 

'Madam, ' he said, 'I protest you have no cause to fear intrusion;and if I have appeared to follow you, the fault is in this street, which has deceived us both. ' An unmistakable relief appeared uponthe lady's face. 'I might have guessed it!' she exclaimed. 'Thankyou a thousand times! But at this hour, in this appalling silence, and among all these staring windows, I am lost in terrors--oh, lostin them!' she cried, her face blanching at the words. 'I beg youto lend me your arm, ' she added with the loveliest, suppliantinflection. 'I dare not go alone; my nerve is gone--I had a shock, oh, what a shock! I beg of you to be my escort. '

'My dear madam, ' responded Challoner heavily, 'my arm is at yourservice. '

'She took it and clung to it for a moment, struggling with hersobs; and the next, with feverish hurry, began to lead him in thedirection of the city. One thing was plain, among so much that wasobscure: it was plain her fears were genuine. Still, as she went, she spied around as if for dangers; and now she would shiver like aperson in a chill, and now clutch his arm in hers. To Challonerher terror was at once repugnant and infectious; it gained andmastered, while it still offended him; and he wailed in spirit andlonged for release. 

'Madam, ' he said at last, 'I am, of course, charmed to be of use toany lady; but I confess I was bound in a direction opposite to thatyou follow, and a word of explanation--'

'Hush!' she sobbed, 'not here--not here!'

The blood of Challoner ran cold. He might have thought the ladymad; but his memory was charged with more perilous stuff; and inview of the detonation, the smoke and the flight of the ill-assorted trio, his mind was lost among mysteries. So theycontinued to thread the maze of streets in silence, with the speedof a guilty flight, and both thrilling with incommunicable terrors. In time, however, and above all by their quick pace of walking, thepair began to rise to firmer spirits; the lady ceased to peer aboutthe corners; and Challoner, emboldened by the resonant tread anddistant figure of a constable, returned to the charge with more ofspirit and directness. 

'I thought, ' said he, in the tone of conversation, 'that I hadindistinctly perceived you leaving a villa in the company of twogentlemen. '

'Oh!' she said, 'you need not fear to wound me by the truth. Yousaw me flee from a common lodging-house, and my companions were notgentlemen. In such a case, the best of compliments is to befrank. '

'I thought, ' resumed Challoner, encouraged as much as he wassurprised by the spirit of her reply, 'to have perceived, besides, a certain odour. A noise, too--I do not know to what I shouldcompare it--'

'Silence!' she cried. 'You do not know the danger you invoke. Wait, only wait; and as soon as we have left those streets, and gotbeyond the reach of listeners, all shall be explained. Meanwhile, avoid the topic. What a sight is this sleeping city!' sheexclaimed; and then, with a most thrilling voice, '"Dear God, " shequoted, "the very houses seem asleep, and all that mighty heart islying still. "'

'I perceive, madam, ' said he, 'you are a reader. '

'I am more than that, ' she answered, with a sigh. 'I am a girlcondemned to thoughts beyond her age; and so untoward is my fate, that this walk upon the arm of a stranger is like an interlude ofpeace. '

They had come by this time to the neighbourhood of the VictoriaStation and here, at a street corner, the young lady paused, withdrew her arm from Challoner's, and looked up and down as thoughin pain or indecision. Then, with a lovely change of countenance, and laying her gloved hand upon his arm -

'What you already think of me, ' she said, 'I tremble to conceive;yet I must here condemn myself still further. Here I must leaveyou, and here I beseech you to wait for my return. Do not attemptto follow me or spy upon my actions. Suspend yet awhile yourjudgment of a girl as innocent as your own sister; and do not, above all, desert me. Stranger as you are, I have none else tolook to. You see me in sorrow and great fear; you are a gentleman, courteous and kind: and when I beg for a few minutes' patience, Imake sure beforehand you will not deny me. '

Challoner grudgingly promised; and the young lady, with a gratefuleye-shot, vanished round the corner. But the force of her appealhad been a little blunted; for the young man was not only destituteof sisters, but of any female relative nearer than a great-aunt inWales. Now he was alone, besides, the spell that he had hithertoobeyed began to weaken; he considered his behaviour with a sneer;and plucking up the spirit of revolt, he started in pursuit. Thereader, if he has ever plied the fascinating trade of thenoctambulist, will not be unaware that, in the neighbourhood of thegreat railway centres, certain early taverns inaugurate thebusiness of the day. It was into one of these that Challoner, coming round the corner of the block, beheld his charming companiondisappear. To say he was surprised were inexact, for he had longsince left that sentiment behind him. Acute disgust anddisappointment seized upon his soul; and with silent oaths, hedamned this commonplace enchantress. She had scarce been gone asecond, ere the swing-doors reopened, and she appeared again incompany with a young man of mean and slouching attire. For somefive or six exchanges they conversed together with an animated air;then the fellow shouldered again into the tap; and the young lady, with something swifter than a walk, retraced her steps towardsChalloner. He saw her coming, a miracle of grace; her ankle, asshe hurried, flashing from her dress; her movements eloquent ofspeed and youth; and though he still entertained some thoughts offlight, they grew miserably fainter as the distance lessened. Against mere beauty he was proof: it was her unmistakablegentility that now robbed him of the courage of his cowardice. With a proved adventuress he had acted strictly on his right; withone who, in spite of all, he could not quite deny to be a lady, hefound himself disarmed. At the very corner from whence he hadspied upon her interview, she came upon him, still transfixed, and--'Ah!' she cried, with a bright flush of colour. 'Ah!Ungenerous!'

The sharpness of the attack somewhat restored the Squire of Damesto the possession of himself. 

'Madam, ' he returned, with a fair show of stoutness, 'I do notthink that hitherto you can complain of any lack of generosity; Ihave suffered myself to be led over a considerable portion of themetropolis; and if I now request you to discharge me of my officeof protector, you have friends at hand who will be glad of thesuccession. '

She stood a moment dumb. 

'It is well, ' she said. 'Go! go, and may God help me! You haveseen me--me, an innocent girl! fleeing from a dire catastrophe andhaunted by sinister men; and neither pity, curiosity, nor honourmove you to await my explanation or to help in my distress. Go!'she repeated. 'I am lost indeed. ' And with a passionate gestureshe turned and fled along the street. 

Challoner observed her retreat and disappear, an almost intolerablesense of guilt contending with the profound sense that he was beinggulled. She was no sooner gone than the first of these feelingstook the upper hand; he felt, if he had done her less than justice, that his conduct was a perfect model of the ungracious; thecultured tone of her voice, her choice of language, and the elegantdecorum of her movements, cried out aloud against a harshconstruction; and between penitence and curiosity he began slowlyto follow in her wake. At the corner he had her once more full inview. Her speed was failing like a stricken bird's. Even as helooked, she threw her arm out gropingly, and fell and leanedagainst the wall. At the spectacle, Challoner's fortitude gaveway. In a few strides he overtook her and, for the first timeremoving his hat, assured her in the most moving terms of hisentire respect and firm desire to help her. He spoke at firstunheeded; but gradually it appeared that she began to comprehendhis words; she moved a little, and drew herself upright; andfinally, as with a sudden movement of forgiveness, turned on theyoung man a countenance in which reproach and gratitude weremingled. 'Ah, madam, ' he cried, 'use me as you will!' And oncemore, but now with a great air of deference, he offered her theconduct of his arm. She took it with a sigh that struck him to theheart; and they began once more to trace the deserted streets. Butnow her steps, as though exhausted by emotion, began to linger onthe way; she leaned the more heavily upon his arm; and he, like theparent bird, stooped fondly above his drooping convoy. Herphysical distress was not accompanied by any failing of herspirits; and hearing her strike so soon into a playful and charmingvein of talk, Challoner could not sufficiently admire theelasticity of his companion's nature. 'Let me forget, ' she hadsaid, 'for one half hour, let me forget;' and sure enough, with thevery word, her sorrows appeared to be forgotten. Before everyhouse she paused, invented a name for the proprietor, and sketchedhis character: here lived the old general whom she was to marry onthe fifth of the next month, there was the mansion of the richwidow who had set her heart on Challoner; and though she still hungwearily on the young man's arm, her laughter sounded low andpleasant in his ears. 'Ah, ' she sighed, by way of commentary, 'insuch a life as mine I must seize tight hold of any happiness that Ican find. '

When they arrived, in this leisurely manner, at the head ofGrosvenor Place, the gates of the park were opening and thebedraggled company of night-walkers were being at last admittedinto that paradise of lawns. Challoner and his companion followedthe movement, and walked for awhile in silence in thattatterdemalion crowd; but as one after another, weary with thenight's patrolling of the city pavement, sank upon the benches orwandered into separate paths, the vast extent of the park had soonutterly swallowed up the last of these intruders; and the pairproceeded on their way alone in the grateful quiet of the morning. 

Presently they came in sight of a bench, standing very open on amound of turf. The young lady looked about her with relief. 

'Here, ' she said, 'here at last we are secure from listeners. Here, then, you shall learn and judge my history. I could not bearthat we should part, and that you should still suppose yourkindness squandered upon one who was unworthy. '

Thereupon she sat down upon the bench, and motioning Challoner totake a place immediately beside her, began in the following words, and with the greatest appearance of enjoyment, to narrate the storyof her life. 

STORY OF THE DESTROYING ANGEL

My father was a native of England, son of a cadet of a great, ancient, but untitled family; and by some event, fault ormisfortune, he was driven to flee from the land of his birth and tolay aside the name of his ancestors. He sought the States; andinstead of lingering in effeminate cities, pushed at once into thefar West with an exploring party of frontiersmen. He was noordinary traveller; for he was not only brave and impetuous bycharacter, but learned in many sciences, and above all in botany, which he particularly loved. Thus it fell that, before manymonths, Fremont himself, the nominal leader of the troop, courtedand bowed to his opinion. 

They had pushed, as I have said, into the still unknown regions ofthe West. For some time they followed the track of Mormoncaravans, guiding themselves in that vast and melancholy desert bythe skeletons of men and animals. Then they inclined their route alittle to the north, and, losing even these dire memorials, cameinto a country of forbidding stillness. 

I have often heard my father dwell upon the features of that ride:rock, cliff, and barren moor alternated; the streams were very farbetween; and neither beast nor bird disturbed the solitude. On thefortieth day they had already run so short of food that it wasjudged advisable to call a halt and scatter upon all sides to hunt. A great fire was built, that its smoke might serve to rally them;and each man of the party mounted and struck off at a venture intothe surrounding desert. 

My father rode for many hours with a steep range of cliffs upon theone hand, very black and horrible; and upon the other an unwateredvale dotted with boulders like the site of some subverted city. Atlength he found the slot of a great animal, and from the claw-marksand the hair among the brush, judged that he was on the track of acinnamon bear of most unusual size. He quickened the pace of hissteed, and still following the quarry, came at last to the divisionof two watersheds. On the far side the country was exceedingintricate and difficult, heaped with boulders, and dotted here andthere with a few pines, which seemed to indicate the neighbourhoodof water. Here, then, he picketed his horse, and relying on histrusty rifle, advanced alone into that wilderness. 

Presently, in the great silence that reigned, he was aware of thesound of running water to his right; and leaning in that direction, was rewarded by a scene of natural wonder and human pathosstrangely intermixed. The stream ran at the bottom of a narrow andwinding passage, whose wall-like sides of rock were sometimes formiles together unscalable by man. The water, when the stream wasswelled with rains, must have filled it from side to side; thesun's rays only plumbed it in the hour of noon; the wind, in thatnarrow and damp funnel, blew tempestuously. And yet, in the bottomof this den, immediately below my father's eyes as he leaned overthe margin of the cliff, a party of some half a hundred men, women, and children lay scattered uneasily among the rocks. They lay someupon their backs, some prone, and not one stirring; their upturnedfaces seemed all of an extraordinary paleness and emaciation; andfrom time to time, above the washing of the stream, a faint soundof moaning mounted to my father's ears. 

While he thus looked, an old man got staggering to his feet, unwound his blanket, and laid it, with great gentleness, on a younggirl who sat hard by propped against a rock. The girl did not seemto be conscious of the act; and the old man, after having lookedupon her with the most engaging pity, returned to his former bedand lay down again uncovered on the turf. But the scene had notpassed without observation even in that starving camp. From thevery outskirts of the party, a man with a white beard and seeminglyof venerable years, rose upon his knees, and came crawlingstealthily among the sleepers towards the girl; and judge of myfather's indignation, when he beheld this cowardly miscreant stripfrom her both the coverings and return with them to his originalposition. Here he lay down for a while below his spoils, and, asmy father imagined, feigned to be asleep; but presently he hadraised himself again upon one elbow, looked with sharp scrutiny athis companions, and then swiftly carried his hand into his bosomand thence to his mouth. By the movement of his jaws he must beeating; in that camp of famine he had reserved a store ofnourishment; and while his companions lay in the stupor ofapproaching death, secretly restored his powers. 

My father was so incensed at what he saw that he raised his rifle;and but for an accident, he has often declared, he would have shotthe fellow dead upon the spot. How different would then have beenmy history! But it was not to be: even as he raised the barrel, his eye lighted on the bear, as it crawled along a ledge some waybelow him; and ceding to the hunters instinct, it was at the brute, not at the man, that he discharged his piece. The bear leaped andfell into a pool of the river; the canyon re-echoed the report; andin a moment the camp was afoot. With cries that were scarce human, stumbling, falling and throwing each other down, these starvingpeople rushed upon the quarry; and before my father, climbing downby the ledge, had time to reach the level of the stream, many werealready satisfying their hunger on the raw flesh, and a fire wasbeing built by the more dainty. 

His arrival was for some time unremarked. He stood in the midst ofthese tottering and clay-faced marionettes; he was surrounded bytheir cries; but their whole soul was fixed on the dead carcass;even those who were too weak to move, lay, half-turned over, withtheir eyes riveted upon the bear; and my father, seeing himselfstand as though invisible in the thick of this dreary hubbub, wasseized with a desire to weep. A touch upon the arm restrained him. Turning about, he found himself face to face with the old man hehad so nearly killed; and yet, at the second glance, recognised himfor no old man at all, but one in the full strength of his years, and of a strong, speaking, and intellectual countenance stigmatisedby weariness and famine. He beckoned my father near the cliff, andthere, in the most private whisper, begged for brandy. My fatherlooked at him with scorn: 'You remind me, ' he said, 'of aneglected duty. Here is my flask; it contains enough, I trust, torevive the women of your party; and I will begin with her whom Isaw you robbing of her blankets. ' And with that, not heeding hisappeals, my father turned his back upon the egoist. 

The girl still lay reclined against the rock; she lay too far sunkin the first stage of death to have observed the bustle round hercouch; but when my father had raised her head, put the flask to herlips, and forced or aided her to swallow some drops of therestorative, she opened her languid eyes and smiled upon himfaintly. Never was there a smile of a more touching sweetness;never were eyes more deeply violet, more honestly eloquent of thesoul! I speak with knowledge, for these were the same eyes thatsmiled upon me in the cradle. From her who was to be his wife, myfather, still jealously watched and followed by the man with thegrey beard, carried his attentions to all the women of the party, and gave the last drainings of his flask to those among the men whoseemed in the most need. 

'Is there none left? not a drop for me?' said the man with thebeard. 

'Not one drop, ' replied my father; 'and if you find yourself inwant, let me counsel you to put your hand into the pocket of yourcoat. '

'Ah!' cried the other, 'you misjudge me. You think me one whoclings to life for selfish and commonplace considerations. But letme tell you, that were all this caravan to perish, the world wouldbut be lightened of a weight. These are but human insects, pullulating, thick as May-flies, in the slums of European cities, whom I myself have plucked from degradation and misery, from thedung-heap and gin-palace door. And you compare their lives withmine!'

'You are then a Mormon missionary?' asked my father. 

'Oh!' cried the man, with a strange smile, 'a Mormon missionary ifyou will! I value not the title. Were I no more than that, Icould have died without a murmur. But with my life as a physicianis bound up the knowledge of great secrets and the future of man. This it was, when we missed the caravan, tried for a short cut andwandered to this desolate ravine, that ate into my soul, and, infive days, has changed my beard from ebony to silver. '

'And you are a physician, ' mused my father, looking on his face, 'bound by oath to succour man in his distresses. '

'Sir, ' returned the Mormon, 'my name is Grierson: you will hearthat name again; and you will then understand that my duty was notto this caravan of paupers, but to mankind at large. '

My father turned to the remainder of the party, who were nowsufficiently revived to hear; told them that he would set off atonce to bring help from his own party; 'and, ' he added, 'if you beagain reduced to such extremities, look round you, and you will seethe earth strewn with assistance. Here, for instance, growing onthe under side of fissures in this cliff, you will perceive ayellow moss. Trust me, it is both edible and excellent. '

'Ha!' said Doctor Grierson, 'you know botany!'

'Not I alone, ' returned my father, lowering his voice; 'for seewhere these have been scraped away. Am I right? Was that yoursecret store?'

My father's comrades, he found, when he returned to the signal-fire, had made a good day's hunting. They were thus the moreeasily persuaded to extend assistance to the Mormon caravan; andthe next day beheld both parties on the march for the frontiers ofUtah. The distance to be traversed was not great; but the natureof the country, and the difficulty of procuring food, extended thetime to nearly three weeks; and my father had thus ample leisure toknow and appreciate the girl whom he had succoured. I will call mymother Lucy. Her family name I am not at liberty to mention; it isone you would know well. By what series of undeserved calamitiesthis innocent flower of maidenhood, lovely, refined by education, ennobled by the finest taste, was thus cast among the horrors of aMormon caravan, I must not stay to tell you. Let it suffice, thateven in these untoward circumstances, she found a heart worthy ofher own. The ardour of attachment which united my father andmother was perhaps partly due to the strange manner of theirmeeting; it knew, at least, no bounds either divine or human; myfather, for her sake, determined to renounce his ambitions andabjure his faith; and a week had not yet passed upon the marchbefore he had resigned from his party, accepted the Mormondoctrine, and received the promise of my mother's hand on thearrival of the party at Salt Lake. 

The marriage took place, and I was its only offspring. My fatherprospered exceedingly in his affairs, remained faithful to mymother; and though you may wonder to hear it, I believe there werefew happier homes in any country than that in which I saw the lightand grew to girlhood. We were, indeed, and in spite of all ourwealth, avoided as heretics and half-believers by the more preciseand pious of the faithful: Young himself, that formidable tyrant, was known to look askance upon my father's riches; but of this Ihad no guess. I dwelt, indeed, under the Mormon system, withperfect innocence and faith. Some of our friends had many wives;but such was the custom; and why should it surprise me more thanmarriage itself? From time to time one of our rich acquaintanceswould disappear, his family be broken up, his wives and housesshared among the elders of the Church, and his memory only recalledwith bated breath and dreadful headshakings. When I had been verystill, and my presence perhaps was forgotten, some such topic wouldarise among my elders by the evening fire; I would see them drawthe closer together and look behind them with scared eyes; and Imight gather from their whisperings how some one, rich, honoured, healthy, and in the prime of his days, some one, perhaps, who hadtaken me on his knees a week before, had in one hour been spiritedfrom home and family, and vanished like an image from a mirror, leaving not a print behind. It was terrible, indeed; but so wasdeath, the universal law. And even if the talk should wax stillbolder, full of ominous silences and nods, and I should hear namedin a whisper the Destroying Angels, how was a child to understandthese mysteries? I heard of a Destroying Angel as some more happychild might hear in England of a bishop or a rural dean, with vaguerespect and without the wish for further information. Lifeanywhere, in society as in nature, rests upon dread foundations; Ibeheld safe roads, a garden blooming in the desert, pious peoplecrowding to worship; I was aware of my parents' tenderness and allthe harmless luxuries of my existence; and why should I pry beneaththis honest seeming surface for the mysteries on which it stood?

We dwelt originally in the city; but at an early date we moved to abeautiful house in a green dingle, musical with splashing water, and surrounded on almost every side by twenty miles of poisonousand rocky desert. The city was thirty miles away; there was butone road, which went no further than my father's door; the restwere bridle-tracks impassable in winter; and we thus dwelt in asolitude inconceivable to the European. Our only neighbour was Dr. Grierson. To my young eyes, after the hair-oiled, chin-beardedelders of the city, and the ill-favoured and mentally stunted womenof their harems, there was something agreeable in the correctmanner, the fine bearing, the thin white hair and beard, and thepiercing looks of the old doctor. Yet, though he was almost ouronly visitor, I never wholly overcame a sense of fear in hispresence; and this disquietude was rather fed by the awful solitudein which he lived and the obscurity that hung about hisoccupations. His house was but a mile or two from ours, but verydifferently placed. It stood overlooking the road on the summit ofa steep slope, and planted close against a range of overhangingbluffs. Nature, you would say, had here desired to imitate theworks of man; for the slope was even, like the glacis of a fort, and the cliffs of a constant height, like the ramparts of a city. Not even spring could change one feature of that desolate scene;and the windows looked down across a plain, snowy with alkali, toranges of cold stone sierras on the north. Twice or thrice Iremember passing within view of this forbidding residence; andseeing it always shuttered, smokeless, and deserted, I remarked tomy parents that some day it would certainly be robbed. 

'Ah, no, ' said my father, 'never robbed;' and I observed a strangeconviction in his tone. 

At last, and not long before the blow fell on my unhappy family, Ichanced to see the doctor's house in a new light. My father wasill; my mother confined to his bedside; and I was suffered to go, under the charge of our driver, to the lonely house some twentymiles away, where our packages were left for us. The horse cast ashoe; night overtook us halfway home; and it was well on for threein the morning when the driver and I, alone in a light waggon, cameto that part of the road which ran below the doctor's house. Themoon swam clear; the cliffs and mountains in this strong light layutterly deserted; but the house, from its station on the top of thelong slope and close under the bluff, not only shone abroad fromevery window like a place of festival, but from the great chimneyat the west end poured forth a coil of smoke so thick and sovoluminous, that it hung for miles along the windless night air, and its shadow lay far abroad in the moonlight upon the glitteringalkali. As we continued to draw near, besides, a regular andpanting throb began to divide the silence. First it seemed to melike the beating of a heart; and next it put into my mind thethought of some giant, smothered under mountains and still, withincalculable effort, fetching breath. I had heard of the railway, though I had not seen it, and I turned to ask the driver if thisresembled it. But some look in his eye, some pallor, whether offear or moonlight on his face, caused the words to die upon mylips. We continued, therefore, to advance in silence, till we wereclose below the lighted house; when suddenly, without onepremonitory rustle, there burst forth a report of such a bignessthat it shook the earth and set the echoes of the mountainsthundering from cliff to cliff. A pillar of amber flame leapedfrom the chimney-top and fell in multitudes of sparks; and at thesame time the lights in the windows turned for one instant ruby redand then expired. The driver had checked his horse instinctively, and the echoes were still rumbling farther off among the mountains, when there broke from the now darkened interior a series of yells--whether of man or woman it was impossible to guess--the door flewopen, and there ran forth into the moonlight, at the top of thelong slope, a figure clad in white, which began to dance and leapand throw itself down, and roll as if in agony, before the house. I could no more restrain my cries; the driver laid his lash aboutthe horse's flank, and we fled up the rough track at the peril ofour lives; and did not draw rein till, turning the corner of themountain, we beheld my father's ranch and deep, green groves andgardens, sleeping in the tranquil light. 

This was the one adventure of my life, until my father had climbedto the very topmost point of material prosperity, and I myself hadreached the age of seventeen. I was still innocent and merry likea child; tended my garden or ran upon the hills in glad simplicity;gave not a thought to coquetry or to material cares; and if my eyerested on my own image in a mirror or some sylvan spring, it was toseek and recognise the features of my parents. But the fears whichhad long pressed on others were now to be laid on my youth. I hadthrown myself, one sultry, cloudy afternoon, on a divan; thewindows stood open on the verandah, where my mother sat with herembroidery; and when my father joined her from the garden, theirconversation, clearly audible to me, was of so startling a naturethat it held me enthralled where I lay. 

'The blow has come, ' my father said, after a long pause. 

I could hear my mother start and turn, but in words she made noreply. 

'Yes, ' continued my father, 'I have received to-day a list of allthat I possess; of all, I say; of what I have lent privately to menwhose lips are sealed with terror; of what I have buried with myown hand on the bare mountain, when there was not a bird in heaven. Does the air, then, carry secrets? Are the hills of glass? Do thestones we tread upon preserve the footprint to betray us? Oh, Lucy, Lucy, that we should have come to such a country!'

'But this, ' returned my mother, 'is no very new or very threateningevent. You are accused of some concealment. You will pay moretaxes in the future, and be mulcted in a fine. It is disquieting, indeed, to find our acts so spied upon, and the most private known. But is this new? Have we not long feared and suspected every bladeof grass?'

'Ay, and our shadows!' cried my father. 'But all this is nothing. Here is the letter that accompanied the list. '

I heard my mother turn the pages, and she was some time silent. 

'I see, ' she said at last; and then, with the tone of one reading:'"From a believer so largely blessed by Providence with thisworld's goods, "' she continued, '"the Church awaits in confidencesome signal mark of piety. " There lies the sting. Am I not right?These are the words you fear?'

'These are the words, ' replied my father. 'Lucy, you rememberPriestley? Two days before he disappeared, he carried me to thesummit of an isolated butte; we could see around us for ten miles;sure, if in any quarter of this land a man were safe from spies, itwere in such a station; but it was in the very ague-fit of terrorthat he told me, and that I heard, his story. He had received aletter such as this; and he submitted to my approval an answer, inwhich he offered to resign a third of his possessions. I conjuredhim, as he valued life, to raise his offering; and, before weparted, he had doubled the amount. Well, two days later he wasgone--gone from the chief street of the city in the hour of noon--and gone for ever. O God!' cried my father, 'by what art do theythus spirit out of life the solid body? What death do they commandthat leaves no traces? that this material structure, these strongarms, this skeleton that can resist the grave for centuries, shouldbe thus reft in a moment from the world of sense? A horror dwellsin that thought more awful than mere death. '

'Is there no hope in Grierson?' asked my mother. 

'Dismiss the thought, ' replied my father. 'He now knows all that Ican teach, and will do naught to save me. His power, besides, issmall, his own danger not improbably more imminent than mine; forhe, too, lives apart; he leaves his wives neglected and unwatched;he is openly cited for an unbeliever; and unless he buys securityat a more awful price--but no; I will not believe it: I have nolove for him, but I will not believe it. '

'Believe what?' asked my mother; and then, with a change of note, 'But oh, what matters it?' she cried. 'Abimelech, there is but oneway open: we must fly!'

'It is in vain, ' returned my father. 'I should but involve you inmy fate. To leave this land is hopeless: we are closed in it asmen are closed in life; and there is no issue but the grave. '

'We can but die then, ' replied my mother. 'Let us at least dietogether. Let not Asenath {2} and myself survive you. Think towhat a fate we should be doomed!'

My father was unable to resist her tender violence; and though Icould see he nourished not one spark of hope, he consented todesert his whole estate, beyond some hundreds of dollars that hehad by him at the moment, and to flee that night, which promised tobe dark and cloudy. As soon as the servants were asleep, he was toload two mules with provisions; two others were to carry my motherand myself; and, striking through the mountains by an unfrequentedtrail, we were to make a fair stroke for liberty and life. As soonas they had thus decided, I showed myself at the window, and, owning that I had heard all, assured them that they could rely onmy prudence and devotion. I had no fear, indeed, but to showmyself unworthy of my birth; I held my life in my hand withoutalarm; and when my father, weeping upon my neck, had blessed Heavenfor the courage of his child, it was with a sentiment of pride andsome of the joy that warriors take in war, that I began to lookforward to the perils of our flight. 

Before midnight, under an obscure and starless heaven, we had leftfar behind us the plantations of the valley, and were mounting acertain canyon in the hills, narrow, encumbered with great rocks, and echoing with the roar of a tumultuous torrent. Cascade aftercascade thundered and hung up its flag of whiteness in the night, or fanned our faces with the wet wind of its descent. The trailwas breakneck, and led to famine-guarded deserts; it had been longsince deserted for more practicable routes; and it was now a partof the world untrod from year to year by human footing. Judge ofour dismay, when turning suddenly an angle of the cliffs, we founda bright bonfire blazing by itself under an impending rock; and onthe face of the rock, drawn very rudely with charred wood, thegreat Open Eye which is the emblem of the Mormon faith. We lookedupon each other in the firelight; my mother broke into a passion oftears; but not a word was said. The mules were turned about; andleaving that great eye to guard the lonely canyon, we retraced oursteps in silence. Day had not yet broken ere we were once more athome, condemned beyond reprieve. 

What answer my father sent I was not told; but two days later, alittle before sundown, I saw a plain, honest-looking man rideslowly up the road in a great pother of dust. He was clad inhomespun, with a broad straw hat; wore a patriarchal beard; and hadan air of a simple rustic farmer, that was, in my eyes, veryreassuring. He was, indeed, a very honest man and pious Mormon;with no liking for his errand, though neither he nor any one inUtah dared to disobey; and it was with every mark of diffidencethat he had had himself announced as Mr. Aspinwall, and entered theroom where our unhappy family was gathered. My mother and me, heawkwardly enough dismissed; and as soon as he was alone with myfather laid before him a blank signature of President Young's, andoffered him a choice of services: either to set out as amissionary to the tribes about the White Sea, or to join the nextday, with a party of Destroying Angels, in the massacre of sixtyGerman immigrants. The last, of course, my father could notentertain, and the first he regarded as a pretext: even if hecould consent to leave his wife defenceless, and to collect freshvictims for the tyranny under which he was himself oppressed, hefelt sure he would never be suffered to return. He refused both;and Aspinwall, he said, betrayed sincere emotion, part religious, at the spectacle of such disobedience, but part human, in pity formy father and his family. He besought him to reconsider hisdecision; and at length, finding he could not prevail, gave himtill the moon rose to settle his affairs, and say farewell to wifeand daughter. 'For, ' said he, 'then, at the latest, you must ridewith me. '

I dare not dwell upon the hours that followed: they fled all toofast; and presently the moon out-topped the eastern range, and myfather and Mr. Aspinwall set forth, side by side, on theirnocturnal journey. My mother, though still bearing an heroiccountenance, had hastened to shut herself in her apartment, thenceforward solitary; and I, alone in the dark house, andconsumed by grief and apprehension, made haste to saddle my Indianpony, to ride up to the corner of the mountain, and to enjoy onefarewell sight of my departing father. The two men had set forthat a deliberate pace; nor was I long behind them, when I reachedthe point of view. I was the more amazed to see no moving creaturein the landscape. The moon, as the saying is, shone bright as day;and nowhere, under the whole arch of night, was there a growingtree, a bush, a farm, a patch of tillage, or any evidence of man, but one. From the corner where I stood, a rugged bastion of theline of bluffs concealed the doctor's house; and across the top ofthat projection the soft night wind carried and unwound about thehills a coil of sable smoke. What fuel could produce a vapour sosluggish to dissipate in that dry air, or what furnace pour itforth so copiously, I was unable to conceive; but I knew wellenough that it came from the doctor's chimney; I saw well enoughthat my father had already disappeared; and in despite of reason, Iconnected in my mind the loss of that dear protector with theribbon of foul smoke that trailed along the mountains. 

Days passed, and still my mother and I waited in vain for news; aweek went by, a second followed, but we heard no word of the fatherand husband. As smoke dissipates, as the image glides from themirror, so in the ten or twenty minutes that I had spent in gettingmy horse and following upon his trail, had that strong and braveman vanished out of life. Hope, if any hope we had, fled withevery hour; the worst was now certain for my father, the worst wasto be dreaded for his defenceless family. Without weakness, with adesperate calm at which I marvel when I look back upon it, thewidow and the orphan awaited the event. On the last day of thethird week we rose in the morning to find ourselves alone in thehouse, alone, so far as we searched, on the estate; all ourattendants, with one accord, had fled: and as we knew them to begratefully devoted, we drew the darkest intimations from theirflight. The day passed, indeed, without event; but in the fall ofthe evening we were called at last into the verandah by theapproaching clink of horse's hoofs. 

The doctor, mounted on an Indian pony, rode into the garden, dismounted, and saluted us. He seemed much more bent, and his hairmore silvery than ever; but his demeanour was composed, serious, and not unkind. 

'Madam, ' said he, 'I am come upon a weighty errand; and I wouldhave you recognise it as an effect of kindness in the President, that he should send as his ambassador your only neighbour and yourhusband's oldest friend in Utah. '

'Sir, ' said my mother, 'I have but one concern, one thought. Youknow well what it is. Speak: my husband?'

'Madam, ' returned the doctor, taking a chair on the verandah, 'ifyou were a silly child, my position would now be painfullyembarrassing. You are, on the other hand, a woman of greatintelligence and fortitude: you have, by my forethought, beenallowed three weeks to draw your own conclusions and to accept theinevitable. Farther words from me are, I conceive, superfluous. '

My mother was as pale as death, and trembled like a reed; I gaveher my hand, and she kept it in the folds of her dress and wrung ittill I could have cried aloud. 'Then, sir, ' said she at last, 'youspeak to deaf ears. If this be indeed so, what have I to do witherrands? What do I ask of Heaven but to die?'

'Come, ' said the doctor, 'command yourself. I bid you dismiss allthoughts of your late husband, and bring a clear mind to bear uponyour own future and the fate of that young girl. '

'You bid me dismiss--' began my mother. 'Then you know!' shecried. 

'I know, ' replied the doctor. 

'You know?' broke out the poor woman. 'Then it was you who did thedeed! I tear off the mask, and with dread and loathing see you asyou are--you, whom the poor fugitive beholds in nightmares, andawakes raving--you, the Destroying Angel!'

'Well, madam, and what then?' returned the doctor. 'Have not myfate and yours been similar? Are we not both immured in thisstrong prison of Utah? Have you not tried to flee, and did not theOpen Eye confront you in the canyon? Who can escape the watch ofthat unsleeping eye of Utah? Not I, at least. Horrible taskshave, indeed, been laid upon me; and the most ungrateful was thelast; but had I refused my offices, would that have spared yourhusband? You know well it would not. I, too, had perished alongwith him; nor would I have been able to alleviate his last moments, nor could I to-day have stood between his family and the hand ofBrigham Young. '

'Ah!' cried I, 'and could you purchase life by such concessions?'

'Young lady, ' answered the doctor, 'I both could and did; and youwill live to thank me for that baseness. You have a spirit, Asenath, that it pleases me to recognise. But we waste time. Mr. Fonblanque's estate reverts, as you doubtless imagine, to theChurch; but some part of it has been reserved for him who is tomarry the family; and that person, I should perhaps tell youwithout more delay, is no other than myself. '

At this odious proposal my mother and I cried out aloud, and clungtogether like lost souls. 

'It is as I supposed, ' resumed the doctor, with the same measuredutterance. 'You recoil from this arrangement. Do you expect me toconvince you? You know very well that I have never held the Mormonview of women. Absorbed in the most arduous studies, I have leftthe slatterns whom they call my wives to scratch and quarrel amongthemselves; of me, they have had nothing but my purse; such was notthe union I desired, even if I had the leisure to pursue it. No:you need not, madam, and my old friend'--and here the doctor roseand bowed with something of gallantry--'you need not apprehend myimportunities. On the contrary, I am rejoiced to read in you aRoman spirit; and if I am obliged to bid you follow me at once, andthat in the name, not of my wish, but of my orders, I hope it willbe found that we are of a common mind. '

So, bidding us dress for the road, he took a lamp (for the nighthad now fallen) and set off to the stable to prepare our horses. 

'What does it mean?--what will become of us?' I cried. 

'Not that, at least, ' replied my mother, shuddering. 'So far wecan trust him. I seem to read among his words a certain tragicpromise. Asenath, if I leave you, if I die, you will not forgetyour miserable parents?'

Thereupon we fell to cross-purposes: I beseeching her to explainher words; she putting me by, and continuing to recommend thedoctor for a friend. 'The doctor!' I cried at last; 'the man whokilled my father?'

'Nay, ' said she, 'let us be just. I do believe before, Heaven, heplayed the friendliest part. And he alone, Asenath, can protectyou in this land of death. '

At this the doctor returned, leading our two horses; and when wewere all in the saddle, he bade me ride on before, as he had matterto discuss with Mrs. Fonblanque. They came at a foot's pace, eagerly conversing in a whisper; and presently after the moon roseand showed them looking eagerly in each other's faces as they went, my mother laying her hand upon the doctor's arm, and the doctorhimself, against his usual custom, making vigorous gestures ofprotest or asseveration. 

At the foot of the track which ascended the talus of the mountainto his door, the doctor overtook me at a trot. 

'Here, ' he said, 'we shall dismount; and as your mother prefers tobe alone, you and I shall walk together to my house. '

'Shall I see her again?' I asked. 

'I give you my word, ' he said, and helped me to alight. 'We leavethe horses here, ' he added. 'There are no thieves in this stonewilderness. '

The track mounted gradually, keeping the house in view. Thewindows were once more bright; the chimney once more vomited smoke;but the most absolute silence reigned, and, but for the figure ofmy mother very slowly following in our wake, I felt convinced therewas no human soul within a range of miles. At the thought, Ilooked upon the doctor, gravely walking by my side, with his bowedshoulders and white hair, and then once more at his house, lit upand pouring smoke like some industrious factory. And then mycuriosity broke forth. 'In Heaven's name, ' I cried, 'what do youmake in this inhuman desert?'

He looked at me with a peculiar smile, and answered with an evasion-

'This is not the first time, ' said he, 'that you have seen myfurnaces alight. One morning, in the small hours, I saw youdriving past; a delicate experiment miscarried; and I cannot acquitmyself of having startled either your driver or the horse that drewyou. '

'What!' cried I, beholding again in fancy the antics of the figure, 'could that be you?'

'It was I, ' he replied; 'but do not fancy that I was mad. I was inagony. I had been scalded cruelly. '

We were now near the house, which, unlike the ordinary houses ofthe country, was built of hewn stone and very solid. Stone, too, was its foundation, stone its background. Not a blade of grasssprouted among the broken mineral about the walls, not a floweradorned the windows. Over the door, by way of sole adornment, theMormon Eye was rudely sculptured; I had been brought up to viewthat emblem from my childhood; but since the night of our escape, it had acquired a new significance, and set me shrinking. Thesmoke rolled voluminously from the chimney top, its edges ruddywith the fire; and from the far corner of the building, near theground, angry puffs of steam shone snow-white in the moon andvanished. 

The doctor opened the door and paused upon the threshold. 'You askme what I make here, ' he observed. 'Two things: Life and Death. 'And he motioned me to enter. 

'I shall await my mother, ' said I. 

'Child, ' he replied, 'look at me: am I not old and broken? Of ustwo, which is the stronger, the young maiden or the withered man?'

I bowed, and passing by him, entered a vestibule or kitchen, lit bya good fire and a shaded reading-lamp. It was furnished only witha dresser, a rude table, and some wooden benches; and on one ofthese the doctor motioned me to take a seat; and passing by anotherdoor into the interior of the house, he left me to myself. Presently I heard the jar of iron from the far end of the building;and this was followed by the same throbbing noise that had startledme in the valley, but now so near at hand as to be menacing byloudness, and even to shake the house with every recurrence of thestroke. I had scarce time to master my alarm when the doctorreturned, and almost in the same moment my mother appeared upon thethreshold. But how am I to describe to you the peace andravishment of that face? Years seemed to have passed over her headduring that brief ride, and left her younger and fairer; her eyesshone, her smile went to my heart; she seemed no more a woman butthe angel of ecstatic tenderness. I ran to her in a kind ofterror; but she shrank a little back and laid her finger on herlips, with something arch and yet unearthly. To the doctor, on thecontrary, she reached out her hand as to a friend and helper; andso strange was the scene that I forgot to be offended. 

'Lucy, ' said the doctor, 'all is prepared. Will you go alone, orshall your daughter follow us?'

'Let Asenath come, ' she answered, 'dear Asenath! At this hour, when I am purified of fear and sorrow, and already survive myselfand my affections, it is for your sake, and not for mine, that Idesire her presence. Were she shut out, dear friend, it is to befeared she might misjudge your kindness. '

'Mother, ' I cried wildly, 'mother, what is this?'

But my mother, with her radiant smile, said only 'Hush!' as thoughI were a child again, and tossing in some fever-fit; and the doctorbade me be silent and trouble her no more. 'You have made achoice, ' he continued, addressing my mother, 'that has oftenstrangely tempted me. The two extremes: all, or else nothing;never, or this very hour upon the clock--these have been myincongruous desires. But to accept the middle term, to be contentwith a half-gift, to flicker awhile and to burn out--never for anhour, never since I was born, has satisfied the appetite of myambition. ' He looked upon my mother fixedly, much of admirationand some touch of envy in his eyes; then, with a profound sigh, heled the way into the inner room. 

It was very long. From end to end it was lit up by many lamps, which by the changeful colour of their light, and by the incessantsnapping sounds with which they burned, I have since divined to beelectric. At the extreme end an open door gave us a glimpse intowhat must have been a lean-to shed beside the chimney; and this, instrong contrast to the room, was painted with a red reverberationas from furnace-doors. The walls were lined with books and glazedcases, the tables crowded with the implements of chemical research;great glass accumulators glittered in the light; and through a holein the gable near the shed door, a heavy driving-belt entered theapartment and ran overhead upon steel pulleys, with clumsy activityand many ghostly and fluttering sounds. In one corner I perceiveda chair resting upon crystal feet, and curiously wreathed withwire. To this my mother advanced with a decisive swiftness. 

'Is this it?' she asked. 

The doctor bowed in silence. 

'Asenath, ' said my mother, 'in this sad end of my life I have foundone helper. Look upon him: it is Doctor Grierson. Be not, oh mydaughter, be not ungrateful to that friend!'

She sate upon the chair, and took in her hands the globes thatterminated the arms. 

'Am I right?' she asked, and looked upon the doctor with such aradiancy of face that I trembled for her reason. Once more thedoctor bowed, but this time leaning hard against the wall. He musthave touched a spring. The least shock agitated my mother whereshe sat; the least passing jar appeared to cross her features; andshe sank back in the chair like one resigned to weariness. I wasat her knees that moment; but her hands fell loosely in my grasp;her face, still beatified with the same touching smile, sankforward on her bosom: her spirit had for ever fled. 

I do not know how long may have elapsed before, raising for amoment my tearful face, I met the doctor's eyes. They rested uponmine with such a depth of scrutiny, pity, and interest, that evenfrom the freshness of my sorrow, I was startled into attention. 

'Enough, ' he said, 'to lamentation. Your mother went to death asto a bridal, dying where her husband died. It is time, Asenath, tothink of the survivors. Follow me to the next room. '

I followed him, like a person in a dream; he made me sit by thefire, he gave me wine to drink; and then, pacing the stone floor, he thus began to address me -

'You are now, my child, alone in the world, and under the immediatewatch of Brigham Young. It would be your lot, in ordinarycircumstances, to become the fiftieth bride of some ignoble elder, or by particular fortune, as fortune is counted in this land, tofind favour in the eyes of the President himself. Such a fate fora girl like you were worse than death; better to die as your motherdied than to sink daily deeper in the mire of this pit of woman'sdegradation. But is escape conceivable? Your father tried; andyou beheld yourself with what security his jailers acted, and how adumb drawing on a rock was counted a sufficient sentry over theavenues of freedom. Where your father failed, will you be wiser ormore fortunate? or are you, too, helpless in the toils?'

I had followed his words with changing emotion, but now I believedI understood. 

'I see, ' I cried; 'you judge me rightly. I must follow where myparents led; and oh! I am not only willing, I am eager!'

'No, ' replied the doctor, 'not death for you. The flawed vessel wemay break, but not the perfect. No, your mother cherished adifferent hope, and so do I. I see, ' he cried, 'the girl developto the completed woman, the plan reach fulfilment, the promise--ay, outdone! I could not bear to arrest so lively, so comely aprocess. It was your mother's thought, ' he added, with a change oftone, 'that I should marry you myself. ' I fear I must have shown aperfect horror of aversion from this fate, for he made haste toquiet me. 'Reassure yourself, Asenath, ' he resumed. 'Old as I am, I have not forgotten the tumultuous fancies of youth. I havepassed my days, indeed, in laboratories; but in all my vigils Ihave not forgotten the tune of a young pulse. Age asks withtimidity to be spared intolerable pain; youth, taking fortune bythe beard, demands joy like a right. These things I have notforgotten; none, rather, has more keenly felt, none more jealouslyconsidered them; I have but postponed them to their day. See, then: you stand without support; the only friend left to you, thisold investigator, old in cunning, young in sympathy. Answer me butone question: Are you free from the entanglement of what the worldcalls love? Do you still command your heart and purposes? or areyou fallen in some bond-slavery of the eye and ear?'

I answered him in broken words; my heart, I think I must have toldhim, lay with my dead parents. 

'It is enough, ' he said. 'It has been my fate to be called onoften, too often, for those services of which we spoke to-night;none in Utah could carry them so well to a conclusion; hence therehas fallen into my hands a certain share of influence which I nowlay at your service, partly for the sake of my dead friends, yourparents; partly for the interest I bear you in your own right. Ishall send you to England, to the great city of London, there toawait the bridegroom I have selected. He shall be a son of mine, ayoung man suitable in age and not grossly deficient in that qualityof beauty that your years demand. Since your heart is free, youmay well pledge me the sole promise that I ask in return for muchexpense and still more danger: to await the arrival of thatbridegroom with the delicacy of a wife. '

I sat awhile stunned. The doctor's marriages, I remembered to haveheard, had been unfruitful; and this added perplexity to mydistress. But I was alone, as he had said, alone in that darkland; the thought of escape, of any equal marriage, was alreadyenough to revive in me some dawn of hope; and in what words I knownot, I accepted the proposal. 

He seemed more moved by my consent than I could reasonably havelooked for. 'You shall see, ' he cried; 'you shall judge foryourself. ' And hurrying to the next room he returned with a smallportrait somewhat coarsely done in oils. It showed a man in thedress of nearly forty years before, young indeed, but stillrecognisable to be the doctor. 'Do you like it?' he asked. 'Thatis myself when I was young. My--my boy will be like that, like butnobler; with such health as angels might condescend to envy; and aman of mind, Asenath, of commanding mind. That should be a man, Ithink; that should be one among ten thousand. A man like that--oneto combine the passions of youth with the restraint, the force, thedignity of age--one to fill all the parts and faculties, one to beman's epitome--say, will that not satisfy the needs of an ambitiousgirl? Say, is not that enough?' And as he held the picture closebefore my eyes, his hands shook. 

I told him briefly I would ask no better, for I was transpiercedwith this display of fatherly emotion; but even as I said thewords, the most insolent revolt surged through my arteries. I heldhim in horror, him, his portrait, and his son; and had there beenany choice but death or a Mormon marriage, I declare before HeavenI had embraced it. 

'It is well, ' he replied, 'and I had rightly counted on yourspirit. Eat, then, for you have far to go. ' So saying, he setmeat before me; and while I was endeavouring to obey, he left theroom and returned with an armful of coarse raiment. 'There, ' saidhe, 'is your disguise. I leave you to your toilet. '

The clothes had probably belonged to a somewhat lubberly boy offifteen; and they hung about me like a sack, and cruelly hamperedmy movements. But what filled me with uncontrollable shudderings, was the problem of their origin and the fate of the lad to whomthey had belonged. I had scarcely effected the exchange when thedoctor returned, opened a back window, helped me out into thenarrow space between the house and the overhanging bluffs, andshowed me a ladder of iron footholds mortised in the rock. 'Mount, ' he said, 'swiftly. When you are at the summit, walk, sofar as you are able, in the shadow of the smoke. The smoke willbring you, sooner or later, to a canyon; follow that down, and youwill find a man with two horses. Him you will implicitly obey. And remember, silence! That machinery, which I now put in motionfor your service, may by one word be turned against you. Go;Heaven prosper you!'

The ascent was easy. Arrived at the top of the cliff, I saw beforeme on the other side a vast and gradual declivity of stone, lyingbare to the moon and the surrounding mountains. Nowhere was anyvantage or concealment; and knowing how these deserts were besetwith spies, I made haste to veil my movements under the blowingtrail of smoke. Sometimes it swam high, rising on the night wind, and I had no more substantial curtain than its moon-thrown shadow;sometimes again it crawled upon the earth, and I would walk in it, no higher than to my shoulders, like some mountain fog. But, oneway or another, the smoke of that ill-omened furnace protected thefirst steps of my escape, and led me unobserved to the canyon. 

There, sure enough, I found a taciturn and sombre man beside a pairof saddle-horses; and thenceforward, all night long, we wandered insilence by the most occult and dangerous paths among the mountains. A little before the dayspring we took refuge in a wet and gustycavern at the bottom of a gorge; lay there all day concealed; andthe next night, before the glow had faded out of the west, resumedour wanderings. About noon we stopped again, in a lawn upon alittle river, where was a screen of bushes; and here my guide, handing me a bundle from his pack, bade me change my dress oncemore. The bundle contained clothing of my own, taken from ourhouse, with such necessaries as a comb and soap. I made my toiletby the mirror of a quiet pool; and as I was so doing, and smilingwith some complacency to see myself restored to my own image, themountains rang with a scream of far more than human piercingness;and while I still stood astonished, there sprang up and swiftlyincreased a storm of the most awful and earth-rending sounds. Shall I own to you, that I fell upon my face and shrieked? And yetthis was but the overland train winding among the near mountains:the very means of my salvation: the strong wings that were tocarry me from Utah!

When I was dressed, the guide gave me a bag, which contained, hesaid, both money and papers; and telling me that I was already overthe borders in the territory of Wyoming, bade me follow the streamuntil I reached the railway station, half a mile below. 'Here, ' headded, 'is your ticket as far as Council Bluffs. The East expresswill pass in a few hours. ' With that, he took both horses, and, without further words or any salutation, rode off by the way thatwe had come. 

Three hours afterwards, I was seated on the end platform of thetrain as it swept eastward through the gorges and thundered intunnels of the mountain. The change of scene, the sense of escape, the still throbbing terror of pursuit--above all, the astoundingmagic of my new conveyance, kept me from any logical or melancholythought. I had gone to the doctor's house two nights beforeprepared to die, prepared for worse than death; what had passed, terrible although it was, looked almost bright compared to myanticipations; and it was not till I had slept a full night in theflying palace car, that I awoke to the sense of my irreparable lossand to some reasonable alarm about the future. In this mood, Iexamined the contents of the bag. It was well supplied with gold;it contained tickets and complete directions for my journey as faras Liverpool, and a long letter from the doctor, supplying me witha fictitious name and story, recommending the most guarded silence, and bidding me to await faithfully the coming of his son. All thenhad been arranged beforehand: he had counted upon my consent, andwhat was tenfold worse, upon my mother's voluntary death. Myhorror of my only friend, my aversion for this son who was to marryme, my revolt against the whole current and conditions of my life, were now complete. I was sitting stupefied by my distress andhelplessness, when, to my joy, a very pleasant lady offered me herconversation. I clutched at the relief; and I was soon gliblytelling her the story in the doctor's letter: how I was a MissGould, of Nevada City, going to England to an uncle, what money Ihad, what family, my age, and so forth, until I had exhausted myinstructions, and, as the lady still continued to ply me withquestions, began to embroider on my own account. This soon carriedone of my inexperience beyond her depth; and I had already remarkeda shadow on the lady's face, when a gentleman drew near and verycivilly addressed me. 

'Miss Gould, I believe?' said he; and then, excusing himself to thelady by the authority of my guardian, drew me to the fore platformof the Pullman car. 'Miss Gould, ' he said in my ear, 'is itpossible that you suppose yourself in safety? Let me completelyundeceive you. One more such indiscretion and you return to Utah. And, in the meanwhile, if this woman should again address you, youare to reply with these words: "Madam, I do not like you, and Iwill be obliged if you will suffer me to choose my ownassociates. "'

Alas, I had to do as I was bid; this lady, to whom I already feltmyself drawn with the strongest cords of sympathy, I dismissed withinsult; and thenceforward, through all that day, I sat in silence, gazing on the bare plains and swallowing my tears. Let thatsuffice: it was the pattern of my journey. Whether on the train, at the hotels, or on board the ocean steamer, I never exchanged afriendly word with any fellow-traveller but I was certain to beinterrupted. In every place, on every side, the most unlikelypersons, man or woman, rich or poor, became protectors to forwardme upon my journey, or spies to observe and regulate my conduct. Thus I crossed the States, thus passed the ocean, the Mormon Eyestill following my movements; and when at length a cab had set medown before that London lodging-house from which you saw me fleethis morning, I had already ceased to struggle and ceased to hope. 

The landlady, like every one else through all that journey, wasexpecting my arrival. A fire was lighted in my room, which lookedupon the garden; there were books on the table, clothes in thedrawers; and there (I had almost said with contentment, andcertainly with resignation) I saw month follow month over my head. At times my landlady took me for a walk or an excursion, but shewould never suffer me to leave the house alone; and I, seeing thatshe also lived under the shadow of that widespread Mormon terror, felt too much pity to resist. To the child born on Mormon soil, asto the man who accepts the engagements of a secret order, no escapeis possible; so I had clearly read, and I was thankful even forthis respite. Meanwhile, I tried honestly to prepare my mind formy approaching nuptials. The day drew near when my bridegroom wasto visit me, and gratitude and fear alike obliged me to consent. Ason of Doctor Grierson's, be he what he pleased, must still beyoung, and it was even probable he should be handsome; on more thanthat, I felt I dared not reckon; and in moulding my mind towardsconsent I dwelt the more carefully on these physical attractionswhich I felt I might expect, and averted my eyes from moral orintellectual considerations. We have a great power upon ourspirits; and as time passed I worked myself into a frame ofacquiescence, nay, and I began to grow impatient for the hour. Atnight sleep forsook me; I sat all day by the fire, absorbed indreams, conjuring up the features of my husband, and anticipatingin fancy the touch of his hand and the sound of his voice. In thedead level and solitude of my existence, this was the one easternwindow and the one door of hope. At last, I had so cultivated andprepared my will, that I began to be besieged with fears upon theother side. How if it was I that did not please? How if thisunseen lover should turn from me with disaffection? And now Ispent hours before the glass, studying and judging my attractions, and was never weary of changing my dress or ordering my hair. 

When the day came I was long about my toilet; but at last, with asort of hopeful desperation, I had to own that I could do no more, and must now stand or fall by nature. My occupation ended, I fella prey to the most sickening impatience, mingled with alarms;giving ear to the swelling rumour of the streets, and at eachchange of sound or silence, starting, shrinking, and colouring tothe brow. Love is not to be prepared, I know, without someknowledge of the object; and yet, when the cab at last rattled tothe door and I heard my visitor mount the stairs, such was thetumult of hopes in my poor bosom that love itself might have beenproud to own their parentage. The door opened, and it was DoctorGrierson that appeared. I believe I must have screamed aloud, andI know, at least, that I fell fainting to the floor. 

When I came to myself he was standing over me, counting my pulse. 'I have startled you, ' he said. 'A difficulty unforeseen--theimpossibility of obtaining a certain drug in its full purity--hasforced me to resort to London unprepared. I regret that I shouldhave shown myself once more without those poor attractions whichare much, perhaps, to you, but to me are no more considerable thanrain that falls into the sea. Youth is but a state, as passing asthat syncope from which you are but just awakened, and, if there betruth in science, as easy to recall; for I find, Asenath, that Imust now take you for my confidant. Since my first years, I havedevoted every hour and act of life to one ambitious task; and thetime of my success is at hand. In these new countries, where I wasso long content to stay, I collected indispensable ingredients; Ihave fortified myself on every side from the possibility of error;what was a dream now takes the substance of reality; and when Ioffered you a son of mine I did so in a figure. That son--thathusband, Asenath, is myself--not as you now behold me, but restoredto the first energy of youth. You think me mad? It is thecustomary attitude of ignorance. I will not argue; I will leavefacts to speak. When you behold me purified, invigorated, renewed, restamped in the original image--when you recognise in me (what Ishall be) the first perfect expression of the powers of mankind--Ishall be able to laugh with a better grace at your passing andnatural incredulity. To what can you aspire--fame, riches, power, the charm of youth, the dear-bought wisdom of age--that I shall notbe able to afford you in perfection? Do not deceive yourself. Ialready excel you in every human gift but one: when that gift alsohas been restored to me you will recognise your master. '

Hereupon, consulting his watch, he told me he must now leave me tomyself; and bidding me consult reason, and not girlish fancies, hewithdrew. I had not the courage to move; the night fell and foundme still where he had laid me during my faint, my face buried in myhands, my soul drowned in the darkest apprehensions. Late in theevening he returned, carrying a candle, and, with a certainirritable tremor, bade me rise and sup. 'Is it possible, ' headded, 'that I have been deceived in your courage? A cowardly girlis no fit mate for me. '

I flung myself before him on my knees, and with floods of tearsbesought him to release me from this engagement, assuring him thatmy cowardice was abject, and that in every point of intellect andcharacter I was his hopeless and derisible inferior. 

'Why, certainly, ' he replied. 'I know you better than yourself;and I am well enough acquainted with human nature to understandthis scene. It is addressed to me, ' he added with a smile, 'in mycharacter of the still untransformed. But do not alarm yourselfabout the future. Let me but attain my end, and not you only, Asenath, but every woman on the face of the earth becomes mywilling slave. '

Thereupon he obliged me to rise and eat; sat down with me to table;helped and entertained me with the attentions of a fashionablehost; and it was not till a late hour, that, bidding me courteouslygood-night, he once more left me alone to my misery. 

In all this talk of an elixir and the restoration of his youth, Iscarce knew from which hypothesis I should the more eagerly recoil. If his hopes reposed on any base of fact, if indeed, by someabhorrent miracle, he should discard his age, death were my onlyrefuge from that most unnatural, that most ungodly union. If, onthe other hand, these dreams were merely lunatic, the madness of alife waxed suddenly acute, my pity would become a load almost asheavy to bear as my revolt against the marriage. So passed thenight, in alternations of rebellion and despair, of hate and pity;and with the next morning I was only to comprehend more fully myenslaved position. For though he appeared with a very tranquilcountenance, he had no sooner observed the marks of grief upon mybrow than an answering darkness gathered on his own. 'Asenath. ' hesaid, 'you owe me much already; with one finger I still hold yoususpended over death; my life is full of labour and anxiety; and Ichoose, ' said he, with a remarkable accent of command, 'that youshall greet me with a pleasant face. ' He never needed to repeatthe recommendation; from that day forward I was always ready toreceive him with apparent cheerfulness; and he rewarded me with agood deal of his company, and almost more than I could bear of hisconfidence. He had set up a laboratory in the back part of thehouse, where he toiled day and night at his elixir, and he wouldcome thence to visit me in my parlour: now with passing humours ofdiscouragement; now, and far more often, radiant with hope. It wasimpossible to see so much of him, and not to recognise that thesands of his life were running low; and yet all the time he wouldbe laying out vast fields of future, and planning, with all theconfidence of youth, the most unbounded schemes of pleasure andambition. How I replied I know not; but I found a voice and wordsto answer, even while I wept and raged to hear him. 

A week ago the doctor entered my room with the marks of greatexhilaration contending with pitiful bodily weakness. 'Asenath, 'said he, 'I have now obtained the last ingredient. In one weekfrom now the perilous moment of the last projection will draw nigh. You have once before assisted, although unconsciously, at thefailure of a similar experiment. It was the elixir which soterribly exploded one night when you were passing my house; and itis idle to deny that the conduct of so delicate a process, amongthe million jars and trepidations of so great a city, presents acertain element of danger. From this point of view, I cannot butregret the perfect stillness of my house among the deserts; but, onthe other hand, I have succeeded in proving that the singularlyunstable equilibrium of the elixir, at the moment of projection, isdue rather to the impurity than to the nature of the ingredients;and as all are now of an equal and exquisite nicety, I have littlefear for the result. In a week then from to-day, my dear Asenath, this period of trial will be ended. ' And he smiled upon me in amanner unusually paternal. 

I smiled back with my lips, but at my heart there raged theblackest and most unbridled terror. What if he failed? And oh, tenfold worse! what if he succeeded? What detested and unnaturalchangeling would appear before me to claim my hand? And couldthere, I asked myself with a dreadful sinking, be any truth in hisboasts of an assured victory over my reluctance? I knew him, indeed, to be masterful, to lead my life at a sign. Suppose, then, this experiment to succeed; suppose him to return to me, hideouslyrestored, like a vampire in a legend; and suppose that, by somedevilish fascination . . . My head turned; all former fearsdeserted me: and I felt I could embrace the worst in preference tothis. 

My mind was instantly made up. The doctor's presence in London wasjustified by the affairs of the Mormon polity. Often, in ourconversation, he would gloat over the details of that greatorganisation, which he feared even while yet he wielded it; andwould remind me, that even in the humming labyrinth of London, wewere still visible to that unsleeping eye in Utah. His visitors, indeed, who were of every sort, from the missionary to thedestroying angel, and seemed to belong to every rank of life, had, up to that moment, filled me with unmixed repulsion and alarm. Iknew that if my secret were to reach the ear of any leader my fatewere sealed beyond redemption; and yet in my present pass of horrorand despair, it was to these very men that I turned for help. Iwaylaid upon the stair one of the Mormon missionaries, a man of alow class, but not inaccessible to pity; told him I scarce rememberwhat elaborate fable to explain my application; and by hisintermediacy entered into correspondence with my father's family. They recognised my claim for help, and on this very day I was tobegin my escape. 

Last night I sat up fully dressed, awaiting the result of thedoctor's labours, and prepared against the worst. The nights atthis season and in this northern latitude are short; and I had soonthe company of the returning daylight. The silence in and aroundthe house was only broken by the movements of the doctor in thelaboratory; to these I listened, watch in hand, awaiting the hourof my escape, and yet consumed by anxiety about the strangeexperiment that was going forward overhead. Indeed, now that I wasconscious of some protection for myself, my sympathies had turnedmore directly to the doctor's side; I caught myself even prayingfor his success; and when some hours ago a low, peculiar cryreached my ears from the laboratory, I could no longer control myimpatience, but mounted the stairs and opened the door. 

The doctor was standing in the middle of the room; in his hand alarge, round-bellied, crystal flask, some three parts full of abright amber-coloured liquid; on his face a rapture of gratitudeand joy unspeakable. As he saw me he raised the flask at arm'slength. 'Victory!' he cried. 'Victory, Asenath!' And then--whether the flask escaped his trembling fingers, or whether theexplosion were spontaneous, I cannot tell--enough that we werethrown, I against the door-post, the doctor into the corner of theroom; enough that we were shaken to the soul by the same explosionthat must have startled you upon the street; and that, in the briefspace of an indistinguishable instant, there remained nothing ofthe labours of the doctor's lifetime but a few shards of brokencrystal and those voluminous and ill-smelling vapours that pursuedme in my flight. 

THE SQUIRE OF DAMES (Concluded)

What with the lady's animated manner and dramatic conduct of hervoice, Challoner had thrilled to every incident with genuineemotion. His fancy, which was not perhaps of a very livelycharacter, applauded both the matter and the style; but the morejudicial functions of his mind refused assent. It was an excellentstory; and it might be true, but he believed it was not. MissFonblanque was a lady, and it was doubtless possible for a lady towander from the truth; but how was a gentleman to tell her so? Hisspirits for some time had been sinking, but they now fell to zero;and long after her voice had died away he still sat with a troubledand averted countenance, and could find no form of words to thankher for her narrative. His mind, indeed, was empty of everythingbeyond a dull longing for escape. From this pause, which grew themore embarrassing with every second, he was roused by the suddenlaughter of the lady. His vanity was alarmed; he turned and facedher; their eyes met; and he caught from hers a spark of such frankmerriment as put him instantly at ease. 

'You certainly, ' he said, 'appear to bear your calamities withexcellent spirit. '

'Do I not?' she cried, and fell once more into delicious laughter. But from this access she more speedily recovered. 'This is allvery well, ' said she, nodding at him gravely, 'but I am still in amost distressing situation, from which, if you deny me your help, Ishall find it difficult indeed to free myself. '

At this mention of help Challoner fell back to his original gloom. 

'My sympathies are much engaged with you, ' he said, 'and I shouldbe delighted, I am sure. But our position is most unusual; andcircumstances over which I have, I can assure you, no control, deprive me of the power--the pleasure--Unless, indeed, ' he added, somewhat brightening at the thought, 'I were to recommend you tothe care of the police?'

She laid her hand upon his arm and looked hard into his eyes; andhe saw with wonder that, for the first time since the moment oftheir meeting, every trace of colour had faded from her cheek. 

'Do so, ' she said, 'and--weigh my words well--you kill me ascertainly as with a knife. '

'God bless me!' exclaimed Challoner. 

'Oh, ' she cried, 'I can see you disbelieve my story and make lightof the perils that surround me; but who are you to judge? Myfamily share my apprehensions; they help me in secret; and you sawyourself by what an emissary, and in what a place, they have chosento supply me with the funds for my escape. I admit that you arebrave and clever and have impressed me most favourably; but how areyou to prefer your opinion before that of my uncle, an ex-ministerof state, a man with the ear of the Queen, and of a long politicalexperience? If I am mad, is he? And you must allow me, besides, aspecial claim upon your help. Strange as you may think my story, you know that much of it is true; and if you who heard theexplosion and saw the Mormon at Victoria, refuse to credit andassist me, to whom am I to turn?'

'He gave you money then?' asked Challoner, who had been dwellingsingly on that fact. 

'I begin to interest you, ' she cried. 'But, frankly, you arecondemned to help me. If the service I had to ask of you wereserious, were suspicious, were even unusual, I should say no more. But what is it? To take a pleasure trip (for which, if you willsuffer me, I propose to pay) and to carry from one lady to anothera sum of money! What can be more simple?'

'Is the sum, ' asked Challoner, 'considerable?'

She produced a packet from her bosom; and observing that she hadnot yet found time to make the count, tore open the cover andspread upon her knees a considerable number of Bank of Englandnotes. It took some time to make the reckoning, for the notes wereof every degree of value; but at last, and counting a few loosesovereigns, she made out the sum to be a little under 710 poundssterling. The sight of so much money worked an immediaterevolution in the mind of Challoner. 

'And you propose, madam, ' he cried, 'to intrust that money to aperfect stranger?'

'Ah!' said she, with a charming smile, 'but I no longer regard youas a stranger. '

'Madam, ' said Challoner, 'I perceive I must make you a confession. Although of a very good family--through my mother, indeed, a linealdescendant of the patriot Bruce--I dare not conceal from you thatmy affairs are deeply, very deeply involved. I am in debt; mypockets are practically empty; and, in short, I am fallen to thatstate when a considerable sum of money would prove to many men anirresistible temptation. '

'Do you not see, ' returned the young lady, 'that by these words youhave removed my last hesitation? Take them. ' And she thrust thenotes into the young man's hand. 

He sat so long, holding them, like a baby at the font, that MissFonblanque once more bubbled into laughter. 

'Pray, ' she said, 'hesitate no further; put them in your pocket;and to relieve our position of any shadow of embarrassment, tell meby what name I am to address my knight-errant, for I find myselfreduced to the awkwardness of the pronoun. '

Had borrowing been in question, the wisdom of our ancestors hadcome lightly to the young man's aid; but upon what pretext could herefuse so generous a trust? Upon none he saw, that was notunpardonably wounding; and the bright eyes and the high spirits ofhis companion had already made a breach in the rampart ofChalloner's caution. The whole thing, he reasoned, might be a meremystification, which it were the height of solemn folly to resent. On the other hand, the explosion, the interview at the public-house, and the very money in his hands, seemed to prove beyonddenial the existence of some serious danger; and if that were so, could he desert her? There was a choice of risks: the risk ofbehaving with extraordinary incivility and unhandsomeness to alady, and the risk of going on a fool's errand. The story seemedfalse; but then the money was undeniable. The whole circumstanceswere questionable and obscure; but the lady was charming, and hadthe speech and manners of society. While he still hung in thewind, a recollection returned upon his mind with some of thedignity of prophecy. Had he not promised Somerset to break withthe traditions of the commonplace, and to accept the firstadventure offered? Well, here was the adventure. 

He thrust the money into his pocket. 

'My name is Challoner, ' said he. 

'Mr. Challoner, ' she replied, 'you have come very generously to myaid when all was against me. Though I am myself a very humbleperson, my family commands great interest; and I do not think youwill repent this handsome action. '

Challoner flushed with pleasure. 

'I imagine that, perhaps, a consulship, ' she added, her eyesdwelling on him with a judicial admiration, 'a consulship in somegreat town or capital--or else--But we waste time; let us set aboutthe work of my delivery. '

She took his arm with a frank confidence that went to his heart;and once more laying by all serious thoughts, she entertained him, as they crossed the park, with her agreeable gaiety of mind. Nearthe Marble Arch they found a hansom, which rapidly conveyed them tothe terminus at Euston Square; and here, in the hotel, they satdown to an excellent breakfast. The young lady's first step was tocall for writing materials and write, upon one corner of the table, a hasty note; still, as she did so, glancing with smiles at hercompanion. 'Here, ' said she, 'here is the letter which willintroduce you to my cousin. ' She began to fold the paper. 'Mycousin, although I have never seen her, has the character of a verycharming woman and a recognised beauty; of that I know nothing, butat least she has been very kind to me; so has my lord her father;so have you--kinder than all--kinder than I can bear to think of. 'She said this with unusual emotion; and, at the same time, sealedthe envelope. 'Ah!' she cried, 'I have shut my letter! It is notquite courteous; and yet, as between friends, it is perhaps betterso. I introduce you, after all, into a family secret; and thoughyou and I are already old comrades, you are still unknown to myuncle. You go then to this address, Richard Street, Glasgow; go, please, as soon as you arrive; and give this letter with your ownhands into those of Miss Fonblanque, for that is the name by whichshe is to pass. When we next meet, you will tell me what you thinkof her, ' she added, with a touch of the provocative. 

'Ah, ' said Challoner, almost tenderly, 'she can be nothing to me. '

'You do not know, ' replied the young lady, with a sigh. 'By-the-bye, I had forgotten--it is very childish, and I am almost ashamedto mention it--but when you see Miss Fonblanque, you will have tomake yourself a little ridiculous; and I am sure the part in no waysuits you. We had agreed upon a watchword. You will have toaddress an earl's daughter in these words: "NIGGER, NIGGER, NEVERDIE;" but reassure yourself, ' she added, laughing, 'for the fairpatrician will at once finish the quotation. Come now, say yourlesson. '

'"Nigger, nigger, never die, "' repeated Challoner, with undisguisedreluctance. 

Miss Fonblanque went into fits of laughter. 'Excellent, ' said she, 'it will be the most humorous scene. ' And she laughed again. 

'And what will be the counterword?' asked Challoner stiffly. 

'I will not tell you till the last moment, ' said she; 'for Iperceive you are growing too imperious. '

Breakfast over, she accompanied the young man to the platform, bought him the Graphic, the Athenaeum, and a paper-cutter, andstood on the step conversing till the whistle sounded. Then sheput her head into the carriage. 'BLACK FACE AND SHINING EYE!' shewhispered, and instantly leaped down upon the platform, with athrill of gay and musical laughter. As the train steamed out ofthe great arch of glass, the sound of that laughter still rang inthe young man's ears. 

Challoner's position was too unusual to be long welcome to hismind. He found himself projected the whole length of England, on amission beset with obscure and ridiculous circumstances, and yet, by the trust he had accepted, irrevocably bound to persevere. Howeasy it appeared, in the retrospect, to have refused the wholeproposal, returned the money, and gone forth again upon his ownaffairs, a free and happy man! And it was now impossible: theenchantress who had held him with her eye had now disappeared, taking his honour in pledge; and as she had failed to leave him anaddress, he was denied even the inglorious safety of retreat. Touse the paper-knife, or even to read the periodicals with which shehad presented him, was to renew the bitterness of his remorse; andas he was alone in the compartment, he passed the day staring atthe landscape in impotent repentance, and long before he was landedon the platform of St. Enoch's, had fallen to the lowest andcoldest zones of self-contempt. 

As he was hungry, and elegant in his habits, he would havepreferred to dine and to remove the stains of travel; but the wordsof the young lady, and his own impatient eagerness, would suffer nodelay. In the late, luminous, and lamp-starred dusk of the summerevening, he accordingly set forward with brisk steps. 

The street to which he was directed had first seen the day in thecharacter of a row of small suburban villas on a hillside; but theextension of the city had long since, and on every hand, surroundedit with miles of streets. From the top of the hill a range of verytall buildings, densely inhabited by the poorest classes of thepopulation and variegated by drying-poles from every second window, overplumbed the villas and their little gardens like a sea-boardcliff. But still, under the grime of years of city smoke, theseantiquated cottages, with their venetian blinds and ruralporticoes, retained a somewhat melancholy savour of the past. 

The street when Challoner entered it was perfectly deserted. Fromhard by, indeed, the sound of a thousand footfalls filled the ear;but in Richard Street itself there was neither light nor sound ofhuman habitation. The appearance of the neighbourhood weighedheavily on the mind of the young man; once more, as in the streetsof London, he was impressed with the sense of city deserts; and ashe approached the number indicated, and somewhat falteringly rangthe bell, his heart sank within him. 

The bell was ancient, like the house; it had a thin and garrulousnote; and it was some time before it ceased to sound from the rearquarters of the building. Following upon this an inner door wasstealthily opened, and careful and catlike steps drew near alongthe hall. Challoner, supposing he was to be instantly admitted, produced his letter, and, as well as he was able, prepared asmiling face. To his indescribable surprise, however, thefootsteps ceased, and then, after a pause and with the likestealthiness, withdrew once more, and died away in the interior ofthe house. A second time the young man rang violently at the bell;a second time, to his keen hearkening, a certain bustle of discreetfooting moved upon the hollow boards of the old villa; and againthe fainthearted garrison only drew near to retreat. The cup ofthe visitor's endurance was now full to overflowing; and, committing the whole family of Fonblanque to every mood and shadeof condemnation, he turned upon his heel and redescended the steps. Perhaps the mover in the house was watching from a window, andplucked up courage at the sight of this desistance; or perhaps, where he lurked trembling in the back parts of the villa, reason inits own right had conquered his alarms. Challoner, at least, hadscarce set foot upon the pavement when he was arrested by the soundof the withdrawal of an inner bolt; one followed another, rattlingin their sockets; the key turned harshly in the lock; the dooropened; and there appeared upon the threshold a man of a verystalwart figure in his shirt sleeves. He was a person neither ofgreat manly beauty nor of a refined exterior; he was not the man, in ordinary moods, to attract the eyes of the observer; but as henow stood in the doorway, he was marked so legibly with the extremepassion of terror that Challoner stood wonder-struck. For afraction of a minute they gazed upon each other in silence; andthen the man of the house, with ashen lips and gasping voice, inquired the business of his visitor. Challoner replied, in tonesfrom which he strove to banish his surprise, that he was the bearerof a letter to a certain Miss Fonblanque. At this name, as at atalisman, the man fell back and impatiently invited him to enter;and no sooner had the adventurer crossed the threshold, than thedoor was closed behind him and his retreat cut off. 

It was already long past eight at night; and though the latetwilight of the north still lingered in the streets, in the passageit was already groping dark. The man led Challoner directly to aparlour looking on the garden to the back. Here he had apparentlybeen supping; for by the light of a tallow dip the table was seento be covered with a napkin, and set out with a quart of bottledale and the heel of a Gouda cheese. The room, on the other hand, was furnished with faded solidity, and the walls were lined withscholarly and costly volumes in glazed cases. The house must havebeen taken furnished; for it had no congruity with this man of theshirt sleeves and the mean supper. As for the earl's daughter, theearl and the visionary consulships in foreign cities, they had longago begun to fade in Challoner's imagination. Like Doctor Griersonand the Mormon angels, they were plainly woven of the stuff ofdreams. Not an illusion remained to the knight-errant; not a hopewas left him, but to be speedily relieved from this disreputablebusiness. 

The man had continued to regard his visitor with undisguisedanxiety, and began once more to press him for his errand. 

'I am here, ' said Challoner, 'simply to do a service between twoladies; and I must ask you, without further delay, to summon MissFonblanque, into whose hands alone I am authorised to deliver theletter that I bear. '

A growing wonder began to mingle on the man's face with the linesof solicitude. 'I am Miss Fonblanque, ' he said; and then, perceiving the effect of this communication, 'Good God!' he cried, 'what are you staring at? I tell you, I am Miss Fonblanque. '

Seeing the speaker wore a chin-beard of considerable length, andthe remainder of his face was blue with shaving, Challoner couldonly suppose himself the subject of a jest. He was no longer underthe spell of the young lady's presence; and with men, and above allwith his inferiors, he was capable of some display of spirit. 

'Sir, ' said he, pretty roundly, 'I have put myself to greatinconvenience for persons of whom I know too little, and I begin tobe weary of the business. Either you shall immediately summon MissFonblanque, or I leave this house and put myself under thedirection of the police. '

'This is horrible!' exclaimed the man. 'I declare before Heaven Iam the person meant, but how shall I convince you? It must havebeen Clara, I perceive, that sent you on this errand--a madwoman, who jests with the most deadly interests; and here we areincapable, perhaps, of an agreement, and Heaven knows what maydepend on our delay!'

He spoke with a really startling earnestness; and at the same timethere flashed upon the mind of Challoner the ridiculous jinglewhich was to serve as password. 'This may, perhaps, assist you, 'he said, and then, with some embarrassment, '"Nigger, nigger, neverdie. "'

A light of relief broke upon the troubled countenance of the manwith the chin-beard. '"Black face and shining eye"--give me theletter, ' he panted, in one gasp. 

'Well, ' said Challoner, though still with some reluctance, 'Isuppose I must regard you as the proper recipient; and though I mayjustly complain of the spirit in which I have been treated, I amonly too glad to be done with all responsibility. Here it is, ' andhe produced the envelope. 

The man leaped upon it like a beast, and with hands that trembledin a manner painful to behold, tore it open and unfolded theletter. As he read, terror seemed to mount upon him to the pitchof nightmare. He struck one hand upon his brow, while with theother, as if unconsciously, he crumpled the paper to a ball. 'Mygracious powers!' he cried; and then, dashing to the window, whichstood open on the garden, he clapped forth his head and shoulders, and whistled long and shrill. Challoner fell back into a corner, and resolutely grasping his staff, prepared for the most desperateevents; but the thoughts of the man with the chin-beard were farremoved from violence. Turning again into the room, and once morebeholding his visitor, whom he appeared to have forgotten, hefairly danced with trepidation. 'Impossible!' he cried. 'Oh, quite impossible! O Lord, I have lost my head. ' And then, oncemore striking his hand upon his brow, 'The money!' he exclaimed. 'Give me the money. '

'My good friend, ' replied Challoner, 'this is a very painfulexhibition; and until I see you reasonably master of yourself, Idecline to proceed with any business. '

'You are quite right, ' said the man. 'I am of a very nervoushabit; a long course of the dumb ague has undermined myconstitution. But I know you have money; it may be still thesaving of me; and oh, dear young gentleman, in pity's name beexpeditious!' Challoner, sincerely uneasy as he was, could scarcerefrain from laughter; but he was himself in a hurry to be gone, and without more delay produced the money. 'You will find the sum, I trust, correct, ' he observed 'and let me ask you to give me areceipt. '

But the man heeded him not. He seized the money, and disregardingthe sovereigns that rolled loose upon the floor, thrust the bundleof notes into his pocket. 

'A receipt, ' repeated Challoner, with some asperity. 'I insist ona receipt. '

'Receipt?' repeated the man, a little wildly. 'A receipt?Immediately! Await me here. '

Challoner, in reply, begged the gentleman to lose no unnecessarytime, as he was himself desirous of catching a particular train. 

'Ah, by God, and so am I!' exclaimed the man with the chin-beard;and with that he was gone out of the room, and had rattledupstairs, four at a time, to the upper story of the villa. 

'This is certainly a most amazing business, ' thought Challoner;'certainly a most disquieting affair; and I cannot conceal frommyself that I have become mixed up with either lunatics ormalefactors. I may truly thank my stars that I am so nearly and socreditably done with it. ' Thus thinking, and perhaps rememberingthe episode of the whistle, he turned to the open window. Thegarden was still faintly clear; he could distinguish the stairs andterraces with which the small domain had been adorned by formerowners, and the blackened bushes and dead trees that had onceafforded shelter to the country birds; beyond these he saw thestrong retaining wall, some thirty feet in height, which enclosedthe garden to the back; and again above that, the pile of dingybuildings rearing its frontage high into the night. A peculiarobject lying stretched upon the lawn for some time baffled hiseyesight; but at length he had made it out to be a long ladder, orseries of ladders bound into one; and he was still wondering ofwhat service so great an instrument could be in such a scantenclosure, when he was recalled to himself by the noise of some onerunning violently down the stairs. This was followed by thesudden, clamorous banging of the house door; and that again, byrapid and retreating footsteps in the street. 

Challoner sprang into the passage. He ran from room to room, upstairs and downstairs; and in that old dingy and worm-eatenhouse, he found himself alone. Only in one apartment, looking tothe front, were there any traces of the late inhabitant: a bedthat had been recently slept in and not made, a chest of drawersdisordered by a hasty search, and on the floor a roll of crumpledpaper. This he picked up. The light in this upper story lookingto the front was considerably brighter than in the parlour; and hewas able to make out that the paper bore the mark of the hotel atEuston, and even, by peering closely, to decipher the followinglines in a very elegant and careful female hand:

'DEAR M'GUIRE, --It is certain your retreat is known. We have justhad another failure, clockwork thirty hours too soon, with theusual humiliating result. Zero is quite disheartened. We are allscattered, and I could find no one but the SOLEMN ASS who bringsyou this and the money. I would love to see your meeting. --Everyours, SHINING EYE. '

Challoner was stricken to the heart. He perceived by whatfacility, by what unmanly fear of ridicule, he had been broughtdown to be the gull of this intriguer; and his wrath flowed forthin almost equal measure against himself, against the woman, andagainst Somerset, whose idle counsels had impelled him to embark onthat adventure. At the same time a great and troubled curiosity, and a certain chill of fear, possessed his spirit. The conduct ofthe man with the chin-beard, the terms of the letter, and theexplosion of the early morning, fitted together like parts in someobscure and mischievous imbroglio. Evil was certainly afoot; evil, secrecy, terror, and falsehood were the conditions and the passionsof the people among whom he had begun to move, like a blind puppet;and he who began as a puppet, his experience told him, was oftendoomed to perish as a victim. 

From the stupor of deep thought into which he had glided with theletter in his hand, he was awakened by the clatter of the bell. Heglanced from the window; and, conceive his horror and surprise whenhe beheld, clustered on the steps, in the front garden and on thepavement of the street, a formidable posse of police! He startedto the full possession of his powers and courage. Escape, andescape at any cost, was the one idea that possessed him. Swiftlyand silently he redescended the creaking stairs; he was already inthe passage when a second and more imperious summons from the doorawoke the echoes of the empty house; nor had the bell ceased tojangle before he had bestridden the window-sill of the parlour andwas lowering himself into the garden. His coat was hooked upon theiron flower-basket; for a moment he hung dependent heels and headbelow; and then, with the noise of rending cloth, and followed byseveral pots, he dropped upon the sod. Once more the bell wasrung, and now with furious and repeated peals. The desperateChalloner turned his eyes on every side. They fell upon theladder, and he ran to it, and with strenuous but unavailing effortsought to raise it from the ground. Suddenly the weight, which wasthus resisting his whole strength, began to lighten in his hands;the ladder, like a thing of life, reared its bulk from off the sod;and Challoner, leaping back with a cry of almost superstitiousterror, beheld the whole structure mount, foot by foot, against theface of the retaining wall. At the same time, two heads were dimlyvisible above the parapet, and he was hailed by a guarded whistle. Something in its modulation recalled, like an echo, the whistle ofthe man with the chin-beard, Had he chanced upon a means of escape prepared beforehand by thosevery miscreants whose messenger and gull he had become? Was this, indeed, a means of safety, or but the starting-point of furthercomplication and disaster? He paused not to reflect. Scarce wasthe ladder reared to its full length than he had sprung already onthe rounds; hand over hand, swift as an ape, he scaled thetottering stairway. Strong arms received, embraced, and helpedhim; he was lifted and set once more upon the earth; and with thespasm of his alarm yet unsubsided, found himself in the company oftwo rough-looking men, in the paved back yard of one of the tallhouses that crowned the summit of the hill. Meanwhile, from below, the note of the bell had been succeeded by the sound of vigorousand redoubling blows. 

'Are you all out?' asked one of his companions; and, as soon as hehad babbled an answer in the affirmative, the rope was cut from thetop round, and the ladder thrust roughly back into the garden, where it fell and broke with clattering reverberations. Its fallwas hailed with many broken cries; for the whole of Richard Streetwas now in high emotion, the people crowding to the windows orclambering on the garden walls. The same man who had alreadyaddressed Challoner seized him by the arm; whisked him through thebasement of the house and across the street upon the other side;and before the unfortunate adventurer had time to realise hissituation, a door was opened, and he was thrust into a low and darkcompartment. 

'Bedad, ' observed his guide, 'there was no time to lose. IsM'Guire gone, or was it you that whistled?

'M'Guire is gone, ' said Challoner. 

The guide now struck a light. 'Ah, ' said he, 'this will never do. You dare not go upon the streets in such a figure. Wait quietlyhere and I will bring you something decent. '

With that the man was gone, and Challoner, his attention thusrudely awakened, began ruefully to consider the havoc that had beenworked in his attire. His hat was gone; his trousers were cruellyripped; and the best part of one tail of his very elegant frockcoathad been left hanging from the iron crockets of the window. He hadscarce had time to measure these disasters when his host re-enteredthe apartment and proceeded, without a word, to envelop the refinedand urbane Challoner in a long ulster of the cheapest material, andof a pattern so gross and vulgar that his spirit sickened at thesight. This calumnious disguise was crowned and completed by asoft felt hat of the Tyrolese design, and several sizes too small. At another moment Challoner would simply have refused to issueforth upon the world thus travestied; but the desire to escape fromGlasgow was now too strongly and too exclusively impressed upon hismind. With one haggard glance at the spotted tails of his newcoat, he inquired what was to pay for this accoutrement. The manassured him that the whole expense was easily met from funds in hispossession, and begged him, instead of wasting time, to make hisbest speed out of the neighbourhood. 

The young man was not loath to take the hint. True to his usualcourtesy, he thanked the speaker and complimented him upon histaste in greatcoats; and leaving the man somewhat abashed by theseremarks and the manner of their delivery, he hurried forth into thelamplit city. The last train was gone ere, after many deviations, he had reached the terminus. Attired as he was he dared notpresent himself at any reputable inn; and he felt keenly that theunassuming dignity of his demeanour would serve to attractattention, perhaps mirth and possibly suspicion, in any humblerhostelry. He was thus condemned to pass the solemn and uneventfulhours of a whole night in pacing the streets of Glasgow;supperless; a figure of fun for all beholders; waiting the dawn, with hope indeed, but with unconquerable shrinkings; and above allthings, filled with a profound sense of the folly and weakness ofhis conduct. It may be conceived with what curses he assailed thememory of the fair narrator of Hyde Park; her parting laughter rangin his ears all night with damning mockery and iteration; and whenhe could spare a thought from this chief artificer of hisconfusion, it was to expend his wrath on Somerset and the career ofthe amateur detective. With the coming of day, he found in a shymilk-shop the means to appease his hunger. There were still manyhours to wait before the departure of the South express; these hepassed wandering with indescribable fatigue in the obscurer by-streets of the city; and at length slipped quietly into the stationand took his place in the darkest corner of a third-class carriage. Here, all day long, he jolted on the bare boards, distressed byheat and continually reawakened from uneasy slumbers. By the halfreturn ticket in his purse, he was entitled to make the journey onthe easy cushions and with the ample space of the first-class; butalas! in his absurd attire, he durst not, for decency, comminglewith his equals; and this small annoyance, coming last in such aseries of disasters, cut him to the heart. 

That night, when, in his Putney lodging, he reviewed the expense, anxiety, and weariness of his adventure; when he beheld the ruinsof his last good trousers and his last presentable coat; and aboveall, when his eye by any chance alighted on the Tyrolese hat or thedegrading ulster, his heart would overflow with bitterness, and itwas only by a serious call on his philosophy that he maintained thedignity of his demeanour. 

SOMERSET'S ADVENTURE: THE SUPERFLUOUS MANSION

Mr. Paul Somerset was a young gentleman of a lively and fieryimagination, with very small capacity for action. He was one wholived exclusively in dreams and in the future: the creature of hisown theories, and an actor in his own romances. From the cigardivan he proceeded to parade the streets, still heated with thefire of his eloquence, and scouting upon every side for the offerof some fortunate adventure. In the continual stream of passers-by, on the sealed fronts of houses, on the posters that covered thehoardings, and in every lineament and throb of the great city, hesaw a mysterious and hopeful hieroglyph. But although the elementsof adventure were streaming by him as thick as drops of water inthe Thames, it was in vain that, now with a beseeching, now withsomething of a braggadocio air, he courted and provoked the noticeof the passengers; in vain that, putting fortune to the touch, heeven thrust himself into the way and came into direct collisionwith those of the more promising demeanour. Persons brimful ofsecrets, persons pining for affection, persons perishing for lackof help or counsel, he was sure he could perceive on every side;but by some contrariety of fortune, each passed upon his waywithout remarking the young gentleman, and went farther (surely tofare worse!) in quest of the confidant, the friend, or the adviser. To thousands he must have turned an appealing countenance, and yetnot one regarded him. 

A light dinner, eaten to the accompaniment of his impetuousaspirations, broke in upon the series of his attempts on fortune;and when he returned to the task, the lamps were already lighted, and the nocturnal crowd was dense upon the pavement. Before acertain restaurant, whose name will readily occur to any student ofour Babylon, people were already packed so closely that passage hadgrown difficult; and Somerset, standing in the kennel, watched, with a hope that was beginning to grow somewhat weary, the facesand the manners of the crowd. Suddenly he was startled by a gentletouch upon the shoulder, and facing about, he was aware of a veryplain and elegant brougham, drawn by a pair of powerful horses, anddriven by a man in sober livery. There were no arms upon thepanel; the window was open, but the interior was obscure; thedriver yawned behind his palm; and the young man was alreadybeginning to suppose himself the dupe of his own fancy, when ahand, no larger than a child's and smoothly gloved in white, appeared in a corner of the window and privily beckoned him toapproach. He did so, and looked in. The carriage was occupied bya single small and very dainty figure, swathed head and shouldersin impenetrable folds of white lace; and a voice, speaking low andsilvery, addressed him in these words -

'Open the door and get in. '

'It must be, ' thought the young man with an almost unbearablethrill, 'it must be that duchess at last!' Yet, although themoment was one to which he had long looked forward, it was with acertain share of alarm that he opened the door, and, mounting intothe brougham, took his seat beside the lady of the lace. Whetheror no she had touched a spring, or given some other signal, theyoung man had hardly closed the door before the carriage, withconsiderable swiftness, and with a very luxurious and easy movementon its springs, turned and began to drive towards the west. 

Somerset, as I have written, was not unprepared; it had long beenhis particular pleasure to rehearse his conduct in the mostunlikely situations; and this, among others, of the patricianravisher, was one he had familiarly studied. Strange as it mayseem, however, he could find no apposite remark; and as the lady, on her side, vouchsafed no further sign, they continued to drive insilence through the streets. Except for alternate flashes from thepassing lamps, the carriage was plunged in obscurity; and beyondthe fact that the fittings were luxurious, and that the lady wassingularly small and slender in person, and, all but one glovedhand, still swathed in her costly veil, the young man coulddecipher no detail of an inspiring nature. The suspense began togrow unbearable. Twice he cleared his throat, and twice the wholeresources of the language failed him. In similar scenes, when hehad forecast them on the theatre of fancy, his presence of mind hadalways been complete, his eloquence remarkable; and at thisdisparity between the rehearsal and the performance, he began to beseized with a panic of apprehension. Here, on the very thresholdof adventure, suppose him ignominiously to fail; suppose that afterten, twenty, or sixty seconds of still uninterrupted silence, thelady should touch the check-string and re-deposit him, weighed andfound wanting, on the common street! Thousands of persons of nomind at all, he reasoned, would be found more equal to the part;could, that very instant, by some decisive step, prove the lady'schoice to have been well inspired, and put a stop to thisintolerable silence. 

His eye, at this point, lighted on the hand. It was better to fallby desperate councils than to continue as he was; and with onetremulous swoop he pounced on the gloved fingers and drew them tohimself. One overt step, it had appeared to him, would dissolvethe spell of his embarrassment; in act, he found it otherwise: hefound himself no less incapable of speech or further progress; andwith the lady's hand in his, sat helpless. But worse was in store. A peculiar quivering began to agitate the form of his companion;the hand that lay unresistingly in Somerset's trembled as withague; and presently there broke forth, in the shadow of thecarriage, the bubbling and musical sound of laughter, resisted buttriumphant. The young man dropped his prize; had it been possible, he would have bounded from the carriage. The lady, meanwhile, lying back upon the cushions, passed on from trill to trill of themost heartfelt, high-pitched, clear and fairy-sounding merriment. 

'You must not be offended, ' she said at last, catching anopportunity between two paroxysms. 'If you have been mistaken inthe warmth of your attentions, the fault is solely mine; it doesnot flow from your presumption, but from my eccentric manner ofrecruiting friends; and, believe me, I am the last person in theworld to think the worse of a young man for showing spirit. As forto-night, it is my intention to entertain you to a little supper;and if I shall continue to be as much pleased with your manners asI was taken with your face, I may perhaps end by making you anadvantageous offer. '

Somerset sought in vain to find some form of answer, but hisdiscomfiture had been too recent and complete. 

'Come, ' returned the lady, 'we must have no display of temper; thatis for me the one disqualifying fault; and as I perceive we aredrawing near our destination, I shall ask you to descend and offerme your arm. '

Indeed, at that very moment the carriage drew up before a statelyand severe mansion in a spacious square; and Somerset, who waspossessed of an excellent temper, with the best grace in the worldassisted the lady to alight. The door was opened by an old womanof a grim appearance, who ushered the pair into a dining-roomsomewhat dimly lighted, but already laid for supper, and occupiedby a prodigious company of large and valuable cats. Here, as soonas they were alone, the lady divested herself of the lace in whichshe was enfolded; and Somerset was relieved to find, that althoughstill bearing the traces of great beauty, and still distinguishedby the fire and colour of her eye, her hair was of a silverywhiteness and her face lined with years. 

'And now, mon preux, ' said the old lady, nodding at him with aquaint gaiety, 'you perceive that I am no longer in my first youth. You will soon find that I am all the better company for that. '

As she spoke, the maid re-entered the apartment with a light buttasteful supper. They sat down, accordingly, to table, the catswith savage pantomime surrounding the old lady's chair; and whatwith the excellence of the meal and the gaiety of his entertainer, Somerset was soon completely at his ease. When they had well eatenand drunk, the old lady leaned back in her chair, and taking a catupon her lap, subjected her guest to a prolonged but evidentlymirthful scrutiny. 

'I fear, madam, ' said Somerset, 'that my manners have not risen tothe height of your preconceived opinion. '

'My dear young man, ' she replied, 'you were never more mistaken inyour life. I find you charming, and you may very well have lightedon a fairy godmother. I am not one of those who are given tochange their opinions, and short of substantial demerit, those whohave once gained my favour continue to enjoy it; but I have asingular swiftness of decision, read my fellow men and women with aglance, and have acted throughout life on first impressions. Yours, as I tell you, has been favourable; and if, as I suppose, you are a young fellow of somewhat idle habits, I think it notimprobable that we may strike a bargain. '

'Ah, madam, ' returned Somerset, 'you have divined my situation. Iam a man of birth, parts, and breeding; excellent company, or atleast so I find myself; but by a peculiar iniquity of fate, destitute alike of trade or money. I was, indeed, this eveningupon the quest of an adventure, resolved to close with any offer ofinterest, emolument, or pleasure; and your summons, which I professI am still at some loss to understand, jumped naturally with theinclination of my mind. Call it, if you will, impudence; I amhere, at least, prepared for any proposition you can find it inyour heart to make, and resolutely determined to accept. '

'You express yourself very well, ' replied the old lady, 'and arecertainly a droll and curious young man. I should not care toaffirm that you were sane, for I have never found any one entirelyso besides myself; but at least the nature of your madnessentertains me, and I will reward you with some description of mycharacter and life. '

Thereupon the old lady, still fondling the cat upon her lap, proceeded to narrate the following particulars. 

NARRATIVE OF THE SPIRITED OLD LADY

I was the eldest daughter of the Reverend Bernard Fanshawe, whoheld a valuable living in the diocese of Bath and Wells. Ourfamily, a very large one, was noted for a sprightly and incisivewit, and came of a good old stock where beauty was an heirloom. InChristian grace of character we were unhappily deficient. From myearliest years I saw and deplored the defects of those relativeswhose age and position should have enabled them to conquer myesteem; and while I was yet a child, my father married a secondwife, in whom (strange to say) the Fanshawe failings wereexaggerated to a monstrous and almost laughable degree. Whatevermay be said against me, it cannot be denied I was a patterndaughter; but it was in vain that, with the most touching patience, I submitted to my stepmother's demands; and from the hour sheentered my father's house, I may say that I met with nothing butinjustice and ingratitude. 

I stood not alone, however, in the sweetness of my disposition; forone other of the family besides myself was free from any violenceof character. Before I had reached the age of sixteen, thiscousin, John by name, had conceived for me a sincere but silentpassion; and although the poor lad was too timid to hint at thenature of his feelings, I had soon divined and begun to share them. For some days I pondered on the odd situation created for me by thebashfulness of my admirer; and at length, perceiving that he began, in his distress, rather to avoid than seek my company, I determinedto take the matter into my own hands. Finding him alone in aretired part of the rectory garden, I told him that I had divinedhis amiable secret, that I knew with what disfavour our union wassure to be regarded; and that, under the circumstances, I wasprepared to flee with him at once. Poor John was literallyparalysed with joy; such was the force of his emotions, that hecould find no words in which to thank me; and that I, seeing himthus helpless, was obliged to arrange, myself, the details of ourflight, and of the stolen marriage which was immediately to crownit. John had been at that time projecting a visit to themetropolis. In this I bade him persevere, and promised on thefollowing day to join him at the Tavistock Hotel. 

True, on my side, to every detail of our arrangement, I arose, onthe day in question, before the servants, packed a few necessariesin a bag, took with me the little money I possessed, and badefarewell for ever to the rectory. I walked with good spirits to atown some thirty miles from home, and was set down the next morningin this great city of London. As I walked from the coach-office tothe hotel, I could not help exulting in the pleasant change thathad befallen me; beholding, meanwhile, with innocent delight, thetraffic of the streets, and depicting, in all the colours of fancy, the reception that awaited me from John. But alas! when I inquiredfor Mr. Fanshawe, the porter assured me there was no such gentlemanamong the guests. By what channel our secret had leaked out, orwhat pressure had been brought to bear on the too facile John, Icould never fathom. Enough that my family had triumphed; that Ifound myself alone in London, tender in years, smarting under themost sensible mortification, and by every sentiment of pride andself-respect debarred for ever from my father's house. 

I rose under the blow, and found lodgings in the neighbourhood ofEuston Road, where, for the first time in my life, I tasted thejoys of independence. Three days afterwards, an advertisement inthe Times directed me to the office of a solicitor whom I knew tobe in my father's confidence. There I was given the promise of avery moderate allowance, and a distinct intimation that I mustnever look to be received at home. I could not but resent so cruela desertion, and I told the lawyer it was a meeting I desired aslittle as themselves. He smiled at my courageous spirit, paid methe first quarter of my income, and gave me the remainder of mypersonal effects, which had been sent to me, under his care, in acouple of rather ponderous boxes. With these I returned in triumphto my lodgings, more content with my position than I should havethought possible a week before, and fully determined to make thebest of the future. 

All went well for several months; and, indeed, it was my own faultalone that ended this pleasant and secluded episode of life. Ihave, I must confess, the fatal trick of spoiling my inferiors. Mylandlady, to whom I had as usual been overkind, impertinentlycalled me in fault for some particular too small to mention; and I, annoyed that I had allowed her the freedom upon which she thuspresumed, ordered her to leave my presence. She stood a momentdumb, and then, recalling her self-possession, 'Your bill, ' saidshe, 'shall be ready this evening, and to-morrow, madam, you shallleave my house. See, ' she added, 'that you are able to pay whatyou owe me; for if I do not receive the uttermost farthing, no boxof yours shall pass my threshold. '

I was confounded at her audacity, but as a whole quarter's incomewas due to me, not otherwise affected by the threat. Thatafternoon, as I left the solicitor's door, carrying in one hand, and done up in a paper parcel, the whole amount of my fortune, there befell me one of those decisive incidents that sometimesshape a life. The lawyer's office was situate in a street thatopened at the upper end upon the Strand, and was closed at thelower, at the time of which I speak, by a row of iron railingslooking on the Thames. Down this street, then, I beheld mystepmother advancing to meet me, and doubtless bound to the veryhouse I had just left. She was attended by a maid whose face wasnew to me, but her own was too clearly printed on my memory; andthe sight of it, even from a distance, filled me with generousindignation. Flight was impossible. There was nothing left but toretreat against the railing, and with my back turned to the street, pretend to be admiring the barges on the river or the chimneys oftranspontine London. 

I was still so standing, and had not yet fully mastered theturbulence of my emotions, when a voice at my elbow addressed mewith a trivial question. It was the maid whom my stepmother, withcharacteristic hardness, had left to await her on the street, whileshe transacted her business with the family solicitor. The girldid not know who I was; the opportunity too golden to be lost; andI was soon hearing the latest news of my father's rectory andparish. It did not surprise me to find that she detested heremployers; and yet the terms in which she spoke of them were hardto bear, hard to let pass unchallenged. I heard them, however, without dissent, for my self-command is wonderful; and we mighthave parted as we met, had she not proceeded, in an evil hour, tocriticise the rector's missing daughter, and with the most shockingperversions, to narrate the story of her flight. My nature is soessentially generous that I can never pause to reason. I flung upmy hand sharply, by way, as well as I remember, of indignantprotest; and, in the act, the packet slipped from my fingers, glanced between the railings, and fell and sunk in the river. Istood a moment petrified, and then, struck by the drollery of theincident, gave way to peals of laughter. I was still laughing whenmy stepmother reappeared, and the maid, who doubtless considered meinsane, ran off to join her; nor had I yet recovered my gravitywhen I presented myself before the lawyer to solicit a freshadvance. His answer made me serious enough, for it was a flatrefusal; and it was not until I had besought him even with tears, that he consented to lend me ten pounds from his own pocket. 'I ama poor man, ' said he, 'and you must look for nothing farther at myhands. '

The landlady met me at the door. 'Here, madam, ' said she, with acurtsey insolently low, 'here is my bill. Would it inconvenienceyou to settle it at once?'

'You shall be paid, madam, ' said I, 'in the morning, in the propercourse. ' And I took the paper with a very high air, but inwardlyquaking. 

I had no sooner looked at it than I perceived myself to be lost. Ihad been short of money and had allowed my debt to mount; and ithad now reached the sum, which I shall never forget, of twelvepounds thirteen and fourpence halfpenny. All evening I sat by thefire considering my situation. I could not pay the bill; mylandlady would not suffer me to remove my boxes; and without eitherbaggage or money, how was I to find another lodging? For threemonths, unless I could invent some remedy, I was condemned to bewithout a roof and without a penny. It can surprise no one that Idecided on immediate flight; but even here I was confronted by adifficulty, for I had no sooner packed my boxes than I found I wasnot strong enough to move, far less to carry them. 

In this strait I did not hesitate a moment, but throwing on a shawland bonnet, and covering my face with a thick veil, I betook myselfto that great bazaar of dangerous and smiling chances, the pavementof the city. It was already late at night, and the weather beingwet and windy, there were few abroad besides policemen. These, onmy present mission, I had wit enough to know for enemies; andwherever I perceived their moving lanterns, I made haste to turnaside and choose another thoroughfare. A few miserable women stillwalked the pavement; here and there were young fellows returningdrunk, or ruffians of the lowest class lurking in the mouths ofalleys; but of any one to whom I might appeal in my distress, Ibegan almost to despair. 

At last, at the corner of a street, I ran into the arms of one whowas evidently a gentleman, and who, in all his appointments, fromhis furred great-coat to the fine cigar which he was smoking, comfortably breathed of wealth. Much as my face has changed fromits original beauty, I still retain (or so I tell myself) sometraces of the youthful lightness of my figure. Even veiled as Ithen was, I could perceive the gentleman was struck by myappearance: and this emboldened me for my adventure. 

'Sir, ' said I, with a quickly beating heart, 'sir, are you one inwhom a lady can confide?'

'Why, my dear, ' said he, removing his cigar, 'that depends oncircumstances. If you will raise your veil--'

'Sir, ' I interrupted, 'let there be no mistake. I ask you, as agentleman, to serve me, but I offer no reward. '

'That is frank, ' said he; 'but hardly tempting. And what, may Iinquire, is the nature of the service?'

But I knew well enough it was not my interest to tell him on soshort an interview. 'If you will accompany me, ' said I, 'to ahouse not far from here, you can see for yourself. '

He looked at me awhile with hesitating eyes; and then, tossing awayhis cigar, which was not yet a quarter smoked, 'Here goes!' saidhe, and with perfect politeness offered me his arm. I was wiseenough to take it; to prolong our walk as far as possible, by morethan one excursion from the shortest line; and to beguile the waywith that sort of conversation which should prove to himindubitably from what station in society I sprang. By the time wereached the door of my lodging, I felt sure I had confirmed hisinterest, and might venture, before I turned the pass-key, tobeseech him to moderate his voice and to tread softly. He promisedto obey me: and I admitted him into the passage and thence into mysitting-room, which was fortunately next the door. 

'And now, ' said he, when with trembling fingers I had lighted acandle, 'what is the meaning of all this?'

'I wish you, ' said I, speaking with great difficulty, 'to help meout with these boxes--and I wish nobody to know. '

He took up the candle. 'And I wish to see your face, ' said he. 

I turned back my veil without a word, and looked at him with everyappearance of resolve that I could summon up. For some time hegazed into my face, still holding up the candle. 'Well, ' said heat last, 'and where do you wish them taken?'

I knew that I had gained my point; and it was with a tremor in myvoice that I replied. 'I had thought we might carry them betweenus to the corner of Euston Road, ' said I, 'where, even at this latehour, we may still find a cab. '

'Very good, ' was his reply; and he immediately hoisted the heavierof my trunks upon his shoulder, and taking one handle of thesecond, signed to me to help him at the other end. In this orderwe made good our retreat from the house, and without the leastadventure, drew pretty near to the corner of Euston Road. Before ahouse, where there was a light still burning, my companion paused. 'Let us here, ' said he, 'set down our boxes, while we go forward tothe end of the street in quest of a cab. By doing so, we can stillkeep an eye upon their safety, and we avoid the very extraordinaryfigure we should otherwise present--a young man, a young lady, anda mass of baggage, standing castaway at midnight on the streets ofLondon. ' So it was done, and the event proved him to be wise; forlong before there was any word of a cab, a policeman appeared uponthe scene, turned upon us the full glare of his lantern, and hungsuspiciously behind us in a doorway. 

'There seem to be no cabs about, policeman, ' said my champion, withaffected cheerfulness. But the constable's answer was ungracious;and as for the offer of a cigar, with which this rebuff was mostunwisely followed up, he refused it point-blank, and without theleast civility. The young gentleman looked at me with a warninggrimace, and there we continued to stand, on the edge of thepavement, in the beating rain, and with the policeman stillsilently watching our movements from the doorway. 

At last, and after a delay that seemed interminable, a four-wheelerappeared lumbering along in the mud, and was instantly hailed by mycompanion. 'Just pull up here, will you?' he cried. 'We have somebaggage up the street. '

And now came the hitch of our adventure; for when the policeman, still closely following us, beheld my two boxes lying in the rain, he arose from mere suspicion to a kind of certitude of somethingevil. The light in the house had been extinguished; the wholefrontage of the street was dark; there was nothing to explain thepresence of these unguarded trunks; and no two innocent people wereever, I believe, detected in such questionable circumstances. 

'Where have these things come from?' asked the policeman, flashinghis light full into my champion's face. 

'Why, from that house, of course, ' replied the young gentleman, hastily shouldering a trunk. 

The policeman whistled and turned to look at the dark windows; hethen took a step towards the door, as though to knock, a coursewhich had infallibly proved our ruin; but seeing us alreadyhurrying down the street under our double burthen, thought betteror worse of it, and followed in our wake. 

'For God's sake, ' whispered my companion, 'tell me where to driveto. '

'Anywhere, ' I replied with anguish. 'I have no idea. Anywhere youlike. '

Thus it befell that, when the boxes had been stowed, and I hadalready entered the cab, my deliverer called out in clear tones theaddress of the house in which we are now seated. The policeman, Icould see, was staggered. This neighbourhood, so retired, soaristocratic, was far from what he had expected. For all that, hetook the number of the cab, and spoke for a few seconds and with adecided manner in the cabman's ear. 

'What can he have said?' I gasped, as soon as the cab had rolledaway. 

'I can very well imagine, ' replied my champion; 'and I can assureyou that you are now condemned to go where I have said; for, shouldwe attempt to change our destination by the way, the jarvey willdrive us straight to a police-office. Let me compliment you onyour nerves, ' he added. 'I have had, I believe, the most horriblefright of my existence. '

But my nerves, which he so much misjudged, were in so strange adisarray that speech was now become impossible; and we made thedrive thenceforward in unbroken silence. When we arrived beforethe door of our destination, the young gentleman alighted, openedit with a pass-key like one who was at home, bade the driver carrythe trunks into the hall, and dismissed him with a handsome fee. He then led me into this dining-room, looking nearly as you beholdit, but with certain marks of bachelor occupancy, and hastened topour out a glass of wine, which he insisted on my drinking. Assoon as I could find my voice, 'In God's name, ' I cried, 'where amI?'

He told me I was in his house, where I was very welcome, and had nomore urgent business than to rest myself and recover my spirits. As he spoke he offered me another glass of wine, of which, indeed, I stood in great want, for I was faint, and inclined to behysterical. Then he sat down beside the fire, lit another cigar, and for some time observed me curiously in silence. 

'And now, ' said he, 'that you have somewhat restored yourself, willyou be kind enough to tell me in what sort of crime I have become apartner? Are you murderer, smuggler, thief, or only the harmlessand domestic moonlight flitter?'

I had been already shocked by his lighting a cigar withoutpermission, for I had not forgotten the one he threw away on ourfirst meeting; and now, at these explicit insults, I resolved atonce to reconquer his esteem. The judgment of the world I haveconsistently despised, but I had already begun to set a certainvalue on the good opinion of my entertainer. Beginning with a noteof pathos, but soon brightening into my habitual vivacity andhumour, I rapidly narrated the circumstances of my birth, myflight, and subsequent misfortunes. He heard me to an end insilence, gravely smoking. 'Miss Fanshawe, ' said he, when I haddone, 'you are a very comical and most enchanting creature; and Ican see nothing for it but that I should return to-morrow morningand satisfy your landlady's demands. '

'You strangely misinterpret my confidence, ' was my reply; 'and ifyou had at all appreciated my character, you would understand thatI can take no money at your hands. '

'Your landlady will doubtless not be so particular, ' he returned;'nor do I at all despair of persuading even your unconquerableself. I desire you to examine me with critical indulgence. Myname is Henry Luxmore, Lord Southwark's second son. I possess ninethousand a year, the house in which we are now sitting, and sevenothers in the best neighbourhoods in town. I do not believe I amrepulsive to the eye, and as for my character, you have seen meunder trial. I think you simply the most original of createdbeings; I need not tell you what you know very well, that you areravishingly pretty; and I have nothing more to add, except that, foolish as it may appear, I am already head over heels in love withyou. '

'Sir, ' said I, 'I am prepared to be misjudged; but while I continueto accept your hospitality that fact alone should be enough toprotect me from insult. '

'Pardon me, ' said he: 'I offer you marriage. ' And leaning back inhis chair he replaced his cigar between his lips. 

I own I was confounded by an offer, not only so unprepared, butcouched in terms so singular. But he knew very well how to obtainhis purposes, for he was not only handsome in person, but his verycoolness had a charm; and to make a long story short, a fortnightlater I became the wife of the Honourable Henry Luxmore. 

For nearly twenty years I now led a life of almost perfect quiet. My Henry had his weaknesses; I was twice driven to flee from hisroof, but not for long; for though he was easily over-excited, hisnature was placable below the surface, and with all his faults, Iloved him tenderly. At last he was taken from me; and such is thepower of self-deception, and so strange are the whims of the dying, he actually assured me, with his latest breath, that he forgave theviolence of my temper!

There was but one pledge of the marriage, my daughter Clara. Shehad, indeed, inherited a shadow of her father's failing; but in allthings else, unless my partial eyes deceived me, she derived herqualities from me, and might be called my moral image. On my side, whatever else I may have done amiss, as a mother I was abovereproach. Here, then, was surely every promise for the future;here, at last, was a relation in which I might hope to tasterepose. But it was not to be. You will hardly credit me when Iinform you that she ran away from home; yet such was the case. Some whim about oppressed nationalities--Ireland, Poland, and thelike--has turned her brain; and if you should anywhere encounter ayoung lady (I must say, of remarkable attractions) answering to thename of Luxmore, Lake, or Fonblanque (for I am told she uses theseindifferently, as well as many others), tell her, from me, that Iforgive her cruelty, and though I will never more behold her face, I am at any time prepared to make her a liberal allowance. 

On the death of Mr. Luxmore, I sought oblivion in the details ofbusiness. I believe I have mentioned that seven mansions, besidesthis, formed part of Mr. Luxmore's property: I have found themseven white elephants. The greed of tenants, the dishonesty ofsolicitors, and the incapacity that sits upon the bench, havecombined together to make these houses the burthen of my life. Ihad no sooner, indeed, begun to look into these matters for myself, than I discovered so many injustices and met with so much studiedincivility, that I was plunged into a long series of lawsuits, someof which are pending to this day. You must have heard my namealready; I am the Mrs. Luxmore of the Law Reports: a strangedestiny, indeed, for one born with an almost cowardly desire forpeace! But I am of the stamp of those who, when they have oncebegun a task, will rather die than leave their duty unfulfilled. Ihave met with every obstacle: insolence and ingratitude from myown lawyers; in my adversaries, that fault of obstinacy which is tome perhaps the most distasteful in the calendar; from the bench, civility indeed--always, I must allow, civility--but never a sparkof independence, never that knowledge of the law and love ofjustice which we have a right to look for in a judge, the mostaugust of human officers. And still, against all these odds, Ihave undissuadably persevered. 

It was after the loss of one of my innumerable cases (a subject onwhich I will not dwell) that it occurred to me to make a melancholypilgrimage to my various houses. Four were at that time tenantlessand closed, like pillars of salt, commemorating the corruption ofthe age and the decline of private virtue. Three were occupied bypersons who had wearied me by every conceivable unjust demand andlegal subterfuge--persons whom, at that very hour, I was movingheaven and earth to turn into the street. This was perhaps thesadder spectacle of the two; and my heart grew hot within me tobehold them occupying, in my very teeth, and with an insolentostentation, these handsome structures which were as much mine asthe flesh upon my body. 

One more house remained for me to visit, that in which we now are. I had let it (for at that period I lodged in a hotel, the life thatI have always preferred) to a Colonel Geraldine, a gentlemanattached to Prince Florizel of Bohemia, whom you must certainlyhave heard of; and I had supposed, from the character and positionof my tenant, that here, at least, I was safe against annoyance. What was my surprise to find this house also shuttered andapparently deserted! I will not deny that I was offended; Iconceived that a house, like a yacht, was better to be kept incommission; and I promised myself to bring the matter before mysolicitor the following morning. Meanwhile the sight recalled myfancy naturally to the past; and yielding to the tender influenceof sentiment, I sat down opposite the door upon the garden parapet. It was August, and a sultry afternoon, but that spot is sheltered, as you may observe by daylight, under the branches of a spreadingchestnut; the square, too, was deserted; there was a sound ofdistant music in the air; and all combined to plunge me into thatmost agreeable of states, which is neither happiness nor sorrow, but shares the poignancy of both. 

From this I was recalled by the arrival of a large van, veryhandsomely appointed, drawn by valuable horses, mounted by severalmen of an appearance more than decent, and bearing on its panels, instead of a trader's name, a coat-of-arms too modest to bedeciphered from where I sat. It drew up before my house, the doorof which was immediately opened by one of the men. His companions--I counted seven of them in all--proceeded, with disciplinedactivity, to take from the van and carry into the house a varietyof hampers, bottle-baskets, and boxes, such as are designed forplate and napery. The windows of the dining-room were thrownwidely open, as though to air it; and I saw some of those withinlaying the table for a meal. Plainly, I concluded, my tenant wasabout to return; and while still determined to submit to noaggression on my rights, I was gratified by the number anddiscipline of his attendants, and the quiet profusion that appearedto reign in his establishment. I was still so thinking when, to myextreme surprise, the windows and shutters of the dining-room wereonce more closed; the men began to reappear from the interior andresume their stations on the van; the last closed the door behindhis exit; the van drove away; and the house was once more left toitself, looking blindly on the square with shuttered windows, asthough the whole affair had been a vision. 

It was no vision, however; for, as I rose to my feet, and thusbrought my eyes a little nearer to the level of the fanlight overthe door, I saw that, though the day had still some hours to run, the hall lamps had been lighted and left burning. Plainly, then, guests were expected, and were not expected before night. Forwhom, I asked myself with indignation, were such secretpreparations likely to be made? Although no prude, I am a woman ofdecided views upon morality; if my house, to which my husband hadbrought me, was to serve in the character of a petite maison, I sawmyself forced, however unwillingly, into a new course oflitigation; and, determined to return and know the worst, Ihastened to my hotel for dinner. 

I was at my post by ten. The night was clear and quiet; the moonrode very high and put the lamps to shame; and the shadow below thechestnut was black as ink. Here, then, I ensconced myself on thelow parapet, with my back against the railings, face to face withthe moonlit front of my old home, and ruminating gently on thepast. Time fled; eleven struck on all the city clocks; andpresently after I was aware of the approach of a gentleman ofstately and agreeable demeanour. He was smoking as he walked; hislight paletot, which was open, did not conceal his evening clothes;and he bore himself with a serious grace that immediately awakenedmy attention. Before the door of this house he took a pass-keyfrom his pocket, quietly admitted himself, and disappeared into thelamplit hall. 

He was scarcely gone when I observed another and a much younger manapproaching hastily from the opposite side of the square. Considering the season of the year and the genial mildness of thenight, he was somewhat closely muffled up; and as he came, for allhis hurry, he kept looking nervously behind him. Arrived before mydoor, he halted and set one foot upon the step, as though about toenter; then, with a sudden change, he turned and began to hurryaway; halted a second time, as if in painful indecision; andlastly, with a violent gesture, wheeled about, returned straight tothe door, and rapped upon the knocker. He was almost immediatelyadmitted by the first arrival. 

My curiosity was now broad awake. I made myself as small as Icould in the very densest of the shadow, and waited for the sequel. Nor had I long to wait. From the same side of the square a secondyoung man made his appearance, walking slowly and softly, and likethe first, muffled to the nose. Before the house he paused, lookedall about him with a swift and comprehensive glance; and seeing thesquare lie empty in the moon and lamplight, leaned far across thearea railings and appeared to listen to what was passing in thehouse. From the dining-room there came the report of a champagnecork, and following upon that, the sound of rich and manlylaughter. The listener took heart of grace, produced a key, unlocked the area gate, shut it noiselessly behind him, anddescended the stair. Just when his head had reached the level ofthe pavement, he turned half round and once more raked the squarewith a suspicious eyeshot. The mufflings had fallen lower roundhis neck; the moon shone full upon him; and I was startled toobserve the pallor and passionate agitation of his face. 

I could remain no longer passive. Persuaded that something deadlywas afoot, I crossed the roadway and drew near the area railings. There was no one below; the man must therefore have entered thehouse, with what purpose I dreaded to imagine. I have at no partof my career lacked courage; and now, finding the area gate wasmerely laid to, I pushed it gently open and descended the stairs. The kitchen door of the house, like the area gate, was closed butnot fastened. It flashed upon me that the criminal was thuspreparing his escape; and the thought, as it confirmed the worst ofmy suspicions, lent me new resolve. I entered the house; and beingnow quite reckless of my life, I shut and locked the door. 

From the dining-room above I could hear the pleasant tones of avoice in easy conversation. On the ground floor all was not onlyprofoundly silent, but the darkness seemed to weigh upon my eyes. Here, then, I stood for some time, having thrust myself uncalledinto the utmost peril, and being destitute of any power to help orinterfere. Nor will I deny that fear had begun already to assailme, when I became aware, all at once and as though by someimmediate but silent incandescence, of a certain glimmering oflight upon the passage floor. Towards this I groped my way withinfinite precaution; and having come at length as far as the angleof the corridor, beheld the door of the butler's pantry standingjust ajar and a narrow thread of brightness falling from the chink. Creeping still closer, I put my eye to the aperture. The man satwithin upon a chair, listening, I could see, with the most raptattention. On a table before him he had laid a watch, a pair ofsteel revolvers, and a bull's-eye lantern. For one second manycontradictory theories and projects whirled together in my head;the next, I had slammed the door and turned the key upon themalefactor. Surprised at my own decision, I stood and panted, leaning on the wall. From within the pantry not a sound was to beheard; the man, whatever he was, had accepted his fate without astruggle, and now, as I hugged myself to fancy, sat frozen withterror and looking for the worst to follow. I promised myself thathe should not be disappointed; and the better to complete my task, I turned to ascend the stairs. 

The situation, as I groped my way to the first floor, appealed tome suddenly by my strong sense of humour. Here was I, the owner ofthe house, burglariously present in its walls; and there, in thedining-room, were two gentlemen, unknown to me, seated complacentlyat supper, and only saved by my promptitude from some surprising ordeadly interruption. It were strange if I could not manage toextract the matter of amusement from so unusual a situation. 

Behind this dining-room, there is a small apartment intended for alibrary. It was to this that I cautiously groped my way; and youwill see how fortune had exactly served me. The weather, I havesaid, was sultry; in order to ventilate the dining-room and yetpreserve the uninhabited appearance of the mansion to the front, the window of the library had been widely opened, and the door ofcommunication between the two apartments left ajar. To thisinterval I now applied my eye. 

Wax tapers, set in silver candlesticks, shed their chastenedbrightness on the damask of the tablecloth and the remains of acold collation of the rarest delicacy. The two gentlemen hadfinished supper, and were now trifling with cigars and maraschino;while in a silver spirit lamp, coffee of the most captivatingfragrance was preparing in the fashion of the East. The elder ofthe two, he who had first arrived, was placed directly facing me;the other was set on his left hand. Both, like the man in thebutler's pantry, seemed to be intently listening; and on the faceof the second I thought I could perceive the marks of fear. Oddlyenough, however, when they came to speak, the parts were found tobe reversed. 

'I assure you, ' said the elder gentleman, 'I not only heard theslamming of a door, but the sound of very guarded footsteps. '

'Your highness was certainly deceived, ' replied the other. 'I amendowed with the acutest hearing, and I can swear that not a mousehas rustled. ' Yet the pallor and contraction of his features werein total discord with the tenor of his words. 

His highness (whom, of course, I readily divined to be PrinceFlorizel) looked at his companion for the least fraction of asecond; and though nothing shook the easy quiet of his attitude, Icould see that he was far from being duped. 'It is well, ' said he;'let us dismiss the topic. And now, sir, that I have very freelyexplained the sentiments by which I am directed, let me ask you, according to your promise, to imitate my frankness. '

'I have heard you, ' replied the other, 'with great interest. '

'With singular patience, ' said the prince politely. 

'Ay, your highness, and with unlooked-for sympathy, ' returned theyoung man. 'I know not how to tell the change that has befallenme. You have, I must suppose, a charm, to which even your enemiesare subject. ' He looked at the clock on the mantelpiece andvisibly blanched. 'So late!' he cried. 'Your highness--God knowsI am now speaking from the heart--before it be too late, leave thishouse!'

The prince glanced once more at his companion, and then verydeliberately shook the ash from his cigar. 'That is a strangeremark, ' said he; 'and a propos de bottes, I never continue a cigarwhen once the ash is fallen; the spell breaks, the soul of theflavour flies away, and there remains but the dead body of tobacco;and I make it a rule to throw away that husk and choose another. 'He suited the action to the words. 

'Do not trifle with my appeal, ' resumed the young man, in tonesthat trembled with emotion. 'It is made at the price of my honourand to the peril of my life. Go--go now! lose not a moment; and ifyou have any kindness for a young man, miserably deceived indeed, but not devoid of better sentiments, look not behind you as youleave. '

'Sir, ' said the prince, 'I am here upon your honour; assure youupon mine that I shall continue to rely upon that safeguard. Thecoffee is ready; I must again trouble you, I fear. ' And with acourteous movement of the hand, he seemed to invite his companionto pour out the coffee. 

The unhappy young man rose from his seat. 'I appeal to you, ' hecried, 'by every holy sentiment, in mercy to me, if not in pity toyourself, begone before it is too late. '

'Sir, ' replied the prince, 'I am not readily accessible to fear;and if there is one defect to which I must plead guilty, it is thatof a curious disposition. You go the wrong way about to make meleave this house, in which I play the part of your entertainer;and, suffer me to add, young man, if any peril threaten us, it wasof your contriving, not of mine. '

'Alas, you do not know to what you condemn me, ' cried the other. 'But I at least will have no hand in it. ' With these words hecarried his hand to his pocket, hastily swallowed the contents of aphial, and, with the very act, reeled back and fell across hischair upon the floor. The prince left his place and came and stoodabove him, where he lay convulsed upon the carpet. 'Poor moth!' Iheard his highness murmur. 'Alas, poor moth! must we again inquirewhich is the more fatal--weakness or wickedness? And can asympathy with ideas, surely not ignoble in themselves, conduct aman to this dishonourable death?'

By this time I had pushed the door open and walked into the room. 'Your highness, ' said I, 'this is no time for moralising; with alittle promptness we may save this creature's life; and as for theother, he need cause you no concern, for I have him safely underlock and key. '

The prince had turned about upon my entrance, and regarded mecertainly with no alarm, but with a profundity of wonder whichalmost robbed me of my self-possession. 'My dear madam, ' he criedat last, 'and who the devil are you?'

I was already on the floor beside the dying man. I had, of course, no idea with what drug he had attempted his life, and I was forcedto try him with a variety of antidotes. Here were both oil andvinegar, for the prince had done the young man the honour ofcompounding for him one of his celebrated salads; and of each ofthese I administered from a quarter to half a pint, with noapparent efficacy. I next plied him with the hot coffee, of whichthere may have been near upon a quart. 

'Have you no milk?' I inquired. 

'I fear, madam, that milk has been omitted, ' returned the prince. 

'Salt, then, ' said I; 'salt is a revulsive. Pass the salt. '

'And possibly the mustard?' asked his highness, as he offered methe contents of the various salt-cellars poured together on aplate. 

'Ah, ' cried I, 'the thought is excellent! Mix me about half a pintof mustard, drinkably dilute. '

Whether it was the salt or the mustard, or the mere combination ofso many subversive agents, as soon as the last had been poured overhis throat, the young sufferer obtained relief. 

'There!' I exclaimed, with natural triumph, 'I have saved a life!'

'And yet, madam, ' returned the prince, 'your mercy may be crueltydisguised. Where the honour is lost, it is, at least, superfluousto prolong the life. '

'If you had led a life as changeable as mine, your highness, ' Ireplied, 'you would hold a very different opinion. For my part, and after whatever extremity of misfortune or disgrace, I shouldstill count to-morrow worth a trial. '

'You speak as a lady, madam, ' said the prince; 'and for such youspeak the truth. But to men there is permitted such a field oflicense, and the good behaviour asked of them is at once so easyand so little, that to fail in that is to fall beyond the reach ofpardon. But will you suffer me to repeat a question, put to you atfirst, I am afraid, with some defect of courtesy; and to ask youonce more, who you are and how I have the honour of your company?'

'I am the proprietor of the house in which we stand, ' said I. 

'And still I am at fault, ' returned the prince. 

But at that moment the timepiece on the mantel-shelf began tostrike the hour of twelve; and the young man, raising himself uponone elbow, with an expression of despair and horror that I havenever seen excelled, cried lamentably, 'Midnight! oh, just God!'We stood frozen to our places, while the tingling hammer of thetimepiece measured the remaining strokes; nor had we yet stirred, so tragic had been the tones of the young man, when the variousbells of London began in turn to declare the hour. The timepiecewas inaudible beyond the walls of the chamber where we stood; butthe second pulsation of Big Ben had scarcely throbbed into thenight, before a sharp detonation rang about the house. The princesprang for the door by which I had entered; but quick as he was, Iyet contrived to intercept him. 

'Are you armed?' I cried. 

'No, madam, ' replied he. 'You remind me appositely; I will takethe poker. '

'The man below, ' said I, 'has two revolvers. Would you confronthim at such odds?'

He paused, as though staggered in his purpose. 

'And yet, madam, ' said he, 'we cannot continue to remain inignorance of what has passed. '

'No!' cried I. 'And who proposes it? I am as curious as yourself, but let us rather send for the police; or, if your highness dreadsa scandal, for some of your own servants. '

'Nay, madam, ' he replied, smiling, 'for so brave a lady, yousurprise me. Would you have me, then, send others where I fear togo myself?'

'You are perfectly right, ' said I, 'and I was entirely wrong. Go, in God's name, and I will hold the candle!'

Together, therefore, we descended to the lower story, he carryingthe poker, I the light; and together we approached and opened thedoor of the butler's pantry. In some sort, I believe, I wasprepared for the spectacle that met our eyes; I was prepared, thatis, to find the villain dead, but the rude details of such aviolent suicide I was unable to endure. The prince, unshaken byhorror as he had remained unshaken by alarm, assisted me with themost respectful gallantry to regain the dining-room. 

There we found our patient, still, indeed, deadly pale, but vastlyrecovered and already seated on a chair. He held out both hishands with a most pitiful gesture of interrogation. 

'He is dead, ' said the prince. 

'Alas!' cried the young man, 'and it should be I! What do I do, thus lingering on the stage I have disgraced, while he, my surecomrade, blameworthy indeed for much, but yet the soul of fidelity, has judged and slain himself for an involuntary fault? Ah, sir, 'said he, 'and you too, madam, without whose cruel help I should benow beyond the reach of my accusing conscience, you behold in methe victim equally of my own faults and virtues. I was born ahater of injustice; from my most tender years my blood boiledagainst heaven when I beheld the sick, and against men when Iwitnessed the sorrows of the poor; the pauper's crust stuck in mythroat when I sat down to eat my dainties, and the cripple childhas set me weeping. What was there in that but what was noble? andyet observe to what a fall these thoughts have led me! Year afteryear this passion for the lost besieged me closer. What hope wasthere in kings? what hope in these well-feathered classes that nowroll in money? I had observed the course of history; I knew theburgess, our ruler of to-day, to be base, cowardly, and dull; I sawhim, in every age, combine to pull down that which was immediatelyabove and to prey upon those that were below; his dulness, I knew, would ultimately bring about his ruin; I knew his days werenumbered, and yet how was I to wait? how was I to let the poorchild shiver in the rain? The better days, indeed, were coming, but the child would die before that. Alas, your highness, insurely no ungenerous impatience I enrolled myself among the enemiesof this unjust and doomed society; in surely no unnatural desire tokeep the fires of my philanthropy alight, I bound myself by anirrevocable oath. 

'That oath is all my history. To give freedom to posterity I hadforsworn my own. I must attend upon every signal; and soon myfather complained of my irregular hours and turned me from hishouse. I was engaged in betrothal to an honest girl; from her alsoI had to part, for she was too shrewd to credit my inventions andtoo innocent to be entrusted with the truth. Behold me, then, alone with conspirators! Alas! as the years went on, my illusionsleft me. Surrounded as I was by the fervent disciples andapologists of revolution, I beheld them daily advance in confidenceand desperation; I beheld myself, upon the other hand, and with analmost equal regularity, decline in faith. I had sacrificed all tofurther that cause in which I still believed; and daily I began togrow in doubts if we were advancing it indeed. Horrible was thesociety with which we warred, but our own means were not lesshorrible. 

'I will not dwell upon my sufferings; I will not pause to tell youhow, when I beheld young men still free and happy, married, fathersof children, cheerfully toiling at their work, my heart reproachedme with the greatness and vanity of my unhappy sacrifice. I willnot describe to you how, worn by poverty, poor lodging, scantyfood, and an unquiet conscience, my health began to fail, and inthe long nights, as I wandered bedless in the rainy streets, themost cruel sufferings of the body were added to the tortures of mymind. These things are not personal to me; they are common to allunfortunates in my position. An oath, so light a thing to swear, so grave a thing to break: an oath, taken in the heat of youth, repented with what sobbings of the heart, but yet in vain repented, as the years go on: an oath, that was once the very utterance ofthe truth of God, but that falls to be the symbol of a meaninglessand empty slavery; such is the yoke that many young men joyfullyassume, and under whose dead weight they live to suffer worse thandeath. 

'It is not that I was patient. I have begged to be released; but Iknew too much, and I was still refused. I have fled; ay, and forthe time successfully. I reached Paris. I found a lodging in theRue St. Jacques, almost opposite the Val de Grace. My room wasmean and bare, but the sun looked into it towards evening; itcommanded a peep of a green garden; a bird hung by a neighbour'swindow and made the morning beautiful; and I, who was sick, mightlie in bed and rest myself: I, who was in full revolt against theprinciples that I had served, was now no longer at the beck of thecouncil, and was no longer charged with shameful and revoltingtasks. Oh! what an interval of peace was that! I still dream, attimes, that I can hear the note of my neighbour's bird. 

'My money was running out, and it became necessary that I shouldfind employment. Scarcely had I been three days upon the search, ere I thought that I was being followed. I made certain of thefeatures of the man, which were quite strange to me, and turnedinto a small cafe, where I whiled away an hour, pretending to readthe papers, but inwardly convulsed with terror. When I came forthagain into the street, it was quite empty, and I breathed again;but alas, I had not turned three corners, when I once more observedthe human hound pursuing me. Not an hour was to be lost; timelysubmission might yet preserve a life which otherwise was forfeitand dishonoured; and I fled, with what speed you may conceive, tothe Paris agency of the society I served. 

'My submission was accepted. I took up once more the hated burthenof that life; once more I was at the call of men whom I despisedand hated, while yet I envied and admired them. They at least werewholehearted in the things they purposed; but I, who had once beensuch as they, had fallen from the brightness of my faith, and nowlaboured, like a hireling, for the wages of a loathed existence. Ay, sir, to that I was condemned; I obeyed to continue to live, andlived but to obey. 

'The last charge that was laid upon me was the one which has to-night so tragically ended. Boldly telling who I was, I was torequest from your highness, on behalf of my society, a privateaudience, where it was designed to murder you. If one thingremained to me of my old convictions, it was the hate of kings; andwhen this task was offered me, I took it gladly. Alas, sir, youtriumphed. As we supped, you gained upon my heart. Yourcharacter, your talents, your designs for our unhappy country, allhad been misrepresented. I began to forget you were a prince; Ibegan, all too feelingly, to remember that you were a man. As Isaw the hour approach, I suffered agonies untold; and when, atlast, we heard the slamming of the door which announced in myunwilling ears the arrival of the partner of my crime, you willbear me out with what instancy I besought you to depart. You wouldnot, alas! and what could I? Kill you, I could not; my heartrevolted, my hand turned back from such a deed. Yet it wasimpossible that I should suffer you to stay; for when the hourstruck and my companion came, true to his appointment, and he, atleast, true to our design, I could neither suffer you to be killednor yet him to be arrested. From such a tragic passage, death, anddeath alone, could save me; and it is no fault of mine if Icontinue to exist. 

'But you, madam, ' continued the young man, addressing himself moredirectly to myself, 'were doubtless born to save the prince and toconfound our purposes. My life you have prolonged; and by turningthe key on my companion, you have made me the author of his death. He heard the hour strike; he was impotent to help; and thinkinghimself forfeit to honour, thinking that I should fall alone uponhis highness and perish for lack of his support, he has turned hispistol on himself. '

'You are right, ' said Prince Florizel: 'it was in no ungenerousspirit that you brought these burthens on yourself; and when I seeyou so nobly to blame, so tragically punished, I stand like onereproved. For is it not strange, madam, that you and I, bypractising accepted and inconsiderable virtues, and commonplace butstill unpardonable faults, should stand here, in the sight of God, with what we call clean hands and quiet consciences; while thispoor youth, for an error that I could almost envy him, should besunk beyond the reach of hope?

'Sir, ' resumed the prince, turning to the young man, 'I cannot helpyou; my help would but unchain the thunderbolt that overhangs you;and I can but leave you free. '

'And, sir, ' said I, 'as this house belongs to me, I will ask you tohave the kindness to remove the body. You and your conspirators, it appears to me, can hardly in civility do less. '

'It shall be done, ' said the young man, with a dismal accent. 

'And you, dear madam, ' said the prince, 'you, to whom I owe mylife, how can I serve you?'

'Your highness, ' I said, 'to be very plain, this is my favouritehouse, being not only a valuable property, but endeared to me byvarious associations. I have endless troubles with tenants of theordinary class: and at first applauded my good fortune when Ifound one of the station of your Master of the Horse. I now beginto think otherwise: dangers set a siege about great personages;and I do not wish my tenement to share these risks. Procure me theresiliation of the lease, and I shall feel myself your debtor. '

'I must tell you, madam, ' replied his highness, 'that ColonelGeraldine is but a cloak for myself; and I should be sorry indeedto think myself so unacceptable a tenant. '

'Your highness, ' said I, 'I have conceived a sincere admiration foryour character; but on the subject of house property, I cannotallow the interference of my feelings. I will, however, to proveto you that there is nothing personal in my request, here solemnlyengage my word that I will never put another tenant in this house. '

'Madam, ' said Florizel, 'you plead your cause too charmingly to berefused. '

Thereupon we all three withdrew. The young man, still reeling inhis walk, departed by himself to seek the assistance of his fellow-conspirators; and the prince, with the most attentive gallantry, lent me his escort to the door of my hotel. The next day, thelease was cancelled; nor from that hour to this, though sometimesregretting my engagement, have I suffered a tenant in this house. 

THE SUPERFLUOUS MANSION (Continued). 

As soon as the old lady had finished her relation, Somerset madehaste to offer her his compliments. 

'Madam, ' said he, 'your story is not only entertaining butinstructive; and you have told it with infinite vivacity. I wasmuch affected towards the end, as I held at one time very liberalopinions, and should certainly have joined a secret society if Ihad been able to find one. But the whole tale came home to me; andI was the better able to feel for you in your various perplexities, as I am myself of somewhat hasty temper. '

'I do not understand you, ' said Mrs. Luxmore, with some marks ofirritation. 'You must have strangely misinterpreted what I havetold you. You fill me with surprise. '

Somerset, alarmed by the old lady's change of tone and manner, hurried to recant. 

'Dear Mrs. Luxmore, ' said he, 'you certainly misconstrue my remark. As a man of somewhat fiery humour, my conscience repeatedly prickedme when I heard what you had suffered at the hands of personssimilarly constituted. '

'Oh, very well indeed, ' replied the old lady; 'and a very properspirit. I regret that I have met with it so rarely. '

'But in all this, ' resumed the young man, 'I perceive nothing thatconcerns myself. '

'I am about to come to that, ' she returned. 'And you have alreadybefore you, in the pledge I gave Prince Florizel, one of theelements of the affair. I am a woman of the nomadic sort, and whenI have no case before the courts I make it a habit to visitcontinental spas: not that I have ever been ill; but then I am nolonger young, and I am always happy in a crowd. Well, to come moreshortly to the point, I am now on the wing for Evian; this incubusof a house, which I must leave behind and dare not let, hangsheavily upon my hands; and I propose to rid myself of that concern, and do you a very good turn into the bargain, by lending you themansion, with all its fittings, as it stands. The idea was sudden;it appealed to me as humorous: and I am sure it will cause myrelatives, if they should ever hear of it, the keenest possiblechagrin. Here, then, is the key; and when you return at two to-morrow afternoon, you will find neither me nor my cats to disturbyou in your new possession. '

So saying, the old lady arose, as if to dismiss her visitor; butSomerset, looking somewhat blankly on the key, began to protest. 

'Dear Mrs. Luxmore, ' said he, 'this is a most unusual proposal. You know nothing of me, beyond the fact that I displayed bothimpudence and timidity. I may be the worst kind of scoundrel; Imay sell your furniture--'

'You may blow up the house with gunpowder, for what I care!' criedMrs. Luxmore. 'It is in vain to reason. Such is the force of mycharacter that, when I have one idea clearly in my head, I do notcare two straws for any side consideration. It amuses me to do it, and let that suffice. On your side, you may do what you please--let apartments, or keep a private hotel; on mine, I promise you afull month's warning before I return, and I never fail religiouslyto keep my promises. '

The young man was about to renew his protest, when he observed asudden and significant change in the old lady's countenance. 

'If I thought you capable of disrespect!' she cried. 

'Madam, ' said Somerset, with the extreme fervour of asseveration, 'madam, I accept. I beg you to understand that I accept with joyand gratitude. '

'Ah well, ' returned Mrs. Luxmore, 'if I am mistaken, let it pass. And now, since all is comfortably settled, I wish you a good-night. '

Thereupon, as if to leave him no room for repentance, she hurriedSomerset out of the front door, and left him standing, key in hand, upon the pavement. 

The next day, about the hour appointed, the young man found his wayto the square, which I will here call Golden Square, though thatwas not its name. What to expect, he knew not; for a man may livein dreams, and yet be unprepared for their realisation. It wasalready with a certain pang of surprise that he beheld the mansion, standing in the eye of day, a solid among solids. The key, upontrial, readily opened the front door; he entered that great house, a privileged burglar; and, escorted by the echoes of desertion, rapidly reviewed the empty chambers. Cats, servant, old lady, thevery marks of habitation, like writing on a slate, had been inthese few hours obliterated. He wandered from floor to floor, andfound the house of great extent; the kitchen offices commodious andwell appointed; the rooms many and large; and the drawing-room, inparticular, an apartment of princely size and tasteful decoration. Although the day without was warm, genial, and sunny, with aruffling wind from the quarter of Torquay, a chill, as it were, ofsuspended animation inhabited the house. Dust and shadows met theeye; and but for the ominous procession of the echoes, and therumour of the wind among the garden trees, the ear of the young manwas stretched in vain. 

Behind the dining-room, that pleasant library, referred to by theold lady in her tale, looked upon the flat roofs and netted cupolasof the kitchen quarters; and on a second visit, this room appearedto greet him with a smiling countenance. He might as well, hethought, avoid the expense of lodging: the library, fitted with aniron bedstead which he had remarked, in one of the upper chambers, would serve his purpose for the night; while in the dining-room, which was large, airy, and lightsome, looking on the square andgarden, he might very agreeably pass his days, cook his meals, andstudy to bring himself to some proficiency in that art of paintingwhich he had recently determined to adopt. It did not take himlong to make the change: he had soon returned to the mansion withhis modest kit; and the cabman who brought him was readily induced, by the young man's pleasant manner and a small gratuity, to assisthim in the installation of the iron bed. By six in the evening, when Somerset went forth to dine, he was able to look back upon themansion with a sense of pride and property. Four-square it stood, of an imposing frontage, and flanked on either side by familyhatchments. His eye, from where he stood whistling in the key, with his back to the garden railings, reposed on every feature ofreality; and yet his own possession seemed as flimsy as a dream. 

In the course of a few days, the genteel inhabitants of the squarebegan to remark the customs of their neighbour. The sight of ayoung gentleman discussing a clay pipe, about four o'clock of theafternoon, in the drawing-room balcony of so discreet a mansion;and perhaps still more, his periodical excursion to a decent tavernin the neighbourhood, and his unabashed return, nursing the fulltankard: had presently raised to a high pitch the interest andindignation of the liveried servants of the square. The disfavourof some of these gentlemen at first proceeded to the length ofinsult; but Somerset knew how to be affable with any class of men;and a few rude words merrily accepted, and a few glasses amicablyshared, gained for him the right of toleration. 

The young man had embraced the art of Raphael, partly from a notionof its ease, partly from an inborn distrust of offices. He scornedto bear the yoke of any regular schooling; and proceeded to turnone half of the dining-room into a studio for the reproduction ofstill life. There he amassed a variety of objects, indiscriminately chosen from the kitchen, the drawing-room, and theback garden; and there spent his days in smiling assiduity. Meantime, the great bulk of empty building overhead lay, like aload, upon his imagination. To hold so great a stake and to donothing, argued some defect of energy; and he at length determinedto act upon the hint given by Mrs. Luxmore herself, and to stick, with wafers, in the window of the dining-room, a small handbillannouncing furnished lodgings. At half-past six of a fine Julymorning, he affixed the bill, and went forth into the square tostudy the result. It seemed, to his eye, promising andunpretentious; and he returned to the drawing-room balcony, toconsider, over a studious pipe, the knotty problem of how much hewas to charge. 

Thereupon he somewhat relaxed in his devotion to the art ofpainting. Indeed, from that time forth, he would spend the bestpart of the day in the front balcony, like the attentive anglerporing on his float; and the better to support the tedium, he wouldfrequently console himself with his clay pipe. On severaloccasions, passers-by appeared to be arrested by the ticket, and onseveral others ladies and gentlemen drove to the very doorstep bythe carriageful; but it appeared there was something repulsive inthe appearance of the house; for with one accord, they would castbut one look upward, and hastily resume their onward progress ordirect the driver to proceed. Somerset had thus the mortificationof actually meeting the eye of a large number of lodging-seekers;and though he hastened to withdraw his pipe, and to compose hisfeatures to an air of invitation, he was never rewarded by so muchas an inquiry. 'Can there, ' he thought, 'be anything repellent inmyself?' But a candid examination in one of the pier-glasses ofthe drawing-room led him to dismiss the fear. 

Something, however, was amiss. His vast and accurate calculationson the fly-leaves of books, or on the backs of playbills, appearedto have been an idle sacrifice of time. By these, he had variouslycomputed the weekly takings of the house, from sums as modest asfive-and-twenty shillings, up to the more majestic figure of ahundred pounds; and yet, in despite of the very elements ofarithmetic, here he was making literally nothing. 

This incongruity impressed him deeply and occupied his thoughtfulleisure on the balcony; and at last it seemed to him that he haddetected the error of his method. 'This, ' he reflected, 'is an ageof generous display: the age of the sandwich-man, of Griffiths, ofPears' legendary soap, and of Eno's fruit salt, which, by sheerbrass and notoriety, and the most disgusting pictures I everremember to have seen, has overlaid that comforter of my childhood, Lamplough's pyretic saline. Lamplough was genteel, Eno wasomnipresent; Lamplough was trite, Eno original and abominablyvulgar; and here have I, a man of some pretensions to knowledge ofthe world, contented myself with half a sheet of note-paper, a fewcold words which do not directly address the imagination, and theadornment (if adornment it may be called) of four red wafers! AmI, then, to sink with Lamplough, or to soar with Eno? Am I toadopt that modesty which is doubtless becoming in a duke? or totake hold of the red facts of life with the emphasis of thetradesman and the poet?'

Pursuant upon these meditations, he procured several sheets of thevery largest size of drawing-paper; and laying forth his paints, proceeded to compose an ensign that might attract the eye, and atthe same time, in his own phrase, directly address the imaginationof the passenger. Something taking in the way of colour, a good, savoury choice of words, and a realistic design setting forth thelife a lodger might expect to lead within the walls of that palaceof delight: these, he perceived, must be the elements of hisadvertisement. It was possible, upon the one hand, to depict thesober pleasures of domestic life, the evening fire, blond-headedurchins and the hissing urn; but on the other, it was possible (andhe almost felt as if it were more suited to his muse) to set forththe charms of an existence somewhat wider in its range or, boldlysay, the paradise of the Mohammedan. So long did the artist waverbetween these two views, that, before he arrived at a conclusion, he had finally conceived and completed both designs. With theproverbially tender heart of the parent, he found himself unable tosacrifice either of these offsprings of his art; and decided toexpose them on alternate days. 'In this way, ' he thought, 'I shalladdress myself indifferently to all classes of the world. '

The tossing of a penny decided the only remaining point; and themore imaginative canvas received the suffrages of fortune, andappeared first in the window of the mansion. It was of a highfancy, the legend eloquently writ, the scheme of colour taking andbold; and but for the imperfection of the artist's drawing, itmight have been taken for a model of its kind. As it was, however, when viewed from his favourite point against the garden railings, and with some touch of distance, it caused a pleasurable rising ofthe artist's heart. 'I have thrown away, ' he ejaculated, 'aninvaluable motive; and this shall be the subject of my firstacademy picture. '

The fate of neither of these works was equal to its merit. A crowdwould certainly, from time to time, collect before the area-railings; but they came to jeer and not to speculate; and those whopushed their inquiries further, were too plainly animated by thespirit of derision. The racier of the two cartoons displayed, indeed, no symptom of attractive merit; and though it had a certainshare of that success called scandalous, failed utterly of itseffect. On the day, however, of the second appearance of thecompanion work, a real inquirer did actually present himself beforethe eyes of Somerset. 

This was a gentlemanly man, with some marks of recent merriment, and his voice under inadequate control. 

'I beg your pardon, ' said he, 'but what is the meaning of yourextraordinary bill?'

'I beg yours, ' returned Somerset hotly. 'Its meaning issufficiently explicit. ' And being now, from dire experience, fearful of ridicule, he was preparing to close the door, when thegentleman thrust his cane into the aperture. 

'Not so fast, I beg of you, ' said he. 'If you really letapartments, here is a possible tenant at your door; and nothingwould give me greater pleasure than to see the accommodation and tolearn your terms. '

His heart joyously beating, Somerset admitted the visitor, showedhim over the various apartments, and, with some return of hispersuasive eloquence, expounded their attractions. The gentlemanwas particularly pleased by the elegant proportions of the drawing-room. 

'This, ' he said, 'would suit me very well. What, may I ask, wouldbe your terms a week, for this floor and the one above it?'

'I was thinking, ' returned Somerset, 'of a hundred pounds. '

'Surely not, ' exclaimed the gentleman. 

'Well, then, ' returned Somerset, 'fifty. '

The gentleman regarded him with an air of some amazement. 'Youseem to be strangely elastic in your demands, ' said he. 'What if Iwere to proceed on your own principle of division, and offertwenty-five?'

'Done!' cried Somerset; and then, overcome by a suddenembarrassment, 'You see, ' he added apologetically, 'it is all foundmoney for me. '

'Really?' said the stranger, looking at him all the while withgrowing wonder. 'Without extras, then?'

'I--I suppose so, ' stammered the keeper of the lodging-house. 

'Service included?' pursued the gentleman. 

'Service?' cried Somerset. 'Do you mean that you expect me toempty your slops?'

The gentleman regarded him with a very friendly interest. 'My dearfellow, ' said he, 'if you take my advice, you will give up thisbusiness. ' And thereupon he resumed his hat and took himself away. 

This smarting disappointment produced a strong effect on the artistof the cartoons; and he began with shame to eat up his rosierillusions. First one and then the other of his great works wascondemned, withdrawn from exhibition, and relegated, as a merewall-picture, to the decoration of the dining-room. Their placewas taken by a replica of the original wafered announcement, towhich, in particularly large letters, he had added the pithyrubric: 'NO SERVICE. ' Meanwhile he had fallen into something asnearly bordering on low spirits as was consistent with hisdisposition; depressed, at once by the failure of his scheme, thelaughable turn of his late interview, and the judicial blindness ofthe public to the merit of the twin cartoons. 

Perhaps a week had passed before he was again startled by the noteof the knocker. A gentleman of a somewhat foreign and somewhatmilitary air, yet closely shaven and wearing a soft hat, desired inthe politest terms to visit the apartments. He had (he explained)a friend, a gentleman in tender health, desirous of a sedate andsolitary life, apart from interruptions and the noises of thecommon lodging-house. 'The unusual clause, ' he continued, 'in yourannouncement, particularly struck me. "This, " I said, "is theplace for Mr. Jones. " You are yourself, sir, a professionalgentleman?' concluded the visitor, looking keenly in Somerset'sface. 

'I am an artist, ' replied the young man lightly. 

'And these, ' observed the other, taking a side glance through theopen door of the dining-room, which they were then passing, 'theseare some of your works. Very remarkable. ' And he again and stillmore sharply peered into the countenance of the young man. 

Somerset, unable to suppress a blush, made the more haste to leadhis visitor upstairs and to display the apartments. 

'Excellent, ' observed the stranger, as he looked from one of theback windows. 'Is that a mews behind, sir? Very good. Well, sir:see here. My friend will take your drawing-room floor; he willsleep in the back drawing-room; his nurse, an excellent Irishwidow, will attend on all his wants and occupy a garret; he willpay you the round sum of ten dollars a week; and you, on your part, will engage to receive no other lodger? I think that fair. '

Somerset had scarcely words in which to clothe his gratitude andjoy. 

'Agreed, ' said the other; 'and to spare you trouble, my friend willbring some men with him to make the changes. You will find him aretiring inmate, sir; receives but few, and rarely leaves thehouse, except at night. '

'Since I have been in this house, ' returned Somerset, 'I havemyself, unless it were to fetch beer, rarely gone abroad except inthe evening. But a man, ' he added, 'must have some amusement. '

An hour was then agreed on; the gentleman departed; and Somersetsat down to compute in English money the value of the figure named. The result of this investigation filled him with amazement anddisgust; but it was now too late; nothing remained but to endure;and he awaited the arrival of his tenant, still trying, by variousarithmetical expedients, to obtain a more favourable quotation forthe dollar. With the approach of dusk, however, his impatiencedrove him once more to the front balcony. The night fell, mild andairless; the lamps shone around the central darkness of the garden;and through the tall grove of trees that intervened, many warmlyilluminated windows on the farther side of the square, told theirtale of white napery, choice wine, and genial hospitality. Thestars were already thickening overhead, when the young man's eyesalighted on a procession of three four-wheelers, coasting round thegarden railing and bound for the Superfluous Mansion. They wereladen with formidable boxes; moved in a military order, onefollowing another; and, by the extreme slowness of their advance, inspired Somerset with the most serious ideas of his tenant'smalady. 

By the time he had the door open, the cabs had drawn up beside thepavement; and from the two first, there had alighted the militarygentleman of the morning and two very stalwart porters. Theseproceeded instantly to take possession of the house; with their ownhands, and firmly rejecting Somerset's assistance, they carried inthe various crates and boxes; with their own hands dismounted andtransferred to the back drawing-room the bed in which the tenantwas to sleep; and it was not until the bustle of arrival hadsubsided, and the arrangements were complete, that there descended, from the third of the three vehicles, a gentleman of great statureand broad shoulders, leaning on the shoulder of a woman in awidow's dress, and himself covered by a long cloak and muffled in acoloured comforter. 

Somerset had but a glimpse of him in passing; he was soon shut intothe back drawing-room; the other men departed; silence redescendedon the house; and had not the nurse appeared a little before half-past ten, and, with a strong brogue, asked if there were a decentpublic-house in the neighbourhood, Somerset might have stillsupposed himself to be alone in the Superfluous Mansion. 

Day followed day; and still the young man had never come by speechor sight of his mysterious lodger. The doors of the drawing-roomflat were never open; and although Somerset could hear him movingto and fro, the tall man had never quitted the privacy of hisapartments. Visitors, indeed, arrived; sometimes in the dusk, sometimes at intempestuous hours of night or morning; men, for themost part; some meanly attired, some decently; some loud, somecringing; and yet all, in the eyes of Somerset, displeasing. Acertain air of fear and secrecy was common to them all; they wereall voluble, he thought, and ill at ease; even the militarygentleman proved, on a closer inspection, to be no gentleman atall; and as for the doctor who attended the sick man, his mannerswere not suggestive of a university career. The nurse, again, wasscarcely a desirable house-fellow. Since her arrival, the fall ofwhisky in the young man's private bottle was much accelerated; andthough never communicative, she was at times unpleasantly familiar. When asked about the patient's health, she would dolorously shakeher head, and declare that the poor gentleman was in a pitifulcondition. 

Yet somehow Somerset had early begun to entertain the notion thathis complaint was other than bodily. The ill-looking birds thatgathered to the house, the strange noises that sounded from thedrawing-room in the dead hours of night, the careless attendanceand intemperate habits of the nurse, the entire absence ofcorrespondence, the entire seclusion of Mr. Jones himself, whoseface, up to that hour, he could not have sworn to in a court ofjustice--all weighed unpleasantly upon the young man's mind. Asense of something evil, irregular and underhand, haunted anddepressed him; and this uneasy sentiment was the more firmly rootedin his mind, when, in the fulness of time, he had an opportunity ofobserving the features of his tenant. It fell in this way. Theyoung landlord was awakened about four in the morning by a noise inthe hall. Leaping to his feet, and opening the door of thelibrary, he saw the tall man, candle in hand, in earnestconversation with the gentleman who had taken the rooms. The facesof both were strongly illuminated; and in that of his tenant, Somerset could perceive none of the marks of disease, but everysign of health, energy, and resolution. While he was stilllooking, the visitor took his departure; and the invalid, havingcarefully fastened the front door, sprang upstairs without a traceof lassitude. 

That night upon his pillow, Somerset began to kindle once more intothe hot fit of the detective fever; and the next morning resumedthe practice of his art with careless hand and an abstracted mind. The day was destined to be fertile in surprises; nor had he longbeen seated at the easel ere the first of these occurred. A cabladen with baggage drew up before the door; and Mrs. Luxmore inperson rapidly mounted the steps and began to pound upon theknocker. Somerset hastened to attend the summons. 

'My dear fellow, ' she said, with the utmost gaiety, 'here I comedropping from the moon. I am delighted to find you faithful; and Ihave no doubt you will be equally pleased to be restored toliberty. '

Somerset could find no words, whether of protest or welcome; andthe spirited old lady pushed briskly by him and paused on thethreshold of the dining-room. The sight that met her eyes was onewell calculated to inspire astonishment. The mantelpiece wasarrayed with saucepans and empty bottles; on the fire some chopswere frying; the floor was littered from end to end with books, clothes, walking-canes and the materials of the painter's craft;but what far outstripped the other wonders of the place was thecorner which had been arranged for the study of still-life. Thisformed a sort of rockery; conspicuous upon which, according to theprinciples of the art of composition, a cabbage was relievedagainst a copper kettle, and both contrasted with the mail of aboiled lobster. 

'My gracious goodness!' cried the lady of the house; and then, turning in wrath on the young man, 'From what rank in life are yousprung?' she demanded. 'You have the exterior of a gentleman; butfrom the astonishing evidences before me, I should say you can onlybe a greengrocer's man. Pray, gather up your vegetables, and letme see no more of you. '

'Madam, ' babbled Somerset, 'you promised me a month's warning. '

'That was under a misapprehension, ' returned the old lady. 'I nowgive you warning to leave at once. '

'Madam, ' said the young man, 'I wish I could; and indeed, as far asI am concerned, it might be done. But then, my lodger!'

'Your lodger?' echoed Mrs. Luxmore. 

'My lodger: why should I deny it?' returned Somerset. 'He is onlyby the week. '

The old lady sat down upon a chair. 'You have a lodger?--you?' shecried. 'And pray, how did you get him?'

'By advertisement, ' replied the young man. 'O madam, I have notlived unobservantly. I adopted'--his eyes involuntarily shifted tothe cartoons--'I adopted every method. '

Her eyes had followed his; for the first time in Somerset'sexperience, she produced a double eye-glass; and as soon as thefull merit of the works had flashed upon her, she gave way to pealafter peal of her trilling and soprano laughter. 

'Oh, I think you are perfectly delicious!' she cried. 'I do hopeyou had them in the window. M'Pherson, ' she continued, crying toher maid, who had been all this time grimly waiting in the hall, 'Ilunch with Mr. Somerset. Take the cellar key and bring some wine. '

In this gay humour she continued throughout the luncheon; presentedSomerset with a couple of dozen of wine, which she made M'Phersonbring up from the cellar--'as a present, my dear, ' she said, withanother burst of tearful merriment, 'for your charming pictures, which you must be sure to leave me when you go;' and finally, protesting that she dared not spoil the absurdest houseful ofmadmen in the whole of London, departed (as she vaguely phrased it)for the continent of Europe. 

She was no sooner gone, than Somerset encountered in the corridorthe Irish nurse; sober, to all appearance, and yet a prey tosingularly strong emotion. It was made to appear, from heraccount, that Mr. Jones had already suffered acutely in his healthfrom Mrs. Luxmore's visit, and that nothing short of a fullexplanation could allay the invalid's uneasiness. Somerset, somewhat staring, told what he thought fit of the affair. 

'Is that all?' cried the woman. 'As God sees you, is that all?'

'My good woman, ' said the young man, 'I have no idea what you canbe driving at. Suppose the lady were my friend's wife, suppose shewere my fairy godmother, suppose she were the Queen of Portugal;and how should that affect yourself or Mr. Jones?'

'Blessed Mary!' cried the nurse, 'it's he that will be glad to hearit!'

And immediately she fled upstairs. 

Somerset, on his part, returned to the dining-room, and with a verythoughtful brow and ruminating many theories, disposed of theremainder of the bottle. It was port; and port is a wine, soleamong its equals and superiors, that can in some degree support thecompetition of tobacco. Sipping, smoking, and theorising, Somersetmoved on from suspicion to suspicion, from resolve to resolve, still growing braver and rosier as the bottle ebbed. He was asceptic, none prouder of the name; he had no horror at command, whether for crimes or vices, but beheld and embraced the world, with an immoral approbation, the frequent consequence of youth andhealth. At the same time, he felt convinced that he dwelt underthe same roof with secret malefactors; and the unregenerateinstinct of the chase impelled him to severity. The bottle had runlow; the summer sun had finally withdrawn; and at the same moment, night and the pangs of hunger recalled him from his dreams. 

He went forth, and dined in the Criterion: a dinner in consonance, not so much with his purse, as with the admirable wine he haddiscussed. What with one thing and another, it was long pastmidnight when he returned home. A cab was at the door; andentering the hall, Somerset found himself face to face with one ofthe most regular of the few who visited Mr. Jones: a man ofpowerful figure, strong lineaments, and a chin-beard in theAmerican fashion. This person was carrying on one shoulder a blackportmanteau, seemingly of considerable weight. That he should finda visitor removing baggage in the dead of night, recalled some oddstories to the young man's memory; he had heard of lodgers who thusgradually drained away, not only their own effects, but the veryfurniture and fittings of the house that sheltered them; and now, in a mood between pleasantry and suspicion, and aping the manner ofa drunkard, he roughly bumped against the man with the chin-beardand knocked the portmanteau from his shoulder to the floor. With aface struck suddenly as white as paper, the man with the chin-beardcalled lamentably on the name of his maker, and fell in a mere heapon the mat at the foot of the stairs. At the same time, thoughonly for a single instant, the heads of the sick lodger and theIrish nurse popped out like rabbits over the banisters of the firstfloor; and on both the same scare and pallor were apparent. 

The sight of this incredible emotion turned Somerset to stone, andhe continued speechless, while the man gathered himself together, and, with the help of the handrail and audibly thanking God, scrambled once more upon his feet. 

'What in Heaven's name ails you?' gasped the young man as soon ashe could find words and utterance. 

'Have you a drop of brandy?' returned the other. 'I am sick. '

Somerset administered two drams, one after the other, to the manwith the chin-beard; who then, somewhat restored, began to confoundhimself in apologies for what he called his miserable nervousness, the result, he said, of a long course of dumb ague; and havingtaken leave with a hand that still sweated and trembled, hegingerly resumed his burthen and departed. 

Somerset retired to bed but not to sleep. What, he asked himself, had been the contents of the black portmanteau? Stolen goods? thecarcase of one murdered? or--and at the thought he sat upright inbed--an infernal machine? He took a solemn vow that he would setthese doubts at rest; and with the next morning, installed himselfbeside the dining-room window, vigilant with eye; and ear, to awaitand profit by the earliest opportunity. 

The hours went heavily by. Within the house there was nocircumstance of novelty; unless it might be that the nurse morefrequently made little journeys round the corner of the square, andbefore afternoon was somewhat loose of speech and gait. A littleafter six, however, there came round the corner of the gardens avery handsome and elegantly dressed young woman, who paused alittle way off, and for some time, and with frequent sighs, contemplated the front of the Superfluous Mansion. It was not thefirst time that she had thus stood afar and looked upon it, likeour common parents at the gates of Eden; and the young man hadalready had occasion to remark the lively slimness of her carriage, and had already been the butt of a chance arrow from her eye. Hehailed her coming, then, with pleasant feelings, and moved a littlenearer to the window to enjoy the sight. What was his surprise, however, when, as if with a sensible effort, she drew near, mountedthe steps and tapped discreetly at the door! He made haste to getbefore the Irish nurse, who was not improbably asleep, and had thesatisfaction to receive this gracious visitor in person. 

She inquired for Mr. Jones; and then, without transition, asked theyoung man if he were the person of the house (and at the words, hethought he could perceive her to be smiling), 'because, ' she added, 'if you are, I should like to see some of the other rooms. 'Somerset told her he was under an engagement to receive no otherlodgers; but she assured him that would be no matter, as these werefriends of Mr. Jones's. 'And, ' she continued, moving suddenly tothe dining-room door, 'let us begin here. ' Somerset was too lateto prevent her entering, and perhaps he lacked the courage toessay. 'Ah!' she cried, 'how changed it is!'

'Madam, ' cried the young man, 'since your entrance, it is I whohave the right to say so. '

She received this inane compliment with a demure and consciousdroop of the eyelids, and gracefully steering her dress among themingled litter, now with a smile, now with a sigh, reviewed thewonders of the two apartments. She gazed upon the cartoons withsparkling eyes, and a heightened colour, and in a somewhatbreathless voice, expressed a high opinion of their merits. Shepraised the effective disposition of the rockery, and in thebedroom, of which Somerset had vainly endeavoured to defend theentry, she fairly broke forth in admiration. 'How simple andmanly!' she cried: 'none of that effeminacy of neatness, which isso detestable in a man!' Hard upon this, telling him, before hehad time to reply, that she very well knew her way, and wouldtrouble him no further, she took her leave with an engaging smile, and ascended the staircase alone. 

For more than an hour the young lady remained closeted with Mr. Jones; and at the end of that time, the night being now comecompletely, they left the house in company. This was the firsttime since the arrival of his lodger, that Somerset had foundhimself alone with the Irish widow; and without the loss of anymore time than was required by decency, he stepped to the foot ofthe stairs and hailed her by her name. She came instantly, wreathed in weak smiles and with a nodding head; and when the youngman politely offered to introduce her to the treasures of his art, she swore that nothing could afford her greater pleasure, for, though she had never crossed the threshold, she had frequentlyobserved his beautiful pictures through the door. On entering thedining-room, the sight of a bottle and two glasses prepared her tobe a gentle critic; and as soon as the pictures had been viewed andpraised, she was easily persuaded to join the painter in a singleglass. 'Here, ' she said, 'are my respects; and a pleasure it is, in this horrible house, to see a gentleman like yourself, soaffable and free, and a very nice painter, I am sure. ' One glassso agreeably prefaced, was sure to lead to the acceptance of asecond; at the third, Somerset was free to cease from theaffectation of keeping her company; and as for the fourth, sheasked it of her own accord. 'For indeed, ' said she, 'what with allthese clocks and chemicals, without a drop of the creature lifewould be impossible entirely. And you seen yourself that evenM'Guire was glad to beg for it. And even himself, when he isdownhearted with all these cruel disappointments, though astemperate a man as any child, will be sometimes crying for a glassof it. And I'll thank you for a thimbleful to settle what I got. 'Soon after, she began with tears to narrate the deathbeddispositions and lament the trifling assets of her husband. Thenshe declared she heard 'the master' calling her, rose to her feet, made but one lurch of it into the still-life rockery, and with herhead upon the lobster, fell into stertorous slumbers. 

Somerset mounted at once to the first story, and opened the door ofthe drawing-room, which was brilliantly lit by several lamps. Itwas a great apartment; looking on the square with three tallwindows, and joined by a pair of ample folding-doors to the nextroom; elegant in proportion, papered in sea-green, furnished invelvet of a delicate blue, and adorned with a majestic mantelpieceof variously tinted marbles. Such was the room that Somersetremembered; that which he now beheld was changed in almost everyfeature: the furniture covered with a figured chintz; the wallshung with a rhubarb-coloured paper, and diversified by thecurtained recesses for no less than seven windows. It seemed tohimself that he must have entered, without observing thetransition, into the adjoining house. Presently from these morespecious changes, his eye condescended to the many curious objectswith which the floor was littered. Here were the locks ofdismounted pistols; clocks and clockwork in every stage ofdemolition, some still busily ticking, some reduced to their daintyelements; a great company of carboys, jars and bottles; acarpenter's bench and a laboratory-table. 

The back drawing-room, to which Somerset proceeded, had likewiseundergone a change. It was transformed to the exact appearance ofa common lodging-house bedroom; a bed with green curtains occupiedone corner; and the window was blocked by the regulation table andmirror. The door of a small closet here attracted the young man'sattention; and striking a vesta, he opened it and entered. On atable several wigs and beards were lying spread; about the wallshung an incongruous display of suits and overcoats; and conspicuousamong the last the young man observed a large overall of the mostcostly sealskin. In a flash his mind reverted to the advertisementin the Standard newspaper. The great height of his lodger, thedisproportionate breadth of his shoulders, and the strangeparticulars of his instalment, all pointed to the same conclusion. 

The vesta had now burned to his fingers; and taking the coat uponhis arm, Somerset hastily returned to the lighted drawing-room. There, with a mixture of fear and admiration, he pored upon itsgoodly proportions and the regularity and softness of the pile. The sight of a large pier-glass put another fancy in his head. Hedonned the fur-coat; and standing before the mirror in an attitudesuggestive of a Russian prince, he thrust his hands into the amplepockets. There his fingers encountered a folded journal. He drewit out, and recognised the type and paper of the Standard; and atthe same instant, his eyes alighted on the offer of two hundredpounds. Plainly then, his lodger, now no longer mysterious, hadlaid aside his coat on the very day of the appearance of theadvertisement. 

He was thus standing, the tell-tale coat upon his back, theincriminating paper in his hand, when the door opened and the talllodger, with a firm but somewhat pallid face, stepped into the roomand closed the door again behind him. For some time, the twolooked upon each other in perfect silence; then Mr. Jones movedforward to the table, took a seat, and still without once changingthe direction of his eyes, addressed the young man. 

'You are right, ' he said. 'It is for me the blood money isoffered. And now what will you do?'

It was a question to which Somerset was far from being able toreply. Taken as he was at unawares, masquerading in the man's owncoat, and surrounded by a whole arsenal of diabolical explosives, the keeper of the lodging-house was silenced. 

'Yes, ' resumed the other, 'I am he. I am that man, whom withimpotent hate and fear, they still hunt from den to den, fromdisguise to disguise. Yes, my landlord, you have it in your power, if you be poor, to lay the basis of your fortune; if you beunknown, to capture honour at one snatch. You have hocussed aninnocent widow; and I find you here in my apartment, for whose useI pay you in stamped money, searching my wardrobe, and your hand--shame, sir!--your hand in my very pocket. You can now complete thecycle of your ignominious acts, by what will be at once thesimplest, the safest, and the most remunerative. ' The speakerpaused as if to emphasise his words; and then, with a great changeof tone and manner, thus resumed: 'And yet, sir, when I look uponyour face, I feel certain that I cannot be deceived: certain thatin spite of all, I have the honour and pleasure of speaking to agentleman. Take off my coat, sir--which but cumbers you. Divestyourself of this confusion: that which is but thought upon, thankGod, need be no burthen to the conscience; we have all harbouredguilty thoughts: and if it flashed into your mind to sell my fleshand blood, my anguish in the dock, and the sweat of my death agony--it was a thought, dear sir, you were as incapable of acting on, asI of any further question of your honour. ' At these words, thespeaker, with a very open, smiling countenance, like a forgivingfather, offered Somerset his hand. 

It was not in the young man's nature to refuse forgiveness ordissect generosity. He instantly, and almost without thought, accepted the proffered grasp. 

'And now, ' resumed the lodger, 'now that I hold in mine your loyalhand, I lay by my apprehensions, I dismiss suspicion, I go further--by an effort of will, I banish the memory of what is past. Howyou came here, I care not: enough that you are here--as my guest. Sit ye down; and let us, with your good permission, improveacquaintance over a glass of excellent whisky. '

So speaking, he produced glasses and a bottle: and the pairpledged each other in silence. 

'Confess, ' observed the smiling host, 'you were surprised at theappearance of the room. '

'I was indeed, ' said Somerset; 'nor can I imagine the purpose ofthese changes. '

'These, ' replied the conspirator, 'are the devices by which Icontinue to exist. Conceive me now, accused before one of yourunjust tribunals; conceive the various witnesses appearing, and thesingular variety of their reports! One will have visited me inthis drawing-room as it originally stood; a second finds it as itis to-night; and to-morrow or next day, all may have been changed. If you love romance (as artists do), few lives are more romanticthan that of the obscure individual now addressing you. Obscureyet famous. Mine is an anonymous, infernal glory. By infamousmeans, I work towards my bright purpose. I found the liberty andpeace of a poor country, desperately abused; the future smiles uponthat land; yet, in the meantime, I lead the existence of a huntedbrute, work towards appalling ends, and practice hell'sdexterities. '

Somerset, glass in hand, contemplated the strange fanatic beforehim, and listened to his heated rhapsody, with indescribablebewilderment. He looked him in the face with curiousparticularity; saw there the marks of education; and wondered themore profoundly. 

'Sir, ' he said--'for I know not whether I should still address youas Mr. Jones--'

'Jones, Breitman, Higginbotham, Pumpernickel, Daviot, Henderland, by all or any of these you may address me, ' said the plotter; 'forall I have at some time borne. Yet that which I most prize, thatwhich is most feared, hated, and obeyed, is not a name to be foundin your directories; it is not a name current in post-offices orbanks; and, indeed, like the celebrated clan M'Gregor, I may justlydescribe myself as being nameless by day. But, ' he continued, rising to his feet, 'by night, and among my desperate followers, Iam the redoubted Zero. '

Somerset was unacquainted with the name, but he politely expressedsurprise and gratification. 'I am to understand, ' he continued, 'that, under this alias, you follow the profession of a dynamiter?'{3}

The plotter had resumed his seat and now replenished the glasses. 

'I do, ' he said. 'In this dark period of time, a star--the star ofdynamite--has risen for the oppressed; and among those who practiseits use, so thick beset with dangers and attended by suchincredible difficulties and disappointments, few have been moreassiduous, and not many--' He paused, and a shade of embarrassmentappeared upon his face--'not many have been more successful thanmyself. '

'I can imagine, ' observed Somerset, 'that, from the sweepingconsequences looked for, the career is not devoid of interest. Youhave, besides, some of the entertainment of the game of hide andseek. But it would still seem to me--I speak as a layman--thatnothing could be simpler or safer than to deposit an infernalmachine and retire to an adjacent county to await the painfulconsequences. '

'You speak, indeed, ' returned the plotter, with some evidence ofwarmth, 'you speak, indeed, most ignorantly. Do you make nothing, then, of such a peril as we share this moment? Do you think itnothing to occupy a house like this one, mined, menaced, and, in aword, literally tottering to its fall?'

'Good God!' ejaculated Somerset. 

'And when you speak of ease, ' pursued Zero, 'in this age ofscientific studies, you fill me with surprise. Are you not awarethat chemicals are proverbially fickle as woman, and clockwork ascapricious as the very devil? Do you see upon my brow thesefurrows of anxiety? Do you observe the silver threads that minglewith my hair? Clockwork, clockwork has stamped them on my brow--chemicals have sprinkled them upon my locks! No, Mr. Somerset, ' heresumed, after a moment's pause, his voice still quivering withsensibility, 'you must not suppose the dynamiter's life to be allgold. On the contrary, you cannot picture to yourself thebloodshot vigils and the staggering disappointments of a life likemine. I have toiled (let us say) for months, up early and downlate; my bag is ready, my clock set; a daring agent has hurriedwith white face to deposit the instrument of ruin; we await thefall of England, the massacre of thousands, the yell of fear andexecration; and lo! a snap like that of a child's pistol, anoffensive smell, and the entire loss of so much time and plant!If, ' he concluded, musingly, 'we had been merely able to recoverthe lost bags, I believe with but a touch or two, I could haveremedied the peccant engine. But what with the loss of plant andthe almost insuperable scientific difficulties of the task, ourfriends in France are almost ready to desert the chosen medium. They propose, instead, to break up the drainage system of citiesand sweep off whole populations with the devastating typhoidpestilence: a tempting and a scientific project: a process, indiscriminate indeed, but of idyllical simplicity. I recogniseits elegance; but, sir, I have something of the poet in my nature;something, possibly, of the tribune. And, for my small part, Ishall remain devoted to that more emphatic, more striking, and (ifyou please) more popular method, of the explosive bomb. Yes, ' hecried, with unshaken hope, 'I will still continue, and, I feel itin my bosom, I shall yet succeed. '

'Two things I remark, ' said Somerset. 'The first somewhat staggersme. Have you, then--in all this course of life, which you havesketched so vividly--have you not once succeeded?'

'Pardon me, ' said Zero. 'I have had one success. You behold in methe author of the outrage of Red Lion Court. '

'But if I remember right, ' objected Somerset, 'the thing was afiasco. A scavenger's barrow and some copies of the Weekly Budget--these were the only victims. '

'You will pardon me again, ' returned Zero with positive asperity:'a child was injured. '

'And that fitly brings me to my second point, ' said Somerset. 'ForI observed you to employ the word "indiscriminate. " Now, surely, ascavenger's barrow and a child (if child there were) represent thevery acme and top pin-point of indiscriminate, and, pardon me, ofineffectual reprisal. '

'Did I employ the word?' asked Zero. 'Well, I will not defend it. But for efficiency, you touch on graver matters; and beforeentering upon so vast a subject, permit me once more to fill ourglasses. Disputation is dry work, ' he added, with a charminggaiety of manner. 

Once more accordingly the pair pledged each other in a stalwartgrog; and Zero, leaning back with an air of some complacency, proceeded more largely to develop his opinions. 

'The indiscriminate?' he began. 'War, my dear sir, isindiscriminate. War spares not the child; it spares not the barrowof the harmless scavenger. No more, ' he concluded, beaming, 'nomore do I. Whatever may strike fear, whatever may confound orparalyse the activities of the guilty nation, barrow or child, imperial Parliament or excursion steamer, is welcome to my simpleplans. You are not, ' he inquired, with a shade of sympatheticinterest, 'you are not, I trust, a believer?'

'Sir, I believe in nothing, ' said the young man. 

'You are then, ' replied Zero, 'in a position to grasp my argument. We agree that humanity is the object, the glorious triumph ofhumanity; and being pledged to labour for that end, and face toface with the banded opposition of kings, parliaments, churches, and the members of the force, who am I--who are we, dear sir--toaffect a nicety about the tools employed? You might, perhaps, expect us to attack the Queen, the sinister Gladstone, the rigidDerby, or the dexterous Granville; but there you would be in error. Our appeal is to the body of the people; it is these that we wouldtouch and interest. Now, sir, have you observed the Englishhousemaid?'

'I should think I had, ' cried Somerset. 

'From a man of taste and a votary of art, I had expected it, 'returned the conspirator politely. 'A type apart; a very charmingfigure; and thoroughly adapted to our ends. The neat cap, theclean print, the comely person, the engaging manner; her positionbetween classes, parents in one, employers in another; theprobability that she will have at least one sweet-heart, whosefeelings we shall address: --yes, I have a leaning--call it, if youwill, a weakness--for the housemaid. Not that I would beunderstood to despise the nurse. For the child is a veryinteresting feature: I have long since marked out the child as thesensitive point in society. ' He wagged his head, with a wise, pensive smile. 'And talking, sir, of children and of the perils ofour trade, let me now narrate to you a little incident of anexplosive bomb, that fell out some weeks ago under my ownobservation. It fell out thus. '

And Zero, leaning back in his chair, narrated the following simpletale. 

ZERO'S TALE OF THE EXPLOSIVE BOMB. {4}

I dined by appointment with one of our most trusted agents, in aprivate chamber at St. James's Hall. You have seen the man: itwas M'Guire, the most chivalrous of creatures, but not himselfexpert in our contrivances. Hence the necessity of our meeting;for I need not remind you what enormous issues depend upon the niceadjustment of the engine. I set our little petard for half anhour, the scene of action being hard by; and the better to avertmiscarriage, employed a device, a recent invention of my own, bywhich the opening of the Gladstone bag in which the bomb wascarried, should instantly determine the explosion. M'Guire wassomewhat dashed by this arrangement, which was new to him: andpointed out, with excellent, clear good sense, that should he bearrested, it would probably involve him in the fall of ouropponents. But I was not to be moved, made a strong appeal to hispatriotism, gave him a good glass of whisky, and despatched him onhis glorious errand. 

Our objective was the effigy of Shakespeare in Leicester Square: aspot, I think, admirably chosen; not only for the sake of thedramatist, still very foolishly claimed as a glory by the Englishrace, in spite of his disgusting political opinions; but from thefact that the seats in the immediate neighbourhood are oftenthronged by children, errand-boys, unfortunate young ladies of thepoorer class and infirm old men--all classes making a direct appealto public pity, and therefore suitable with our designs. AsM'Guire drew near his heart was inflamed by the most noblesentiment of triumph. Never had he seen the garden so crowded;children, still stumbling in the impotence of youth, ran to andfro, shouting and playing, round the pedestal; an old, sickpensioner sat upon the nearest bench, a medal on his breast, astick with which he walked (for he was disabled by wounds)reclining on his knee. Guilty England would thus be stabbed in themost delicate quarters; the moment had, indeed, been well selected;and M'Guire, with a radiant provision of the event, drew merrilynearer. Suddenly his eye alighted on the burly form of apoliceman, standing hard by the effigy in an attitude of watch. Mybold companion paused; he looked about him closely; here and there, at different points of the enclosure, other men stood or loitered, affecting an abstraction, feigning to gaze upon the shrubs, feigning to talk, feigning to be weary and to rest upon thebenches. M'Guire was no child in these affairs; he instantlydivined one of the plots of the Machiavellian Gladstone. 

A chief difficulty with which we have to deal, is a certainnervousness in the subaltern branches of the corps; as the hour ofsome design draws near, these chicken-souled conspirators appear tosuffer some revulsion of intent; and frequently despatch to theauthorities, not indeed specific denunciations, but vague anonymouswarnings. But for this purely accidental circumstance, England hadlong ago been an historical expression. On the receipt of such aletter, the Government lay a trap for their adversaries, andsurround the threatened spot with hirelings. My blood sometimesboils in my veins, when I consider the case of those who sellthemselves for money in such a cause. True, thanks to thegenerosity of our supporters, we patriots receive a verycomfortable stipend; I myself, of course, touch a salary which putsme quite beyond the reach of any peddling, mercenary thoughts;M'Guire, again, ere he joined our ranks, was on the brink ofstarving, and now, thank God! receives a decent income. That is asit should be; the patriot must not be diverted from his task by anybase consideration; and the distinction between our position andthat of the police is too obvious to be stated. 

Plainly, however, our Leicester Square design had been divulged;the Government had craftily filled the place with minions; even thepensioner was not improbably a hireling in disguise; and ouremissary, without other aid or protection than the simple apparatusin his bag, found himself confronted by force; brutal force; thatstrong hand which was a character of the ages of oppression. Should he venture to deposit the machine, it was almost certainthat he would be observed and arrested; a cry would arise; andthere was just a fear that the police might not be present insufficient force, to protect him from the savagery of the mob. Thescheme must be delayed. He stood with his bag on his arm, pretending to survey the front of the Alhambra, when there flashedinto his mind a thought to appal the bravest. The machine was set;at the appointed hour, it must explode; and how, in the interval, was he to be rid of it?

Put yourself, I beseech you, into the body of that patriot. Therehe was, friendless and helpless; a man in the very flower of life, for he is not yet forty; with long years of happiness before him;and now condemned, in one moment, to a cruel and revolting death bydynamite! The square, he said, went round him like a thaumatrope;he saw the Alhambra leap into the air like a balloon; and reeledagainst the railing. It is probable he fainted. 

When he came to himself, a constable had him by the arm. 

'My God!' he cried. 

'You seem to be unwell, sir, ' said the hireling. 

'I feel better now, ' cried poor M'Guire: and with uneven steps, for the pavement of the square seemed to lurch and reel under hisfooting, he fled from the scene of this disaster. Fled? Alas, from what was he fleeing? Did he not carry that from which he fledalong with him? and had he the wings of the eagle, had he theswiftness of the ocean winds, could he have been rapt into theuttermost quarters of the earth, how should he escape the ruin thathe carried? We have heard of living men who have been fettered tothe dead; the grievance, soberly considered, is no more thansentimental; the case is but a flea-bite to that of him who shouldbe linked, like poor M'Guire, to an explosive bomb. 

A thought struck him in Green Street, like a dart through hisliver: suppose it were the hour already. He stopped as though hehad been shot, and plucked his watch out. There was a howling inhis ears, as loud as a winter tempest; his sight was now obscuredas if by a cloud, now, as by a lightning flash, would show him thevery dust upon the street. But so brief were these intervals ofvision, and so violently did the watch vibrate in his hands, thatit was impossible to distinguish the numbers on the dial. Hecovered his eyes for a few seconds; and in that space, it seemed tohim that he had fallen to be a man of ninety. When he lookedagain, the watch-plate had grown legible: he had twenty minutes. Twenty minutes, and no plan!

Green Street, at that time, was very empty; and he now observed alittle girl of about six drawing near to him, and as she came, kicking in front of her, as children will, a piece of wood. Shesang, too; and something in her accent recalling him to the past, produced a sudden clearness in his mind. Here was a God-sentopportunity!

'My dear, ' said he, 'would you like a present of a pretty bag?'

The child cried aloud with joy and put out her hands to take it. She had looked first at the bag, like a true child; but mostunfortunately, before she had yet received the fatal gift, her eyesfell directly on M'Guire; and no sooner had she seen the poorgentleman's face, than she screamed out and leaped backward, asthough she had seen the devil. Almost at the same moment a womanappeared upon the threshold of a neighbouring shop, and called uponthe child in anger. 'Come here, colleen, ' she said, 'and don't beplaguing the poor old gentleman!' With that she re-entered thehouse, and the child followed her, sobbing aloud. 

With the loss of this hope M'Guire's reason swooned within him. When next he awoke to consciousness, he was standing before St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, wavering like a drunken man; the passers-byregarding him with eyes in which he read, as in a glass, an imageof the terror and horror that dwelt within his own. 

'I am afraid you are very ill, sir, ' observed a woman, stopping andgazing hard in his face. 'Can I do anything to help you?'

'Ill?' said M'Guire. 'O God!' And then, recovering some shadow ofhis self-command, 'Chronic, madam, ' said he: 'a long course of thedumb ague. But since you are so compassionate--an errand that Ilack the strength to carry out, ' he gasped--'this bag to PortmanSquare. Oh, compassionate woman, as you hope to be saved, as youare a mother, in the name of your babes that wait to welcome you athome, oh, take this bag to Portman Square! I have a mother, too, 'he added, with a broken voice. 'Number 19, Portman Square. '

I suppose he had expressed himself with too much energy of voice;for the woman was plainly taken with a certain fear of him. 'Poorgentleman!' said she. 'If I were you, I would go home. ' And sheleft him standing there in his distress. 

'Home!' thought M'Guire, 'what a derision!' What home was therefor him, the victim of philanthropy? He thought of his old mother, of his happy youth; of the hideous, rending pang of the explosion;of the possibility that he might not be killed, that he might becruelly mangled, crippled for life, condemned to lifelong pains, blinded perhaps, and almost surely deafened. Ah, you spoke lightlyof the dynamiter's peril; but even waiving death, have you realisedwhat it is for a fine, brave young man of forty, to be smittensuddenly with deafness, cut off from all the music of life, andfrom the voice of friendship, and love? How little do we realisethe sufferings of others! Even your brutal Government, in theheyday of its lust for cruelty, though it scruples not to hound thepatriot with spies, to pack the corrupt jury, to bribe the hangman, and to erect the infamous gallows, would hesitate to inflict sohorrible a doom: not, I am well aware, from virtue, not fromphilanthropy, but with the fear before it of the withering scorn ofthe good. 

But I wander from M'Guire. From this dread glance into the pastand future, his thoughts returned at a bound upon the present. Howhad he wandered there? and how long--oh, heavens! how long had hebeen about it? He pulled out his watch; and found that but threeminutes had elapsed. It seemed too bright a thing to be believed. He glanced at the church clock; and sure enough, it marked an hourfour minutes faster than the watch. 

Of all that he endured, M'Guire declares that pang was the mostdesolate. Till then, he had had one friend, one counsellor, inwhom he plenarily trusted; by whose advertisement, he numbered theminutes that remained to him of life; on whose sure testimony, hecould tell when the time was come to risk the last adventure, tocast the bag away from him, and take to flight. And now in whatwas he to place reliance? His watch was slow; it might be losingtime; if so, in what degree? What limit could he set to itsderangement? and how much was it possible for a watch to lose inthirty minutes? Five? ten? fifteen? It might be so; already, itseemed years since he had left St. James's Hall on this sopromising enterprise; at any moment, then, the blow was to belooked for. 

In the face of this new distress, the wild disorder of his pulsessettled down; and a broken weariness succeeded, as though he hadlived for centuries and for centuries been dead. The buildings andthe people in the street became incredibly small, and far-away, andbright; London sounded in his ears stilly, like a whisper; and therattle of the cab that nearly charged him down, was like a soundfrom Africa. Meanwhile, he was conscious of a strange abstractionfrom himself; and heard and felt his footfalls on the ground, asthose of a very old, small, debile and tragically fortuned man, whom he sincerely pitied. 

As he was thus moving forward past the National Gallery, in amedium, it seemed, of greater rarity and quiet than ordinary air, there slipped into his mind the recollection of a certain entry inWhitcomb Street hard by, where he might perhaps lay down his tragiccargo unremarked. Thither, then, he bent his steps, seeming, as hewent, to float above the pavement; and there, in the mouth of theentry, he found a man in a sleeved waistcoat, gravely chewing astraw. He passed him by, and twice patrolled the entry, scoutingfor the barest chance; but the man had faced about and continued toobserve him curiously. 

Another hope was gone. M'Guire reissued from the entry, stillfollowed by the wondering eyes of the man in the sleeved waistcoat. He once more consulted his watch: there were but fourteen minutesleft to him. At that, it seemed as if a sudden, genial heat werespread about his brain; for a second or two, he saw the world asred as blood; and thereafter entered into a complete possession ofhimself, with an incredible cheerfulness of spirits, prompting himto sing and chuckle as he walked. And yet this mirth seemed tobelong to things external; and within, like a black and leaden-heavy kernel, he was conscious of the weight upon his soul. 

I care for nobody, no, not I, And nobody cares for me, he sang, and laughed at the appropriate burthen, so that thepassengers stared upon him on the street. And still the warmthseemed to increase and to become more genial. What was life? heconsidered, and what he, M'Guire? What even Erin, our green Erin?All seemed so incalculably little that he smiled as he looked downupon it. He would have given years, had he possessed them, for aglass of spirits; but time failed, and he must deny himself thislast indulgence. 

At the corner of the Haymarket, he very jauntily hailed a hansomcab; jumped in; bade the fellow drive him to a part of theEmbankment, which he named; and as soon as the vehicle was inmotion, concealed the bag as completely as he could under thevantage of the apron, and once more drew out his watch. So he rodefor five interminable minutes, his heart in his mouth at everyjolt, scarce able to possess his terrors, yet fearing to wake theattention of the driver by too obvious a change of plan, andwilling, if possible, to leave him time to forget the Gladstonebag. 

At length, at the head of some stairs on the Embankment, he hailed;the cab was stopped; and he alighted--with how glad a heart! Hethrust his hand into his pocket. All was now over; he had savedhis life; nor that alone, but he had engineered a striking act ofdynamite; for what could be more pictorial, what more effective, than the explosion of a hansom cab, as it sped rapidly along thestreets of London. He felt in one pocket; then in another. Themost crushing seizure of despair descended on his soul; and struckinto abject dumbness, he stared upon the driver. He had not onepenny. 

'Hillo, ' said the driver, 'don't seem well. '

'Lost my money, ' said M'Guire, in tones so faint and strange thatthey surprised his hearing. 

The man looked through the trap. 'I dessay, ' said he: 'you'veleft your bag. '

M'Guire half unconsciously fetched it out; and looking on thatblack continent at arm's length, withered inwardly and felt hisfeatures sharpen as with mortal sickness. 

'This is not mine, ' said he. 'Your last fare must have left it. You had better take it to the station. '

'Now look here, ' returned the cabman: 'are you off your chump? oram I?'

'Well, then, I'll tell you what, ' exclaimed M'Guire; 'you take itfor your fare!'

'Oh, I dessay, ' replied the driver. 'Anything else? What's INyour bag? Open it, and let me see. '

'No, no, ' returned M'Guire. 'Oh no, not that. It's a surprise;it's prepared expressly: a surprise for honest cabmen. '

'No, you don't, ' said the man, alighting from his perch, and comingvery close to the unhappy patriot. 'You're either going to pay myfare, or get in again and drive to the office. '

It was at this supreme hour of his distress, that M'Guire spied thestout figure of one Godall, a tobacconist of Rupert Street, drawingnear along the Embankment. The man was not unknown to him; he hadbought of his wares, and heard him quoted for the soul ofliberality; and such was now the nearness of his peril, that evenat such a straw of hope, he clutched with gratitude. 

'Thank God!' he cried. 'Here comes a friend of mine. I'llborrow. ' And he dashed to meet the tradesman. 'Sir, ' said he, 'Mr. Godall, I have dealt with you--you doubtless know my face--calamities for which I cannot blame myself have overwhelmed me. Oh, sir, for the love of innocence, for the sake of the bonds ofhumanity, and as you hope for mercy at the throne of grace, lend metwo-and-six!'

'I do not recognise your face, ' replied Mr. Godall; 'but I rememberthe cut of your beard, which I have the misfortune to dislike. Here, sir, is a sovereign; which I very willingly advance to you, on the single condition that you shave your chin. '

M'Guire grasped the coin without a word; cast it to the cabman, calling out to him to keep the change; bounded down the steps, flung the bag far forth into the river, and fell headlong after it. He was plucked from a watery grave, it is believed, by the hands ofMr. Godall. Even as he was being hoisted dripping to the shore, adull and choked explosion shook the solid masonry of theEmbankment, and far out in the river a momentary fountain rose anddisappeared. 

THE SUPERFLUOUS MANSION (Continued)

Somerset in vain strove to attach a meaning to these words. Hehad, in the meanwhile, applied himself assiduously to the flagon;the plotter began to melt in twain, and seemed to expand and hoveron his seat; and with a vague sense of nightmare, the young manrose unsteadily to his feet, and, refusing the proffer of a thirdgrog, insisted that the hour was late and he must positively get tobed. 

'Dear me, ' observed Zero, 'I find you very temperate. But I willnot be oppressive. Suffice it that we are now fast friends; and, my dear landlord, au revoir!'

So saying the plotter once more shook hands; and with the politestceremonies, and some necessary guidance, conducted the bewilderedyoung gentleman to the top of the stair. 

Precisely, how he got to bed, was a point on which Somersetremained in utter darkness; but the next morning when, at a blow, he started broad awake, there fell upon his mind a perfecthurricane of horror and wonder. That he should have sufferedhimself to be led into the semblance of intimacy with such a man ashis abominable lodger, appeared, in the cold light of day, amystery of human weakness. True, he was caught in a situation thatmight have tested the aplomb of Talleyrand. That was perhaps apalliation; but it was no excuse. For so wholesale a capitulationof principle, for such a fall into criminal familiarity, no excuseindeed was possible; nor any remedy, but to withdraw at once fromthe relation. 

As soon as he was dressed, he hurried upstairs, determined on arupture. Zero hailed him with the warmth of an old friend. 

'Come in, ' he cried, 'dear Mr. Somerset! Come in, sit down, and, without ceremony, join me at my morning meal. '

'Sir, ' said Somerset, 'you must permit me first to disengage myhonour. Last night, I was surprised into a certain appearance ofcomplicity; but once for all, let me inform you that I regard youand your machinations with unmingled horror and disgust, and I willleave no stone unturned to crush your vile conspiracy. '

'My dear fellow, ' replied Zero, with an air of some complacency, 'Iam well accustomed to these human weaknesses. Disgust? I havefelt it myself; it speedily wears off. I think none the worse, Ithink the more of you, for this engaging frankness. And in themeanwhile, what are you to do? You find yourself, if I interpretrightly, in very much the same situation as Charles the Second(possibly the least degraded of your British sovereigns) when hewas taken into the confidence of the thief. To denounce me, is outof the question; and what else can you attempt? No, dear Mr. Somerset, your hands are tied; and you find yourself condemned, under pain of behaving like a cad, to be that same charming andintellectual companion who delighted me last night. '

'At least, ' cried Somerset, 'I can, and do, order you to leave thishouse. '

'Ah!' cried the plotter, 'but there I fail to follow you. You may, if you please, enact the part of Judas; but if, as I suppose, yourecoil from that extremity of meanness, I am, on my side, far toointelligent to leave these lodgings, in which I please myselfexceedingly, and from which you lack the power to drive me. No, no, dear sir; here I am, and here I propose to stay. '

'I repeat, ' cried Somerset, beside himself with a sense of his ownweakness, 'I repeat that I give you warning. I am the master ofthis house; and I emphatically give you warning. '

'A week's warning?' said the imperturbable conspirator. 'Verywell: we will talk of it a week from now. That is arranged; andin the meanwhile, I observe my breakfast growing cold. Do, dearMr. Somerset, since you find yourself condemned, for a week atleast, to the society of a very interesting character, display someof that open favour, some of that interest in life's obscurersides, which stamp the character of the true artist. Hang me, ifyou will, to-morrow; but to-day show yourself divested of thescruples of the burgess, and sit down pleasantly to share my meal. '

'Man!' cried Somerset, 'do you understand my sentiments?'

'Certainly, ' replied Zero; 'and I respect them! Would you beoutdone in such a contest? will you alone be partial? and in thisnineteenth century, cannot two gentlemen of education agree todiffer on a point of politics? Come, sir: all your hard wordshave left me smiling; judge then, which of us is the philosopher!'

Somerset was a young man of a very tolerant disposition and bynature easily amenable to sophistry. He threw up his hands with agesture of despair, and took the seat to which the conspiratorinvited him. The meal was excellent; the host not only affable, but primed with curious information. He seemed, indeed, like onewho had too long endured the torture of silence, to exult in themost wholesale disclosures. The interest of what he had to tellwas great; his character, besides, developed step by step; andSomerset, as the time fled, not only outgrew some of the discomfortof his false position, but began to regard the conspirator with afamiliarity that verged upon contempt. In any circumstances, hehad a singular inability to leave the society in which he foundhimself; company, even if distasteful, held him captive like alimed sparrow; and on this occasion, he suffered hour to followhour, was easily persuaded to sit down once more to table, and didnot even attempt to withdraw till, on the approach of evening, Zero, with many apologies, dismissed his guest. His fellow-conspirators, the dynamiter handsomely explained, as they wereunacquainted with the sterling qualities of the young man, would bealarmed at the sight of a strange face. 

As soon as he was alone, Somerset fell back upon the humour of themorning. He raged at the thought of his facility; he paced thedining-room, forming the sternest resolutions for the future; hewrung the hand which had been dishonoured by the touch of anassassin; and among all these whirling thoughts, there flashed infrom time to time, and ever with a chill of fear, the thought ofthe confounded ingredients with which the house was stored. Apowder magazine seemed a secure smoking-room alongside of theSuperfluous Mansion. 

He sought refuge in flight, in locomotion, in the flowing bowl. Aslong as the bars were open, he travelled from one to another, seeking light, safety, and the companionship of human faces; whenthese resources failed him, he fell back on the belated baked-potato man; and at length, still pacing the streets, he was goadedto fraternise with the police. Alas, with what a sense of guilt heconversed with these guardians of the law; how gladly had he weptupon their ample bosoms; and how the secret fluttered to his lipsand was still denied an exit! Fatigue began at last to triumphover remorse; and about the hour of the first milkman, he returnedto the door of the mansion; looked at it with a horrid expectation, as though it should have burst that instant into flames; drew outhis key, and when his foot already rested on the steps, once morelost heart and fled for repose to the grisly shelter of a coffee-shop. 

It was on the stroke of noon when he awoke. Dismally searching inhis pockets, he found himself reduced to half-a-crown; and when hehad paid the price of his distasteful couch, saw himself obliged toreturn to the Superfluous Mansion. He sneaked into the hall andstole on tiptoe to the cupboard where he kept his money. Yet halfa minute, he told himself, and he would be free for days from hisobseding lodger, and might decide at leisure on the course heshould pursue. But fate had otherwise designed: there came a tapat the door and Zero entered. 

'Have I caught you?' he cried, with innocent gaiety. 'Dear fellow, I was growing quite impatient. ' And on the speaker's somewhatstolid face, there came a glow of genuine affection. 'I am so longunused to have a friend, ' he continued, 'that I begin to be afraidI may prove jealous. ' And he wrung the hand of his landlord. 

Somerset was, of all men, least fit to deal with such a greeting. To reject these kind advances was beyond his strength. That hecould not return cordiality for cordiality, was already almost morethan he could carry. That inequality between kind sentimentswhich, to generous characters, will always seem to be a sort ofguilt, oppressed him to the ground; and he stammered vague andlying words. 

'That is all right, ' cried Zero--'that is as it should be--say nomore! I had a vague alarm; I feared you had deserted me; but I nowown that fear to have been unworthy, and apologise. To doubt ofyour forgiveness were to repeat my sin. Come, then; dinner waits;join me again and tell me your adventures of the night. '

Kindness still sealed the lips of Somerset; and he suffered himselfonce more to be set down to table with his innocent and criminalacquaintance. Once more, the plotter plunged up to the neck indamaging disclosures: now it would be the name and biography of anindividual, now the address of some important centre, that rose, asif by accident, upon his lips; and each word was like another turnof the thumbscrew to his unhappy guest. Finally, the course ofZero's bland monologue led him to the young lady of two days ago:that young lady, who had flashed on Somerset for so brief a whilebut with so conquering a charm; and whose engaging grace, communicative eyes, and admirable conduct of the sweeping skirt, remained imprinted on his memory. 

'You saw her?' said Zero. 'Beautiful, is she not? She, too, isone of ours: a true enthusiast: nervous, perhaps, in presence ofthe chemicals; but in matters of intrigue, the very soul of skilland daring. Lake, Fonblanque, de Marly, Valdevia, such are some ofthe names that she employs; her true name--but there, perhaps, I gotoo far. Suffice it, that it is to her I owe my present lodging, and, dear Somerset, the pleasure of your acquaintance. It appearsshe knew the house. You see dear fellow, I make no concealment:all that you can care to hear, I tell you openly. '

'For God's sake, ' cried the wretched Somerset, 'hold your tongue!You cannot imagine how you torture me!'

A shade of serious discomposure crossed the open countenance ofZero. 

'There are times, ' he said, 'when I begin to fancy that you do notlike me. Why, why, dear Somerset, this lack of cordiality? I amdepressed; the touchstone of my life draws near; and if I fail'--hegloomily nodded--'from all the height of my ambitious schemes, Ifall, dear boy, into contempt. These are grave thoughts, and youmay judge my need of your delightful company. Innocent prattler, you relieve the weight of my concerns. And yet . . . And yet . . . ' The speaker pushed away his plate, and rose from table. 'Follow me, ' said he, 'follow me. My mood is on; I must have air, I must behold the plain of battle. '

So saying, he led the way hurriedly to the top flat of the mansion, and thence, by ladder and trap, to a certain leaded platform, sheltered at one end by a great stalk of chimneys and occupying theactual summit of the roof. On both sides, it bordered, withoutparapet or rail, on the incline of slates; and, northward aboveall, commanded an extensive view of housetops, and rising throughthe smoke, the distant spires of churches. 

'Here, ' cried Zero, 'you behold this field of city, rich, crowded, laughing with the spoil of continents; but soon, how soon, to belaid low! Some day, some night, from this coign of vantage, youshall perhaps be startled by the detonation of the judgment gun--not sharp and empty like the crack of cannon, but deep-mouthed andunctuously solemn. Instantly thereafter, you shall behold theflames break forth. Ay, ' he cried, stretching forth his hand, 'ay, that will be a day of retribution. Then shall the pallid constableflee side by side with the detected thief. Blaze!' he cried, 'blaze, derided city! Fall, flatulent monarchy, fall like Dagon!'

With these words his foot slipped upon the lead; and but forSomerset's quickness, he had been instantly precipitated intospace. Pale as a sheet, and limp as a pocket-handkerchief, he wasdragged from the edge of downfall by one arm; helped, or rathercarried, down the ladder; and deposited in safety on the atticlanding. Here he began to come to himself, wiped his brow, and atlength, seizing Somerset's hand in both of his, began to utter hisacknowledgments. 

'This seals it, ' said he. 'Ours is a life and death connection. You have plucked me from the jaws of death; and if I were beforeattracted by your character, judge now of the ardour of mygratitude and love! But I perceive I am still greatly shaken. Lend me, I beseech you, lend me your arm as far as my apartment. '

A dram of spirits restored the plotter to something of hiscustomary self-possession; and he was standing, glass in hand andgenially convalescent, when his eye was attracted by the dejectionof the unfortunate young man. 

'Good heavens, dear Somerset, ' he cried, 'what ails you? Let meoffer you a touch of spirits. '

But Somerset had fallen below the reach of this material comfort. 

'Let me be, ' he said. 'I am lost; you have caught me in the toils. Up to this moment, I have lived all my life in the most recklessmanner, and done exactly what I pleased, with the most perfectinnocence. And now--what am I? Are you so blind and wooden thatyou do not see the loathing you inspire me with? Is it possibleyou can suppose me willing to continue to exist upon such terms?To think, ' he cried, 'that a young man, guilty of no fault on earthbut amiability, should find himself involved in such a damnedimbroglio!' And placing his knuckles in his eyes, Somerset rolledupon the sofa. 

'My God, ' said Zero, 'is this possible? And I so filled withtenderness and interest! Can it be, dear Somerset, that you areunder the empire of these out-worn scruples? or that you judge apatriot by the morality of the religious tract? I thought you werea good agnostic. '

'Mr. Jones, ' said Somerset, 'it is in vain to argue. I boastmyself a total disbeliever, not only in revealed religion, but inthe data, method, and conclusions of the whole of ethics. Well!what matters it? what signifies a form of words? I regard you as areptile, whom I would rejoice, whom I long, to stamp under my heel. You would blow up others? Well then, understand: I want, withevery circumstance of infamy and agony, to blow up you!'

'Somerset, Somerset!' said Zero, turning very pale, 'this is wrong;this is very wrong. You pain, you wound me, Somerset. '

'Give me a match!' cried Somerset wildly. 'Let me set fire to thisincomparable monster! Let me perish with him in his fall!'

'For God's sake, ' cried Zero, clutching hold of the young man, 'forGod's sake command yourself! We stand upon the brink; death yawnsaround us; a man--a stranger in this foreign land--one whom youhave called your friend--'

'Silence!' cried Somerset, 'you are no friend, no friend of mine. I look on you with loathing, like a toad: my flesh creeps withphysical repulsion; my soul revolts against the sight of you. '

Zero burst into tears. 'Alas!' he sobbed, 'this snaps the lastlink that bound me to humanity. My friend disowns--he insults me. I am indeed accurst. '

Somerset stood for an instant staggered by this sudden change offront. The next moment, with a despairing gesture, he fled fromthe room and from the house. The first dash of his escape carriedhim hard upon half-way to the next police-office: but presentlybegan to droop; and before he reached the house of lawfulintervention, he fell once more among doubtful counsels. Was he anagnostic? had he a right to act? Away with such nonsense, and letZero perish! ran his thoughts. And then again: had he notpromised, had he not shaken hands and broken bread? and that withopen eyes? and if so how could he take action, and not forfeithonour? But honour? what was honour? A figment, which, in the hotpursuit of crime, he ought to dash aside. Ay, but crime? Afigment, too, which his enfranchised intellect discarded. All day, he wandered in the parks, a prey to whirling thoughts; all night, patrolled the city; and at the peep of day he sat down by thewayside in the neighbourhood of Peckham and bitterly wept. Hisgods had fallen. He who had chosen the broad, daylit, unencumberedpaths of universal scepticism, found himself still the bondslave ofhonour. He who had accepted life from a point of view as lofty asthe predatory eagle's, though with no design to prey; he who hadclearly recognised the common moral basis of war, of commercialcompetition, and of crime; he who was prepared to help the escapingmurderer or to embrace the impenitent thief, found, to theoverthrow of all his logic, that he objected to the use ofdynamite. The dawn crept among the sleeping villas and over thesmokeless fields of city; and still the unfortunate sceptic sobbedover his fall from consistency. 

At length, he rose and took the rising sun to witness. 'There isno question as to fact, ' he cried; 'right and wrong are butfigments and the shadow of a word; but for all that, there arecertain things that I cannot do, and there are certain others thatI will not stand. ' Thereupon he decided to return to make one lasteffort of persuasion, and, if he could not prevail on Zero todesist from his infernal trade, throw delicacy to the winds, givethe plotter an hour's start, and denounce him to the police. Fastas he went, being winged by this resolution, it was already well onin the morning when he came in sight of the Superfluous Mansion. Tripping down the steps, was the young lady of the various aliases;and he was surprised to see upon her countenance the marks of angerand concern. 

'Madam, ' he began, yielding to impulse and with no clear knowledgeof what he was to add. 

But at the sound of his voice she seemed to experience a shock offear or horror; started back; lowered her veil with a suddenmovement; and fled, without turning, from the square. 

Here then, we step aside a moment from following the fortunes ofSomerset, and proceed to relate the strange and romantic episode ofTHE BROWN BOX. 

DESBOROUGH'S ADVENTURE: THE BROWN BOX

Mr. Harry Desborough lodged in the fine and grave old quarter ofBloomsbury, roared about on every side by the high tides of London, but itself rejoicing in romantic silences and city peace. It wasin Queen Square that he had pitched his tent, next door to theChildren's Hospital, on your left hand as you go north: QueenSquare, sacred to humane and liberal arts, whence homes were madebeautiful, where the poor were taught, where the sparrows wereplentiful and loud, and where groups of patient little ones wouldhover all day long before the hospital, if by chance they mightkiss their hand or speak a word to their sick brother at thewindow. Desborough's room was on the first floor and fronted tothe square; but he enjoyed besides, a right by which he oftenprofited, to sit and smoke upon a terrace at the back, which lookeddown upon a fine forest of back gardens, and was in turn commandedby the windows of an empty room. 

On the afternoon of a warm day, Desborough sauntered forth uponthis terrace, somewhat out of hope and heart, for he had been nowsome weeks on the vain quest of situations, and prepared formelancholy and tobacco. Here, at least, he told himself that hewould be alone; for, like most youths, who are neither rich, norwitty, nor successful, he rather shunned than courted the societyof other men. Even as he expressed the thought, his eye alightedon the window of the room that looked upon the terrace; and to hissurprise and annoyance, he beheld it curtained with a silkenhanging. It was like his luck, he thought; his privacy was gone, he could no longer brood and sigh unwatched, he could no longersuffer his discouragement to find a vent in words or soothe himselfwith sentimental whistling; and in the irritation of the moment, hestruck his pipe upon the rail with unnecessary force. It was anold, sweet, seasoned briar-root, glossy and dark with longemployment, and justly dear to his fancy. What, then, was hischagrin, when the head snapped from the stem, leaped airily inspace, and fell and disappeared among the lilacs of the garden?

He threw himself savagely into the garden chair, pulled out thestory-paper which he had brought with him to read, tore off afragment of the last sheet, which contains only the answers tocorrespondents, and set himself to roll a cigarette. He was nomaster of the art; again and again, the paper broke between hisfingers and the tobacco showered upon the ground; and he wasalready on the point of angry resignation, when the window swungslowly inward, the silken curtain was thrust aside, and a lady, somewhat strangely attired, stepped forth upon the terrace. 

'Senorito, ' said she, and there was a rich thrill in her voice, like an organ note, 'Senorito, you are in difficulties. Suffer meto come to your assistance. '

With the words, she took the paper and tobacco from his unresistinghands; and with a facility that, in Desborough's eyes, seemedmagical, rolled and presented him a cigarette. He took it, stillseated, still without a word; staring with all his eyes upon thatapparition. Her face was warm and rich in colour; in shape, it wasthat piquant triangle, so innocently sly, so saucily attractive, sorare in our more northern climates; her eyes were large, starry, and visited by changing lights; her hair was partly covered by alace mantilla, through which her arms, bare to the shoulder, gleamed white; her figure, full and soft in all the womanlycontours, was yet alive and active, light with excess of life, andslender by grace of some divine proportion. 

'You do not like my cigarrito, Senor?' she asked. 'Yet it isbetter made than yours. ' At that she laughed, and her laughtertrilled in his ear like music; but the next moment her face fell. 'I see, ' she cried. 'It is my manner that repels you. I am tooconstrained, too cold. I am not, ' she added, with a more engagingair, 'I am not the simple English maiden I appear. '

'Oh!' murmured Harry, filled with inexpressible thoughts. 

'In my own dear land, ' she pursued, 'things are differentlyordered. There, I must own, a girl is bound by many and rigorousrestrictions; little is permitted her; she learns to be distant, she learns to appear forbidding. But here, in free England--oh, glorious liberty!' she cried, and threw up her arms with a gestureof inimitable grace--'here there are no fetters; here the woman maydare to be herself entirely, and the men, the chivalrous men--is itnot written on the very shield of your nation, honi soit? Ah, itis hard for me to learn, hard for me to dare to be myself. Youmust not judge me yet awhile; I shall end by conquering thisstiffness, I shall end by growing English. Do I speak the languagewell?'

'Perfectly--oh, perfectly!' said Harry, with a fervency ofconviction worthy of a graver subject. 

'Ah, then, ' she said, 'I shall soon learn; English blood ran in myfather's veins; and I have had the advantage of some training inyour expressive tongue. If I speak already without accent, with mythorough English appearance, there is nothing left to change exceptmy manners. '

'Oh no, ' said Desborough. 'Oh pray not! I--madam--'

'I am, ' interrupted the lady, 'the Senorita Teresa Valdevia. Theevening air grows chill. Adios, Senorito. ' And before Harry couldstammer out a word, she had disappeared into her room. 

He stood transfixed, the cigarette still unlighted in his hand. His thoughts had soared above tobacco, and still recalled andbeautified the image of his new acquaintance. Her voice re-echoedin his memory; her eyes, of which he could not tell the colour, haunted his soul. The clouds had risen at her coming, and hebeheld a new-created world. What she was, he could not fancy, buthe adored her. Her age, he durst not estimate; fearing to find herolder than himself, and thinking sacrilege to couple that fairfavour with the thought of mortal changes. As for her character, beauty to the young is always good. So the poor lad lingered lateupon the terrace, stealing timid glances at the curtained window, sighing to the gold laburnums, rapt into the country of romance;and when at length he entered and sat down to dine, on cold boiledmutton and a pint of ale, he feasted on the food of gods. 

Next day when he returned to the terrace, the window was a littleajar, and he enjoyed a view of the lady's shoulder, as she satpatiently sewing and all unconscious of his presence. On the next, he had scarce appeared when the window opened, and the Senoritatripped forth into the sunlight, in a morning disorder, delicatelyneat, and yet somehow foreign, tropical, and strange. In one handshe held a packet. 

'Will you try, ' she said, 'some of my father's tobacco--from dearCuba? There, as I suppose you know, all smoke, ladies as well asgentlemen. So you need not fear to annoy me. The fragrance willremind me of home. My home, Senor, was by the sea. ' And as sheuttered these few words, Desborough, for the first time in hislife, realised the poetry of the great deep. 'Awake or asleep, Idream of it: dear home, dear Cuba!'

'But some day, ' said Desborough, with an inward pang, 'some day youwill return?'

' Never!' she cried; 'ah, never, in Heaven's name!'

'Are you then resident for life in England?' he inquired, with astrange lightening of spirit. 

'You ask too much, for you ask more than I know, ' she answeredsadly; and then, resuming her gaiety of manner: 'But you have nottried my Cuban tobacco, ' she said. 

'Senorita, ' said he, shyly abashed by some shadow of coquetry inher manner, 'whatever comes to me--you--I mean, ' he concluded, deeply flushing, 'that I have no doubt the tobacco is delightful. '

'Ah, Senor, ' she said, with almost mournful gravity, 'you seemed sosimple and good, and already you are trying to pay compliments--andbesides, ' she added, brightening, with a quick upward glance, intoa smile, 'you do it so badly! English gentlemen, I used to hear, could be fast friends, respectful, honest friends; could becompanions, comforters, if the need arose, or champions, and yetnever encroach. Do not seek to please me by copying the graces ofmy countrymen. Be yourself: the frank, kindly, honest Englishgentleman that I have heard of since my childhood and still longedto meet. '

Harry, much bewildered, and far from clear as to the manners of theCuban gentlemen, strenuously disclaimed the thought of plagiarism. 

'Your national seriousness of bearing best becomes you, Senor, 'said the lady. 'See!' marking a line with her dainty, slipperedfoot, 'thus far it shall be common ground; there, at my window-sill, begins the scientific frontier. If you choose, you may driveme to my forts; but if, on the other hand, we are to be realEnglish friends, I may join you here when I am not too sad; or, when I am yet more graciously inclined, you may draw your chairbeside the window and teach me English customs, while I work. Youwill find me an apt scholar, for my heart is in the task. ' Shelaid her hand lightly upon Harry's arm, and looked into his eyes. 'Do you know, ' said she, 'I am emboldened to believe that I havealready caught something of your English aplomb? Do you notperceive a change, Senor? Slight, perhaps, but still a change? Ismy deportment not more open, more free, more like that of the dear"British Miss" than when you saw me first?' She gave a radiantsmile; withdrew her hand from Harry's arm; and before the young mancould formulate in words the eloquent emotions that ran riotthrough his brain--with an 'Adios, Senor: good-night, my Englishfriend, ' she vanished from his sight behind the curtain. 

The next day Harry consumed an ounce of tobacco in vain upon theneutral terrace; neither sight nor sound rewarded him, and thedinner-hour summoned him at length from the scene ofdisappointment. On the next it rained; but nothing, neitherbusiness nor weather, neither prospective poverty nor presenthardship, could now divert the young man from the service of hislady; and wrapt in a long ulster, with the collar raised, he tookhis stand against the balustrade, awaiting fortune, the picture ofdamp and discomfort to the eye, but glowing inwardly with tenderand delightful ardours. Presently the window opened, and the fairCuban, with a smile imperfectly dissembled, appeared upon the sill. 

'Come here, ' she said, 'here, beside my window. The small verandahgives a belt of shelter. ' And she graciously handed him a folding-chair. 

As he sat down, visibly aglow with shyness and delight, a certainbulkiness in his pocket reminded him that he was not come empty-handed. 

'I have taken the liberty, ' said he, 'of bringing you a littlebook. I thought of you, when I observed it on the stall, because Isaw it was in Spanish. The man assured me it was by one of thebest authors, and quite proper. ' As he spoke, he placed the littlevolume in her hand. Her eyes fell as she turned the pages, and aflush rose and died again upon her cheeks, as deep as it wasfleeting. 'You are angry, ' he cried in agony. 'I have presumed. '

'No, Senor, it is not that, ' returned the lady. 'I--' and a floodof colour once more mounted to her brow--'I am confused and ashamedbecause I have deceived you. Spanish, ' she began, and paused--'Spanish is, of course, my native tongue, ' she resumed, as thoughsuddenly taking courage; 'and this should certainly put the highestvalue on your thoughtful present; but alas, sir, of what use is itto me? And how shall I confess to you the truth--the humiliatingtruth--that I cannot read?'

As Harry's eyes met hers in undisguised amazement, the fair Cubanseemed to shrink before his gaze. 'Read?' repeated Harry. 'You!'

She pushed the window still more widely open with a large and noblegesture. 'Enter, Senor, ' said she. 'The time has come to which Ihave long looked forward, not without alarm; when I must eitherfear to lose your friendship, or tell you without disguise thestory of my life. '

It was with a sentiment bordering on devotion, that Harry passedthe window. A semi-barbarous delight in form and colour hadpresided over the studied disorder of the room in which he foundhimself. It was filled with dainty stuffs, furs and rugs andscarves of brilliant hues, and set with elegant and curioustrifles-fans on the mantelshelf, an antique lamp upon a bracket, and on the table a silver-mounted bowl of cocoa-nut about half fullof unset jewels. The fair Cuban, herself a gem of colour and thefit masterpiece for that rich frame, motioned Harry to a seat, andsinking herself into another, thus began her history. 

STORY OF THE FAIR CUBAN

I am not what I seem. My father drew his descent, on the one hand, from grandees of Spain, and on the other, through the maternalline, from the patriot Bruce. My mother, too, was the descendantof a line of kings; but, alas! these kings were African. She wasfair as the day: fairer than I, for I inherited a darker strain ofblood from the veins of my European father; her mind was noble, hermanners queenly and accomplished; and seeing her more than theequal of her neighbours, and surrounded by the most considerateaffection and respect, I grew up to adore her, and when the timecame, received her last sigh upon my lips, still ignorant that shewas a slave, and alas! my father's mistress. Her death, whichbefell me in my sixteenth year, was the first sorrow I had known:it left our home bereaved of its attractions, cast a shade ofmelancholy on my youth, and wrought in my father a tragic anddurable change. Months went by; with the elasticity of my years, Iregained some of the simple mirth that had before distinguished me;the plantation smiled with fresh crops; the negroes on the estatehad already forgotten my mother and transferred their simpleobedience to myself; but still the cloud only darkened on the browsof Senor Valdevia. His absences from home had been frequent evenin the old days, for he did business in precious gems in the cityof Havana; they now became almost continuous; and when he returned, it was but for the night and with the manner of a man crushed downby adverse fortune. 

The place where I was born and passed my days was an isle set inthe Caribbean Sea, some half-hour's rowing from the coasts of Cuba. It was steep, rugged, and, except for my father's family andplantation, uninhabited and left to nature. The house, a lowbuilding surrounded by spacious verandahs, stood upon a rise ofground and looked across the sea to Cuba. The breezes blew aboutit gratefully, fanned us as we lay swinging in our silken hammocks, and tossed the boughs and flowers of the magnolia. Behind and tothe left, the quarter of the negroes and the waving fields of theplantation covered an eighth part of the surface of the isle. Onthe right and closely bordering on the garden, lay a vast anddeadly swamp, densely covered with wood, breathing fever, dottedwith profound sloughs, and inhabited by poisonous oysters, man-eating crabs, snakes, alligators, and sickly fishes. Into therecesses of that jungle, none could penetrate but those of Africandescent; an invisible, unconquerable foe lay there in wait for theEuropean; and the air was death. 

One morning (from which I must date the beginning of my ruinousmisfortune) I left my room a little after day, for in that warmclimate all are early risers, and found not a servant to attendupon my wants. I made the circuit of the house, still calling:and my surprise had almost changed into alarm, when coming at lastinto a large verandahed court, I found it thronged with negroes. Even then, even when I was amongst them, not one turned or paid theleast regard to my arrival. They had eyes and ears for but oneperson: a woman, richly and tastefully attired; of elegantcarriage, and a musical speech; not so much old in years, as wornand marred by self-indulgence: her face, which was stillattractive, stamped with the most cruel passions, her eye burningwith the greed of evil. It was not from her appearance, I believe, but from some emanation of her soul, that I recoiled in a kind offainting terror; as we hear of plants that blight and snakes thatfascinate, the woman shocked and daunted me. But I was of a bravenature; trod the weakness down; and forcing my way through theslaves, who fell back before me in embarrassment, as though in thepresence of rival mistresses, I asked, in imperious tones: 'Who isthis person?'

A slave girl, to whom I had been kind, whispered in my ear to havea care, for that was Madam Mendizabal; but the name was new to me. 

In the meanwhile the woman, applying a pair of glasses to her eyes, studied me with insolent particularity from head to foot. 

'Young woman, ' said she, at last, 'I have had a great experience inrefractory servants, and take a pride in breaking them. You reallytempt me; and if I had not other affairs, and these of moreimportance, on my hand, I should certainly buy you at your father'ssale. '

'Madam--' I began, but my voice failed me. 

'Is it possible that you do not know your position?' she returned, with a hateful laugh. 'How comical! Positively, I must buy her. Accomplishments, I suppose?' she added, turning to the servants. 

Several assured her that the young mistress had been brought uplike any lady, for so it seemed in their inexperience. 

'She would do very well for my place of business in Havana, ' saidthe Senora Mendizabal, once more studying me through her glasses;'and I should take a pleasure, ' she pursued, more directlyaddressing myself, 'in bringing you acquainted with a whip. ' Andshe smiled at me with a savoury lust of cruelty upon her face. 

At this, I found expression. Calling by name upon the servants, Ibade them turn this woman from the house, fetch her to the boat, and set her back upon the mainland. But with one voice, theyprotested that they durst not obey, coming close about me, pleadingand beseeching me to be more wise; and, when I insisted, risinghigher in passion and speaking of this foul intruder in the termsshe had deserved, they fell back from me as from one who hadblasphemed. A superstitious reverence plainly encircled thestranger; I could read it in their changed demeanour, and in thepaleness that prevailed upon the natural colour of their faces; andtheir fear perhaps reacted on myself. I looked again at MadamMendizabal. She stood perfectly composed, watching my face throughher glasses with a smile of scorn; and at the sight of her assuredsuperiority to all my threats, a cry broke from my lips, a cry ofrage, fear, and despair, and I fled from the verandah and thehouse. 

I ran I knew not where, but it was towards the beach. As I went, my head whirled; so strange, so sudden, were these events andinsults. Who was she? what, in Heaven's name, the power shewielded over my obedient negroes? Why had she addressed me as aslave? why spoken of my father's sale? To all these tumultuaryquestions I could find no answer; and in the turmoil of my mind, nothing was plain except the hateful leering image of the woman. 

I was still running, mad with fear and anger, when I saw my fathercoming to meet me from the landing-place; and with a cry that Ithought would have killed me, leaped into his arms and broke into apassion of sobs and tears upon his bosom. He made me sit downbelow a tall palmetto that grew not far off; comforted me, but withsome abstraction in his voice; and as soon as I regained the leastcommand upon my feelings, asked me, not without harshness, whatthis grief betokened. I was surprised by his tone into a stillgreater measure of composure; and in firm tones, though stillinterrupted by sobs, I told him there was a stranger in the island, at which I thought he started and turned pale; that the servantswould not obey me; that the stranger's name was Madam Mendizabal, and, at that, he seemed to me both troubled and relieved; that shehad insulted me, treated me as a slave (and here my father's browbegan to darken), threatened to buy me at a sale, and questioned myown servants before my face; and that, at last, finding myselfquite helpless and exposed to these intolerable liberties, I hadfled from the house in terror, indignation, and amazement. 

'Teresa, ' said my father, with singular gravity of voice, 'I mustmake to-day a call upon your courage; much must be told you, thereis much that you must do to help me; and my daughter must proveherself a woman by her spirit. As for this Mendizabal, what shallI say? or how am I to tell you what she is? Twenty years ago, shewas the loveliest of slaves; to-day she is what you see her--prematurely old, disgraced by the practice of every vice and everynefarious industry, but free, rich, married, they say, to somereputable man, whom may Heaven assist! and exercising among herancient mates, the slaves of Cuba, an influence as unbounded as itsreason is mysterious. Horrible rites, it is supposed, cement herempire: the rites of Hoodoo. Be that as it may, I would have youdismiss the thought of this incomparable witch; it is not from herthat danger threatens us; and into her hands, I make bold topromise, you shall never fall. '

'Father!' I cried. 'Fall? Was there any truth, then, in herwords? Am I--O father, tell me plain; I can bear anything but thissuspense. '

'I will tell you, ' he replied, with merciful bluntness. 'Yourmother was a slave; it was my design, so soon as I had saved acompetence, to sail to the free land of Britain, where the lawwould suffer me to marry her: a design too long procrastinated;for death, at the last moment, intervened. You will now understandthe heaviness with which your mother's memory hangs about my neck. '

I cried out aloud, in pity for my parents; and in seeking toconsole the survivor, I forgot myself. 

'It matters not, ' resumed my father. 'What I have left undone cannever be repaired, and I must bear the penalty of my remorse. But, Teresa, with so cutting a reminder of the evils of delay, I setmyself at once to do what was still possible: to liberateyourself. '

I began to break forth in thanks, but he checked me with a sombreroughness. 

'Your mother's illness, ' he resumed, 'had engaged too great aportion of my time; my business in the city had lain too long atthe mercy of ignorant underlings; my head, my taste, my unequalledknowledge of the more precious stones, that art by which I candistinguish, even on the darkest night, a sapphire from a ruby, andtell at a glance in what quarter of the earth a gem wasdisinterred--all these had been too long absent from the conduct ofaffairs. Teresa, I was insolvent. '

'What matters that?' I cried. 'What matters poverty, if we be lefttogether with our love and sacred memories?'

'You do not comprehend, ' he said gloomily. 'Slave, as you are, young--alas! scarce more than child!--accomplished, beautiful withthe most touching beauty, innocent as an angel--all these qualitiesthat should disarm the very wolves and crocodiles, are, in the eyesof those to whom I stand indebted, commodities to buy and sell. You are a chattel; a marketable thing; and worth--heavens, that Ishould say such words!--worth money. Do you begin to see? If Iwere to give you freedom, I should defraud my creditors; themanumission would be certainly annulled; you would be still aslave, and I a criminal. '

I caught his hand in mine, kissed it, and moaned in pity formyself, in sympathy for my father. 

'How I have toiled, ' he continued, 'how I have dared and striven torepair my losses, Heaven has beheld and will remember. Itsblessing was denied to my endeavours, or, as I please myself bythinking, but delayed to descend upon my daughter's head. Atlength, all hope was at an end; I was ruined beyond retrieve; aheavy debt fell due upon the morrow, which I could not meet; Ishould be declared a bankrupt, and my goods, my lands, my jewelsthat I so much loved, my slaves whom I have spoiled and renderedhappy, and oh! tenfold worse, you, my beloved daughter, would besold and pass into the hands of ignorant and greedy traffickers. Too long, I saw, had I accepted and profited by this great crime ofslavery; but was my daughter, my innocent unsullied daughter, wasSHE to pay the price? I cried out--no!--I took Heaven to witnessmy temptation; I caught up this bag and fled. Close upon my trackare the pursuers; perhaps to-night, perhaps to-morrow, they willland upon this isle, sacred to the memory of the dear soul thatbore you, to consign your father to an ignominious prison, andyourself to slavery and dishonour. We have not many hours beforeus. Off the north coast of our isle, by strange good fortune, anEnglish yacht has for some days been hovering. It belongs to SirGeorge Greville, whom I slightly know, to whom ere now I haverendered unusual services, and who will not refuse to help in ourescape. Or if he did, if his gratitude were in default, I have thepower to force him. For what does it mean, my child--what meansthis Englishman, who hangs for years upon the shores of Cuba, andreturns from every trip with new and valuable gems?'

'He may have found a mine, ' I hazarded. 

'So he declares, ' returned my father; 'but the strange gift I havereceived from nature, easily transpierced the fable. He brought mediamonds only, which I bought, at first, in innocence; at a secondglance, I started; for of these stones, my child, some had firstseen the day in Africa, some in Brazil; while others, from theirpeculiar water and rude workmanship, I divined to be the spoil ofancient temples. Thus put upon the scent, I made inquiries. Oh, he is cunning, but I was cunninger than he. He visited, I found, the shop of every jeweller in town; to one he came with rubies, toone with emeralds, to one with precious beryl; to all, with thissame story of the mine. But in what mine, what rich epitome of theearth's surface, were there conjoined the rubies of Ispahan, thepearls of Coromandel, and the diamonds of Golconda? No, child, that man, for all his yacht and title, that man must fear and mustobey me. To-night, then, as soon as it is dark, we must take ourway through the swamp by the path which I shall presently show you;thence, across the highlands of the isle, a track is blazed, whichshall conduct us to the haven on the north; and close by the yachtis riding. Should my pursuers come before the hour at which I lookto see them, they will still arrive too late; a trusty man attendson the mainland; as soon as they appear, we shall behold, if it bedark, the redness of a fire, if it be day, a pillar of smoke, onthe opposing headland; and thus warned, we shall have time to putthe swamp between ourselves and danger. Meantime, I would concealthis bag; I would, before all things, be seen to arrive at thehouse with empty hands; a blabbing slave might else undo us. Forsee!' he added; and holding up the bag, which he had already shownme, he poured into my lap a shower of unmounted jewels, brighterthan flowers, of every size and colour, and catching, as they fell, upon a million dainty facets, the ardour of the sun. 

I could not restrain a cry of admiration. 

'Even in your ignorant eyes, ' pursued my father, 'they commandrespect. Yet what are they but pebbles, passive to the tool, coldas death? Ingrate!' he cried. 'Each one of these--miracles ofnature's patience, conceived out of the dust in centuries ofmicroscopical activity, each one is, for you and me, a year oflife, liberty, and mutual affection. How, then, should I cherishthem! and why do I delay to place them beyond reach! Teresa, follow me. '

He rose to his feet, and led me to the borders of the great jungle, where they overhung, in a wall of poisonous and dusky foliage, thedeclivity of the hill on which my father's house stood planted. For some while he skirted, with attentive eyes, the margin of thethicket. Then, seeming to recognise some mark, for his countenancebecame immediately lightened of a load of thought, he paused andaddressed me. 'Here, ' said he, 'is the entrance of the secret paththat I have mentioned, and here you shall await me. I but passsome hundreds of yards into the swamp to bury my poor treasure; assoon as that is safe, I will return. ' It was in vain that I soughtto dissuade him, urging the dangers of the place; in vain that Ibegged to be allowed to follow, pleading the black blood that I nowknew to circulate in my veins: to all my appeals he turned a deafear, and, bending back a portion of the screen of bushes, disappeared into the pestilential silence of the swamp. 

At the end of a full hour, the bushes were once more thrust aside;and my father stepped from out the thicket, and paused and almoststaggered in the first shock of the blinding sunlight. His facewas of a singular dusky red; and yet for all the heat of thetropical noon, he did not seem to sweat. 

'You are tired, ' I cried, springing to meet him. 'You are ill. '

'I am tired, ' he replied; 'the air in that jungle stifles one; myeyes, besides, have grown accustomed to its gloom, and the strongsunshine pierces them like knives. A moment, Teresa, give me but amoment. All shall yet be well. I have buried the hoard under acypress, immediately beyond the bayou, on the left-hand margin ofthe path; beautiful, bright things, they now lie whelmed in slime;you shall find them there, if needful. But come, let us to thehouse; it is time to eat against our journey of the night: to eatand then to sleep, my poor Teresa: then to sleep. ' And he lookedupon me out of bloodshot eyes, shaking his head as if in pity. 

We went hurriedly, for he kept murmuring that he had been gone toolong, and that the servants might suspect; passed through the airystretch of the verandah; and came at length into the gratefultwilight of the shuttered house. The meal was spread; the houseservants, already informed by the boatmen of the master's return, were all back at their posts, and terrified, as I could see, toface me. My father still murmuring of haste with weary andfeverish pertinacity, I hurried at once to take my place at table;but I had no sooner left his arm than he paused and thrust forthboth his hands with a strange gesture of groping. 'How is this?'he cried, in a sharp, unhuman voice. 'Am I blind?' I ran to himand tried to lead him to the table; but he resisted and stoodstiffly where he was, opening and shutting his jaws, as if in apainful effort after breath. Then suddenly he raised both hands tohis temples, cried out, 'My head, my head!' and reeled and fellagainst the wall. 

I knew too well what it must be. I turned and begged the servantsto relieve him. But they, with one accord, denied the possibilityof hope; the master had gone into the swamp, they said, the mastermust die; all help was idle. Why should I dwell upon hissufferings? I had him carried to a bed, and watched beside him. He lay still, and at times ground his teeth, and talked at timesunintelligibly, only that one word of hurry, hurry, comingdistinctly to my ears, and telling me that, even in the laststruggle with the powers of death, his mind was still tortured byhis daughter's peril. The sun had gone down, the darkness hadfallen, when I perceived that I was alone on this unhappy earth. What thought had I of flight, of safety, of the impending dangersof my situation? Beside the body of my last friend, I hadforgotten all except the natural pangs of my bereavement. 

The sun was some four hours above the eastern line, when I wasrecalled to a knowledge of the things of earth, by the entrance ofthe slave-girl to whom I have already referred. The poor soul wasindeed devotedly attached to me; and it was with streaming tearsthat she broke to me the import of her coming. With the firstlight of dawn a boat had reached our landing-place, and set onshore upon our isle (till now so fortunate) a party of officersbearing a warrant to arrest my father's person, and a man of agross body and low manners, who declared the island, theplantation, and all its human chattels, to be now his own. 'Ithink, ' said my slave-girl, 'he must be a politician or some verypowerful sorcerer; for Madam Mendizabal had no sooner seen themcoming, than she took to the woods. '

'Fool, ' said I, 'it was the officers she feared; and at any ratewhy does that beldam still dare to pollute the island with herpresence? And O Cora, ' I exclaimed, remembering my grief, 'whatmatter all these troubles to an orphan?'

'Mistress, ' said she, 'I must remind you of two things. Neverspeak as you do now of Madam Mendizabal; or never to a person ofcolour; for she is the most powerful woman in this world, and herreal name even, if one durst pronounce it, were a spell to raisethe dead. And whatever you do, speak no more of her to yourunhappy Cora; for though it is possible she may be afraid of thepolice (and indeed I think that I have heard she is in hiding), andthough I know that you will laugh and not believe, yet it is true, and proved, and known that she hears every word that people utterin this whole vast world; and your poor Cora is already deep enoughin her black books. She looks at me, mistress, till my blood turnsice. That is the first I had to say; and now for the second: do, pray, for Heaven's sake, bear in mind that you are no longer thepoor Senor's daughter. He is gone, dear gentleman; and now you areno more than a common slave-girl like myself. The man to whom youbelong calls for you; oh, my dear mistress, go at once! With youryouth and beauty, you may still, if you are winning and obedient, secure yourself an easy life. '

For a moment I looked on the creature with the indignation you mayconceive; the next, it was gone: she did but speak after her kind, as the bird sings or cattle bellow. 'Go, ' said I. 'Go, Cora. Ithank you for your kind intentions. Leave me alone one moment withmy dead father; and tell this man that I will come at once. '

She went: and I, turning to the bed of death, addressed to thosedeaf ears the last appeal and defence of my beleaguered innocence. 'Father, ' I said, 'it was your last thought, even in the pangs ofdissolution, that your daughter should escape disgrace. Here, atyour side, I swear to you that purpose shall be carried out; bywhat means, I know not; by crime, if need be; and Heaven forgiveboth you and me and our oppressors, and Heaven help myhelplessness!' Thereupon I felt strengthened as by long repose;stepped to the mirror, ay, even in that chamber of the dead;hastily arranged my hair, refreshed my tear-worn eyes, breathed adumb farewell to the originator of my days and sorrows; andcomposing my features to a smile, went forth to meet my master. 

He was in a great, hot bustle, reviewing that house, once ours, towhich he had but now succeeded; a corpulent, sanguine man of middleage, sensual, vulgar, humorous, and, if I judged rightly, not ill-disposed by nature. But the sparkle that came into his eye as heobserved me enter, warned me to expect the worst. 

'Is this your late mistress?' he inquired of the slaves; and whenhe had learnt it was so, instantly dismissed them. 'Now, my dear, 'said he, 'I am a plain man: none of your damned Spaniards, but atrue blue, hard-working, honest Englishman. My name is Caulder. '

'Thank you, sir, ' said I, and curtsied very smartly as I had seenthe servants. 

'Come, ' said he, 'this is better than I had expected; and if youchoose to be dutiful in the station to which it has pleased God tocall you, you will find me a very kind old fellow. I like yourlooks, ' he added, calling me by my name, which he scandalouslymispronounced. 'Is your hair all your own?' he then inquired witha certain sharpness, and coming up to me, as though I were a horse, he grossly satisfied his doubts. I was all one flame from head tofoot, but I contained my righteous anger and submitted. 'That isvery well, ' he continued, chucking me good humouredly under thechin. 'You will have no cause to regret coming to old Caulder, eh?But that is by the way. What is more to the point is this: yourlate master was a most dishonest rogue, and levanted with somevaluable property that belonged of rights to me. Now, consideringyour relation to him, I regard you as the likeliest person to knowwhat has become of it; and I warn you, before you answer, that mywhole future kindness will depend upon your honesty. I am anhonest man myself, and expect the same in my servants. '

'Do you mean the jewels?' said I, sinking my voice into a whisper. 

'That is just precisely what I do, ' said he, and chuckled. 

'Hush!' said I. 

'Hush?' he repeated. 'And why hush? I am on my own place, I wouldhave you to know, and surrounded by my own lawful servants. '

'Are the officers gone?' I asked; and oh! how my hopes hung uponthe answer!

'They are, ' said he, looking somewhat disconcerted. 'Why do youask?'

'I wish you had kept them, ' I answered, solemnly enough, althoughmy heart at that same moment leaped with exultation. 'Master, Imust not conceal from you the truth. The servants on this estateare in a dangerous condition, and mutiny has long been brewing. '

'Why, ' he cried, 'I never saw a milder-looking lot of niggers in mylife. ' But for all that he turned somewhat pale. 

'Did they tell you, ' I continued, 'that Madam Mendizabal is on theisland? that, since her coming, they obey none but her? that if, this morning, they have received you with even decent civility, itwas only by her orders--issued with what after-thought I leave youto consider?'

'Madam Jezebel?' said he. 'Well, she is a dangerous devil; thepolice are after her, besides, for a whole series of murders; butafter all, what then? To be sure, she has a great influence withyou coloured folk. But what in fortune's name can be her errandhere?'

'The jewels, ' I replied. 'Ah, sir, had you seen that treasure, sapphire and emerald and opal, and the golden topaz, and rubies redas the sunset--of what incalculable worth, of what unequalledbeauty to the eye!--had you seen it, as I have, and alas! as SHEhas--you would understand and tremble at your danger. '

'She has seen them!' he cried, and I could see by his face, that myaudacity was justified by its success. 

I caught his hand in mine. 'My master, ' said I, 'I am now yours;it is my duty, it should be my pleasure, to defend your interestsand life. Hear my advice, then; and, I conjure you, be guided bymy prudence. Follow me privily; let none see where we are going; Iwill lead you to the place where the treasure has been buried; thatonce disinterred, let us make straight for the boat, escape to themainland, and not return to this dangerous isle without thecountenance of soldiers. '

What free man in a free land would have credited so sudden adevotion? But this oppressor, through the very arts andsophistries he had abused, to quiet the rebellion of his conscienceand to convince himself that slavery was natural, fell like a childinto the trap I laid for him. He praised and thanked me; told me Ihad all the qualities he valued in a servant; and when he hadquestioned me further as to the nature and value of the treasure, and I had once more artfully inflamed his greed, bade me withoutdelay proceed to carry out my plan of action. 

From a shed in the garden, I took a pick and shovel; and thence, bydevious paths among the magnolias, led my master to the entrance ofthe swamp. I walked first, carrying, as I was now in duty bound, the tools, and glancing continually behind me, lest we should bespied upon and followed. When we were come as far as the beginningof the path, it flashed into my mind I had forgotten meat; andleaving Mr. Caulder in the shadow of a tree, I returned alone tothe house for a basket of provisions. Were they for him? I askedmyself. And a voice within me answered, No. While we were face toface, while I still saw before my eyes the man to whom I belongedas the hand belongs to the body, my indignation held me bravely up. But now that I was alone, I conceived a sickness at myself and mydesigns that I could scarce endure; I longed to throw myself at hisfeet, avow my intended treachery, and warn him from thatpestilential swamp, to which I was decoying him to die; but my vowto my dead father, my duty to my innocent youth, prevailed uponthese scruples; and though my face was pale and must have reflectedthe horror that oppressed my spirits, it was with a firm step thatI returned to the borders of the swamp, and with smiling lips thatI bade him rise and follow me. 

The path on which we now entered was cut, like a tunnel, throughthe living jungle. On either hand and overhead, the mass offoliage was continuously joined; the day sparingly filtered throughthe depth of super-impending wood; and the air was hot like steam, and heady with vegetable odours, and lay like a load upon the lungsand brain. Underfoot, a great depth of mould received our silentfootprints; on each side, mimosas, as tall as a man, shrank from mypassing skirts with a continuous hissing rustle; and but for thesesentient vegetables, all in that den of pestilence was motionlessand noiseless. 

We had gone but a little way in, when Mr. Caulder was seized withsudden nausea, and must sit down a moment on the path. My heartyearned, as I beheld him; and I seriously begged the doomed mortalto return upon his steps. What were a few jewels in the scaleswith life? I asked. But no, he said; that witch Madam Jezebelwould find them out; he was an honest man, and would not stand tobe defrauded, and so forth, panting the while, like a sick dog. Presently he got to his feet again, protesting he had conquered hisuneasiness; but as we again began to go forward, I saw in hischanged countenance, the first approaches of death. 

'Master, ' said I, 'you look pale, deathly pale; your pallor fillsme with dread. Your eyes are bloodshot; they are red like therubies that we seek. '

'Wench, ' he cried, 'look before you; look at your steps. I declareto Heaven, if you annoy me once again by looking back, I shallremind you of the change in your position. '

A little after, I observed a worm upon the ground, and told, in awhisper, that its touch was death. Presently a great greenserpent, vivid as the grass in spring, wound rapidly across thepath; and once again I paused and looked back at my companion, witha horror in my eyes. 'The coffin snake, ' said I, 'the snake thatdogs its victim like a hound. '

But he was not to be dissuaded. 'I am an old traveller, ' said he. 'This is a foul jungle indeed; but we shall soon be at an end. '

'Ay, ' said I, looking at him, with a strange smile, 'what end?'

Thereupon he laughed again and again, but not very heartily; andthen, perceiving that the path began to widen and grow higher, 'There!' said he. 'What did I tell you? We are past the worst. '

Indeed, we had now come to the bayou, which was in that place verynarrow and bridged across by a fallen trunk; but on either hand wecould see it broaden out, under a cavern of great arms of trees andhanging creepers: sluggish, putrid, of a horrible and sicklystench, floated on by the flat heads of alligators, and its banksalive with scarlet crabs. 

'If we fall from that unsteady bridge, ' said I, 'see, where thecaiman lies ready to devour us! If, by the least divergence fromthe path, we should be snared in a morass, see, where those myriadsof scarlet vermin scour the border of the thicket! Once helpless, how they would swarm together to the assault! What could man doagainst a thousand of such mailed assailants? And what a deathwere that, to perish alive under their claws. '

'Are you mad, girl?' he cried. 'I bid you be silent and lead on. '

Again I looked upon him, half relenting; and at that he raised thestick that was in his hand and cruelly struck me on the face. 'Lead on!' he cried again. 'Must I be all day, catching my deathin this vile slough, and all for a prating slave-girl?'

I took the blow in silence, I took it smiling; but the blood welledback upon my heart. Something, I know not what, fell at thatmoment with a dull plunge in the waters of the lagoon, and I toldmyself it was my pity that had fallen. 

On the farther side, to which we now hastily scrambled, the woodwas not so dense, the web of creepers not so solidly convolved. Itwas possible, here and there, to mark a patch of somewhat brighterdaylight, or to distinguish, through the lighter web of parasites, the proportions of some soaring tree. The cypress on the leftstood very visibly forth, upon the edge of such a clearing; thepath in that place widened broadly; and there was a patch of openground, beset with horrible ant-heaps, thick with their artificers. I laid down the tools and basket by the cypress root, where theywere instantly blackened over with the crawling ants; and lookedonce more in the face of my unconscious victim. Mosquitoes andfoul flies wove so close a veil between us that his features wereobscured; and the sound of their flight was like the turning of amighty wheel. 

'Here, ' I said, 'is the spot. I cannot dig, for I have not learnedto use such instruments; but, for your own sake, I beseech you tobe swift in what you do. '

He had sunk once more upon the ground, panting like a fish; and Isaw rising in his face the same dusky flush that had mantled on myfather's. 'I feel ill, ' he gasped, 'horribly ill; the swamp turnsaround me; the drone of these carrion flies confounds me. Have younot wine?'

I gave him a glass, and he drank greedily. 'It is for you tothink, ' said I, 'if you should further persevere. The swamp has anill name. ' And at the word I ominously nodded. 

'Give me the pick, ' said he. 'Where are the jewels buried?'

I told him vaguely; and in the sweltering heat and closeness, anddim twilight of the jungle, he began to wield the pickaxe, swingingit overhead with the vigour of a healthy man. At first, therebroke forth upon him a strong sweat, that made his face to shine, and in which the greedy insects settled thickly. 

'To sweat in such a place, ' said I. 'O master, is this wise?Fever is drunk in through open pores. '

'What do you mean?' he screamed, pausing with the pick buried inthe soil. 'Do you seek to drive me mad? Do you think I do notunderstand the danger that I run?'

'That is all I want, ' said I: 'I only wish you to be swift. ' Andthen, my mind flitting to my father's deathbed, I began to murmur, scarce above my breath, the same vain repetition of words, 'Hurry, hurry, hurry. '

Presently, to my surprise, the treasure-seeker took them up; andwhile he still wielded the pick, but now with staggering anduncertain blows, repeated to himself, as it were the burthen of asong, 'Hurry, hurry, hurry;' and then again, 'There is no time tolose; the marsh has an ill name, ill name;' and then back to'Hurry, hurry, hurry, ' with a dreadful, mechanical, hurried, andyet wearied utterance, as a sick man rolls upon his pillow. Thesweat had disappeared; he was now dry, but all that I could see ofhim, of the same dull brick red. Presently his pick unearthed thebag of jewels; but he did not observe it, and continued hewing atthe soil. 

'Master, ' said I, 'there is the treasure. ' He seemed to waken froma dream. 'Where?' he cried; and then, seeing it before his eyes, 'Can this be possible?' he added. 'I must be light-headed. Girl, 'he cried suddenly, with the same screaming tone of voice that I hadonce before observed, 'what is wrong? is this swamp accursed?'

'It is a grave, ' I answered. 'You will not go out alive; and asfor me, my life is in God's hands. '

He fell upon the ground like a man struck by a blow, but whetherfrom the effect of my words, or from sudden seizure of the malady, I cannot tell. Pretty soon, he raised his head. 'You have broughtme here to die, ' he said; 'at the risk of your own days, you havecondemned me. Why?'

'To save my honour, ' I replied. 'Bear me out that I have warnedyou. Greed of these pebbles, and not I, has been your undoer. '

He took out his revolver and handed it to me. 'You see, ' he said, 'I could have killed you even yet. But I am dying, as you say;nothing could save me; and my bill is long enough already. Dearme, dear me, ' he said, looking in my face with a curious, puzzled, and pathetic look, like a dull child at school, 'if there be ajudgment afterwards, my bill is long enough. '

At that, I broke into a passion of weeping, crawled at his feet, kissed his hands, begged his forgiveness, put the pistol back intohis grasp and besought him to avenge his death; for indeed, if withmy life I could have bought back his, I had not balanced at thecost. But he was determined, the poor soul, that I should yet morebitterly regret my act. 

'I have nothing to forgive, ' said he. 'Dear heaven, what a thingis an old fool! I thought, upon my word, you had taken quite afancy to me. '

He was seized, at the same time, with a dreadful, swimmingdizziness, clung to me like a child, and called upon the name ofsome woman. Presently this spasm, which I watched with chokingtears, lessened and died away; and he came again to the fullpossession of his mind. 'I must write my will, ' he said. 'Get outmy pocket-book. ' I did so, and he wrote hurriedly on one page witha pencil. 'Do not let my son know, ' he said; 'he is a cruel dog, is my son Philip; do not let him know how you have paid me out;'and then all of a sudden, 'God, ' he cried, 'I am blind, ' andclapped both hands before his eyes; and then again, and in agroaning whisper, 'Don't leave me to the crabs!' I swore I wouldbe true to him so long as a pulse stirred; and I redeemed mypromise. I sat there and watched him, as I had watched my father, but with what different, with what appalling thoughts! Through thelong afternoon, he gradually sank. All that while, I fought anuphill battle to shield him from the swarms of ants and the cloudsof mosquitoes: the prisoner of my crime. The night fell, the roarof insects instantly redoubled in the dark arcades of the swamp;and still I was not sure that he had breathed his last. At length, the flesh of his hand, which I yet held in mine, grew chill betweenmy fingers, and I knew that I was free. 

I took his pocket-book and the revolver, being resolved rather todie than to be captured, and laden besides with the basket and thebag of gems, set forward towards the north. The swamp, at thathour of the night, was filled with a continuous din: animals andinsects of all kinds, and all inimical to life, contributing theirparts. Yet in the midst of this turmoil of sound, I walked asthough my eyes were bandaged, beholding nothing. The soil sankunder my foot, with a horrid, slippery consistence, as though Iwere walking among toads; the touch of the thick wall of foliage, by which alone I guided myself, affrighted me like the touch ofserpents; the darkness checked my breathing like a gag; indeed, Ihave never suffered such extremes of fear as during that nocturnalwalk, nor have I ever known a more sensible relief than when Ifound the path beginning to mount and to grow firmer under foot, and saw, although still some way in front of me, the silverbrightness of the moon. 

Presently, I had crossed the last of the jungle, and come forthamongst noble and lofty woods, clean rock, the clean, dry dust, thearomatic smell of mountain plants that had been baked all day insunlight, and the expressive silence of the night. My negro bloodhad carried me unhurt across that reeking and pestiferous morass;by mere good fortune, I had escaped the crawling and stingingvermin with which it was alive; and I had now before me the easierportion of my enterprise, to cross the isle and to make good myarrival at the haven and my acceptance on the English yacht. Itwas impossible by night to follow such a track as my father haddescribed; and I was casting about for any landmark, and, in myignorance, vainly consulting the disposition of the stars, whenthere fell upon my ear, from somewhere far in front, the sound ofmany voices hurriedly singing. 

I scarce knew upon what grounds I acted; but I shaped my steps inthe direction of that sound; and in a quarter of an hour's walking, came unperceived to the margin of an open glade. It was lighted bythe strong moon and by the flames of a fire. In the midst, therestood a little low and rude building, surmounted by a cross: achapel, as I then remembered to have heard, long since desecratedand given over to the rites of Hoodoo. Hard by the steps ofentrance was a black mass, continually agitated and stirring to andfro as if with inarticulate life; and this I presently perceived tobe a heap of cocks, hares, dogs, and other birds and animals, stillstruggling, but helplessly tethered and cruelly tossed one uponanother. Both the fire and the chapel were surrounded by a ring ofkneeling Africans, both men and women. Now they would raise theirpalms half-closed to heaven, with a peculiar, passionate gesture ofsupplication; now they would bow their heads and spread their handsbefore them on the ground. As the double movement passed andrepassed along the line, the heads kept rising and falling, likewaves upon the sea; and still, as if in time to thesegesticulations, the hurried chant continued. I stood spellbound, knowing that my life depended by a hair, knowing that I hadstumbled on a celebration of the rites of Hoodoo. 

Presently, the door of the chapel opened, and there came forth atall negro, entirely nude, and bearing in his hand the sacrificialknife. He was followed by an apparition still more strange andshocking: Madam Mendizabal, naked also, and carrying in both handsand raised to the level of her face, an open basket of wicker. Itwas filled with coiling snakes; and these, as she stood there withthe uplifted basket, shot through the osier grating and curledabout her arms. At the sight of this, the fervour of the crowdseemed to swell suddenly higher; and the chant rose in pitch andgrew more irregular in time and accent. Then, at a sign from thetall negro, where he stood, motionless and smiling, in the moon andfirelight, the singing died away, and there began the second stageof this barbarous and bloody celebration. From different parts ofthe ring, one after another, man or woman, ran forth into themidst; ducked, with that same gesture of the thrown-up hand, beforethe priestess and her snakes; and with various adjurations, utteredaloud the blackest wishes of the heart. Death and disease were thefavours usually invoked: the death or the disease of enemies orrivals; some calling down these plagues upon the nearest of theirown blood, and one, to whom I swear I had been never less thankind, invoking them upon myself. At each petition, the tall negro, still smiling, picked up some bird or animal from the heaving massupon his left, slew it with the knife, and tossed its body on theground. At length, it seemed, it reached the turn of the high-priestess. She set down the basket on the steps, moved into thecentre of the ring, grovelled in the dust before the reptiles, andstill grovelling lifted up her voice, between speech and singing, and with so great, with so insane a fervour of excitement, asstruck a sort of horror through my blood. 

'Power, ' she began, 'whose name we do not utter; power that isneither good nor evil, but below them both; stronger than good, greater than evil--all my life long I have adored and served thee. Who has shed blood upon thine altars? whose voice is broken withthe singing of thy praises? whose limbs are faint before their agewith leaping in thy revels? Who has slain the child of her body?I, ' she cried, 'I, Metamnbogu! By my own name, I name myself. Itear away the veil. I would be served or perish. Hear me, slimeof the fat swamp, blackness of the thunder, venom of the serpent'sudder--hear or slay me! I would have two things, O shapeless one, O horror of emptiness--two things, or die! The blood of my white-faced husband; oh! give me that; he is the enemy of Hoodoo; give mehis blood! And yet another, O racer of the blind winds, Ogerminator in the ruins of the dead, O root of life, root ofcorruption! I grow old, I grow hideous; I am known, I am huntedfor my life: let thy servant then lay by this outworn body; letthy chief priestess turn again to the blossom of her days, and be agirl once more, and the desired of all men, even as in the past!And, O lord and master, as I here ask a marvel not yet wroughtsince we were torn from the old land, have I not prepared thesacrifice in which thy soul delighteth--the kid without the horns?'

Even as she uttered the words, there was a great rumour of joythrough all the circle of worshippers; it rose, and fell, and roseagain; and swelled at last into rapture, when the tall negro, whohad stepped an instant into the chapel, reappeared before the door, carrying in his arms the body of the slave-girl, Cora. I know notif I saw what followed. When next my mind awoke to a clearknowledge, Cora was laid upon the steps before the serpents; thenegro with the knife stood over her; the knife rose; and at this Iscreamed out in my great horror, bidding them, in God's name, topause. 

A stillness fell upon the mob of cannibals. A moment more, andthey must have thrown off this stupor, and I infallibly haveperished. But Heaven had designed to save me. The silence ofthese wretched men was not yet broken, when there arose, in theempty night, a sound louder than the roar of any European tempest, swifter to travel than the wings of any Eastern wind. Blacknessengulfed the world; blackness, stabbed across from every side byintricate and blinding lightning. Almost in the same second, atone world-swallowing stride, the heart of the tornado reached theclearing. I heard an agonising crash, and the light of my reasonwas overwhelmed. 

When I recovered consciousness, the day was come. I was unhurt;the trees close about me had not lost a bough; and I might havethought at first that the tornado was a feature in a dream. It wasotherwise indeed; for when I looked abroad, I perceived I hadescaped destruction by a hand's-breadth. Right through the forest, which here covered hill and dale, the storm had ploughed a lane ofruin. On either hand, the trees waved uninjured in the air of themorning; but in the forthright course of its advance, the hurricanehad left no trophy standing. Everything, in that line, tree, man, or animal, the desecrated chapel and the votaries of Hoodoo, hadbeen subverted and destroyed in that brief spasm of anger of thepowers of air. Everything, but a yard or two beyond the line ofits passage, humble flower, lofty tree, and the poor vulnerablemaid who now knelt to pay her gratitude to heaven, awoke unharmedin the crystal purity and peace of the new day. 

To move by the path of the tornado was a thing impossible to man, so wildly were the wrecks of the tall forest piled together by thatfugitive convulsion. I crossed it indeed; with such labour andpatience, with so many dangerous slips and falls, as left me, atthe further side, bankrupt alike of strength and courage. There Isat down awhile to recruit my forces; and as I ate (how should Ibless the kindliness of Heaven!) my eye, flitting to and fro in thecolonnade of the great trees, alighted on a trunk that had beenblazed. Yes, by the directing hand of Providence, I had beenconducted to the very track I was to follow. With what a lightheart I now set forth, and walking with how glad a step, traversedthe uplands of the isle!

It was hard upon the hour of noon, when I came, all tattered andwayworn, to the summit of a steep descent, and looked below me onthe sea. About all the coast, the surf, roused by the tornado ofthe night, beat with a particular fury and made a fringe of snow. Close at my feet, I saw a haven, set in precipitous and palm-crowned bluffs of rock. Just outside, a ship was heaving on thesurge, so trimly sparred, so glossily painted, so elegant andpoint-device in every feature, that my heart was seized withadmiration. The English colours blew from her masthead; and frommy high station, I caught glimpses of her snowy planking, as sherolled on the uneven deep, and saw the sun glitter on the brass ofher deck furniture. There, then, was my ship of refuge; and of allmy difficulties only one remained: to get on board of her. 

Half an hour later, I issued at last out of the woods on the marginof a cove, into whose jaws the tossing and blue billows entered, and along whose shores they broke with a surprising loudness. Awooded promontory hid the yacht; and I had walked some distanceround the beach, in what appeared to be a virgin solitude, when myeye fell on a boat, drawn into a natural harbour, where it rockedin safety, but deserted. I looked about for those who should havemanned her; and presently, in the immediate entrance of the wood, spied the red embers of a fire, and, stretched around in variousattitudes, a party of slumbering mariners. To these I drew near:most were black, a few white; but all were dressed with theconspicuous decency of yachtsmen; and one, from his peaked cap andglittering buttons, I rightly divined to be an officer. Him, then, I touched upon the shoulder. He started up; the sharpness of hismovement woke the rest; and they all stared upon me in surprise. 

'What do you want?' inquired the officer. 

'To go on board the yacht, ' I answered. 

I thought they all seemed disconcerted at this; and the officer, with something of sharpness, asked me who I was. Now I haddetermined to conceal my name until I met Sir George; and the firstname that rose to my lips was that of the Senora Mendizabal. Atthe word, there went a shock about the little party of seamen; thenegroes stared at me with indescribable eagerness, the whitesthemselves with something of a scared surprise; and instantly thespirit of mischief prompted me to add, 'And if the name is new toyour ears, call me Metamnbogu. '

I had never seen an effect so wonderful. The negroes threw theirhands into the air, with the same gesture I remarked the nightbefore about the Hoodoo camp-fire; first one, and then another, ranforward and kneeled down and kissed the skirts of my torn dress;and when the white officer broke out swearing and calling to knowif they were mad, the coloured seamen took him by the shoulders, dragged him on one side till they were out of hearing, andsurrounded him with open mouths and extravagant pantomime. Theofficer seemed to struggle hard; he laughed aloud, and I saw himmake gestures of dissent and protest; but in the end, whetherovercome by reason or simply weary of resistance, he gave in--approached me civilly enough, but with something of a sneeringmanner underneath--and touching his cap, 'My lady, ' said he, 'ifthat is what you are, the boat is ready. '

My reception on board the Nemorosa (for so the yacht was named)partook of the same mingled nature. We were scarcely within hailof that great and elegant fabric, where she lay rolling gunwaleunder and churning the blue sea to snow, before the bulwarks werelined with the heads of a great crowd of seamen, black, white, andyellow; and these and the few who manned the boat began exchangingshouts in some lingua franca incomprehensible to me. All eyes weredirected on the passenger; and once more I saw the negroes toss uptheir hands to heaven, but now as if with passionate wonder anddelight. 

At the head of the gangway, I was received by another officer, agentlemanly man with blond and bushy whiskers; and to him Iaddressed my demand to see Sir George. 

'But this is not--' he cried, and paused. 

'I know it, ' returned the other officer, who had brought me fromthe shore. 'But what the devil can we do? Look at all theniggers!'

I followed his direction; and as my eye lighted upon each, the poorignorant Africans ducked, and bowed, and threw their hands into theair, as though in the presence of a creature half divine. Apparently the officer with the whiskers had instantly come roundto the opinion of his subaltern; for he now addressed me with everysignal of respect. 

'Sir George is at the island, my lady, ' said he: 'for which, withyour ladyship's permission, I shall immediately make all sail. Thecabins are prepared. Steward, take Lady Greville below. '

Under this new name, then, and so captivated by surprise that Icould neither think nor speak, I was ushered into a spacious andairy cabin, hung about with weapons and surrounded by divans. Thesteward asked for my commands; but I was by this time so wearied, bewildered, and disturbed, that I could only wave him to leave meto myself, and sink upon a pile of cushions. Presently, by thechanged motion of the ship, I knew her to be under way; mythoughts, so far from clarifying, grew the more distracted andconfused; dreams began to mingle and confound them; and at length, by insensible transition, I sank into a dreamless slumber. 

When I awoke, the day and night had passed, and it was once moremorning. The world on which I reopened my eyes swam strangely upand down; the jewels in the bag that lay beside me chinked togetherceaselessly; the clock and the barometer wagged to and fro likependulums; and overhead, seamen were singing out at their work, andcoils of rope clattering and thumping on the deck. Yet it was longbefore I had divined that I was at sea; long before I had recalled, one after another, the tragical, mysterious, and inexplicableevents that had brought me where was. 

When I had done so, I thrust the jewels, which I was surprised tofind had been respected, into the bosom of my dress; and seeing asilver bell hard by upon a table, rang it loudly. The stewardinstantly appeared; I asked for food; and he proceeded to lay thetable, regarding me the while with a disquieting and pertinaciousscrutiny. To relieve myself of my embarrassment, I asked him, withas fair a show of ease as I could muster, if it were usual foryachts to carry so numerous a crew?

'Madam, ' said he, 'I know not who you are, nor what mad fancy hasinduced you to usurp a name and an appalling destiny that are notyours. I warn you from the soul. No sooner arrived at the island--'

At this moment he was interrupted by the whiskered officer, who hadentered unperceived behind him, and now laid a hand upon hisshoulder. The sudden pallor, the deadly and sick fear, that wasimprinted on the steward's face, formed a startling addition to hiswords. 

'Parker!' said the officer, and pointed towards the door. 

'Yes, Mr. Kentish, ' said the steward. 'For God's sake, Mr. Kentish!' And vanished, with a white face, from the cabin. 

Thereupon the officer bade me sit down, and began to help me, andjoin in the meal. 'I fill your ladyship's glass, ' said he, andhanded me a tumbler of neat rum. 

'Sir, ' cried I, 'do you expect me to drink this?'

He laughed heartily. 'Your ladyship is so much changed, ' said he, 'that I no longer expect any one thing more than any other. '

Immediately after, a white seaman entered the cabin, saluted bothMr. Kentish and myself, and informed the officer there was a sailin sight, which was bound to pass us very close, and that Mr. Harland was in doubt about the colours. 

'Being so near the island?' asked Mr. Kentish. 

'That was what Mr. Harland said, sir, ' returned the sailor, with ascrape. 

'Better not, I think, ' said Mr. Kentish. 'My compliments to Mr. Harland; and if she seem a lively boat, give her the stars andstripes; but if she be dull, and we can easily outsail her, showJohn Dutchman. That is always another word for incivility at sea;so we can disregard a hail or a flag of distress, withoutattracting notice. '

As soon as the sailor had gone on deck, I turned to the officer inwonder. 'Mr. Kentish, if that be your name, ' said I, 'are youashamed of your own colours?'

'Your ladyship refers to the Jolly Roger?' he inquired, withperfect gravity; and immediately after, went into peals oflaughter. 'Pardon me, ' said he; 'but here for the first time Irecognise your ladyship's impetuosity. ' Nor, try as I pleased, could I extract from him any explanation of this mystery, but onlyoily and commonplace evasion. 

While we were thus occupied, the movement of the Nemorosa graduallybecame less violent; its speed at the same time diminished; andpresently after, with a sullen plunge, the anchor was dischargedinto the sea. Kentish immediately rose, offered his arm, andconducted me on deck; where I found we were lying in a roadsteadamong many low and rocky islets, hovered about by an innumerablecloud of sea-fowl. Immediately under our board, a somewhat largerisle was green with trees, set with a few low buildings andapproached by a pier of very crazy workmanship; and a littleinshore of us, a smaller vessel lay at anchor. 

I had scarce time to glance to the four quarters, ere a boat waslowered. I was handed in, Kentish took place beside me, and wepulled briskly to the pier. A crowd of villainous, armedloiterers, both black and white, looked on upon our landing; andagain the word passed about among the negroes, and again I wasreceived with prostrations and the same gesture of the flung-uphand. By this, what with the appearance of these men, and thelawless, sea-girt spot in which I found myself, my courage began alittle to decline, and clinging to the arm of Mr. Kentish, I beggedhim to tell me what it meant?

'Nay, madam, ' he returned, 'YOU know. ' And leading me smartlythrough the crowd, which continued to follow at a considerabledistance, and at which he still kept looking back, I thought, withapprehension, he brought me to a low house that stood alone in anencumbered yard, opened the door, and begged me to enter. 

'But why?' said I. 'I demand to see Sir George. '

'Madam, ' returned Mr. Kentish, looking suddenly as black asthunder, 'to drop all fence, I know neither who nor what you are;beyond the fact that you are not the person whose name you haveassumed. But be what you please, spy, ghost, devil, or most ill-judging jester, if you do not immediately enter that house, I willcut you to the earth. ' And even as he spoke, he threw an uneasyglance behind him at the following crowd of blacks. 

I did not wait to be twice threatened; I obeyed at once, and with apalpitating heart; and the next moment, the door was locked fromthe outside and the key withdrawn. The interior was long, low, andquite unfurnished, but filled, almost from end to end, with sugar-cane, tar-barrels, old tarry rope, and other incongruous and highlyinflammable material; and not only was the door locked, but thesolitary window barred with iron. 

I was by this time so exceedingly bewildered and afraid, that Iwould have given years of my life to be once more the slave of Mr. Caulder. I still stood, with my hands clasped, the image ofdespair, looking about me on the lumber of the room or raising myeyes to heaven; when there appeared outside the window bars, theface of a very black negro, who signed to me imperiously to drawnear. I did so, and he instantly, and with every mark of fervour, addressed me a long speech in some unknown and barbarous tongue. 

'I declare, ' I cried, clasping my brow, 'I do not understand onesyllable. '

'Not?' he said in Spanish. 'Great, great, are the powers ofHoodoo! Her very mind is changed! But, O chief priestess, whyhave you suffered yourself to be shut into this cage? why did younot call your slaves at once to your defence? Do you not see thatall has been prepared to murder you? at a spark, this flimsy housewill go in flames; and alas! who shall then be the chief priestess?and what shall be the profit of the miracle?'

'Heavens!' cried I, 'can I not see Sir George? I must, I must, come by speech of him. Oh, bring me to Sir George!' And, myterror fairly mastering my courage, I fell upon my knees and beganto pray to all the saints. 

'Lordy!' cried the negro, 'here they come!' And his black head wasinstantly withdrawn from the window. 

'I never heard such nonsense in my life, ' exclaimed a voice. 

'Why, so we all say, Sir George, ' replied the voice of Mr. Kentish. 'But put yourself in our place. The niggers were near two to one. And upon my word, if you'll excuse me, sir, considering the notionthey have taken in their heads, I regard it as precious fortunatefor all of us that the mistake occurred. '

'This is no question of fortune, sir, ' returned Sir George. 'It isa question of my orders, and you may take my word for it, Kentish, either Harland, or yourself, or Parker--or, by George, all three ofyou!--shall swing for this affair. These are my sentiments. Giveme the key and be off. '

Immediately after, the key turned in the lock; and there appearedupon the threshold a gentleman, between forty and fifty, with avery open countenance, and of a stout and personable figure. 

'My dear young lady, ' said he, 'who the devil may you be?'

I told him all my story in one rush of words. He heard me, fromthe first, with an amazement you can scarcely picture, but when Icame to the death of the Senora Mendizabal in the tornado, hefairly leaped into the air. 

'My dear child, ' he cried, clasping me in his arms, 'excuse a manwho might be your father! This is the best news I ever had since Iwas born; for that hag of a mulatto was no less a person than mywife. ' He sat down upon a tar-barrel, as if unmanned by joy. 'Dear me, ' said he, 'I declare this tempts me to believe inProvidence. And what, ' he added, 'can I do for you?'

'Sir George, ' said I, 'I am already rich: all that I ask is yourprotection. '

'Understand one thing, ' he said, with great energy. 'I will nevermarry. '

'I had not ventured to propose it, ' I exclaimed, unable to restrainmy mirth; 'I only seek to be conveyed to England, the natural homeof the escaped slave. '

'Well, ' returned Sir George, 'frankly I owe you something for thisexhilarating news; besides, your father was of use to me. Now, Ihave made a small competence in business--a jewel mine, a sort ofnaval agency, et caetera, and I am on the point of breaking up mycompany, and retiring to my place in Devonshire to pass a plain oldage, unmarried. One good turn deserves another: if you swear tohold your tongue about this island, these little bonfirearrangements, and the whole episode of my unfortunate marriage, why, I'll carry you home aboard the Nemorosa. ' I eagerly acceptedhis conditions. 

'One thing more, ' said he. 'My late wife was some sort of asorceress among the blacks; and they are all persuaded she has comealive again in your agreeable person. Now, you will have thegoodness to keep up that fancy, if you please; and to swear tothem, on the authority of Hoodoo or whatever his name may be, thatI am from this moment quite a sacred character. '

'I swear it, ' said I, 'by my father's memory; and that is a vowthat I will never break. '

'I have considerably better hold on you than any oath, ' returnedSir George, with a chuckle; 'for you are not only an escaped slave, but have, by your own account, a considerable amount of stolenproperty. '

I was struck dumb; I saw it was too true; in a glance, I recognisedthat these jewels were no longer mine; with similar quickness, Idecided they should be restored, ay, if it cost me the liberty thatI had just regained. Forgetful of all else, forgetful of SirGeorge, who sat and watched me with a smile, I drew out Mr. Caulder's pocket-book and turned to the page on which the dying manhad scrawled his testament. How shall I describe the agony ofhappiness and remorse with which I read it! for my victim had notonly set me free, but bequeathed to me the bag of jewels. 

My plain tale draws towards a close. Sir George and I, in mycharacter of his rejuvenated wife, displayed ourselves arm-in-armamong the negroes, and were cheered and followed to the place ofembarkation. There, Sir George, turning about, made a speech tohis old companions, in which he thanked and bade them farewell witha very manly spirit; and towards the end of which he fell on someexpressions which I still remember. 'If any of you gentry loseyour money, ' he said, 'take care you do not come to me; for in thefirst place, I shall do my best to have you murdered; and if thatfails, I hand you over to the law. Blackmail won't do for me. I'll rather risk all upon a cast, than be pulled to pieces bydegrees. I'll rather be found out and hang, than give a doit toone man-jack of you. ' That same night we got under way and crossedto the port of New Orleans, whence, as a sacred trust, I sent thepocket-book to Mr. Caulder's son. In a week's time, the men wereall paid off; new hands were shipped; and the Nemorosa weighed heranchor for Old England. 

A more delightful voyage it were hard to fancy. Sir George, ofcourse, was not a conscientious man; but he had an unaffectedgaiety of character that naturally endeared him to the young; andit was interesting to hear him lay out his projects for the future, when he should be returned to Parliament, and place at the serviceof the nation his experience of marine affairs. I asked him, ifhis notion of piracy upon a private yacht were not original. Buthe told me, no. 'A yacht, Miss Valdevia, ' he observed, 'is achartered nuisance. Who smuggles? Who robs the salmon rivers ofthe West of Scotland? Who cruelly beats the keepers if they dareto intervene? The crews and the proprietors of yachts. All I havedone is to extend the line a trifle, and if you ask me for myunbiassed opinion, I do not suppose that I am in the least alone. '

In short, we were the best of friends, and lived like father anddaughter; though I still withheld from him, of course, that respectwhich is only due to moral excellence. 

We were still some days' sail from England, when Sir Georgeobtained, from an outward-bound ship, a packet of newspapers; andfrom that fatal hour my misfortunes recommenced. He sat, the sameevening, in the cabin, reading the news, and making savourycomments on the decline of England and the poor condition of thenavy, when I suddenly observed him to change countenance. 

'Hullo!' said he, 'this is bad; this is deuced bad, Miss Valdevia. You would not listen to sound sense, you would send that pocket-book to that man Caulder's son. '

'Sir George, ' said I, 'it was my duty. '

'You are prettily paid for it, at least, ' says he; 'and much as Iregret it, I, for one, am done with you. This fellow Caulderdemands your extradition. '

'But a slave, ' I returned, 'is safe in England. '

'Yes, by George!' replied the baronet; 'but it's not a slave, MissValdevia, it's a thief that he demands. He has quietly destroyedthe will; and now accuses you of robbing your father's bankruptestate of jewels to the value of a hundred thousand pounds. '

I was so much overcome by indignation at this hateful charge andconcern for my unhappy fate that the genial baronet made haste toput me more at ease. 

'Do not be cast down, ' said he. 'Of course, I wash my hands of youmyself. A man in my position--baronet, old family, and all that--cannot possibly be too particular about the company he keeps. ButI am a deuced good-humoured old boy, let me tell you, when notruffled; and I will do the best I can to put you right. I willlend you a trifle of ready money, give you the address of anexcellent lawyer in London, and find a way to set you on shoreunsuspected. '

He was in every particular as good as his word. Four days later, the Nemorosa sounded her way, under the cloak of a dark night, intoa certain haven of the coast of England; and a boat, rowing withmuffled oars, set me ashore upon the beach within a stone's throwof a railway station. Thither, guided by Sir George's directions, I groped a devious way; and finding a bench upon the platform, satme down, wrapped in a man's fur great-coat, to await the coming ofthe day. It was still dark when a light was struck behind one ofthe windows of the building; nor had the east begun to kindle tothe warmer colours of the dawn, before a porter carrying a lantern, issued from the door and found himself face to face with theunfortunate Teresa. He looked all about him; in the grey twilightof the dawn, the haven was seen to lie deserted, and the yacht hadlong since disappeared. 

'Who are you?' he cried. 

'I am a traveller, ' said I. 

'And where do you come from?' he asked. 

'I am going by the first train to London, ' I replied. 

In such manner, like a ghost or a new creation, was Teresa with herbag of jewels landed on the shores of England; in this silentfashion, without history or name, she took her place among themillions of a new country. 

Since then, I have lived by the expedients of my lawyer, lyingconcealed in quiet lodgings, dogged by the spies of Cuba, and notknowing at what hour my liberty and honour may be lost. 

THE BROWN BOX (Concluded)

The effect of this tale on the mind of Harry Desborough was instantand convincing. The Fair Cuban had been already the loveliest, shenow became, in his eyes, the most romantic, the most innocent, andthe most unhappy of her sex. He was bereft of words to utter whathe felt: what pity, what admiration, what youthful envy of acareer so vivid and adventurous. 'O madam!' he began; and findingno language adequate to that apostrophe, caught up her hand andwrung it in his own. 'Count upon me, ' he added, with bewilderedfervour; and getting somehow or other out of the apartment and fromthe circle of that radiant sorceress, he found himself in thestrange out-of-doors, beholding dull houses, wondering at dullpassers-by, a fallen angel. She had smiled upon him as he left, and with how significant, how beautiful a smile! The memorylingered in his heart; and when he found his way to a certainrestaurant where music was performed, flutes (as it were ofParadise) accompanied his meal. The strings went to the melody ofthat parting smile; they paraphrased and glossed it in the sensethat he desired; and for the first time in his plain and somewhatdreary life, he perceived himself to have a taste for music. 

The next day, and the next, his meditations moved to thatdelectable air. Now he saw her, and was favoured; now saw her notat all; now saw her and was put by. The fall of her foot upon thestair entranced him; the books that he sought out and read werebooks on Cuba, and spoke of her indirectly; nay, and in the verylandlady's parlour, he found one that told of precisely such ahurricane, and, down to the smallest detail, confirmed (hadconfirmation been required) the truth of her recital. Presently hebegan to fall into that prettiest mood of a young love, in whichthe lover scorns himself for his presumption. Who was he, the dullone, the commonplace unemployed, the man without adventure, theimpure, the untruthful, to aspire to such a creature made of fireand air, and hallowed and adorned by such incomparable passages oflife? What should he do, to be more worthy? by what devotion, calldown the notice of these eyes to so terrene a being as himself?

He betook himself, thereupon, to the rural privacy of the square, where, being a lad of a kind heart, he had made himself a circle ofacquaintances among its shy frequenters, the half-domestic cats andthe visitors that hung before the windows of the Children'sHospital. There he walked, considering the depth of his demeritand the height of the adored one's super-excellence; now lightingupon earth to say a pleasant word to the brother of some infantinvalid; now, with a great heave of breath, remembering the queenof women, and the sunshine of his life. 

What was he to do? Teresa, he had observed, was in the habit ofleaving the house towards afternoon: she might, perchance, rundanger from some Cuban emissary, when the presence of a friendmight turn the balance in her favour: how, then, if he shouldfollow her? To offer his company would seem like an intrusion; todog her openly were a manifest impertinence; he saw himself reducedto a more stealthy part, which, though in some ways distasteful tohis mind, he did not doubt that he could practise with the skill ofa detective. 

The next day he proceeded to put his plan in action. At the cornerof Tottenham Court Road, however, the Senorita suddenly turnedback, and met him face to face, with every mark of pleasure andsurprise. 

'Ah, Senor, I am sometimes fortunate!' she cried. 'I was lookingfor a messenger;' and with the sweetest of smiles, she despatchedhim to the East End of London, to an address which he was unable tofind. This was a bitter pill to the knight-errant; but when hereturned at night, worn out with fruitless wandering and dismayedby his fiasco, the lady received him with a friendly gaiety, protesting that all was for the best, since she had changed hermind and long since repented of her message. 

Next day he resumed his labours, glowing with pity and courage, anddetermined to protect Teresa with his life. But a painful shockawaited him. In the narrow and silent Hanway Street, she turnedsuddenly about and addressed him with a manner and a light in hereyes that were new to the young man's experience. 

'Do I understand that you follow me, Senor?' she cried. 'Are thesethe manners of the English gentleman?'

Harry confounded himself in the most abject apologies and prayersto be forgiven, vowed to offend no more, and was at lengthdismissed, crestfallen and heavy of heart. The check was final; hegave up that road to service; and began once more to hang about thesquare or on the terrace, filled with remorse and love, admirableand idiotic, a fit object for the scorn and envy of older men. Inthese idle hours, while he was courting fortune for a sight of thebeloved, it fell out naturally that he should observe the mannersand appearance of such as came about the house. One person alonewas the occasional visitor of the young lady: a man ofconsiderable stature, and distinguished only by the doubtfulornament of a chin-beard in the style of an American deacon. Something in his appearance grated upon Harry; this distaste grewupon him in the course of days; and when at length he musteredcourage to inquire of the Fair Cuban who this was, he was yet moredismayed by her reply. 

'That gentleman, ' said she, a smile struggling to her face, 'thatgentleman, I will not attempt to conceal from you, desires my handin marriage, and presses me with the most respectful ardour. Alas, what am I to say? I, the forlorn Teresa, how shall I refuse oraccept such protestations?'

Harry feared to say more; a horrid pang of jealousy transfixed him;and he had scarce the strength of mind to take his leave withdecency. In the solitude of his own chamber, he gave way to everymanifestation of despair. He passionately adored the Senorita; butit was not only the thought of her possible union with another thatdistressed his soul, it was the indefeasible conviction that hersuitor was unworthy. To a duke, a bishop, a victorious general, orany man adorned with obvious qualities, he had resigned her with asort of bitter joy; he saw himself follow the wedding party from agreat way off; he saw himself return to the poor house, then robbedof its jewel; and while he could have wept for his despair, he felthe could support it nobly. But this affair looked otherwise. Theman was patently no gentleman; he had a startled, skulking, guiltybearing; his nails were black, his eyes evasive; his love perhapswas a pretext; he was perhaps, under this deep disguise, a Cubanemissary!

Harry swore that he would satisfy these doubts; and the nextevening, about the hour of the usual visit, he posted himself at aspot whence his eye commanded the three issues of the square. 

Presently after, a four-wheeler rumbled to the door, and the manwith the chin-beard alighted, paid off the cabman, and was seen byHarry to enter the house with a brown box hoisted on his back. Half an hour later, he came forth again without the box, and struckeastward at a rapid walk; and Desborough, with the same skill andcaution that he had displayed in following Teresa, proceeded to dogthe steps of her admirer. The man began to loiter, studying withapparent interest the wares of the small fruiterer or tobacconist;twice he returned hurriedly upon his former course; and then, asthough he had suddenly conquered a moment's hesitation, once moreset forth with resolute and swift steps in the direction ofLincoln's Inn. At length, in a deserted by-street, he turned; andcoming up to Harry with a countenance which seemed to have becomeolder and whiter, inquired with some severity of speech if he hadnot had the pleasure of seeing the gentleman before. 

'You have, sir, ' said Harry, somewhat abashed, but with a good showof stoutness; 'and I will not deny that I was following you onpurpose. Doubtless, ' he added, for he supposed that all men'sminds must still be running on Teresa, 'you can divine my reason. '

At these words, the man with the chin-beard was seized with apalsied tremor. He seemed, for some seconds, to seek the utterancewhich his fear denied him; and then whipping sharply about, he tookto his heels at the most furious speed of running. 

Harry was at first so taken aback that he neglected to pursue; andby the time he had recovered his wits, his best expedition was onlyrewarded by a glimpse of the man with the chin-beard mounting intoa hansom, which immediately after disappeared into the movingcrowds of Holborn. 

Puzzled and dismayed by this unusual behaviour, Harry returned tothe house in Queen Square, and ventured for the first time to knockat the fair Cuban's door. She bade him enter, and he found herkneeling with rather a disconsolate air beside a brown woodentrunk. 

'Senorita, ' he broke out, 'I doubt whether that man's character iswhat he wishes you to believe. His manner, when he found, andindeed when I admitted that I was following him, was not the mannerof an honest man. '

'Oh!' she cried, throwing up her hands as in desperation, 'DonQuixote, Don Quixote, have you again been tilting againstwindmills?' And then, with a laugh, 'Poor soul!' she added, 'howyou must have terrified him! For know that the Cuban authoritiesare here, and your poor Teresa may soon be hunted down. Even yonhumble clerk from my solicitor's office may find himself at anymoment the quarry of armed spies. '

'A humble clerk!' cried Harry, 'why, you told me yourself that hewished to marry you!'

'I thought you English like what you call a joke, ' replied the ladycalmly. 'As a matter of fact, he is my lawyer's clerk, and hasbeen here to-night charged with disastrous news. I am in sorestraits, Senor Harry. Will you help me?'

At this most welcome word, the young man's heart exulted; and inthe hope, pride, and self-esteem that kindled with the very thoughtof service, he forgot to dwell upon the lady's jest. 'Can youask?' he cried. 'What is there that I can do? Only tell me that. '

With signs of an emotion that was certainly unfeigned, the fairCuban laid her hand upon the box. 'This box, ' she said, 'containsmy jewels, papers, and clothes; all, in a word, that still connectsme with Cuba and my dreadful past. They must now be smuggled outof England; or, by the opinion of my lawyer, I am lost beyondremedy. To-morrow, on board the Irish packet, a sure hand awaitsthe box: the problem still unsolved, is to find some one to carryit as far as Holyhead, to see it placed on board the steamer, andinstantly return to town. Will you be he? Will you leave to-morrow by the first train, punctually obey orders, bear still inmind that you are surrounded by Cuban spies; and without so much asa look behind you, or a single movement to betray your interest, leave the box where you have put it and come straight on shore?Will you do this, and so save your friend?'

'I do not clearly understand . . . ' began Harry. 

'No more do I, ' replied the Cuban. 'It is not necessary that weshould, so long as we obey the lawyer's orders. '

'Senorita, ' returned Harry gravely, 'I think this, of course, avery little thing to do for you, when I would willingly do all. But suffer me to say one word. If London is unsafe for yourtreasures, it cannot long be safe for you; and indeed, if I at allfathom the plan of your solicitor, I fear I may find you alreadyfled on my return. I am not considered clever, and can only speakout plainly what is in my heart: that I love you, and that Icannot bear to lose all knowledge of you. I hope no more than tobe your servant; I ask no more than just that I shall hear of you. Oh, promise me so much!'

'You shall, ' she said, after a pause. 'I promise you, you shall. 'But though she spoke with earnestness, the marks of greatembarrassment and a strong conflict of emotions appeared upon herface. 

'I wish to tell you, ' resumed Desborough, 'in case of accidents. . . . '

'Accidents!' she cried: 'why do you say that?'

'I do not know, ' said he, 'you may be gone before my return, and wemay not meet again for long. And so I wished you to know this:That since the day you gave me the cigarette, you have never once, not once, been absent from my mind; and if it will in any way serveyou, you may crumple me up like that piece of paper, and throw meon the fire. I would love to die for you. '

'Go!' she said. 'Go now at once. My brain is in a whirl. Iscarce know what we are talking. Go; and good-night; and oh, mayyou come safe!'

Once back in his own room a fearful joy possessed the young man'smind; and as he recalled her face struck suddenly white and thebroken utterance of her last words, his heart at once exulted andmisgave him. Love had indeed looked upon him with a tragic mask;and yet what mattered, since at least it was love--since at leastshe was commoved at their division? He got to bed with theseparti-coloured thoughts; passed from one dream to another all nightlong, the white face of Teresa still haunting him, wrung withunspoken thoughts; and in the grey of the dawn, leaped suddenly outof bed, in a kind of horror. It was already time for him to rise. He dressed, made his breakfast on cold food that had been laid forhim the night before; and went down to the room of his idol for thebox. The door was open; a strange disorder reigned within; thefurniture all pushed aside, and the centre of the room left bare ofimpediment, as though for the pacing of a creature with a torturedmind. There lay the box, however, and upon the lid a paper withthese words: 'Harry, I hope to be back before you go. Teresa. '

He sat down to wait, laying his watch before him on the table. Shehad called him Harry: that should be enough, he thought, to fillthe day with sunshine; and yet somehow the sight of that disorderedroom still poisoned his enjoyment. The door of the bed-chamberstood gaping open; and though he turned aside his eyes as from asacrilege, he could not but observe the bed had not been slept in. He was still pondering what this should mean, still trying toconvince himself that all was well, when the moving needle of hiswatch summoned him to set forth without delay. He was before allthings a man of his word; ran round to Southampton Row to fetch acab; and taking the box on the front seat, drove off towards theterminus. 

The streets were scarcely awake; there was little to amuse the eye;and the young man's attention centred on the dumb companion of hisdrive. A card was nailed upon one side, bearing thesuperscription: 'Miss Doolan, passenger to Dublin. Glass. Withcare. ' He thought with a sentimental shock that the fair idol ofhis heart was perhaps driven to adopt the name of Doolan; and as hestill studied the card, he was aware of a deadly, black depressionsettling steadily upon his spirits. It was in vain for him tocontend against the tide; in vain that he shook himself or tried towhistle: the sense of some impending blow was not to be averted. He looked out; in the long, empty streets, the cab pursued its waywithout a trace of any follower. He gave ear; and over and abovethe jolting of the wheels upon the road, he was conscious of acertain regular and quiet sound that seemed to issue from the box. He put his ear to the cover; at one moment, he seemed to perceive adelicate ticking: the next, the sound was gone, nor could hisclosest hearkening recapture it. He laughed at himself; but stillthe gloom continued; and it was with more than the common relief ofan arrival, that he leaped from the cab before the station. 

Probably enough on purpose, Teresa had named an hour some thirtyminutes earlier than needful; and when Harry had given the box intothe charge of a porter, who sat it on a truck, he proceeded brisklyto pace the platform. Presently the bookstall opened; and theyoung man was looking at the books when he was seized by the arm. He turned, and, though she was closely veiled, at once recognisedthe Fair Cuban. 

'Where is it?' she asked; and the sound of her voice surprised him. 

'It?' he said. 'What?'

'The box. Have it put on a cab instantly. I am in fearful haste. '

He hurried to obey, marvelling at these changes, but not daring totrouble her with questions; and when the cab had been broughtround, and the box mounted on the front, she passed a little wayoff upon the pavement and beckoned him to follow. 

'Now, ' said she, still in those mechanical and hushed tones thathad at first affected him, 'you must go on to Holyhead alone; go onboard the steamer; and if you see a man in tartan trousers and apink scarf, say to him that all has been put off: if not, ' sheadded, with a sobbing sigh, 'it does not matter. So, good-bye. '

'Teresa, ' said Harry, 'get into your cab, and I will go along withyou. You are in some distress, perhaps some danger; and till Iknow the whole, not even you can make me leave you. '

'You will not?' she asked. 'O Harry, it were better!'

'I will not, ' said Harry stoutly. 

She looked at him for a moment through her veil; took his handsuddenly and sharply, but more as if in fear than tenderness; andstill holding him, walked to the cab-door. 

'Where are we to drive?' asked Harry. 

'Home, quickly, ' she answered; 'double fare!' And as soon as theyhad both mounted to their places, the vehicle crazily trundled fromthe station. 

Teresa leaned back in a corner. The whole way Harry could perceiveher tears to flow under her veil; but she vouchsafed noexplanation. At the door of the house in Queen Square, bothalighted; and the cabman lowered the box, which Harry, glad todisplay his strength, received upon his shoulders. 

'Let the man take it, ' she whispered. 'Let the man take it. '

'I will do no such thing, ' said Harry cheerfully; and having paidthe fare, he followed Teresa through the door which she had openedwith her key. The landlady and maid were gone upon their morningerrands; the house was empty and still; and as the rattling of thecab died away down Gloucester Street, and Harry continued to ascendthe stair with his burthen, he heard close against his shouldersthe same faint and muffled ticking as before. The lady, stillpreceding him, opened the door of her room, and helped him to lowerthe box tenderly in the corner by the window. 

'And now, ' said Harry, 'what is wrong?'

'You will not go away?' she cried, with a sudden break in her voiceand beating her hands together in the very agony of impatience. 'OHarry, Harry, go away! Oh, go, and leave me to the fate that Ideserve!'

'The fate?' repeated Harry. 'What is this?'

'No fate, ' she resumed. 'I do not know what I am saying. But Iwish to be alone. You may come back this evening, Harry; comeagain when you like; but leave me now, only leave me now!' Andthen suddenly, 'I have an errand, ' she exclaimed; 'you cannotrefuse me that!'

'No, ' replied Harry, 'you have no errand. You are in grief ordanger. Lift your veil and tell me what it is. '

'Then, ' she said, with a sudden composure, 'you leave but onecourse open to me. ' And raising the veil, she showed him acountenance from which every trace of colour had fled, eyes marredwith weeping, and a brow on which resolve had conquered fear. 'Harry, ' she began, 'I am not what I seem. '

'You have told me that before, ' said Harry, 'several times. '

'O Harry, Harry, ' she cried, 'how you shame me! But this is theGod's truth. I am a dangerous and wicked girl. My name is ClaraLuxmore. I was never nearer Cuba than Penzance. From first tolast I have cheated and played with you. And what I am I dare noteven name to you in words. Indeed, until to-day, until thesleepless watches of last night, I never grasped the depth andfoulness of my guilt. '

The young man looked upon her aghast. Then a generous currentpoured along his veins. 'That is all one, ' he said. 'If you beall you say, you have the greater need of me. '

'Is it possible, ' she exclaimed, 'that I have schemed in vain? Andwill nothing drive you from this house of death?'

'Of death?' he echoed. 

'Death!' she cried: 'death! In that box that you have draggedabout London and carried on your defenceless shoulders, sleep, atthe trigger's mercy, the destroying energies of dynamite. '

'My God!' cried Harry. 

'Ah!' she continued wildly, 'will you flee now? At any moment youmay hear the click that sounds the ruin of this building. I wassure M'Guire was wrong; this morning, before day, I flew to Zero;he confirmed my fears; I beheld you, my beloved Harry, fall avictim to my own contrivances. I knew then I loved you--Harry, will you go now? Will you not spare me this unwilling crime?'

Harry remained speechless, his eyes fixed upon the box: at last heturned to her. 

'Is it, ' he asked hoarsely, 'an infernal machine?'

Her lips formed the word 'Yes, ' which her voice refused to utter. 

With fearful curiosity, he drew near and bent above the box; inthat still chamber, the ticking was distinctly audible; and at themeasured sound, the blood flowed back upon his heart. 

'For whom?' he asked. 

'What matters it, ' she cried, seizing him by the arm. 'If you maystill be saved, what matter questions?'

'God in heaven!' cried Harry. 'And the Children's Hospital! Atwhatever cost, this damned contrivance must be stopped!'

'It cannot, ' she gasped. 'The power of man cannot avert the blow. But you, Harry--you, my beloved--you may still--'

And then from the box that lay so quietly in the corner, a suddencatch was audible, like the catch of a clock before it strikes thehour. For one second the two stared at each other with liftedbrows and stony eyes. Then Harry, throwing one arm over his face, with the other clutched the girl to his breast and staggeredagainst the wall. 

A dull and startling thud resounded through the room; their eyesblinked against the coming horror; and still clinging together likedrowning people, they fell to the floor. Then followed a prolongedand strident hissing as from the indignant pit; an offensive stenchseized them by the throat; the room was filled with dense andchoking fumes. 

Presently these began a little to disperse: and when at lengththey drew themselves, all limp and shaken, to a sitting posture, the first object that greeted their vision was the box reposinguninjured in its corner, but still leaking little wreaths of vapourround the lid. 

'Oh, poor Zero!' cried the girl, with a strange sobbing laugh. 'Alas, poor Zero! This will break his heart!'

THE SUPERFLUOUS MANSION (Concluded)

Somerset ran straight upstairs; the door of the drawing-room, contrary to all custom, was unlocked; and bursting in, the youngman found Zero seated on a sofa in an attitude of singulardejection. Close beside him stood an untasted grog, the mark ofstrong preoccupation. The room besides was in confusion: boxeshad been tumbled to and fro; the floor was strewn with keys andother implements; and in the midst of this disorder lay a lady'sglove. 

'I have come, ' cried Somerset, 'to make an end of this. Either youwill instantly abandon all your schemes, or (cost what it may) Iwill denounce you to the police. '

'Ah!' replied Zero, slowly shaking his head. 'You are too late, dear fellow! I am already at the end of all my hopes, and fallento be a laughing-stock and mockery. My reading, ' he added, with agentle despondency of manner, 'has not been much among romances;yet I recall from one a phrase that depicts my present state withcritical exactitude; and you behold me sitting here "like a burstdrum. "'

'What has befallen you?' cried Somerset. 

'My last batch, ' returned the plotter wearily, 'like all theothers, is a hollow mockery and a fraud. In vain do I combine theelements; in vain adjust the springs; and I have now arrived atsuch a pitch of disconsideration that (except yourself, dearfellow) I do not know a soul that I can face. My subordinatesthemselves have turned upon me. What language have I heard to-day, what illiberality of sentiment, what pungency of expression! Shecame once; I could have pardoned that, for she was moved; but shereturned, returned to announce to me this crushing blow; and, Somerset, she was very inhumane. Yes, dear fellow, I have drunk abitter cup; the speech of females is remarkable for . . . Well, well! Denounce me, if you will; you but denounce the dead. I amextinct. It is strange how, at this supreme crisis of my life, Ishould be haunted by quotations from works of an inexact and evenfanciful description; but here, ' he added, 'is another: "Othello'soccupation's gone. " Yes, dear Somerset, it is gone; I am no more adynamiter; and how, I ask you, after having tasted of these joys, am I to condescend to a less glorious life?'

'I cannot describe how you relieve me, ' returned Somerset, sittingdown on one of several boxes that had been drawn out into themiddle of the floor. 'I had conceived a sort of maudlin tolerationfor your character; I have a great distaste, besides, for anythingin the nature of a duty; and upon both grounds, your news delightsme. But I seem to perceive, ' he added, 'a certain sound of tickingin this box. '

'Yes, ' replied Zero, with the same slow weariness of manner, 'Ihave set several of them going. '

'My God!' cried Somerset, bounding to his feet. 

'Machines?'

'Machines!' returned the plotter bitterly. 'Machines indeed! Iblush to be their author. Alas!' he said, burying his face in hishands, 'that I should live to say it!'

'Madman!' cried Somerset, shaking him by the arm. 'What am I tounderstand? Have you, indeed, set these diabolical contrivances inmotion? and do we stay here to be blown up?'

'"Hoist with his own petard?"' returned the plotter musingly. 'Onemore quotation: strange! But indeed my brain is struck withnumbness. Yes, dear boy, I have, as you say, put my contrivance inmotion. The one on which you are sitting, I have timed for half anhour. Yon other--'

'Half an hour!--' echoed Somerset, dancing with trepidation. 'Merciful Heavens, in half an hour?'

'Dear fellow, why so much excitement?' inquired Zero. 'My dynamiteis not more dangerous than toffy; had I an only child, I would giveit him to play with. You see this brick?' he continued, lifting acake of the infernal compound from the laboratory-table. 'At atouch it should explode, and that with such unconquerable energy asshould bestrew the square with ruins. Well now, behold! I dash iton the floor. '

Somerset sprang forward, and with the strength of the very ecstasyof terror, wrested the brick from his possession. 'Heavens!' hecried, wiping his brow; and then with more care than ever motherhandled her first-born withal, gingerly transported the explosiveto the far end of the apartment: the plotter, his arms once morefallen to his side, dispiritedly watching him. 

'It was entirely harmless, ' he sighed. 'They describe it asburning like tobacco. '

'In the name of fortune, ' cried Somerset, 'what have I done to you, or what have you done to yourself, that you should persist in thisinsane behaviour? If not for your own sake, then for mine, let usdepart from this doomed house, where I profess I have not the heartto leave you; and then, if you will take my advice, and if yourdetermination be sincere, you will instantly quit this city, whereno further occupation can detain you. '

'Such, dear fellow, was my own design, ' replied the plotter. 'Ihave, as you observe, no further business here; and once I havepacked a little bag, I shall ask you to share a frugal meal, to gowith me as far as to the station, and see the last of a broken-hearted man. And yet, ' he added, looking on the boxes with alingering regret, 'I should have liked to make quite certain. Icannot but suspect my underlings of some mismanagement; it may befond, but yet I cherish that idea: it may be the weakness of a manof science, but yet, ' he cried, rising into some energy, 'I willnever, I cannot if I try, believe that my poor dynamite has hadfair usage!'

'Five minutes!' said Somerset, glancing with horror at thetimepiece. 'If you do not instantly buckle to your bag, I leaveyou. '

'A few necessaries, ' returned Zero, 'only a few necessaries, dearSomerset, and you behold me ready. '

He passed into the bedroom, and after an interval which seemed todraw out into eternity for his unfortunate companion, he returned, bearing in his hand an open Gladstone bag. His movements werestill horribly deliberate, and his eyes lingered gloatingly on hisdear boxes, as he moved to and fro about the drawing-room, gathering a few small trifles. Last of all, he lifted one of thesquares of dynamite. 

'Put that down!' cried Somerset. 'If what you say be true, youhave no call to load yourself with that ungodly contraband. '

'Merely a curiosity, dear boy, ' he said persuasively, and slippedthe brick into his bag; 'merely a memento of the past--ah, happypast, bright past! You will not take a touch of spirits? no? Ifind you very abstemious. Well, ' he added, 'if you have really nocuriosity to await the event--'

'I!' cried Somerset. 'My blood boils to get away. '

'Well, then, ' said Zero, 'I am ready; I would I could say, willing;but thus to leave the scene of my sublime endeavours--'

Without further parley, Somerset seized him by the arm, and draggedhim downstairs; the hall-door shut with a clang on the desertedmansion; and still towing his laggardly companion, the young mansped across the square in the Oxford Street direction. They hadnot yet passed the corner of the garden, when they were arrested bya dull thud of an extraordinary amplitude of sound, accompanied andfollowed by a shattering fracas. Somerset turned in time to seethe mansion rend in twain, vomit forth flames and smoke, andinstantly collapse into its cellars. At the same moment, he wasthrown violently to the ground. His first glance was towards Zero. The plotter had but reeled against the garden rail; he stood there, the Gladstone bag clasped tight upon his heart, his whole faceradiant with relief and gratitude; and the young man heard himmurmur to himself: 'Nunc dimittis, nunc dimittis!'

The consternation of the populace was indescribable; the whole ofGolden Square was alive with men, women, and children, runningwildly to and fro, and like rabbits in a warren, dashing in and outof the house doors. And under favour of this confusion, Somersetdragged away the lingering plotter. 

'It was grand, ' he continued to murmur: 'it was indescribablygrand. Ah, green Erin, green Erin, what a day of glory! and oh, mycalumniated dynamite, how triumphantly hast thou prevailed!'

Suddenly a shade crossed his face; and pausing in the middle of thefootway, he consulted the dial of his watch. 

'Good God!' he cried, 'how mortifying! seven minutes too early!The dynamite surpassed my hopes; but the clockwork, fickleclockwork, has once more betrayed me. Alas, can there be nosuccess unmixed with failure? and must even this red-letter day bechequered by a shadow?'

'Incomparable ass!' said Somerset, 'what have you done? Blown upthe house of an unoffending old lady, and the whole earthlyproperty of the only person who is fool enough to befriend you!'

'You do not understand these matters, ' replied Zero, with an air ofgreat dignity. 'This will shake England to the heart. Gladstone, the truculent old man, will quail before the pointing finger ofrevenge. And now that my dynamite is proved effective--'

'Heavens, you remind me!' ejaculated Somerset. 'That brick in yourbag must be instantly disposed of. But how? If we could throw itin the river--'

'A torpedo, ' cried Zero, brightening, 'a torpedo in the Thames!Superb, dear fellow! I recognise in you the marks of anaccomplished anarch. '

'True!' returned Somerset. 'It cannot so be done; and there is nohelp but you must carry it away with you. Come on, then, and letme at once consign you to a train. '

'Nay, nay, dear boy, ' protested Zero. 'There is now no call for meto leave. My character is now reinstated; my fame brightens; thisis the best thing I have done yet; and I see from here the ovationsthat await the author of the Golden Square Atrocity. '

'My young friend, ' returned the other, 'I give you your choice. Iwill either see you safe on board a train or safe in gaol. '

'Somerset, this is unlike you!' said the chymist. 'You surpriseme, Somerset. '

'I shall considerably more surprise you at the next police office, 'returned Somerset, with something bordering on rage. 'For on onepoint my mind is settled: either I see you packed off to America, brick and all, or else you dine in prison. '

'You have perhaps neglected one point, ' returned the unoffendedZero: 'for, speaking as a philosopher, I fail to see what meansyou can employ to force me. The will, my dear fellow--'

'Now, see here, ' interrupted Somerset. 'You are ignorant ofanything but science, which I can never regard as being trulyknowledge; I, sir, have studied life; and allow me to inform youthat I have but to raise my hand and voice--here in this street--and the mob--'

'Good God in heaven, Somerset, ' cried Zero, turning deadly whiteand stopping in his walk, 'great God in heaven, what words arethese? Oh, not in jest, not even in jest, should they be used!The brutal mob, the savage passions . . . . Somerset, for God'ssake, a public-house!'

Somerset considered him with freshly awakened curiosity. 'This isvery interesting, ' said he. 'You recoil from such a death?'

'Who would not?' asked the plotter. 

'And to be blown up by dynamite, ' inquired the young man, 'doubtless strikes you as a form of euthanasia?'

'Pardon me, ' returned Zero: 'I own, and since I have braved itdaily in my professional career, I own it even with pride: it is adeath unusually distasteful to the mind of man. '

'One more question, ' said Somerset: 'you object to Lynch Law?why?'

'It is assassination, ' said the plotter calmly, but with eyebrows alittle lifted, as in wonder at the question. 

'Shake hands with me, ' cried Somerset. 'Thank God, I have now noill-feeling left; and though you cannot conceive how I burn to seeyou on the gallows, I can quite contentedly assist at yourdeparture. '

'I do not very clearly take your meaning, ' said Zero, 'but I amsure you mean kindly. As to my departure, there is another pointto be considered. I have neglected to supply myself with funds; mylittle all has perished in what history will love to relate underthe name of the Golden Square Atrocity; and without what iscoarsely if vigorously called stamps, you must be well aware it isimpossible for me to pass the ocean. '

'For me, ' said Somerset, 'you have now ceased to be a man. Youhave no more claim upon me than a door scraper; but the touchingconfusion of your mind disarms me from extremities. Until to-day, I always thought stupidity was funny; I now know otherwise; andwhen I look upon your idiot face, laughter rises within me like adeadly sickness, and the tears spring up into my eyes as bitter asblood. What should this portend? I begin to doubt; I am losingfaith in scepticism. Is it possible, ' he cried, in a kind ofhorror of himself--'is it conceivable that I believe in right andwrong? Already I have found myself, with incredulous surprise, tobe the victim of a prejudice of personal honour. And must thischange proceed? Have you robbed me of my youth? Must I fall, atmy time of life, into the Common Banker? But why should I addressthat head of wood? Let this suffice. I dare not let you stayamong women and children; I lack the courage to denounce you, if byany means I may avoid it; you have no money: well then, take mine, and go; and if ever I behold your face after to-day, that day willbe your last. '

'Under the circumstances, ' replied Zero, 'I scarce see my way torefuse your offer. Your expressions may pain, they cannot surpriseme; I am aware our point of view requires a little training, alittle moral hygiene, if I may so express it; and one of the pointsthat has always charmed me in your character is this delightfulfrankness. As for the small advance, it shall be remitted you fromPhiladelphia. '

'It shall not, ' said Somerset. 

'Dear fellow, you do not understand, ' returned the plotter. 'Ishall now be received with fresh confidence by my superiors; and myexperiments will be no longer hampered by pitiful conditions of thepurse. '

'What I am now about, sir, is a crime, ' replied Somerset; 'and wereyou to roll in wealth like Vanderbilt, I should scorn to bereimbursed of money I had so scandalously misapplied. Take it, andkeep it. By George, sir, three days of you have transformed me toan ancient Roman. '

With these words, Somerset hailed a passing hansom; and the pairwere driven rapidly to the railway terminus. There, an oath havingbeen exacted, the money changed hands. 

'And now, ' said Somerset, 'I have bought back my honour with everypenny I possess. And I thank God, though there is nothing beforeme but starvation, I am free from all entanglement with Mr. ZeroPumpernickel Jones. '

'To starve?' cried Zero. 'Dear fellow, I cannot endure thethought. '

'Take your ticket!' returned Somerset. 

'I think you display temper, ' said Zero. 

'Take your ticket, ' reiterated the young man. 

'Well, ' said the plotter, as he returned, ticket in hand, 'yourattitude is so strange and painful, that I scarce know if I shouldask you to shake hands. '

'As a man, no, ' replied Somerset; 'but I have no objection to shakehands with you, as I might with a pump-well that ran poison orbell-fire. '

'This is a very cold parting, ' sighed the dynamiter; and stillfollowed by Somerset, he began to descend the platform. This wasnow bustling with passengers; the train for Liverpool was justabout to start, another had but recently arrived; and the doubletide made movement difficult. As the pair reached theneighbourhood of the bookstall, however, they came into an openspace; and here the attention of the plotter was attracted by aStandard broadside bearing the words: 'Second Edition: Explosionin Golden Square. ' His eye lighted; groping in his pocket for thenecessary coin, he sprang forward--his bag knocked sharply on thecorner of the stall--and instantly, with a formidable report, thedynamite exploded. When the smoke cleared away the stall was seenmuch shattered, and the stall keeper running forth in terror fromthe ruins; but of the Irish patriot or the Gladstone bag noadequate remains were to be found. 

In the first scramble of the alarm, Somerset made good his escape, and came out upon the Euston Road, his head spinning, his body sickwith hunger, and his pockets destitute of coin. Yet as hecontinued to walk the pavements, he wondered to find in his heart asort of peaceful exultation, a great content, a sense, as it were, of divine presence and the kindliness of fate; and he was able totell himself that even if the worst befell, he could now starvewith a certain comfort since Zero was expunged. 

Late in the afternoon, he found himself at the door of Mr. Godall'sshop; and being quite unmanned by his long fast, and scarceconsidering what he did, he opened the glass door and entered. 

'Ha!' said Mr. Godall, 'Mr. Somerset! Well, have you met with anadventure? Have you the promised story? Sit down, if you please;suffer me to choose you a cigar of my own special brand; and rewardme with a narrative in your best style. '

'I must not take a cigar, ' said Somerset. 

'Indeed!' said Mr. Godall. 'But now I come to look at you moreclosely, I perceive that you are changed. My poor boy, I hopethere is nothing wrong?'

Somerset burst into tears. 

EPILOGUE OF THE CIGAR DIVAN

On a certain day of lashing rain in the December of last year, andbetween the hours of nine and ten in the morning, Mr. EdwardChalloner pioneered himself under an umbrella to the door of theCigar Divan in Rupert Street. It was a place he had visited butonce before: the memory of what had followed on that visit and thefear of Somerset having prevented his return. Even now, he lookedin before he entered; but the shop was free of customers. 

The young man behind the counter was so intently writing in a pennyversion-book, that he paid no heed to Challoner's arrival. On asecond glance, it seemed to the latter that he recognised him. 

'By Jove, ' he thought, 'unquestionably Somerset!'

And though this was the very man he had been so sedulously carefulto avoid, his unexplained position at the receipt of custom changeddistaste to curiosity. 

'"Or opulent rotunda strike the sky, "' said the shopman to himself, in the tone of one considering a verse. 'I suppose it would be toomuch to say "orotunda, " and yet how noble it were! "Or opulentorotunda strike the sky. " But that is the bitterness of arts; yousee a good effect, and some nonsense about sense continuallyintervenes. '

'Somerset, my dear fellow, ' said Challoner, 'is this a masquerade?'

'What? Challoner!' cried the shopman. 'I am delighted to see you. One moment, till I finish the octave of my sonnet: only theoctave. ' And with a friendly waggle of the hand, he once moreburied himself in the commerce of the Muses. 'I say, ' he saidpresently, looking up, 'you seem in wonderful preservation: howabout the hundred pounds?'

'I have made a small inheritance from a great aunt in Wales, 'replied Challoner modestly. 

'Ah, ' said Somerset, 'I very much doubt the legitimacy ofinheritance. The State, in my view, should collar it. I am nowgoing through a stage of socialism and poetry, ' he addedapologetically, as one who spoke of a course of medicinal waters. 

'And are you really the person of the--establishment?' inquiredChalloner, deftly evading the word 'shop. '

'A vendor, sir, a vendor, ' returned the other, pocketing his poesy. 'I help old Happy and Glorious. Can I offer you a weed?'

'Well, I scarcely like . . . ' began Challoner. 

'Nonsense, my dear fellow, ' cried the shopman. 'We are very proudof the business; and the old man, let me inform you, besides beingthe most egregious of created beings from the point of view ofethics, is literally sprung from the loins of kings. "De Godall jesuis le fervent. " There is only one Godall. --By the way, ' headded, as Challoner lit his cigar, 'how did you get on with thedetective trade?'

'I did not try, ' said Challoner curtly. 

'Ah, well, I did, ' returned Somerset, 'and made the mostincomparable mess of it: lost all my money and fairly coveredmyself with odium and ridicule. There is more in that business, Challoner, than meets the eye; there is more, in fact, in allbusinesses. You must believe in them, or get up the belief thatyou believe. Hence, ' he added, 'the recognised inferiority of theplumber, for no one could believe in plumbing. '

'A propos, ' asked Challoner, 'do you still paint?'

'Not now, ' replied Paul; 'but I think of taking up the violin. '

Challoner's eye, which had been somewhat restless since the tradeof the detective had been named, now rested for a moment on thecolumns of the morning paper, where it lay spread upon the counter. 

'By Jove, ' he cried, 'that's odd!'

'What is odd?' asked Paul. 

'Oh, nothing, ' returned the other: 'only I once met a personcalled M'Guire. '

'So did I!' cried Somerset. 'Is there anything about him?'

Challoner read as follows: 'MYSTERIOUS DEATH IN STEPNEY. Aninquest was held yesterday on the body of Patrick M'Guire, described as a carpenter. Doctor Dovering stated that he had forsome time treated the deceased as a dispensary patient, forsleeplessness, loss of appetite, and nervous depression. There wasno cause of death to be found. He would say the deceased had sunk. Deceased was not a temperate man, which doubtless accelerateddeath. Deceased complained of dumb ague, but witness had neverbeen able to detect any positive disease. He did not know that hehad any family. He regarded him as a person of unsound intellect, who believed himself a member and the victim of some secretsociety. If he were to hazard an opinion, he would say deceasedhad died of fear. '

'And the doctor would be right, ' cried Somerset; 'and my dearChalloner, I am so relieved to hear of his demise, that I will--Well, after all, ' he added, 'poor devil, he was well served. '

The door at this moment opened, and Desborough appeared upon thethreshold. He was wrapped in a long waterproof, imperfectlysupplied with buttons; his boots were full of water, his hat greasywith service; and yet he wore the air of one exceeding well contentwith life. He was hailed by the two others with exclamations ofsurprise and welcome. 

'And did you try the detective business?' inquired Paul. 

'No, ' returned Harry. 'Oh yes, by the way, I did though: twice, and got caught out both times. But I thought I should find my--mywife here?' he added, with a kind of proud confusion. 

'What? are you married?' cried Somerset. 

'Oh yes, ' said Harry, 'quite a long time: a month at least. '

'Money?' asked Challoner. 

'That's the worst of it, ' Desborough admitted. 'We are deadly hardup. But the Pri--- Mr. Godall is going to do something for us. That is what brings us here. '

'Who was Mrs. Desborough?' said Challoner, in the tone of a man ofsociety. 

'She was a Miss Luxmore, ' returned Harry. 'You fellows will besure to like her, for she is much cleverer than I. She tellswonderful stories, too; better than a book. '

And just then the door opened, and Mrs. Desborough entered. Somerset cried out aloud to recognise the young lady of theSuperfluous Mansion, and Challoner fell back a step and dropped hiscigar as he beheld the sorceress of Chelsea. 

'What!' cried Harry, 'do you both know my wife?'

'I believe I have seen her, ' said Somerset, a little wildly. 

'I think I have met the gentleman, ' said Mrs. Desborough sweetly;'but I cannot imagine where it was. '

'Oh no, ' cried Somerset fervently: 'I have no notion--I cannotconceive--where it could have been. Indeed, ' he continued, growingin emphasis, 'I think it highly probable that it's a mistake. '

'And you, Challoner?' asked Harry, 'you seemed to recognise hertoo. '

'These are both friends of yours, Harry?' said the lady. 'Delighted, I am sure. I do not remember to have met Mr. Challoner. '

Challoner was very red in the face, perhaps from having gropedafter his cigar. 'I do not remember to have had the pleasure, ' heresponded huskily. 

'Well, and Mr. Godall?' asked Mrs. Desborough. 

'Are you the lady that has an appointment with old--' beganSomerset, and paused blushing. 'Because if so, ' he resumed, 'I wasto announce you at once. '

And the shopman raised a curtain, opened a door, and passed into asmall pavilion which had been added to the back of the house. Onthe roof, the rain resounded musically. The walls were lined withmaps and prints and a few works of reference. Upon a table was alarge-scale map of Egypt and the Soudan, and another of Tonkin, onwhich, by the aid of coloured pins, the progress of the differentwars was being followed day by day. A light, refreshing odour ofthe most delicate tobacco hung upon the air; and a fire, not offoul coal, but of clear-flaming resinous billets, chattered uponsilver dogs. In this elegant and plain apartment, Mr. Godall satin a morning muse, placidly gazing at the fire and hearkening tothe rain upon the roof. 

'Ha, my dear Mr. Somerset, ' said he, 'and have you since last nightadopted any fresh political principle?'

'The lady, sir, ' said Somerset, with another blush. 

'You have seen her, I believe?' returned Mr. Godall; and onSomerset's replying in the affirmative, 'You will excuse me, mydear sir, ' he resumed, 'if I offer you a hint. I think it notimprobable this lady may desire entirely to forget the past. Fromone gentleman to another, no more words are necessary. '

A moment after, he had received Mrs. Desborough with that grave andtouching urbanity that so well became him. 

'I am pleased, madam, to welcome you to my poor house, ' he said;'and shall be still more so, if what were else a barren courtesyand a pleasure personal to myself, shall prove to be of seriousbenefit to you and Mr. Desborough. '

'Your Highness, ' replied Clara, 'I must begin with thanks; it islike what I have heard of you, that you should thus take up thecase of the unfortunate; and as for my Harry, he is worthy of allthat you can do. ' She paused. 

'But for yourself?' suggested Mr. Godall--'it was thus you wereabout to continue, I believe. '

'You take the words out of my mouth, ' she said. 'For myself, it isdifferent. '

'I am not here to be a judge of men, ' replied the Prince; 'stillless of women. I am now a private person like yourself and manymillion others; but I am one who still fights upon the side ofquiet. Now, madam, you know better than I, and God better thanyou, what you have done to mankind in the past; I pause not toinquire; it is with the future I concern myself, it is for thefuture I demand security. I would not willingly put arms into thehands of a disloyal combatant; and I dare not restore to wealth oneof the levyers of a private and a barbarous war. I speak with someseverity, and yet I pick my terms. I tell myself continually thatyou are a woman; and a voice continually reminds me of the childrenwhose lives and limbs you have endangered. A woman, ' he repeatedsolemnly--'and children. Possibly, madam, when you are yourself amother, you will feel the bite of that antithesis: possibly whenyou kneel at night beside a cradle, a fear will fall upon you, heavier than any shame; and when your child lies in the pain anddanger of disease, you shall hesitate to kneel before your Maker. '

'You look at the fault, ' she said, 'and not at the excuse. Hasyour own heart never leaped within you at some story of oppression?But, alas, no! for you were born upon a throne. '

'I was born of woman, ' said the Prince; 'I came forth from mymother's agony, helpless as a wren, like other nurselings. This, which you forgot, I have still faithfully remembered. Is it notone of your English poets, that looked abroad upon the earth andsaw vast circumvallations, innumerable troops manoeuvring, warshipsat sea and a great dust of battles on shore; and casting anxiouslyabout for what should be the cause of so many and painfulpreparations, spied at last, in the centre of all, a mother and herbabe? These, madam, are my politics; and the verses, which are byMr. Coventry Patmore, I have caused to be translated into theBohemian tongue. Yes, these are my politics: to change what wecan, to better what we can; but still to bear in mind that man isbut a devil weakly fettered by some generous beliefs andimpositions, and for no word however nobly sounding, and no causehowever just and pious, to relax the stricture of these bonds. '

There was a silence of a moment. 

'I fear, madam, ' resumed the Prince, 'that I but weary you. Myviews are formal like myself; and like myself, they also begin togrow old. But I must still trouble you for some reply. '

'I can say but one thing, ' said Mrs. Desborough: 'I love myhusband. '

'It is a good answer, ' returned the Prince; 'and you name a goodinfluence, but one that need not be conterminous with life. '

'I will not play at pride with such a man as you, ' she answered. 'What do you ask of me? not protestations, I am sure. What shall Isay? I have done much that I cannot defend and that I would not doagain. Can I say more? Yes: I can say this: I never abusedmyself with the muddle-headed fairy tales of politics. I was atleast prepared to meet reprisals. While I was levying war myself--or levying murder, if you choose the plainer term--I never accusedmy adversaries of assassination. I never felt or feigned arighteous horror, when a price was put upon my life by those whom Iattacked. I never called the policeman a hireling. I may havebeen a criminal, in short; but I never was a fool. '

'Enough, madam, ' returned the Prince: 'more than enough! Yourwords are most reviving to my spirits; for in this age, when eventhe assassin is a sentimentalist, there is no virtue greater in myeyes than intellectual clarity. Suffer me, then, to ask you toretire; for by the signal of that bell, I perceive my old friend, your mother, to be close at hand. With her I promise you to do myutmost. '

And as Mrs. Desborough returned to the Divan, the Prince, opening adoor upon the other side, admitted Mrs. Luxmore. 

'Madam and my very good friend, ' said he, 'is my face so muchchanged that you no longer recognise Prince Florizel in Mr. Godall?'

'To be sure!' she cried, looking at him through her glasses. 'Ihave always regarded your Highness as a perfect man; and in youraltered circumstances, of which I have already heard with deepregret, I will beg you to consider my respect increased instead oflessened. '

'I have found it so, ' returned the Prince, 'with every class of myacquaintance. But, madam, I pray you to be seated. My business isof a delicate order, and regards your daughter. '

'In that case, ' said Mrs. Luxmore, 'you may save yourself thetrouble of speaking, for I have fully made up my mind to havenothing to do with her. I will not hear one word in her defence;but as I value nothing so particularly as the virtue of justice, Ithink it my duty to explain to you the grounds of my complaint. She deserted me, her natural protector; for years, she hasconsorted with the most disreputable persons; and to fill the cupof her offence, she has recently married. I refuse to see her, orthe being to whom she has linked herself. One hundred and twentypounds a year, I have always offered her: I offer it again. It iswhat I had myself when I was her age. '

'Very well, madam, ' said the Prince; 'and be that so! But to touchupon another matter: what was the income of the Reverend BernardFanshawe?'

'My father?' asked the spirited old lady. 'I believe he had sevenhundred pounds in the year. '

'You were one, I think, of several?' pursued the Prince. 

'Of four, ' was the reply. 'We were four daughters; and painful asthe admission is to make, a more detestable family could scarce befound in England. '

'Dear me!' said the Prince. 'And you, madam, have an income ofeight thousand?'

'Not more than five, ' returned the old lady; 'but where on earthare you conducting me?'

'To an allowance of one thousand pounds a year, ' replied Florizel, smiling. 'For I must not suffer you to take your father for arule. He was poor, you are rich. He had many calls upon hispoverty: there are none upon your wealth. And indeed, madam, ifyou will let me touch this matter with a needle, there is but onepoint in common to your two positions: that each had a daughtermore remarkable for liveliness than duty. '

'I have been entrapped into this house, ' said the old lady, gettingto her feet. 'But it shall not avail. Not all the tobacconists inEurope . . . '

'Ah, madam, ' interrupted Florizel, 'before what is referred to asmy fall, you had not used such language! And since you so muchobject to the simple industry by which I live, let me give you afriendly hint. If you will not consent to support your daughter, Ishall be constrained to place that lady behind my counter, where Idoubt not she would prove a great attraction; and your son-in-lawshall have a livery and run the errands. With such young blood mybusiness might be doubled, and I might be bound in common gratitudeto place the name of Luxmore beside that of Godall. '

'Your Highness, ' said the old lady, 'I have been very rude, and youare very cunning. I suppose the minx is on the premises. Produceher. '

'Let us rather observe them unperceived, ' said the Prince; and sosaying he rose and quietly drew back the curtain. 

Mrs. Desborough sat with her back to them on a chair; Somerset andHarry were hanging on her words with extraordinary interest;Challoner, alleging some affair, had long ago withdrawn from thedetested neighbourhood of the enchantress. 

'At that moment, ' Mrs. Desborough was saying, 'Mr Gladstonedetected the features of his cowardly assailant. A cry rose to hislips: a cry of mingled triumph . . . '

'That is Mr. Somerset!' interrupted the spirited old lady, in thehighest note of her register. 'Mr. Somerset, what have you donewith my house-property?'

'Madam, ' said the Prince, 'let it be mine to give the explanation;and in the meanwhile, welcome your daughter. '

'Well, Clara, how do you do?' said Mrs. Luxmore. 'It appears I amto give you an allowance. So much the better for you. As for Mr. Somerset, I am very ready to have an explanation; for the wholeaffair, though costly, was eminently humorous. And at any rate, 'she added, nodding to Paul, 'he is a young gentleman for whom Ihave a great affection, and his pictures were the funniest I eversaw. '

'I have ordered a collation, ' said the Prince. 'Mr. Somerset, asthese are all your friends, I propose, if you please, that youshould join them at table. I will take the shop. '

Footnotes:

{1} Hereupon the Arabian author enters on one of his digressions. Fearing, apparently, that the somewhat eccentric views of Mr. Somerset should throw discredit on a part of truth, he calls uponthe English people to remember with more gratitude the services ofthe police; to what unobserved and solitary acts of heroism theyare called; against what odds of numbers and of arms, and for howsmall a reward, either in fame or money: matter, it has appearedto the translators, too serious for this place. 

{2} In this name the accent falls upon the E; the S is sibilant. 

{3} The Arabian author of the original has here a long passageconceived in a style too oriental for the English reader. Wesubjoin a specimen, and it seems doubtful whether it should beprinted as prose or verse: 'Any writard who writes dynamitardshall find in me a never-resting fightard;' and he goes on (if wecorrectly gather his meaning) to object to such elegant andobviously correct spellings as lamp-lightard, corn-dealard, apple-filchard (clearly justified by the parallel--pilchard) and operadancard. 'Dynamitist, ' he adds, 'I could understand. '

{4} The Arabian author, with that quaint particularity of touchwhich our translation usually praetermits, here registers asomewhat interesting detail. Zero pronounced the word 'boom;' andthe reader, if but for the nonce, will possibly consent to followhim.