mind, be affected; such wildness in your
eyes, I would caution you to take care.
Now, do listen to me," he added earnestly;
"the truth is, we all noticed and watched
you from the beginning, that is my girls
and I; they thought you were something
like a poor brother of theirs, though I don't
see it. Then that dean told us something
about you and that pretty creature you
have at home, and the sickness and the
going away, and all that. So you see we
read it like a story book."

I was getting tired of all this, and answered,
I confess, rather rudely. "Every
one thinks themselves entitled to meddle
with my affairs."

"Now," he went on, "let us look at this
like two Englishmen. I tell you this will
be a bad business. My girls and I, we
know this place by heart, and the people,
and the diseases, for we have been coming
here many years. I tell you that the
only course for you is to leave, and leave
with us, this very day, by the four o'clock
train. We shall take care of you; the
girls will talk to you, will keep your mind
from thinking. We shall rob you from
your own home for three or four days at
the least, and send you back to that dear
girl of yours a different being from what
you are now."

"And then," I said, " do you know what
is to follow—can you guess what that home
will become when its master returns?"

"Well, as to that, also, I wish to speak
to you. If your money loss has not been
very considerable, I should be glad to help
you to replace it."

I was touched with his generosity—these
were no mean platitudes; but all this only
added to my degradation. A mere stranger,
like one who has seen some squalid beggar
in the street, and is, of course, privileged
to ask the story, the minute details, and
then in return, offers his coppers. Thank
God, I have not fallen quite so low as that!

I declined civilly and coldly. I was in
no such violent hurry to go, neither was I
quite so weak as he imagined. I could
fortunately control myself, I said, in presence
of the danger, and more fortunate still,
had no money to throw away. I made
him a bow, and went away. He had not
found me so easy to settle, as he had once
done the county lord on the magistrates'
bench.

Yet my heart turned towards his daughters
and their gentle invitation, and I
thought again and again wistfully of the
tempting programme he had laid out. The
horrid monotony of the day, dragging on,
and dragging me with it, was something
terrible to return to. It seemed endless;
and the wearing equilibrium and suspense
of another day was something to shrink
from. I wanted to rush away into the
world —anywhere; but my gold, my gold,
kept crying to me from its prison. I might
as well have just dropped a hundred gold
pieces in the street, and have tried to pass
on without picking them up.

And yet I felt it was the only thing, the
only salvation. The wild, horrid dream or
nightmare in which I was writhing and
groaning must be broken through, if I
could but awaken in the pure, innocent air.

There was their gambling music coming
dulled through the trees; it made me
shiver again. I could see the colours
glittering among the leaves in the old sickening
promenade; there is a devil in every
one of these objects—band, fiddlers, players,
all combined to drive me frantic.

I heard a gentle voice beside me. "Why
will you not do," said she—it was
Constance alone "why will you not do as
papa says? Indeed you look ill, and so
feverish and excited. Do be advised by
me. I have had my little losses recollect,
and under your guidance: so I have a
claim on you, and—you will come with us
I know?"

"And leave my money to these swindling
scoundrels—make them a present of
it? I can't, I won't; you don't know, or
can't know. I can't go—I dare not stay.
was there ever such a pitiable condition?"

"Yes," she said, softly, "many thousand
times worse—you might be a thousand
times worse. You should do as papa says.
Once out of these dense clouds everything
will seem bright, and natural, and rational.
Do come, we will be so pleasant."

Again the satanic music came muffled
through the trees, and made every fibre in
my frame jar—sent a panic into my very
brain, called up the whole hateful scene
again. I saw the conspirators stripping
victims, with the dull wearing monotony
going on like eternal punishment. I could
not stand more of that.

"Oh, let me go!" I said, I fear very
wildly. "Oh, let me go with you—do, I
conjure you!—anywhere! Let me go
away out of this; if I stay it will kill me!"

She said they would call for me at half-
past three. I walked home rapidly. Yes,
it was assuredly all for the best. The
moment that firm resolution was taken, it was