"I do mean it," he said, advancing to her.
"I do mean that I have long seen and loved
you—yes, loved you. And I tell you it is no
crime, or sin, as the cold world would make it.
You are not to be sacrificed to a wretch—a
monster like that. Heaven has sent me to save
you !"

Mrs. Fermor shrank away from him over to
the wall. "Oh, go away," she said, in horror.
"Oh, God help me. I am betrayed by every
one."

"Dearest Mrs. Fermor, not by me," he said,
coming still nearer. "I am serious. I am in
earnest. I have never cared really for any
woman yet. But in you, for the first time, I
have seen what 1 can love and adore. The
sufferings you have borne——"

"Go away, do go away," said Mrs. Fermor.
shrinking away still, and clinging to the curtains.
"I did not think you would be so cruel, or so
wicked! O, this indeed opens my eyes. I am
betrayed by every one. O, Heaven help me. I
have brought this on myself! O! O!" And she
fell upon the sofa in despair and grief.

Romaine looked at her with gleaming eyes,
Miss Manuel's wish was bearing fruit. He had
advanced towards her, when a heavy step was
heard beside him, and a heavier grasp was laid
upon his arm, and a steady solemn voice rang in
his ear.

"This is manly! Go away! Leave this house."
"You here !" said he, in a fury of impatience.
" What cursed business makes you come intruding?"

" Ah! Mr. Hanbury," said she, rushing to him.
"Help me! help me! All the world is turning
against me."

"You may rely upon me, at least," said
Hanbury, sadly, "for such poor help as I can give.
First, do you wish this man to remain?"

"No, no, no! a thousand times no!" she said.
"But I have brought it on myself. I have been
foolish and wicked. I have indeed. And I
don't know where to turn to——"

"No, no," said Hanbury, "you are only too
confiding and unsuspicious; but there are plenty of
wicked men abroad ready to take advantage of it
for their own vile ends."

" How?" said Romaine, furiously, and advancing
on him.

"This is a drawing-room, recollect," said
Hanbury, with contempt. "I do not leave unless
Mrs. Fermor requires me. Do you?" he said,
turning to her.

"No, no," she answered him hastily.

"Do you wish him to go ?" he asked, pointing
with his finger to Romaine.

"O yes," she said, as eagerly.

"Now," said Hanbury, "you are a gentleman,
I believe, and have experience in the world, and
I am sure will understand a hint. You will not
intrude in a lady's house?"

In a few moments Hanbury was alone with
Mrs. Fermor. "O, I have brought this all
upon myself. It is my own doing."

'Where is Fermor?" said Hanbury. "Shall
I bring him——"

"But will he save me, or protect me?" she
said, wringing her hands; "all—all are the
same."

'You must see him," said Hanbury, "and
trust to him alone. Ah! it was a pity you cast
off Miss Manuel. Hers was a true heart, that
loved you, that yearned after you. But you
would not trust her."

"She!" said Mrs. Fermor, her face full of
doubt. "Why, she is at the bottom of all. She
has stolen my husband from me!"

Hanbury almost laughed. "Miss Manuel!
How little you know her. Can you trust me?
Then I solemnly declare to you some one has
been leading you astray for their own views.
Ah! it is a pity not to have an instinct for true
friendship. Where shall I find Fermor?"

"I don't know, I don't know," she said,
distractedly.

Hanbury left her. Some astounding instinct
whispered to him, "Alfred-place." At the best,
he thought of Miss Manuel as being the one who
should come and give confidence to the poor
deserted girl.

THE LAMP FISH.

A HUMAN body is a kind of locomotive
furnace that has to be kept up to a given
temperature by fuel—its food. Under a tropical sun
not much fuel is needed, and that of a sort that
will not keep up a large fire. Man, therefore,
wears clothes made from vegetable fibre, and
eats fruit and rice, the lowest in the scale of
heat-making materials. Far north, among the
Polar ice, where you cannot touch metal without
its taking the skin off your fingers, the human
locomotive is protected by thick coverings of
fur. The native takes the jackets from his
furry four-footed companions and covers his own
skin with them. But the grand oil springs, the
locomotive's necessary coal mines, in another
form, are in the bodies of the great seals and
whales. Oil and blubber burn rapidly, and give
out a large amount of heat. With a fur suit
outside, and inside a feed of seal's flesh washed
down with seal's oil, the steam of life is kept up
very easily.

But all the fat of the sea is not in the bodies
of those great blubbery whales and seals. There
is a fish, living far north, small in size, not
larger than a smelt, that is fat beyond all
description. It is clad in glittering silver
armour, and, on the coasts of British Columbia,
Russian America, and Queen Charlotte's Island,
is called by the natives Eulachon, or Lamp
Fish.

My lot having been cast for some time in
those desolate regions, I have had both leisure
and opportunity to make this fish's intimate
acquaintance. I have played the spy upon its
habits, its coming and going, and have noted
how it is caught and cured.

My home is in an Indian village on the north