Hereupon one of the men, obeying a gesture
from Giles Humphrey, was preparing to
disengage her fingers from the handle of the door,
when I stepped forward and checked him.

"This lady is my guest," I said, " and I cannot
allow her privacy to be intruded upon without
her consent. There is some mistake here,
my men, and while we try and discover it, you
had better go down-stairs and have something
to drink."

The poor fellows, who had evidently disliked
their task very much, needed no second bidding,
but disappeared at once; while I hooked Giles
Humphrey's arm within my own, and led him
away to the fireside in my own apartment.

"Now I tell you what it is," I said; " make
no more fuss about this affair, and I will pay
you down the ten thousand pounds you have
lost in my house."

He stared at me, as if to see whether I were
in earnest or not.

"You are mad," said he.

"Perhaps I am," I said, " and perhaps I am
not; but my money is good all the same. Send
these men off, let the thing be hushed up, and I
will write you a cheque before dinner-time."

He pondered, and screwed up his hard
mouth.

"But the jewels?" he said.

"What were they?" I asked.

"There was the fellow of that bracelet
(confound the greedy jade and her pretty face!),
there was a diamond necklace and a fine chain
of pearls—— "

"Well, well!" said I, "you will never recover
these, do what you will. Far your better chance
is to take my offer."

"Why should I not find if I searched?" he
cried, starting up.

"Because," I said, " any one clever enough
to commit the robbery would be clever enough
to make away with the spoils in time. Take my
advice. Do we make a bargain?"

He growled a reluctant consent at last. The
men were dismissed, and I wrote him a cheque
on the instant.

It was generally understood that the matter
was hushed up, and that people were expected
to believe, or to seem as if they believed, that a
burglar had done the mysterious deed. Many
efforts were essayed to make the day pass off as
if nothing had happened. Peg reappeared in
the drawing-room, as if scorning to lie by like
one in disgrace. But I need not tell you, Tom,
of the sudden silences and strange looks which
greeted her wherever she moved. She was the
theme of low-voiced conversation in every
mouth; her poverty and hardships, her want of
a mother, her pride, her coveting of things
beyond her reach. Different people took different
views of her case. And low-voiced as the talk
was, she knew all about it. Guilty as she might
be, I could see that the girl's heart was crushing
within her. That night I cried like a child upon
my pillow, the first tears I had shed since the
beard grew on my chin. If tears, ay, or even
blood, could wash Peg clean! " My God!" I
groaned, " I have done what I can for her. Why
does she not go home?"

The next morning I came upon her by accident,
standing alone in the library looking over
the edges of a book into the fire.

"Mr. Humphrey," she said, in a painful
unnatural voice, " you will wonder, I dare say, why
I do not leave your house at once. I am waiting
only in hopes that this mystery will be cleared
up."

One of those crimson blushes of hers passed
over her face as she spoke. The proud sorrowful
look in her eyes almost unmanned me. I had
a sickening struggle with my heart, which had
set its affections on a face that looked so true.
I loved this woman, but I could not marry
a——: even my thoughts would not frame the
word. But I steeled myself to make her a
truthful answer.

"Miss O'Shaughnessy," I said, "the mystery
has been hushed up. Whether it ever can be
cleared up, you, I believe, must know better
than I."

Then I turned away from her, feeling like one
who has given himself a mortal wound. A little
piteous wail of agony reached me as I passed
the door; that lived in my memory many a year
after.

That very hour she left Ballyhuckamore on
foot, without giving notice to any one; and
toiled back through the snow to the dreariness
of Castle Shaughnessy, bringing with her
disgrace to add to the other miseries of her home.
Tom, Tom! are there any of men's sins that can
never be forgiven them?

As soon as I decently could, I got rid of my
guests, consigned Ballyhuckamore Hall to the
care of Mrs. Daly, and went abroad. Giles
Humphrey then took up his quarters at
Kilbanagher Park, and Gorman Tracey also left me
to pay a visit to the charming Lady Fitzgibbon.
Ere long, Tracey wrote me that he had proposed
to the lovely widow, and had been rejected. A
year afterwards, I saw by accident in an English
paper the announcement of her marriage with
Giles Humphrey.

For five long years I remained abroad. I
need not entertain you, Tom, with an account
of my wanderings; we have talked them over
together often enough. The sixth of April had
come round again, when I found myself on a
rainy evening walking once more through the
London streets. The sight of the old familiar
places naturally made me meditative, and my
thoughts were busy with the past. I was
wondering how it was that I had never got over
that shock that Peg had given me, and
congratulating myself on being so well fitted by my
wandering habits for a life of old bachelorhood.
It was the first night of my arrival in England,
and I had preferred to take a solitary walk
before hunting up any of my old friends.

I was passing round one of the West-end
squares, when my progress on the pavement was
arrested by one of those little commotions which
take place when a lady is about to descend from