five o'clock, Mr. and Mrs. Openshaw and Mr.
and Mrs. Chadwick set off.

The housemaid and cook sate below,
Norah hardly knew where. She was always
engrossed in the nursery, in tending her two
children, and in sitting by the restless,
excitable Ailsie till she fell asleep. Bye-aud-
bye, the housemaid Bessy tapped gently at the
door. Norah went to her, and they spoke in
whispers.

"Nurse! there's some one down-stairs
wants you."

"Wants me! Who is it?"

"A gentleman"

"A gentleman? Nonsense!"

"Well! a man, then, and he asks for you,
and he rung at the front door bell, and has
walked into the dining-room."

"You should never have let him,"
exclaimed Norah, " master and missus out"

"I did not want him to come in; but,
when he heard you lived here, he walked
past me, and sat down on the first chair,
and said, ' Tell her to come and speak to me.'
There is no gas lighted in the room, and
supper is all set out."

"He'll be off with the spoons! " exclaimed
Norah, putting the housemaid's fear into
words, and preparing to leave the room, first,
however, giving a look to Ailsie, sleeping
soundly and calmly.

Down-stairs she went, uneasy fears stirring
in her bosom. Before she entered the
dining- room she provided herself with a caudle, and,
with it in her hand, she went in, looking round
her in the darkness for her visitor.

He was standing up, holding by the table.
Norah and he looked at each other; gradual
recognition coming into their eyes.

"Norah?" at length he asked.

"Who are you? " asked Norah, with the
sharp tones of alarm and incredulity. " I
don't know you: " trying, by futile words of
disbelief, to do away with the terrible fact
before her.

"Am I so changed?" he said, pathetically.
"I daresay lam. But, Norah, tell me!"
he breathed hard, " where is my wife? Is
she is she alive?"

He came nearer to Norah, and would have
taken her hand; but she backed away from
lookig at him all the time with
staring eyes, as if he were some horrible
object. Yet he was a handsome, bronzed,
good-lookign fellow, with beard and
moustache, giving him a foreign-looking aspect;
but his eyes! there was no mistaking those
eager, beautiful eyes—the very same that
Norah had watched not half-an-hour ago, till
sleep stole softly over them.

"Tell me, Norah—I can bear it—I have
feared it so often. Is she dead? " Norah still
kept silence. " She is dead!" He hung on
Norah's words and looks, as if for confirmation
or contradiction.

"What shall I do? " groaned Norah. " O,
sir! why did you come? how did you find
me out? where have you been? We thought
you dead, we did, indeed!" She poured out
words and questions to gain time, as if time
would help her.

"Norah! answer me this question straight,
by yes or no—Is my wife dead?"

"No, she is not! " said Norah, slowly and
heavily.

"0, what a relief! Did she receive my
letters? But perhaps you don't know. Why
did you leave her? Where is she? O,
Norah, tell me all quickly!"

"Mr. Frank! " said Norah at last, almost
driven to bay by her terror lest her mistress
should return at any moment, and find him
there—unable to consider what was best
to be done or said—rushing at something
decisive, because she could not endure her
present state: " Mr. Frank! we never heard
a line from you, and the shipowners said you
had gone down, you and every one else. We
thought you were dead, if ever man was, and
poor Miss Alice and her little sick, helpless
child! O, sir, you must guess it," cried the
poor creature at last, bursting out into a
passionate fit of crying, " for indeed I cannot
tell it. But it was no one's fault. God help
us all this night!"

Norah had sate down. She trembled too
much to stand, He took her hands in his.
He squeezed them hard, as if by physical
pressure, the truth could be wrung out.

"Norah!" This time his tone was calm,
stagnant as despair. "She has married
again!"

Norah shook her head sadly. The grasp
slowly relaxed. The man had fainted.

There was brandy in the room. Norah
forced some drops into Mr. Frank's mouth,
chafed his hands, and—when mere animal life
returned, before the mind poured in its flood
of memories and thoughts—she lifted him up,
and rested his head against her knees. Then
she put a few crumbs of bread taken from
the supper-table, soaked in brandy into his
mouth. Suddenly he sprang to his feet.

"Where is she? Tell me this instant."
He looked so wild, so mad, so desperate, that
Norah felt herself to be in bodily danger;
but her time of dread had gone by. She had
been afraid to tell him the truth, and then
she had been a coward. Now, her wits were
sharpened by the sense of his desperate state.
He must leave the house. She would pity
him afterwards; but now she must rather
command and upbraid; for he must leave
the house before her mistress came home.
That one necessity stood clear before her.

"She is not here: that is enough for you
to know. Nor can I say exactly where she
is" (which was true to teh letter if not to
the spirit). "Go away, adn tell me where
to find you to-morrow, and I will tell you
all. My master and mistress may come
back at any minute, and then what would
become of me with a strange man in the
house?"