I spoke out sharp, and said she was married
again, and very content and happy: I all but
turned him away: and now he lies dead and
cold!"

"God forgive rne!" said Mr. Openshaw.

"God forgive us all!" said Norah. " Yon
poor man needs forgiveness perhaps less than
anyone among us. He had been among the
savages—shipwrecked—I know not what—
and he had written letters which had never
reached my poor missus."

"He saw his child!"

"He saw her—yes! I took him up, to
give his thoughts another start; for I
believed he was going mad on my hands. I
came to seek him here, as I more than
half-promised. My mind misgave me when I
heard he had never come in. O, sir! it must
be him!"

Mr. Openshaw rang the bell. Norah was
almost too much stunned to wonder at what
he did. He asked for writing materials,
wrote a letter, and then said to Norah:

"I am writing to Alice, to say I shall be
unavoidably absent for a few days; that I
have found you; that you are well, and send
her your love, and will come home to-morrow.
You must go with me to the Police
Court; you must identify the body: I will
pay high to keep names and details out of
the papers.

"But where are you going, sir?"

He did not answer her directly. Then he
said:

"Norah! I must go with you, and look on
the face of the man whom I have so injured,
unwittingly, it is true; but it seems to me
as if I had killed him. I will lay his head in
the grave, as if he were my only brother:
and how he must have hated me! I cannot
go home to my wife till all that I can do
for him is done. Then I go with a dreadful
secret on my mind. I shall never speak of it
again, after these days are over. I know you
will not, either." He shook hands with her:
and they never named the subject again, the
one to the other.

Norah went home to Alice the next day.
Not a word was said on the cause of her
abrupt departure a day or two before. Alice
had been charged by her husband in his
letter not to allude to the supposed theft of
the broach; so she, implicitly obedient to
those whom she loved both by nature and
habit, was entirely silent on the subject, only
treated Norah with the most tender respect,
as if to make up for unjust suspicion.

Nor did Alice inquire into the reason why
Mr. Openshaw had been absent during his
uncle and aunt's visit, after he had once said
that it was unavoideble. He came back,
grave and quiet; and, from that time forth
was curiously changed. More thoughtful,
and perhaps less active; quite as decided
in conduct, but with new and different rules
for the guidance of that conduct. Towards
Alice he could hardly be more kind than he
had always been; but he now seemed to look
upon her as some one sacred and to be
treated with reverence, as well as tenderness.
He throve in business, and made a large
fortune, one half of which was settled upon
her.

Long years after these events,—a few
months after her mother died, Ailsie and her
"father" (as she always called Mr. Openshaw),
drove to a cemetery a little way out
of town, and she was carried to a certain
mound by her maid, who was then sent back
to the carriage. There was a head-stone,
with F. W. and a date. That was all. Sitting
by the grave, Mr. Openshaw told her the
story; and for the sad fate of that poor
father whom she had never seen, he shed the
only tears she ever saw fall from his eyes.

—

"A most interesting story, all through," I
said, as Jarber folded up the first of his
series of discoveries in triumph. " A story
that goes straight to the heart—especially
at the end. But "—I stopped, and looked
at Trottle.

Trottle entered his protest directly in the
shape of a cough.

"Well! " I said, beginning to lose my
patience. " Don't you see that I want you
to speak, and that I don't want you to
cough?"

"Quite so, ma'am," said Trottle, in a state
of respectful obstinacy which would have
upset the temper of a saint. " Relative, I
presume, to this story, ma'am?"

"Yes, yes! " said Jarber. " By all means
let us hear what this good man has to
say."

"Well, sir," answered Trottle, " I want to
know why the House over the way doesn't
let, and I don't exactly see how your story
answers the question. That's all I have to
say, sir.'"

I should have liked to contradict my
opinionated servant, at that moment. But,
excelent as the story was in itself, I felt
that he had hit on the weak point, so far as
Jarber's particular purpose in reading it was
concerned.

And that is what you have to say, is it?"
repeated Jarber. " I enter this room
announcing that I have a series of discoveries,
and you jump instantly to the conclusion that
the first of the series exhausts my resources.
Have I your permission, dear lady, to enlighten
this obtuse person, if possible, by
reading Number Two?"

"My work is behindhand, ma'am," said
Trottle, moving to the door, the moment I
gave Jarber leave to go on.

"Stop where you are," I said, in my most
peremptory manner, " and give Mr. Jarber
his fair opportunity of answering your
objection now you have made it."

Trottle sat down with the look of a martyr,