the love-token which had gone down into the
deep sea on her dead husband's finger.

She walked back to the house, sadly,
and, when she found herself in the fast
darkening bedroom, was seized with a fit of
eerie spectral terror. She flung her hat and
cloak on the bed, and was rushing down at full
speed to the drawing-room, where candles had
just been placed, when her husband, coming in at
the front door, almost caught her in his arms.

She was surprised by the quickness with
which he perceived that something was amiss,
and at the sharp tone, almost expressive of
some keen anxiety, in which he asked:

"What is it? What has happened?"

She told him, as they stood together by the
drawing-room fire: ending with the very
natural question:

"Is it not strange? I never saw a ring in
the least like it anywhere, and this is exactly
the same."

He roughly snatched the ring out of her hand,
exclaiming:

"Throw it into the fire—don't touch it—
throw it away!"

Elsie's first impulse, then as always, was to
submit; but in a moment she recollected that
the ring must belong to somebody, and that it
was of real value. As she stooped to rescue
it, he held her back, angrily.

"I won't have you perpetually harking back
to that old story. Everything you see, every
trifle that happens, you twist into some
recollection of what you ought never to think of
more. You wrong me in your thoughts, Elsie,
every hour of the day."

Dismayed, astonished, and scared, Elsie drew
back, and hastily bared her arm where his
iron fingers had left their purple marks. She
looked at the bruise with the piteous look
of a child that has received a hurt, and
presently tears began to flow. But he was by no
means softened at the sight; with unabated
anger he went on:

"What is it you suppose? What is it you
assert? Let me know at once, all you are
thinking."

"What can I think?" she said, looking up
in wonder. "I do not understand you to-day,
Philip. Of course this ring must have been
dropped by somebody; but it is so like the
ring I gave—" She stopped, afraid of
again rousing his jealous temper, and pleaded:
"Any one would have been startled, Philip;
you should not—you should not——" And
here broke down and began to cry.

He took several turns up and down the room,
then stopped, close to her, as she stood leaning
on the mantel-piece.

"Elsie, stop those sobs. Stop them at once,
if you do not want to drive me mad. Crying?
Are you actually crying because I have been
a brute to you? And I vowed I would
never cause you one tear! Oh! my darling,
my darling forgive me."

The tears vanished in smiles.

"You did frighten me for a minute," she
said; "but it is over now. You take
everything too seriously, Philip."

"Do I? Bear with me, Elsie, bear with
me, for if I loved you less I should take things
less to heart. Dry your eyes, and think no
more about it now, my poor, poor little darling."

"Do you pity me?" asked Elsie, all bright
and happy again; " indeed you need not; and
look! here is the ring: it has fallen quite harmlessly
under the grate."

"Give it to me," said her husband, holding
out his hand, "I will advertise it in the local
paper. You know Abbot's Pool has been a
lion in a small way; but I shall put an end to
all that now, and lock up the field."

"Here it is," said Elsie; "surely it is not
hot."

"No; why?"

"I fancied that you shrank, as if it burnt
your fingers."

Next day she asked her husband if he had
taken any steps about the advertisement; he
curtly answered that he had settled it all;
and she, being a woman of a yielding
disposition and no great curiosity, remained satisfied
with the answer.

The NEW SERIES will be commenced on Saturday
the 5th of December, with an original novel entitled,
WRECKED IN PORT.
BY EDMUND YATES.
And will contain the
NEW UNCOMMERCIAL SAMPLES,
BY CHARLES DICKENS.

Early in December will be ready
THE COMPLETE SET
OF
TWENTY VOLUMES,
With GENERAL INDEX to the entire work from its
commencement in April, 1859. Each volume, with
its own Index, can also be bought separately as
heretofore.

FAREWELL SERIES OF READINGS.
BY
MR. CHARLES DICKENS.
MESSRS. CHAPPELL AND Co. have the honour
to announce that MR. DICKENS will read as follows:
Tuesday, November 17, St. James's Hall, London;
Tuesday, December 1, St. James's Hall, London;
Monday, December 7, Thursday, December 10,
Friday, December 11, Monday, December 14, and
Saturday Morning, December 19, Edinburgh;
Wednesday, December 9, Tuesday, December 15,
Wednesday, December 16, and Thursday, December 17,
Glasgow.
All communications to be addressed to MESSRS.
CHAPPELL AND CO., 50, New Bond-street, London, W.