Meantime the lady had tripped into the house, | old empty castle I cannot think. In town the other whither we followed as quickly as possible. We day (we call our posting village 'town' here, Mr. took off our hats to her in the hall, where she stood Humphrey), I heard a shopman say across the countransfixed by amazement at our appearance, with ter, before delivering a parcel, "You'll pay me for her hand on the drawing-room door. We turned this, Miss O'Shaughnessy?" And the purchase in into the dining-room, where a speedy summons question was only some yards of printed calico, to brought the housekeeper to us, quivering in black make a dress for herself, I should think. Heigh-ho! silk, and blooming in a cap like a pickled cabbage. it's such a very sad thing to be poor." Lady Fitz"O, sir, an' I give you my word it's hardly ever gibbon lifted her eyebrows, and smoothed down a I took my eyes for one blessed minute off the avenue green velvet fold of her dress, and looked quite able since mornin'; an' to think of your slipping in un- to make a supper of bank-notes. knownst to us afther all! An' there's Lady Fitzgibbon an' her friends that were drove in for shelter from the storm two hours ago, an' her ladyship's runnin' in an' out, an' thinkin' she 'd never get away before you'd arrive, sir. An' the dinner 'll be done to the minute, sir." "And who is Lady Fitzgibbon ?" "O, sir, a beautiful lady, - a widow lady, sir, — who has taken Kilbanagher Park and furnished it splendid, so as it's fit to dazzle your eyes, sir. An' she's that rich, they say, she'd as lief eat bank-notes as bread and butter." I looked at Tracey, and Tracey looked at me, and we both looked at the window. It was snowing more heavily than ever, and growing dark besides. There was only one thing to do. In a few minutes I was in the drawing-room, and had transformed the uncomfortable intruders into my bidden guests, who had promised to stay the night under my roof. Lady Fitzgibbon sat on my right at dinner. I dreamed that night that I saw her doing so; but that after she had finished her meal she fell into convulsions as if she were poisoned. It was not a pleasant dream, and, somehow, I never could look at the widow afterwards without thinking of it. And now, Tom, I have introduced you to one of my heroines, Lucretia Fitzgibbon. Mark her well. I am afraid I have not made her clear enough to you. Note her splendid eyes, her fascinating manner, the excellent footing on which she had placed herself with the world in general; lastly, her enor mous riches. We returned with her to Kilbanagher Park the next day. Tom, what a place that was! Not a venerable old homestead like Ballyhuckamore; all new, bran-new, but gorgeous and voluptuous as a palace in the Arabian Nights. Astonishing little woman! What a taste! and what a purse! "Lucky, O'Gorman," said I, "will be that man who shall replace the lamented Fitzgibbon (was he knight, or was he baronet?), and hang up his hat for good at Kilbanagher Park." But now for my other heroine. Tracey's old friends rallied round him, and we were soon on good terms with the best people in the neighborhood. As for him, he had so far forgotten his former self, that I was obliged on some occasions to interfere and wake his memory. How charming she was that evening! How her eyes sparkled over the champagne, and how those languishing Eastern shadows under them enhanced the brilliancy of her complexion! How white her hands were, as she poured out our tea; how musical her voice was, as she told us anecdotes of every one in the neighborhood. How amusingly she described the confusion of herself and friends when they heard "Tracey," said I, "I am not going to have my of my arrival; how charmingly she ridiculed her house-warming without little Peg O'Shaughnessy." own appearance. A riding-habit by way of evening (The people were to stay a fortnight at the Hall, dress! "A pretty figure!" she said. A very pretty and every amusement that Lady Fitzgibbon could figure, I thought; and as for Gorman, he had be-devise was in course of preparation for their gratificome her slave without a struggle. cation.) "She may have grown up plain, and wear a calico dress, but I've had a curiosity to see that little girl ever since the first time you mentioned her. Her father may be doting, as they say, and Castle Shaughnessy may be the veriest old rat-hole in the kingdom; nevertheless, my dear fellow, for the sake of old times you ought to go and pay them a visit. And for the sake of new times and coming festivities, I will go with you." What was she talking of, that she kept my friend Tracey so enthralled? Doubtless, introducing him afresh to all his old acquaintances; for she knew every one, this charming widow, and was gushingly communicative about her neighbors' affairs and her own. Her friends resided somewhere far away (the Antipodes, perhaps), but she, being her own mistress, had chosen to come, for change of air, to this delightful country. She had resided here a year; she was the centre of society in the locality; she was adored by all who knew her. She liked amusement, and believed that country neighbors ought to be social, especially at the Christmas season. These were the facts I gleaned from her discourse. O'Gradys, Desmonds, Burkes, O'Sullivans? Yes; she knew them all. O'Shaughnessy? Oh! (with a shrug), surely Mr. Tracey must have heard about poor Sir Pierce ? No, Mr. Tracey had not heard. Gorman abased himself for his negligence, and we set out together for the residence of the doting Sir Pierce, and his daughter who was "never seen." If ever there were a wild old ramshackle barrack standing on a sea-shore out of all human ken, and altogether within ghostly boundaries, that dreary edifice is you, O Castle Shaughnessy! A wide uneven sward, too unkempt to be called a lawn, straggled from the entrance down to a rugged beach. On one side stood the ruins of a chapel surrounded by the family burying-ground. waves at high tide of a winter's night must break over the tombstones. Not a tree was to be seen, not a leaf of ivy clung to the castle walls, which were weather-stained in a way that made the win"And Pe- Miss O'Shaughnessy?" said Gor-dows look like eyes that were always weeping. We man. “I used to know her. Such a pretty little girl!" แ O, he ruined himself, you know, and then he went astray in his mind. For some years he has not been able to leave his house except on Sunday, in dread of seizure for debt." 66 The were admitted, after some parley, by a shabby old retainer with a knowing eye, who seemed to regard Ah, poor thing, I believe she has grown up very us as wolves in sheep's clothing. We entered a plain. She is never seen. How they live in that | barren hall, whence all furniture had fled save some 46 horns of elks brandishing their fangs over the sev- Well, I am not going to dwell further on the memory of this visit. Sir Pierce turned white, then purple, and we thought he was going to have a fit. A glance of entreaty shot from Peg's piteous eyes to mine; and we departed. "Ah, well," said Gorman, "we have got enough of that place. Poor Peg! she is prettier than ever." We passed out again through the hollowness and the emptiness, the mildew and the rust, and the dreary fallen greatness, of Castle Shaughnessy. Lady Fitzgibbon prattled on my left that day at dinner, and when the champagne corks began to fly, I thought I heard her say (or at least some woman's voice), Father, you know we have no wine." Of course it was a fancy. Trinkets and smiles had Lucretia, but that pained, earnest tone was no part of her. I need not detail to you, Tom, all our schemes for castle, into which seemed to have been gathered all inducing Peg O'Shaughnessy to be one of our housethe fag-ends of comfort which had survived the gen-warming party. She came against her will, but in eral wreck of that place. Alack! they made a obedience to her father's commands. A carriage sorry show after all. Poor Sir Pierce, a feeble old was sent for her, with muffling, for it was a bitter man with a restless choleric face, sat by a fire of turf frosty night, and good Mrs. Daly, my housekeeper, logs built on a flagged hearth. The floor had no had lived more than once in the O'Shaughnessy famcarpet, the windows no curtains, the master's arm-ily, and had a kindly regard for the motherless girl. chair was worn by the constant chafing of his impatient body. A tame eagle sat on the shoulder of an attenuated couch in the window, with his bright eye fixed on the sinking sun. The old man rose grandly, and received us with the air of a prince giving audience to subjects; but, looking in Tracey's face, broke down and burst into tears. He was not quite astray in his mind after all, only a little maddened by pride and misfortune. He soon resumed his state. "Bid some of those people tell Miss O'Shaughnessy I wish to see her," he said to his attendant. "Those people" were probably the shades of departed servants who had once tripped over one another in Castle Shaughnessy. The one shabby old retainer bowed his gray head and went. We expected her at dinner, but she did not arrive. What could occasion her delay? A fit of Sir Pierce's madness, a need of decent garb, a passion of pride at the prospect of appearing among those who had talked of her misfortunes? A hundred such reasons were hinted at among the ladies after dinner, with many a "Poor thing!" and commiserating shake of the head. I remember the night well. The moon was bright upon the snow outside, and within every hearth was blazing, every shutter shut, and every room and passage full of light and warmth and pleasant sounds of life. The drawing-room was a perfect picture of comfort, with its winter logs burning, its wadded curtains spread before the wide windows, its wreaths of holly already clinging to the pictureframes, and its social company. There was a group Miss O'Shaughnessy was out walking, but pres- around the piano, a happy disposal of couples throughently made her appearance, evidently quite unpre-out the room, and Lady Fitzgibbon had a coterie pared to behold us visitors. She was a tall girl wrapped in a plaid shawl, which looked as if it had been washed. She had no trimming on her hat but a thick black veil, which was thrown backward over it. She looked so scarlet-cheeked on entering, that I was surprised to see how pale her natural complexion was when she had thrown aside her hat and seated herself at the other side of her father's chair. She had hazel eyes, and a profusion of light hair clinging in crushed masses to her head; but I did not like to look at her much; she seemed so shy and proud. The eagle left his window immediately, and mounted guard on the back of her chair. gathered round her while she assigned the parts for certain forthcoming charades. Tracey was leaning over her chair, sulky with jealousy because she was bestowing most of her attention on me: which she usually did. Some one suggested Miss O'Shaughnessy to fill an awkward gap in the cast, and another remarked," She may not be here." Ah, no doubt she will be here," said Lucretia, dropping her voice and eyelids just the least bit in life, and speaking to her nearest female neighbor. "What has she left to hope for in her position, except an advantageous marriage? Poor girl, no doubt she will come!" Sir Pierce's conversation was piteous to hear, so Upon this, I removed Gorman's cause of jealousy, grand, so inflated, so ill matched with his surround-by taking myself away from the drawing-room, and ings. Yet he was not out of his senses, only anxious to remind us that he was O'Shaughnessy of Castle Shaughnessy. He tortured poor Peg, who bore it all with the constancy of a martyr. Now and again there was a burning blush and a hurried glance in her father's face, then she was pale and proud and passive. "Order wine," he said at last, with a grand air, as if he knew that a banquet was in course of preparation. "Father," she said distinctly, and looking him firmly in the face, "you know we have no wine. There is no such thing here." out to the front door to look at the night. What was it to me whether a ruined fox-hunter's pretty daughter was coming to my house on a matrimonial speculation or not? But two of my best horses had gone in that carriage, and I was beginning to be uneasy lest something might have happened to them by the way. I went round to the stable, quietly saddled a horse, and cantered up the road leading seaward towards Castle Shaughnessy, My fears were realized. At the top of a high hill I found the carriage, sunk into a rut concealed by the snow. A smith was busy at the wheels, surrounded by a little group of lookers-on, and a lantern glared on their Hearing that the carriage would not be ready for some time, I gave my horse in charge to one of the men, and offering myself as escort to the young lady, asked her to proceed with me on foot towards Ballyhuckamore. She was most unwilling to do so, almost beseeching me to return as I had come, and leave her to follow at the blacksmith's pleasure. Of course I would not hear of that, and she consented at last to accompany me. faces. At some distance a dark figure was standing | were servants running about, dragging down lugalone, over against a white fence. This was Peg, gage, and carrying in wrappings, while a black man with a little hood drawn round her head, and the was gesticulating in the portico, and giving orders moon shining on her face. which nobody seemed to understand. What was this? Some wonderful arrival, unexpected as Cinderella's at the prince's ball? On the stairs half a dozen men were staggering under the weight of a large iron coffer, or safe, while at the top of the first flight stood a curious figure, eagerly watching their operations. This figure was a thin yellow-faced little man, wrapped in a fur-lined gown of vivid Eastern coloring. Ill health and discontent were in every line of his face, and his eyes were fixed with anxious greediness on the ascending box. The housekeeper was below in the hall, wringing her hands because there was no room prepared for "masther's uncle." From this I knew who my visitor was: Giles Humphrey, my father's only brother, who had gone to India when a boy, and had scarcely been heard of since. I don't know that there was anything peculiar about that walk, and yet I have a singularly clear recollection of it. I had often travelled the same road, followed the same paths and turnings on the outskirts of the wood, seen the moon looking through the same rifts among the trees, and yet, somehow, it all seemed new that night. I did not attempt to account for this phenomenon. I tried to draw out my companion. She conversed with naïve cleverness, all the while keeping a touch of defiant pride in her manner, as if she felt herself in the presence of a natural enemy, and was determined not to be tricked into forgetting it. I humored her in this, thinking her a child of nature, who knew nothing of the world. As we drew near the Hall, her hand began to tremble on my arm, and her replies grew vague and absent; at last she stopped short in a tremor of dis tress. "I am bitterly ashamed of myself, Mr. Humphrey," she said; "but I am terrified at going into your grand house, among your proud guests. That is the truth. The poor and unhappy should keep away from the rich and gay. O, I wish I could go home again!" She burst into passionate tears. Now in her distress I saw how young she was, a mere untutored girl. Reserve had before made her more womanly than her years. I pressed past the burdened carriers on the staircase, and presented myself to my strange relative. He had at the moment no thought to bestow on me, and merely replied to my words of welcome by be seeching me to show him the way to the securest chamber in my house, so that he might direct the staggering men to deposit their load there. I took him to my own room. This was a large apartment at the end of a long corridor, lined with the doors of other chambers. It was reached by, ascending three broad steps, and a good-sized dressing-room opened off it. You may not remember them, Tom, for those rooms have fallen into disuse. Into the farthest corner of the dressing-room my uncle's coffer was carried, and then Giles Humphrey himself began examining the thickness of the shutters and the weight of the bars that held them fastened, the stoutness of panelling of the doors, the trustworthiness of the locks, and even the ward of the keys. I had thought the shutters good, but they displeased him. On his opening one a little to glance suspiciously out on the white moon and the snow, a shock-headed bush of ivy bobbed suddenly against the pane, and almost scared his whimsical senses away. He immediately had the window fastened up, and sent off a messenger posthaste for the smith who had mended our carriage to make him a wonderful iron shutter-bar, twice as large and as weighty as those which had for generations sufficed to guard the lives and properties in Ballyhuckamore Hall. He then ordered a second set of curtains put up within the already comfortable and carefully-drawn hangings, sand-bags to be laid down at every spot where there was a possiO Peg, Peg! How those words afterwards rose bility of crevice in the woodwork, at the same time up and bore witness against you! Was all this an heaping fuel on the already blazing fire, till the artful little scene to engage a rich man's interest? hearth-place began to glow like a furnace. Only Tears, moonlight, a sweet face, and a passionate then did he think proper to notice me, as he sat in voice! Before a fortnight, a dozen of my lady my arm-chair, cowering towards the fire, and warmfriends would have been ready to swear to your plot-ing his skinny fingers at the flames. He had arrived ting. Yet I do not see how you could have made the carriage break down, Peg. Lucretia's drop of poison lurked in my ear, though I thought I had washed it out a dozen times. "My dear child," I said: "pardon me,-I am so much older than you. The pride is all on your side. I do not want to preach you a sermon, but poverty is not a crime; it is not even the worst of misfortunes." "It is, it is," she interrupted, vehemently. "It is the cruellest of all, the most utterly killing and crushing. To escape from it, I would—” 66 Marry a prince, or turn popular authoress?" I said, smiling. "Or rob a poor-box," she said, with a curious little grimness of tone. "The two first alternatives being out of my power." After this little burst, she dried her eyes, like a child who has had its passion out; and we went on as before. Of course it was only to give her time to calm herself that I chose the longest way to the Hall; for I was very much on my guard. "The carriage is here already!" I exclaimed, seeing, as I thought, the identical equipage we had left behind us standing at the hall-door. But no, here in England only a few days before, and not finding me at home, had followed me here. I joked him about his wonderful strong-box. "Hist! nephew," he said, with a look of alarm, which the dancing firelight extravagantly heightened on his parchment face, "it holds money, riches, gold, jewels! You don't think I sold my youth and health for nothing, boy, out there? You don't think I sold my youth and health for nothing? Eh?” "But why bring it here to torment you with anxiety? Why not leave it safe in a bank in London?" "Leave it?" staring at me as if I were a burglar; | I conducted its owner to his chamber that night the "part with what I earned so hard? Make a present of my savings to Messrs. So-and-So? Eh, nephew, what a silly school-boy you are still! By and by you will know the world, my lad.” “Well, well!” I said; "you will come down and see my friends." black man was squatting upon it with crossed legs, like a grotesque carving on a whimsical pedestal. He turned a somersault upon it, by way of obeisance, when his master appeared, and, while I stayed, presented a long cane, from which Giles Humphrey drew a glittering sword. "This is my bedfellow," he said, grinning over it, and placing it on his pillow. "I hate locks, for fear of fire," with a glance of alarm over his shoulder at the blazing grate. "I will not be locked up, to run the risk of being burnt to death. But if any of the box over there"-he raised his voice, and seizing the sword again, brandished it at the black servant, and chased him out of the room, bidding him go and tell about the weapon in the servants' hall. From the time of my arrival at Ballyhuckamore to that night I had found myself the lion of the neighborhood, and had had the felicity of knowing that I was the most important among the men in those days assembled under my roof. But now all was changed. The days of my greatness were over. A mightier than I had arisen, and another king reigned in my stead. I told you, Tom, that this room was at the end of a long corridor. At the lower end, this corridor was crossed by another, a shorter one, from which the stairs descended. As my uncle and I turned the corner proceeding toward the stairs a door opened suddenly before us, and two womanly fig-people in your house think to meddle with my little ures appeared on the threshold, thrown forward by the firelight from the chamber behind them. Lucretia Fitzgibbon with her arm thrown gracefully round the waist of Peg O'Shaughnessy. Did the star of all the country drawing-rooms mean to patronize the poor little black sheep from the mountains on this her first entrance into society? The doors of their chambers stood opposite on the passage. Lucretia had kindly fluttered across, introduced herself to the trembling débutante, and taken her under her wing. "Good Lucretia!" I had almost cried: but the hall lights fell full on the two faces as they descended, and I thought the sparkle of her eyes and teeth more false than they had seemed be- I should not have minded if they had elected fore. My lady was dressed in voluminous folds of Gorman Tracey, or some one of the many decent amber silk, bedizened with laces and diamonds; Peg fellows about me, to fill my place, but it was irriwas dressed in a straight black gown of an antiquat-tating to see the worship transferred from one's maned brocade, which she must have ransacked from ly self to the shrivelled face and shrieking voice of some great-grandmother's wardrobe, standing on the owner of a box up stairs; to see the silks and some dim upper passage of Castle Shaughnessy. muslins making their genuflexions at the shrine of a She had folds of crimped white muslin at her throat mere mummy; to know that a heartless machineand wrists, and a black ribbon twisted about her was receiving the flattery of mammas; that a caprihead, gathering up her crisp hair, and tied in a lit- cious idiotic will was directing the motions of blushtle knot upon her crown. As they swept down be-ing hand-maidens. And the hardest part, the very fore us into the light below, my uncle Giles pinched my arm so wickedly that I started. "Who is that woman, nephew? By all the diamonds that ever blazed, I have not seen such a woman since I was a boy!" "Which?" I asked. "Not the flashy yellow one," he answered, "but the one with her head tied up." worst of it all, was that Peg O'Shaughnessy was the foremost of the band of sirens who sang round Giles Humphrey's chair. For here I will own to you, my Tom, that by this time the stray little black sheep from the mountains had made herself a fold in your friend's foolish heart. Was it fate so relentless, or that quaint black gown so demure, or a head of crisp fair hair, or a pair of steady gray eyes, or was it a very sweet voice full of musical dignity, or a timid step which seemed always owning itself a trespasser when treading my Ballyhuckamore carpets? Was it all or any of these things which transformed your sober friend into the most loving of jealous lovers, crafty enough to weigh little words, and count up smiles, and disregard all worldly wisdom? You cannot tell me, and assuredly I cannot tell you; but in that frosty house-warming season Peg bloomed up under my eyes the only blossom of her sex I had ever coveted for my own wearing. This was the beginning of my uncle's admiration for Peg. In the drawing-room we found the ladies in full expectation, and quite prepared to make a lion of him. The news of the wonderful coffer had reached them, and the fetching of the smith had caused no little excitement. It was current that some extraordinary locks were to be put upon the chamber doors, of which only Giles Humphrey and his servant knew the secret, and that the windows were to be barred outside like the windows of a prison. Even Peg's arrival was now a matter of small importance. There never was such a hero as Giles Humphrey that night. He sat in the warmest Yet, for many days, Peg was as Giles Humphrey's corner by the fire, and monopolized the snuggest right hand. I was shunned with a blush and a chair. He wore rings worth a king's ransom, and, hasty word, while the crusty old millionnaire was audaciously defying custom, wore a gown lined with nourished with kind attentions, and sweet companthe costliest fur. He supported his feet on a foot-ionship. She helped him to his coffee, she cut the stool, while his black servant wrapped his knees in a royal rug. Then he spoke to the ladies with a mischievous rudeness, while his eyes paid them homage every moment. And then he might virtually be said to be sitting on that wonderful coffer stuffed with riches, which no doubt all present saw in their mind's eye supporting his puny limbs, but which, in reality, stood modestly hidden in its corner up stairs under the shelter of a gorgeous piece of tapestry, flaming in gold and colors. And when pages of his newspaper, she read to him, and adjusted his footstool. I believe she even stitched him a pocket-handkerchief or something, sitting by his side, with her pale fair cheek turned towards him. She was the envy of the drawing-room. If this pen had not forsworn sentimentality, it might describe to you how I groaned at times that circumstances should have made of my Peg a desperate woman, ready to marry a mummy as an escape from poverty, and how at other times I scorned her as an artful, heartless Peg, not worth my pity. But I may | to wear the jewels, since they became her so well; tell you how they whispered about her all over the house. Whispers in the drawing-room, whispers over the bedroom fires, whispers all through the passages; on fine days even whispers out in the garden, and away abroad among the woods. Buzz, buzz, buzz. Peg O'Shaughnessy was trying to entrap the millionnaire. And, O dear! who could say that Lucretia Fitzgibbon was not kind, and even sisterly, to the shy, friendless girl, who was a stranger among strangers? And did no one dare to speak above a whisper, you will ask, and say a word for Peg? O, ay!there was one good little lady of small social consequence, who ventured to suggest that the whole party stood aloof from the girl, criticising her; that the poor thing felt herself apart from the rest of the ladies; that she had no pretty morning dresses to eat her breakfast in, no handsome evening dresses to eat her dinner in, no fine riding-habit to go ariding in; and that these wants usually press upon the female mind. That she had only one straight black gown for all times. Further, that, being accustomed to wait on an old man, her father, she had taken naturally to waiting on Giles Humphrey, who was an elderly man, to say the least; that her seat beside his chair was a harbor to her, not a pleasant one, perhaps, but still a harbor. These things were said by the blessed little lady of small social consequence, but who heard them? and that this was the signal for my gallant uncle to begin to unclasp them and gather them into their casket again as fast as he could. As one after another dropped away from her, Peg grew pale and ceased to smile. Watching her curiously, I saw a strangely eager, stern look come over her face as bauble after bauble disappeared. Once, for a moment, her cheeks flushed, and a flash of longing sprang into her eyes, but it faded away again and left her pale and thoughtful. I divined that she was thinking how much a few of those trinkets would do towards relieving the distresses of a poor old broken-down father, and restoring the comfort of the barren, fallen home of the O'Shaughnessys. O Peg, Peg! Why did you let me see that look? It happened that the last of the ornaments which she relinquished- a certain bracelet- had been clasped too tightly on the swell of her plump arm, and there was a difficulty about getting it unfastened. One after another, we all tried our skill upon it, having each ample time as we did so to observe the fashion and the richness of the ornament. The groundwork was a broad belt of gold, enriched with the most exquisite Indian filigree work, and this band was studded with at least a thousand tiny precious stones of every hue. Mark that cursed bracelet well, Tom, for it will reappear in my story. PART II. It was at this period of affairs that one evening, I CANNOT tell you what the reason was, but cerjewels being the subject of conversation, Giles Hum-tain it is that from that night forward Peg O'Shaughphrey, having drunk wine, set his eyes a-twinkling, nessy declined in my uncle's favor. Some one else and began to brag of certain wondrous trinkets was presently asked to read the newspaper, some which were in his possession, and the like of which one else was expected to hand the coffee. Peg was had never (said he) gladdened the eyes of any of soon totally dismissed from the service, and some the assembled company, A gentleman present, one else elected in her place. And the some one who was a judge of such matters, twitted him to else was my Lady Fitzgibbon. make good his boast, whereupon the little man's Thus discharged, Peg was as one adrift on the slow blood got up, and he rushed to his chamber, world. She stayed much in her own room, or sat knocked Jacko (so the black man was called, from in a corner when in company. She was embarhis likeness, I suppose, to a monkey) off his perch rassed in conversation, and shunned notice. She on the coffer, and presently came down with a bag was not popular. People said she was proud and full of jewels fit to startle the eyes of any prince in stand-off. So, I thought, she certainly was; but I the Arabian Nights. There were necklaces, brace-believed the fault was not her own. lets, and bangles, bodkins for the hair, and earrings For my own part I tried, without forcing particweighty enough to tear the flesh of delicate ears; gems of as many hues and cuttings as puzzled Aladdin in the cave. There were dazzling necks in plenty and arms bare to the shoulder all round about Giles Humphrey, on which he might have displayed his treasures to advantage, but it was on Peg that he chose to hang them. ular attentions upon her, to wear off her fear of me, and to establish a friendly footing between us; and I succeeded. Knowing her better, I found that she had a bright fancy, and a large capacity for enjoyment; only the misfortunes of poverty and debt had overshadowed all the sunny side of her nature. I loved her more every day, and longed to lift her He stuck bodkins of blazing diamonds in her from under her cloud into the broad light of happihair; clasped a dozen chains and necklaces roundness. Meantime, I mused much as to whether my her neck till they dropped below her waist, making love might or might not be returned; on the possiher bust one flaring mass of splendor; put bangles bility of Peg's crushing troubles having made her of gold on her ankles; and made her bare one round mercenary; on her gentle attentions to Giles Humwhite arm, which he shackled with bracelets. Blush-phrey until she was set aside. I detested myself for ing with confusion, and smiling in amusement at be- these doubts, and endured them still. But meaning so bedizened, Peg looked as quaint and as radi- while something occurred. ant as some rare old-fashioned princess stepped out of an illuminated legend. Many an eye saw beauty in her at that moment which it had never seen before. For my part, I thought she had looked more beautiful in the scarlet and white flowers which I had given her for her bosom that morning. Where, by the way, was Lucretia Fitzgibbon during those five or ten minutes of Peg's magnificence? Positively I forget. I remember that a female voice (could it have been hers?) murmured in a delicate undertone that it was a pity Peg had not a right One night, after we had all retired, Giles Humphrey kept me long in his bedroom, listening wearily to his wild egotistical talk. At last I broke away from him, and was coming softly down the corridor, so as to disturb no one, when I was startled by hearing the rustle of a woman's dress, and looking, saw, by the faint light of a dim lamp, two figures, a man and a woman, separating quickly, and moving in different directions. The man, I could see, was my uncle's black servant, and, after a moment's reflection, I concluded that the woman |