out to keep him away. Her eyes closed-a strong shudder ran through her frame; she made a desperate effort an effort which frightened him to keep from fainting. At length she stammered out: O my God! Can it be? You do not know what I am.' 'I do. I know you are the queen of all women to me, the one woman in all the world; my love, my lady, my life! Miriam! listen to me; don't reject me don't tell me the hope that has stirred my heart since I saw your dear eyes shining on me yonder, is a delusion, like all my life hitherto-the hope that you might come to love me!' Her hands were clasped over her face now, and he gently tried to remove them. But she rose, suddenly slipped by him, and stood upright, between him and the door, looking steadily at him. 'Hush!' she said, almost in a whisper, and with one hand pressing heavily on her breast, as she steadied herself by catching the mantel-piece with the other, in the well-remembered attitude of their first interview. Do not say what I must not hear; do not say what it will break my heart to remember. You do not know, you cannot conceive, how you are torturing me, how utterly beaten, defeated, a wretch I am! There is no escape for me now;' she was growing calmer with every word, and here her eyes shone with the fire of a desperate resolution. • You, and yet, not you, but my fate, and God's eternal immutable justice, have hunted me down at last! I have repented, but it does not avail; I have made restitution, but it is not enough; I must make confession too, and be for ever in your eyes what I am in my own.' Miriam! Great Heaven! what can you mean? What can you be in my eyes but the best beloved among women?' Again she waved him off, and something majestic, yet supremely mournful, in her gesture held him motionless. 'I can be what I am, a woman degraded from her place among women by a base, low, and treacherous crime-a woman who is an undetected felon, at your mercy from this moment.' Over his face there flickered the light of a sudden, terrible perception. 'Who do you think it was that robbed you, not anconsciously, for there was no unconsciousness, save that LD meant Walter's friend; Lawrence Daly-who do you think it was that did that, and did it by an act of unparalleled treachery? Who do you think it was that signed Mr St Quentin's will?' 'I don't know, Miriam,' answered Lawrence Daly, in a low, resolute voice, and made two steps towards her; and I don't care. 6 It was not Mr St Quentin; I have known that a long time.' 'What! You knew!' 'Yes, I knew; and now, if you have anything more to tell me, you must tell it thus.' She was clasped in his strong arms, she, that tall, well-grown, grand woman, in an embrace which made her feel as small as a child, as weak as a reed, and yet filled her with an awful joy, and a sudden glorious fear, as of one-she thought afterwards, when thought could take form in her mind -who wakes in heaven. Her head was bent back by the clasp of his arms around her figure; and his kisses, full of mercy and of love, stifled the sobs which shook her convulsively, as his lips gathered the tears from her eyelids, and his long silken beard hid her face from him. There was no need for Miriam's conqueror to ask the lover's question. Lawrence Daly never did, in fact, then or afterwards, ask her if she loved him. There was utter surrender in the first helpless sob which heaved up her heart against his breast, and in the quick shudder with which she nestled there. Visitors are plenty in the Golden State of late; mere tourists, people who do not come thither to toil, or to barter, or to gamble, but merely to see one of the grandest and most beautiful countries on the face of the glorious earth, to breathe the most delicious air, to realise for once that there is a land in which mere animal living is delightful. The romance of danger, difficulty, toil, and wild adventure is indeed all but gone, but the memory of it is fresh, and many are the visitors now, brought thither commodiously by the giant railway, who have trod the plains, and toiled through the wilderness in the old time. Among the number of these, last year, was Lawrence Daly. He was accompanied by Miriam, his wife. He had said to her once, that when the great railroad which was to join the Atlantic and the Pacific together was completed, he would visit the Golden State again, And now she was there with him, the happiest of women, as she told herself many times a day, wondering humbly at the great rescue that had come to her, and striving that her life should bear fruits meet for so real a repentance as hers. She had never ceased to wonder at Lawrence's love, and she had once told him so, venturing to touch the margin of a forbidden subject, by saying: 'It is so marvellous-though you know quite the worst of me.' "Though-or-because?' Lawrence had answered, with that slow, gradually beaming, delightful smile of his, which never lost its fascination for Miriam. She enjoyed this long and varied journey to the full; and her expectation, her revelling, by anticipation, in sentiment and association, were at the full when they reached the scene of the long companionship of Lawrence and Walter. Even the remembrance of Walter's feeble state could not obscure Miriam's pleasure. At least, he and Florence were happy, she and Lawrence knew. The settlement was a busy, populous, thriving place now, with a town where the huts had stood in the valley, and a goodly row of stores occupying the site of the one emporium of the days of Lawrence and Walter, with constituted authorities, and many places of good entertainment for man and beast, and one splendid hotel, to which the English party betook themselves. They arrived at night; but an early hour next morning found Lawrence and Miriam following, on foot, the windings of the valley in the direction of the lone hut. Lawrence had already inquired into the alterations made by the course of the famous flood, and was not surprised to learn that the lone hut, well remembered as the scene of the murder of Spoiled Five-to whose grave he led Miriam during their walk-had been partially destroyed by the rush of the water through the ravine and over the face of the great rock. It had been considered hazardous to reconstruct a dwelling in the same situation, and such remains as the flood had spared had been carried away piecemeal. When Lawrence and Miriam rounded the bluff, and came in sight of the stone plateau on which the hut had stood, there was not a trace that it had ever existed. They approached the place in silence, and stood silent for several minutes, gazing upwards at the rock and the grand sweep of the ravine. "The hut stood just here,' said Daly at length. 'It is all exactly like your drawing,' said Miriam, whose eyes were full of tears, inexplicable, yet most easy to be understood. There is no change at all, is there, except the hut being gone?' 'I don't observe any.-Yes, I do, though. Look there, Miriam, to the right, up along the face of the ravine, at the exact spot where you put the pin in my drawing, where Walter shewed you the burial-place of the nugget. Are you following my directions? Yes! Then look; do you not see something which contradicts the sketch ?' Miriam shaded her eyes from the glorious Californian sunshine, and looked eagerly in the direction which he indicated. hand, plunge the other and his arm up to the 'Run down the valley, and bring the first man you meet here.' She obeyed him instantly, running fleetly but steadily, as so few women can run. On and on she sped, until, at a considerable distance beyond the bluff, she saw two men coming leisurely towards her on horseback. Then she stopped, to recover breath, to be intelligible when they should come up to her, which they did presently. She stepped out into the road, and told them that she had been sent to bring help to her husband, who had climbed 'I think I see what you mean,' she said. In the ravine, and required assistance, she did not the drawing there is a space between those two know why. Then one of the two, a fine young stones, which lie one over the other there, in the fellow, who recognised the English lady he had seen in the town last night, set Miriam on his saddle, holding her with his strong arm, and strode along by the side of his horse, while the other galloped on to Lawrence's assistance. ravine.' 'Exactly. Yet I know I drew their relative position correctly, and Walter confirmed it by pointing out to you the space between them. That is, of course, one result of the flood, and would confirm me in my belief, if it required con- | firmation, that our nugget, if not stolen, was swept away by the waters. The undermining of the earth between the upper and lower rock brought the upper one down.' I 'What a pity the gold should have been lost! don't mean to us,' she added hastily. We have more than enough of all the world can give, but generally speaking.' 'Yet,' said Lawrence, that nugget was unfortunate treasure-trove to us. It is as well as it is. You won't mind waiting here, Miriam, while I climb up that path, and take a look at the place? I want to see whether there is any spot from which a man standing on the rock, under the edge of the ravine, can be seen. I have always suspected Walter was watched that morning, intentionally or unintentionally, and that poor Spoiled Five was murdered, not by men who came for the gold to the hut, but by men who came in the night to the place where Walter had hidden it.' 'Is it dangerous climbing, Lawrence? Is there any risk of your slipping?' Not the least, dear; and I have not forgotten all the arts of a wild life, if there were.' He collected some loose stones into a tolerably convenient seat for her, and ran across the plateau, was concealed from her sight for a few minutes, and then emerged, scrambling up the face of the ravine. Miriam watched him intently, following every movement of his alert, active figure with loving eyes, and a heart filled with countless and contending feelings. Once or twice he stopped, and waved his hand, and called to her, his voice easily distinct in the pure sparkling air. She saw him spring at a tuft of brushwood, and swing himself up on the projecting edge of the lower rock, and then she saw him stoop, kneel down, lie down on the flat surface, and lay his head upon it, apparently peering eagerly into the crevices of its junction with the superincumbent mass of the upper rock. She saw him, clinging to the stone he lay on with one When Miriam and her escort reached the plateau, this man was already beside Daly, having tied his horse to a bush. Miriam begged the young man who had come with her, to tie up his horse also, and join the other two. He obeyed her at once, and Miriam resumed her seat on the stones. Lawrence was not hurt, she knew that; she could wait patiently for anything more there was to know. And now, straining her eyes in the direction of the three men, who had not much more than standing-room, and were obliged to move with evident caution, on the surface of the rock, she saw them lie down, each in his turn, as her hus band had done, and grope, as she supposed, into the crevice as he had groped. Then they all stood upright and talked earnestly together for awhile, after which they descended the face of the ravine, and the two men went direct to their horses, loosed them, mounted them, and, having gravely saluted her, rode away. Not till then did Lawrence approach her with a face so solemn that it awed her for a moment out of the power of speech. 'Come away, my love!' He raised her from her seat, and drew her hand within his arm. What is it, Lawrence? What did you find there?' 'A dreadful thing-a human skeleton! A man on whom the upper rock, no doubt, had fallen and crushed him to death, while he was digging there between the two, unconscious of the loosening action of the flood.' 'O Lawrence, how dreadful! What can you do?' 'Nothing. Those good fellows have gone to the town to give notice of the discovery. I fear I must appear at the inquest, for I alone can presumptively identify those dry bare bones.' 'You! Who is it, then?' 'Deering-it must be he! The unhappy wretch lied to me, came hither to dig out the nugget, and met with a terrible fate.' 'O Lawrence, how awful! But how do you know?' 16 "Thus! We found this in a deep crevice behind the lower rock.' Lawrence Daly placed in his wife's shrinking hands Walter's Pocket-book. THE END. THE MONTH: SCIENCE AND ARTS. These carriages would accommodate one row of inside and one row of outside passengers; and, as an essential part of Mr Haddan's system is that a carriage should start every two minutes, the onehorse service is expected to become popular and profitable. Models of these carriages, and the articles mentioned in the preceding paragraph, were also exhibited at the conversazione above referred to. News has been received from the Rev. Canon ONCE more the Royal Academy have hung their Tristram, who, by fresh travels, has again widened pictures, and opened their doors to critics and our knowledge of Scripture geography and topogsight-seers, and during the past four weeks lively raphy; in this instance by an exploration of parts discussion has prevailed as to whether British art of the Land of Moab heretofore unvisited by Euroshews proof of progress; and the high prices peans. No important inscriptions were found: recently obtained at picture-auctions are cited, as the Arabs being children of nature,' have learned evidence that pictures must go on increasing in that if they bury inscribed stones and choice sculpvalue. In one particular, there is progress-tures, a scarcity is effected, which raises the price namely, in the number of artists, or of those who when accordingly, some months later, they make fancy themselves artists; for, as we hear, the discoveries' of hidden treasures. The topographipictures sent in were more numerous than in the cal work accomplished by the party is described as past two years, whence it follows that the number satisfactory; they zigzagged through the whole of of rejections is greater than ever. Many a man the highland plateau of Moab, and discovered many who could get a respectable living as a decorator ruined cities, some of which contain remains of or house-painter, aspires to paint pictures, and temples and of Christian churches; and the sites embitters his life with disappointments. of these places were carefully laid down on maps which, we may hope, will one day be published. One part of the country is traversed by Callirrhoe, a tremendous gorge, which is described as highly interesting in its geology and its botany; and the plains of Moab, between the hills and the Dead Sea, are found to contain much fertile land with hot and cold springs. More than one attempt has been made to establish an agricultural colony in the Holy Land; will the existence of good land in Moab, with means of irrigation, occasion yet another? The International Exhibition is open in the great oval pork-pie' and its adjuncts at Kensington, and the sights there to be seen make the displays at evening receptions of scientific and learned societies appear poor in comparison. But things have been shewn at recent gatherings which mark a steady progress towards perfection in the construction of philosophical instruments, and in other departments of science and technology. Spectroscopes are now made which excel everything before attempted. In one constructed by Browning, and exhibited at the Royal Society's conversazione, the ray travels through four feet of prisms before it reaches the eye of the observer. The tele-spectroscope is also so much improved, that we may hope ere long to hear of further and clearer explorations of sun and stars. Mr J. Bellows of Gloucester has invented a Rotary Table for Reckoning Wages, which cannot fail to be useful where large numbers of men are employed. The clerk has only to turn the light cylinder, and in the columns of figures he sees readily the exact amount each man has to receive according to the number of hours he may have worked.-A catoptric street lamp, invented by Mr Skelton, is strikingly superior to the lamps at present in the streets of London. It would be a poor lamp, indeed, that was not superior, for, as we have before remarked, there are many provincial towns in England which excel London in style of lamp and quality of gas; but the great merit of Mr Skelton's lamp is, that it brightens the whole distance between one lamp and another, instead of leaving a gloomy central region, as ordinary lamps do. And this brighter illumination is accomplished with an important saving in the quantity of gas consumed. Progress is making with street-tramways, and in the discussion of the question to which they have given rise. As at present constructed, the cars are too wide for narrow streets; and it having occurred to Mr Haddan that no advantage is gained by placing two rows of passengers in a big car to look in each other's faces, he has shewn that it would be better to make use of narrow carriages drawn by one horse, which could run in any thoroughfare. From another part of the East we learn that the site and relics of the temple of Diana of the Ephesians have been discovered: that temple which was so famous in ancient days! And now portions of marble columns and fragments of sculptures are on their way to the British Museum on board H.M.S. Caledonia. The saying that a man may see everything in the world without leaving London becomes more and more true. About a year ago, Professor Nagel of Tübingen published reports of cases in which he had, by the use of strychnia, restored sight to patients suffering from decay of vision or from blindness. Strychnia, as is well known, is a deadly poison, but it has a wonderful effect in stimulating the nerves; and Professor Nagel found that in diseases of the optic nerve, whether functional or organic, its operation was alike speedy and efficacious. The quantity used is of course exceedingly small, one-fortieth of a grain, mixed with water, and this solution is not to be swallowed, but is injected under the skin of one of the arms, which seems to render the result the more remarkable. This remedy has been tried by oculists elsewhere with marked success; and among recent instances occurs a naval captain, aged fifty-two, whose sight was so much impaired that he required to be led about. Within a few minutes after the first injection, as above described, the fog which darkened his eyes became less dense, and an impression of light was perceptible. After three days' use of the remedy (an injection night and morning), he could make out the furniture of the ward with sufficient clearness to guide himself about without feeling; and on the fourth day of treatment, without help, he succeeded at mid-day in walking alone through the thoroughfares of the city to the home of his family, a mile from the infirmary.' May we not hope from this experience that henceforth the number of cases of blindness will be largely diminished. flakes, there is a more perfect separation of bran from flour than in that ground by millstones. much as could be produced by twenty-seven pair of ordinary millstones in full work. And in actual practice, the difference in value on sixty-eight sacks of flour is five and a half per cent. in favour of the new mill, which, at the rate of twenty quarters an hour, would produce a large sum in the course of a year. Two mills of the construction here described have been in work at Edinburgh more than a year. Each one disintegrates twenty quarters, or one We have from time to time mentioned the pre-hundred and sixty bushels of wheat an hour; as parations which are in progress for observing the transit of Venus in 1874. It now appears that Russia will take part in the great work. The astronomer at Pulkowa, near St Petersburg, states that the number of Russian observing stations will be twenty-four, extending from the shores of the Pacific Ocean to Eastern Siberia, and to Persia. Competent observers and efficient instruments will be provided for each station; and as photography will be made use of, some of the party have been exercising themselves in that art, and with such good results, that they can now take instantaneous photographs of the sun with dry plates. This looks promising; and as other observers are practising with the spectroscope, we may be pretty sure that the coming transit will be observed as transit was never observed before. The Russians have already set on foot meteorological observations at their stations, with a view to select places which usually have clear weather in December. Other countries are expected to co-operate; and we hear that the astronomers of Germany will, ere long, publish their plan of operations. Most people are aware that it is exceedingly difficult to reduce to powder any stiff or sticky substance. Superphosphate of lime, an artificial manure, is one of these substances; and in consequence of the difficulty, Mr T. Carr, of Bristol, designed a Disintegrating flour-mill, and machine for pulverising minerals without grinding, crushing, or stamping. The principle of this machine may be familiarly described: A lump of sticky material thrown into the air, and struck with a stick, will fly to pieces. So Mr Carr constructs cylindrical iron cages, with sticks or beaters whirling round therein, and with a contrivance for driving through the material to be crushed, in such a way, that the lumps are struck by the sticks and reduced to any required degree of smallness, or even to powder. The flying lumps offer but very little resistance, consequently, there is but little friction, and the power of the beaters is not impeded, as it would be by passing through a mass of lumps at rest. And thus it is found in practice, that clays, ores, and other minerals can be granulated or pulverised at pleasure. But, perhaps, more important is the adaptation of the machine to a flour-mill. In this case it is not lumps of clay or iron ore, but grains of wheat that are struck by the beaters, which are driven round at a speed of about four hundred revolutions a minute. So effectual is the process, that the grains are instantaneously reduced to meal; this meal is removed in the way usually adopted in flour-mills, and the bran and flour are separated. The quantity of flour yielded is the same as from millstones, but the quality is far superior. The reason for this is easily seen the flour has not been pressed or squeezed, and, to use the miller's term, is not 'killed,' but is delivered in a finely granular condition, whereby it absorbs more water when used. Bread made from this flour is lighter, and will keep better than ordinary bread; and another point worth attention is, that, as the bran is beaten off the grains in comparatively large That it is important to take care of the mining population is acknowledged, and by a Mines Regulation Bill parliament is about to require that the care shall be exercised more efficiently than heretofore. To this end, we must increase our knowledge of mines, and of their working and other circumstances. If explosions are to be prevented, the more we know of the occasions of explosion the better. It has long been suspected that changes from heat to cold, and from dry to wet, had something to do with the outbursts; and confirmation of this is now given by a paper On the Connection between Explosions in Collieries and Weather, read before the Royal Society. In this paper it is shewn that, as a rule, the explosions take place after a fall in the barometer, or a rise in the thermometer. In either case, the firedamp,' or explosive gas, pours into the mine in greater quantities than when the barometer is high, and the temperature low. It is found, too, that storms occasion explosions; and the suggestion has been made that storm-warnings should be sent to the colliery districts by telegraph, so that the miners might have time to escape from the danger. But the best and most practical remedy appears to be to force so large a stream of fresh air constantly through the mine as to sweep away therewith all the foul air. The author of this paper is Mr R. H. Scott, F.R.S., Director of the Meteorological Office. DISCORDS. IT had some grains of truth, at least, The full content that seemed so near! Next Saturday, 1st June, will be commenced a A WOMAN'S VENGEANCE. Printed and Published by W. & R. CHAMBERS, 47 Pater- CHAPTER I.-AT THE MITRE. Ir is early summer and early morning in the most | To dwell here even a year after one's fellows have departed (except the College Fellows) is to feel old indeed. To return hither after a few years is to experience the feelings of Rip van PRICE 1d. Winkle. Alma Mater is a hard mother, though To how many has she thus been the home and the Such thoughts, or thoughts like these, are passing through the mind of Arthur Tyndall, as he stands at the corner of a silent street, and looks at his old college-left some five years back, which seem to him a century. He cannot help entertaining them (though in a particular rather than a general way), notwithstanding that he is by no means given to sentiment. He has been to the ends of the earth since he dwelt yonder, and has witnessed, and doubtless taken part in, reckless |