ficed the higher for the lower. He loved you as passionately, nearly as purely, as I do. You are free to change yet. You may leave me, and I will not utter a reproach. You will be very grand, very rich; and he said once to me that you were born for such a lot as he can give you. I am, compared to him, a poor man, and must be always poor. I have not even a home to offer you yet. I wish I had not kissed you, Hester. I beg your pardon for taking you in my arms. was my surprise which overpowered me. Good heavens! why do you neither speak nor look at me?"

It

She had been standing beside him as he poured out his rapid words, perfectly motionless, with her eyes still bent upon the ground The instinctive coquetry of a woman who is sure she is beloved, was playing about her heart, and teaching her the innocent artifices which go far in befooling men. She let him run on in his jealous outpouring without interposing a glance or a word; but when he stopped, she lifted up her eyes to his face, with a glance in them which he could not misunderstand.

"How foolish you are Carl!" were the words she uttered.

Then you never loved anybody but me?" he persisted.

"Never!" she repeated, tightening her fingers about his hand.

Carl was afraid of stirring, lest she should take her hand from his, and sit down apart from him, and whenever she moved he held her more closely. The small flame died away, and the room grew very dark indeed, with no light except that which came through the open door from the lamp in the old house-place. They had said but very little to one another, when a clear, shrill, foreign voice caused Carl to start violently.

"Mademoiselle Hester, my angel," said Madame Lawson, "I must run away to my house for a little half-hour. Is there anybody talking with you, my little one?"

"It is only Lawson's mother," whispered Hester. "I must go out to her for a minute."

She was away for several minutes, and came back with the lamp in her hand. Then Carl sighed a profound sigh. The exquisite moment was gone, and could never return. Yet

he had not time to mourn over it; for though Hester seated herself in her own chair, she did not forbid him to stretch himself upon the hearth-rug at her feet, where her downcast eyes could not fail to fall upon him.

"Oh, Hester!" he cried, with a sudden sorrow coming across his joy, "so that little child is dead! If I had not found you again, my dear love; if you had been altogether lost to me, little Hester would have been dearer to me than any one else in the world. Do you know that she loved you very dearly, and pined to see you once again? If you had but been at home in time to see her!"

"I did see her. She died in my arms," said Hester, in a sorrowful voice.

"God bless you, my Hester!" answered Carl.

"Let me tell you all about it," she said, looking down shyly upon his radiant face, for he could not keep his grief in mind whilst he was gazing up at her. "My father and Rose are reconciled to one another!"

She told him the whole history in low, quiet, timid tones, with fitful blushes and tears, which she did not wish him to see, and which he appeared not to notice. He did not interrupt

her, listening in a rapture and reverie of love, which made him willing to lie there for hours, hearing no sound but her dear voice, and seeing nothing but her dear face. Madame Lawson's little half-hour proved to be a very long one; but neither of them was conscious of its length.

VOL. III.

Q

CHAPTER XXII.

BROUGHT TO LIGHT.

MADAME LAWSON, who was prone to avoid the day-light, which she declared not worthy of its name in England, proceeded homewards in the dusk, without meeting with any molestation. She had not paid her son and the garret any visit since the return of John Morley and Hester the night before; and Lawson had failed to come down to his workroom, where indeed he had been but little during the last three months, though Mr. Waldron had continued to pay him and his mother the same wages he had formerly received from his master. Madame experienced no anxiety on his account. The affection existing between them was easy and cool; and was made pleasant by the natural amiability of the light-hearted old woman. She knew her son to be quite capable of taking care of himself, and of making himself happy by means of his favourite drug. It had never troubled her that he should indulge in the use or abuse of opium. All men