h other as desolate,
persecuted creatures only do! He grudged us the food we ate, the
clothes--rather the rags--we wore. One day playing in Regent's Park I
fell into the canal, and was nearly drowned. A gentleman went in after
me and saved me. He took me home, he gave me to my mother, he often met
us after. He gave me treats and money,--I can't dwell on this time. He
won my mother's love, chiefly through me. He was going away to the new
world. He persuaded her to leave her wretched home, to take me,--we
escaped. I shall never forget the joy of those few days! Then my father
(as we might have known he would) put out his torturing hand and seized
_me_. My mother had hoped that his miserly nature would have disposed
him to let me go, if he could thereby escape the cost of my maintenance.
But revenge was too sweet to be foregone. I was dragged away. He did not
want _her_ back. He hoped her lover would desert her after awhile, and
so accomplish her punishment; but he was true! No, I can never forget my
mother's agony when I was torn from her!" he rose and walked to the
window, and returned. "The hideous picture had grown faint," he said,
"but as I speak it grows clear and black! You can imagine my life after
this! It was well calculated to turn a moody, passionate boy into a
devil! I was nearly eleven when I lost my mother, and I never heard of
her or from her after; yet I never doubted that she loved me and tried
to communicate with me, but my father's infernal spite kept us apart. At
sixteen I ran away. Your father was friendly to me and tried to
persuade me against what he called rashness; but I always fancied he
might have helped my mother, backed her up more, and I did not heed him.
I went through a rough training, as you may suppose, and never saw my
father's face again."

"I can imagine that he could be terrible," murmured Katherine. "I was
dreadfully afraid of him, but I did not know he had been so cruel."

George Liddell did not seem to hear her, he was lost in thought.

"You wonder, I daresay, why I tell you this long story," he resumed;
"you will see what it leads up to presently."

"I am greatly interested," returned Katherine.

"You will be more so! From what I told Newton, you know enough of my
career in Australia, but you do _not_ know that I married a sweet,
delicate woman, who, after the birth of our little Marie, fell into bad
health. If I could have taken her away for a long voyage, it might have
save