came more and more impossible for him to refrain from
writing love letters, and sending occasional presents of jewellery.
When the letters and the jewellery were returned to him he put them
away carelessly, and he bought the first sparkle of diamonds that
caught his fancy, and forwarded ring, bracelet, and ear-ring, with
whatever word of rapturous love that came up in his mind.

One day he was called into the manager's room, severely reprimanded,
and eventually pardoned in consideration of his long and faithful
service. But the reprimands of his employers were of no use and he
continued to write to Henrietta Brown, growing more and more careless
of his secret. He dropped brooches about the office, and his letters.
At last the story was whispered from desk to desk. Dempsey's dismissal
was the only course open to the firm; and it was with much regret that
the partners told their old servant that his services were no longer
required.

To their surprise Dempsey seemed quite unaffected by his dismissal; he
even seemed relieved, and left the bank smiling, thinking of Henrietta,
bestowing no thought on his want of means. He did not even think of
providing himself with money by the sale of some of the jewellery he
had about him, nor of his going to his lodging and packing up his
clothes, he did not think how he should get to Edinburgh--it was there
that she lived. He thought of her even to the exclusion of the simplest
means of reaching her, and was content to walk about the streets in
happy mood, waiting for glimpses of some evanescent phantom at the
wood's edge wearing a star on her forehead, or catching sight in the
wood's depths of a glistening shoulder and feet flying towards the
reeds. Full of happy aspiration he wandered seeking the country through
the many straggling villages that hang like children round the skirts
of Dublin, and was passing through one of these at nightfall, and,
feeling tired, he turned into the bar of an inn, and asked for bread
and cheese.

"Come a long way, governor?" said one of two rough fellows.

"I am going a long way," replied Dempsey; "I am going north--very far
north."

"And what may yer be going north for, if I may make bold to ask?"

"I am going to the lady I love, and I am taking her beautiful presents
of jewellery."

The two rough fellows exchanged glances; and it is easy to imagine how
Dempsey was induced to let them have his diamonds, so that inquiries
might be made of a frie