on in her manner that lighted up her face with a new and
wonderful beauty, she fell on her knees at his feet. Clutching at a
black ribbon about her throat, she exclaimed:

"How good, how noble, how generous you are! But you ask too much of me.
Only remember what my life has been! From babyhood I have never seen
anything but poverty. My father was a gentleman, but poor; my mother--
but don't let me speak of her. You can never guess what is endured by
genteel paupers. I cannot be disinterested; I cannot be blind to the
advantages of such a marriage. I do not dislike you--no, no; and I do
not love anyone in the world," she added, with a laugh, when asked if
there was anyone else.

Sir Michael was silent for a few moments, and then, with a kind of
effort, said: "Well, Lucy, I will not ask too much of you; but I see no
reason why we should not make a very happy couple."

When Lucy went to her own room she sat down on the edge of the bed, and
murmured: "No more dependence, no more drudgery, no more humiliations!
Every trace of the old life melted away, every clue to identity buried
and forgotten except this"--and she drew from her bosom a black ribbon
and locket, and the object attached to it. It was a ring wrapped in an
oblong piece of crumpled paper, partly written and partly printed.

_II.--The Return of the Gold-Seeker_

A tall, powerfully-built young man of twenty-five, his face bronzed by
exposure, brown eyes, bushy black beard, moustache, and hair, was pacing
impatiently the deck of the Australian liner Argus, bound from Melbourne
to Liverpool. His name was George Talboys. He was joined in his
promenade by a shipboard-friend, who had been attracted by the feverish
ardour and freshness of the young man, and was made the confidant of his
story.

"Do you know, Miss Morley," he said, "that I left my little girl asleep,
with her baby in her arms, and with nothing but a few blotted lines to
tell her why her adoring husband had deserted her."

"Deserted her!" cried Miss Morley.

"Yes. I was a cornet in a cavalry regiment when I first met my darling.
We were quartered in a stupid seaport town, where my pet lived with her
shabby old father--a half-pay naval man. It was a case of love at first
sight on both sides, and my darling and I made a match of it. My father
is a rich man, but no sooner did he hear that I was married to a
penniless girl than he wrote a furious letter telling me that he would
never again hold a