ontinued.

Hearing no more from the glazier she hoped the difficulty was past. But
another week only had gone by, when, as she was pacing the Giant's Walk
(the name given to the promenade), she met the same personage in the
company of a fat woman carrying a bundle.

'This is the lady, my dear,' he said to his companion. 'This, ma'am, is
my wife. We've come to settle in the town for a time, if so be we can
find room.'

'That you won't do,' said she. 'Nobody can live here who is not
privileged.'

'I am privileged,' said the glazier, 'by my trade.'

Baptista went on, but in the afternoon she received a visit from the
man's wife. This honest woman began to depict, in forcible colours, the
necessity for keeping up the concealment.

'I will intercede with my husband, ma'am,' she said. 'He's a true man if
rightly managed; and I'll beg him to consider your position. 'Tis a very
nice house you've got here,' she added, glancing round, 'and well worth a
little sacrifice to keep it.'

The unlucky Baptista staved off the danger on this third occasion as she
had done on the previous two. But she formed a resolve that, if the
attack were once more to be repeated she would face a revelation--worse
though that must now be than before she had attempted to purchase silence
by bribes. Her tormentors, never believing her capable of acting upon
such an intention, came again; but she shut the door in their faces. They
retreated, muttering something; but she went to the back of the house,
where David Heddegan was.

She looked at him, unconscious of all. The case was serious; she knew
that well; and all the more serious in that she liked him better now than
she had done at first. Yet, as she herself began to see, the secret was
one that was sure to disclose itself. Her name and Charles's stood
indelibly written in the registers; and though a month only had passed as
yet it was a wonder that his clandestine union with her had not already
been discovered by his friends. Thus spurring herself to the inevitable,
she spoke to Heddegan.

'David, come indoors. I have something to tell you.'

He hardly regarded her at first. She had discerned that during the last
week or two he had seemed preoccupied, as if some private business
harassed him. She repeated her request. He replied with a sigh, 'Yes,
certainly, mee deer.'

When they had reached the sitting-room and shut the door she repeated,
faintly, 'David, I have somethi