e the thoughts that burned there. After
sitting thus for half an hour he suddenly rose, with his face somewhat
paler, and his lips a little more firmly compressed than usual.

It was an epoch in his existence. The man who had so often and so
successfully deceived others had made the wonderful discovery that he
had deceived himself. He had imagined that money was his sole object in
wishing to marry Rose. He now discovered that love, or something like
it, had so much to do with his wishes that he resolved to have her
without money, and also without her consent.

Something within the man told him that Rose's refusal was an unalterable
one. He did not think it worth while to waste time in a second attempt.
His plans, though hastily formed, required a good deal of preliminary
arrangement, so he commenced to carry them out with the single
exclamation, "I'll do it!" accompanied with a blow from his heavy fist
on the table, which, being a weak lodging-house one, was split from end
to end. But the managing director had a soul above furniture at that
moment. He hastily put on his hat and strode out of the house.

Making good use of a good horse, he paid sundry mysterious visits to
various smuggling characters, to all of whom he was particularly
agreeable and liberal in the bestowal of portions of the thirty thousand
pounds with which a too confiding public had intrusted him. Among other
places, he went to a cottage on a moor between St. Just and Penzance,
and had a confidential interview with a man named Hicks, who was noted
for his capacity to adapt himself to circumstances (when well paid)
without being troubled by conscientious scruples. This man had a son
who had once suffered from a broken collar-bone, and whose ears were
particularly sharp. He chanced to overhear the conversation at the
interview referred to, and dutifully reported the same to his mother,
who happened to be a great gossip, and knew much about the private
affairs of nearly everybody living within six miles of her. The good
woman resolved to make some use of her information, but Mr Clearemout
left the cottage in ignorance, of course, of her resolution.

Having transacted these little pieces of business, the managing director
returned home, and, on the day following, sought and obtained an
interview with Rose Ellis in her bower.

Recollecting the subject of their last conversation, Rose blushed, as
much with indignation as confusion, at being in