ing, for it was a mere outhouse, and had forgotten to turn the key
when he left it. Poor Shargar! Was it more or less of a refuge that
the mother that bore him was not there either to curse or welcome his
return? Less--if we may judge from a remark he once made in my hearing
many long years after:

'For, ye see,' he said, 'a mither's a mither, be she the verra de'il.'

Searching about in the dark, he found the one article unsold by the
landlord, a stool, with but two of its natural three legs. On this he
balanced himself and waited--simply for what Robert would do; for his
faith in Robert was unbounded, and he had no other hope on earth.
But Shargar was not miserable. In that wretched hovel, his bare feet
clasping the clay floor in constant search of a wavering equilibrium,
with pitch darkness around him, and incapable of the simplest
philosophical or religious reflection, he yet found life good. For it
had interest. Nay, more, it had hope. I doubt, however, whether there is
any interest at all without hope.

While he sat there, Robert, thinking him snug in the garret, was walking
quietly home from the shoemaker's; and his first impulse on entering was
to run up and recount the particulars of his interview with Alexander.
Arrived in the dark garret, he called Shargar, as usual, in a
whisper--received no reply--thought he was asleep--called louder (for
he had had a penny from his grandmother that day for bringing home
two pails of water for Betty, and had just spent it upon a loaf for
him)--but no Shargar replied. Thereupon he went to the bed to lay hold
of him and shake him. But his searching hands found no Shargar. Becoming
alarmed, he ran down-stairs to beg a light from Betty.

When he reached the kitchen, he found Betty's nose as much in the air
as its construction would permit. For a hook-nosed animal, she certainly
was the most harmless and ovine creature in the world, but this was a
case in which feminine modesty was both concerned and aggrieved. She
showed her resentment no further, however, than by simply returning no
answer in syllable, or sound, or motion, to Robert's request. She was
washing up the tea-things, and went on with her work as if she had been
in absolute solitude, saving that her countenance could hardly have kept
up that expression of injured dignity had such been the case. Robert
plainly saw, to his great concern, that his secret had been discovered
in his absence, and that Shargar had been e