want of wings, stretch out our throats, open our beaks, and cry
"Cock-a-doodle-doo!" which, being translated from the gallinaceous
tongue into plain English, means--"Look at me! Here I am! Did you ever
see such a fine fellow in your life? I don't believe there was ever my
equal born into the world!"

There was a comic philosopher born in the West, and his name was Artemus
Ward; and every now and then, after a verbal flourish of this kind, he
used to conclude by saying--

"This is wrote sarcastic."

So are these remarks concerning Richard Frayne's act, when, agonised by
the horror of his position, and rankling mentally at being believed
contemptible enough to have obtained the money, monkey-fashion, by using
his cousin as catspaw, he had gradually become so out of balance that he
was ready for any reckless act.

A few words from the proper quarter would have set him right; a kindly
bit or two of sympathy from his fellow-students would have helped him;
but everyone but the servant held rigidly aloof, and when the dark,
blank night-time came, and the long hours of agony culminated in a
feeling of utter, hopeless despair, he sat alone there in his room,
ready to dash at anything which would, even if temporarily, relieve him
from the terrible strain.

At last he forced himself into thinking as calmly as he could, setting
himself to consider all that he had to face.

Mark was dying fast. The doctors had said it, and in a few hours he
would stand in the eyes of the world as, if not his murderer, the cause
of his death. Next there must be that terrible public examination and
the verdict--manslaughter; it could be no other, he told himself. Then
there would be a magisterial examination, ending in his being committed
for trial. After this, a long, weary waiting--possibly on bail--and
then the trial.

He arranged all of it in his own mind, perfectly satisfied that his view
was too correct, and never once stopping to think that people would
calmly investigate every circumstance of the trouble, and, while making
every allowance, sift out the pearl truth from the sand and bitter ashes
in which it was hidden. In his then frame of mind, he could only think
the very worst of everything; for always before him was that terrible
scene in which he was bound to take part. He felt that he could nerve
himself to stand before coroner, magistrate, even judge, if matters went
so far; but he could not face the sweet-faced, sorro