assed before he was sufficiently recovered to leave
his room. Every day Mrs. Clifford had visited him, and watched over
him with a mother's love. Every day the carriage of Mr. Blake brought
the old gentleman to the bed-side of the poor invalid, where he
listened to the ravings of his disturbed imagination, and shuddered
to think of what horrors--but for a providential coincidence--he might
have added to the history of human wo.

At length Mr. Franklin was allowed to take a drive. It is scarcely
necessary to say that he called on the ladies. Mrs. Clifford,
previously apprized of his intended visit, at the sound of the bell,
accidentally remembered that she had left her scissors up stairs. So
Franklin found Caroline alone.

"You are very, very pale," cried the greatly agitated girl, her eyes
filling with good, honest tears, as she gave him her hand.

He raised it to his lips.

"I beg your pardon, Miss Clifford."

But, like Beatrice, she seemed to hold it there again with a fervor
which even the modest Franklin could not wholly misunderstand.

"I owe you more than my life," cried Caroline, with such a look as she
had never bestowed upon him before.

"And yet," cried Franklin, "you fraudulently withhold from me the only
payment in your power."

"Nonsense--what payment," cried she, blushing deeply.

"Your dear self!" answered Franklin, in a timid voice.

"Then you must collect your debt, as other hard-hearted creditors
do--by force."

"In that case," rejoined Franklin, with a boldness which astonished
himself, "an execution must issue, and proceedings commence directly."

Mrs. Clifford, having found her scissors, just then entered the room,
but not before the ardent lawyer had performed the threatened
duty--not quite so harrowing a one as that attempted by Mr. Jennings,
though it led to the same result, viz., she was obviously
_transported_, and, as it turned out---_for life_.

Nor is this all.

Old Mr. Blake had learned how the land lay from Mrs. Clifford, and he
resolved to make the young people reparation. He owed it to them in
all conscience. They were married in about six weeks; and when the
ceremony was over, a parcel was brought in, directed "_To Mrs.
Franklin, with the compliments of Messrs. Blake, Blanchard & Co.,_"
which, on being opened, was found to contain a superb Cashmere
shawl--thirty yards of the L12 lace, and a neat mahogany box, with a
coronet of diamonds for the young criminal.

We won