on the saddle, and had taken the
reins from his hands; and a worse gloom than the murky atmosphere was
closing round him.

She had told him that his life was before him--that he could carve out
his own future; but as he looked back on his past life--on the short
tale of his four-and-twenty years--his heart was sick within him.

What a pitiable part he had played. Was it possible that such a woman
as Crystal could ever have loved him? Had not his cowardly desertion
of his mother only won her silent contempt? and now it was too late to
redeem himself in her eyes.

His fate was frowning on him. His position at Belgrave House had long
been irksome to him. His grandfather loved him, but not as he loved
Erle; and in his heart he was secretly jealous of Erle--if it had been
possible he would have supplanted him. Only he himself knew how he had
tempted him, and the subterfuges to which he had stooped. He had
encouraged Erle's visits to Beulah Place from motives of
self-interest, and had been foiled by Erle's engagement to Evelyn
Selby.

How he loathed himself as he thought of it all. Oh! if he could only
undo the past. Young as he was, ruin seemed staring him in the face.
He had squandered his handsome allowance; his debts were heavy. He had
heard his grandfather say that of all things he abhorred gambling; and
yet he knew he was a gambler. Only the preceding night he had staked a
large sum and had lost; and that very morning he had appealed to Erle
to save him from the consequences of his own rashness.

As he rode on, his thoughts seemed to grow tangled and confused. His
life was a failure; how was he to go on living? All these years he had
fed on husks, and the taste was bitter in his mouth. Oh! if he could
make a clean breast of it all. And then he repeated drearily that it
was too late.

His reins were hanging loosely on his horse's neck. His high-spirited
little mare had been following her own will for more than an hour now,
and had relapsed into a walk, as Percy roused himself to see where he
was. He found himself on a bridge with the river on either side of
him. He was miles away from Belgrave House; and for the moment he was
perplexed, and drew up to ask a boy who was loitering on the footpath
what bridge it was.

There was a steamer passing; and a little lad had clambered on the
parapet to see it go by. Either he overbalanced himself or grew giddy,
but, to Percy's horror, there was a sharp scream, and the next