y, _mine_ turned,--I was ruined!"

"And were there none to come to your aid? You must surely have lent a
helping hand to many--"

"Look here, girl," said he; "now that we are on this subject, you may as
well understand it aright. If a gentleman born--a fellow like Beecher,
there--comes to grief, there's always plenty of others ready to serve
him; some for the sake of his family, some for his name, some because
there's always the chance that he may pay one day or other. Snobs, too,
would help him, because he 's the Honorable Annesley Beecher; but it's
vastly different when it's Grog Davis is in case. Every one rejoices
when a leg breaks down."

"A leg is the slang for--for--"

"For a betting man," interposed Davis. "When a fellow takes up the turf
as a profession, they call him 'a leg,'--not that they 'd exactly say it
to his face!" added he, with a smile of intense sarcasm.

"Go on," said she, faintly, after a slight pause.

"Go on with what?" cried he, rudely. "I've told you everything. You
wanted to know what I was, and how I made my living. Well, you know it
all now. To be sure, the newspapers, if you read them, could give
you more precise details; but there's one thing, girl, they could n't
blink,--there's not one of them could say that what my head planned
overnight my hand was not ready to defend in the morning! I can't always
throw a main, but I 'll hit my man,--and at five-and-thirty paces, if he
don't like to stand closer."

"And what led you to this life, papa? Was it choice?"

"I have told you enough already; too much, mayhap," said he, doggedly.
"Question me no more!"

Had Davis but seen the face of her at his side, what a terrible shock
it would have given him, hard and stern as he was! She was pale as
marble,--even the lips were colorless; while along her cheeks a heavy
tear stole slowly along. It was the only one she shed, but it cost an
agony.

"And this is the awaking from that glorious dream I have long been lost
in?--this the explanation of that life of costly extravagance, where
every wish was answered, every taste pampered. This is the reverse of
that medal which represented me as noble by birth and high in station!"
If these were the first bitter thoughts that crossed her mind, her next
were to ask herself why it was that the tidings had not humiliated her
more deeply. "How is it that while I see and hear all this," cried she,
"I listen in a spirit of defiance, not defeat? Is it that in