ehead.

"Has your nurse run away and left you? Don't be afraid; nothing shall
trouble you. I will stay with you till she comes back."

"Hellene is gone to buy candy," said the dwarf, timidly,

"My dear, what is your name?"

"Maud Ames Laurance."

The stranger had compassionately taken one of the thin hands in her
own, but throwing it from her as if it had been a serpent, she
recoiled, involuntarily pushing the carriage from its resting-place.
It rolled a few steps and stopped, while she stood shuddering.

Her first impulse was to hurry away; the second was more feminine in
its promptings, and conquered. Once more she approached the
unfortunate child, and scrutinized her, with eyes that gradually
kindled into a blaze.

She bore in no respect the faintest resemblance to her father, but
Mrs. Orme fancied she traced the image of the large-featured
bold-eyed mother; and as she contrasted this feeble deformed creature
with the remembered face and figure of her own beautiful darling
girl, a bitter but intensely triumphant laugh broke suddenly on the
air.

"Maud Ames Laurance! A proud name truly--and royally you grace it!
Ah, Nemesis! Christianity would hunt you down as a pagan myth, but
all honour, glory to you, incorruptible pitiless Avenger! Accept my
homage, repay my wrongs, and then demand in sacrificial tribute what
you will, though it were my heart's best blood! Aha! will she lend
lustre to the family name? Shall the splendour of her high-born
aristocratic beauty gild the crime that gave her being? Yes verily,
it seems that after all, even for me the Mills of the Gods do not
forget to grind. '_The time of their visitation will come, and that
inevitably; for, it is always true, that if the fathers have eaten
sour grapes, the children's teeth are set on edge_' Command my
lifelong allegiance, oh Queenly Nemesis!"

Sometimes grovelling in the dust of gross selfishness which clings
more or less to all of us, we bow worshipping before the gods, into
which we elevate the meanest qualities of our own nature,
apotheosizing sinful lusts of hate and vengeance; and while we vow
reckless tribute and measureless libations, lo, we are unexpectedly
called upon for speedy payment!

Looking down with exultant delight on the ugly deformity who stared
back wonderingly at her, Mrs. Orme's wan thin face grew radiant, the
brown eyes dilated, glowed, and the blood leaped to her hollow
cheeks, burning in two scarlet spots; but the