, as Louis took his arm. 'You are not
one to forget.'

'And yet you were going to pass me without making yourself known.'

'A disgraced man has no business to be known,' said Tom, low and
hoarsely. 'No, I wish none of them ever to hear my name again; and but
for the slip of the tongue that came so naturally, you should not, but
I was drawn to you, and could not help it. I am glad I have seen you
once more, my Lord--'

He would have left him at the entrance, but Louis held him fast.

'You are the very man I depend on for unravelling the business. A man
cannot be disgraced by any one but himself, and that is not the case
with you, Tom.'

'No, thank Heaven,' said Tom, fervently; 'I've kept my honesty, if I
have lost all the rest.'

Little more was needed to bring Madison to a seat on a wooden bench
beside Fitzjocelyn, answering his anxious inquiries. The first tidings
were a shock--Mr. Ponsonby was dead. He had long been declining, and
the last thing Tom had heard from Lima was, that he was dead; but of
the daughter there was no intelligence; Tom had been too much occupied
with his own affairs to know anything of her. Robson had returned from
Guayaquil some weeks previously, and in the settlement of accounts
consequent on Mr. Ponsonby's death, Tom had demurred giving up all the
valuable property at the mines under his charge, until he should have
direct orders from Mr. Dynevor or Miss Ponsonby. A hot dispute ensued,
and Robson became aware that Tom was informed of his nefarious
practices, and had threatened him violently; but a few hours after he
had returned, affecting to have learnt from the new clerk, Ford, that
Madison's peculations required to be winked at with equal forbearance,
and giving him the alternative of sharing the spoil, or of being
denounced to the authorities. He took a night to consider; and, as
Louis started at hearing of any deliberation, he said, sadly, 'You
would not believe me, my Lord, but I had almost a mind. They would
take away my character, any way; and what advantage was my honesty
without that? And as to hurting my employers, they would only take what
I did not; and such as that is thought nothing of by very many. I'd
got no faith in man nor woman left, and I'd got nothing but suspicion
by my honesty; so why should I not give in to the way of the world, and
try if it would serve me. But then, my Lord, it struck me that if I
had nothing else, I had still my God left.'

Loui