of the utmost alarm.

"Down by the carriage road," called out Paula, finding it impossible for
them to keep up with such haste.

"But is he much injured?" cried a smooth voice at their side.

They turned; it was the short thickset man who had been the other's
companion in the conversation above recorded.

"We trust not," answered Cicely; "his arm received the blow, and he
suffers very much, but we hope it is not serious;" and they hurried on.

They found the father seated on the grass holding the little fellow in
his arms. The look on his once handsome but now thoroughly corrupt and
dissipated face, made their hearts melt within them. However wicked he
might be--and that sly treacherous eye, that false impudent lip, that
settling of the whole face into the mould which Vice applies to all her
votaries, left no doubt of his complete depravity--he dearly loved his
child, and love, no matter how it is expressed, or in what garb it
appears, is a sacred and beautiful thing, and ennobles for the time
being any creature who displays it.

"'Twas a hard knock up, Dad," came from the white lips of the child as
he felt his father's trembling hand feel up and down his arm, "but I
guess the 'little fellar' can stand it." "Little feller" was evidently
the name by which his father was accustomed to address him.

"There are no bones broken," said the father. "To be lame and maimed too
would be--"

He did not finish, for a delicately gloved hand was here laid on his
sleeve, and a gentle voice whispered, "Money cannot pay for an injury
like that, but please accept this;" and Paula thrust a purse into his
hand.

He clutched it eagerly, but at her next request that he should tell her
where he lived that they might inquire after the boy, he shook his head
with a return of his old emphasis.

"The haunts of bats and jackals are not for ladies." Then as he caught
sight of her pitiful face bending in farewell over the little urchin,
some remembrance perhaps of the days when he had a right to stoop to the
ear of beautiful women and walk unrebuked at their side, returned to him
from the past, and respectfully lowering his voice, he asked her name.

She gave it and he seemed to lay it away in his mind; then as the ladies
turned to remount their horses, rose and began carrying the little
fellow off. As he vanished in the turn of the path that led towards the
main entrance, they perceived a tall dark figure arise from a seat in
the dis