was in this
direction, he was sensitive in another. There was both regret and
repentance in him, as he thought of the deaf and dumb girl, and of the
paroxysm of terror he had caused her. How patiently and prettily she
had tried to explain to him her gratitude for his gift, and the use she
meant to put it to; and how cruelly he had made her suffer in return! "I
wish I hadn't frighted her so," said Mat to himself; thinking of this
in his own rough way, as he walked rapidly homewards. "I wish I hadn't
frighted her so."

But his impatience to examine the Bracelet got the better of his
repentance, as it had already got the better of every other thought and
feeling in him. He stopped under a gas lamp, and drew his prize out of
his pocket. He could see that it was made of two kinds of hair, and
that something was engraved on the flat gold of the clasp. But his hand
shook, his eyes were dimmer than usual, the light was too high above
him, and try as he might he could make out nothing clearly.

He put the Bracelet into his pocket again, and, muttering to himself
impatiently, made for Kirk Street at his utmost speed. His landlord's
wife happened to be in the passage when he opened the door. Without the
ceremony of a single preliminary word, he astonished her by taking her
candle out of her hand, and instantly disappearing up-stairs with it.
Zack had not come from the theater--he had the lodgings to himself--he
could examine the hair Bracelet in perfect freedom.

His first look was at the clasp. By holding it close to the flame of the
candle, he succeeded in reading the letters engraved on it.

"M. G. In memory of S. G."

_"Mary Grice. In memory of Susan Grice."_ Mat's hand closed fast on the
Bracelet--and dropped heavily on his knee, as he uttered those words.

* * * * * *

The pantomime which Zack had gone to see, was so lengthened out by
encores of incidental songs and dances, that it was not over till close
on midnight. When he left the theater, the physical consequences of
breathing a vitiated atmosphere made themselves felt immediately in the
regions of his mouth, throat, and stomach. Those ardent aspirations in
the direction of shell-fish and malt liquor, which it is especially the
mission of the English drama to create, overcame him as he issued into
the fresh air, and took him to the local oyster shop for refreshment and
change of scene.

Having the immediate prospect of the private Drawing Academy