leepy. As he
fell off into a pleasant doze, Mat went back into the front-room; and,
taking from the table Mr. Thorpe's letter to Mr. Blyth, left Kirk Street
immediately for the painter's house.

It had occurred to Valentine to unlock his bureau twice since his return
from the country, but on neither occasion had he found it necessary to
open that long narrow drawer at the back, in which he had secreted the
Hair Bracelet years ago. He was consequently still totally ignorant
that it had been taken away from him, when Matthew Grice entered the
painting-room, and quietly put it into his hand.

Consternation and amazement so thoroughly overpowered him, that he
suffered his visitor to lock the door against all intruders, and then
to lead him peremptorily to a chair, without uttering a single word of
inquiry or expostulation. All though the narrative, on which Mat now
entered, he sat totally speechless, until Mr. Thorpe's letter was placed
in his hands, and he was informed that Madonna was still to be left
entirely under his own care. Then, for the first time, his cheeks
showed symptoms of returning to their natural color, and he exclaimed
fervently, "Thank God! I shan't lose her after all! I only wish you had
begun by telling me of that, the moment you came into the room!"

Saying this, he began to read Mr. Thorpe's letter. When he had finished
it, and looked up at Mat, the tears were in his eyes.

"I can't help it," said the simple-hearted painter. "It would even
affect _you,_ Mr. Grice, to be addressed in such terms of humiliation
as these. How can he doubt my forgiving him, when he has a right to my
everlasting gratitude for not asking me to part with our darling
child? They never met--he has never, never, seen her face," continued
Valentine, in lower and fainter tones. "She always wore her veil down,
by my wish, when we went out; and our walks were generally into the
country, instead of town way. I only once remember seeing him coming
towards us; and then I crossed the road with her, knowing we were not on
terms. There's something shocking in father and daughter living so near
each other, yet being--if one may say so--so far, so very far apart. It
is dreadful to think of that. It is far more dreadful to think of its
having been _her_ hand which held up the hair for you to look at, and
_her_ little innocent action which led to the discovery of who her
father really was!"

"Do you ever mean to let her know as much ab