shook her little head, and thought of her brother with
unspeakable disdain.

CHAPTER XXXVII. REWARDS

When the fitting moment arrived, Alfred Yule underwent an operation
for cataract, and it was believed at first that the result would be
favourable. This hope had but short duration; though the utmost prudence
was exercised, evil symptoms declared themselves, and in a few months'
time all prospect of restoring his vision was at an end. Anxiety, and
then the fatal assurance, undermined his health; with blindness, there
fell upon him the debility of premature old age.

The position of the family was desperate. Marian had suffered much all
the winter from attacks of nervous disorder, and by no effort of will
could she produce enough literary work to supplement adequately the
income derived from her fifteen hundred pounds. In the summer of 1885
things were at the worst; Marian saw no alternative but to draw upon her
capital, and so relieve the present at the expense of the future. She
had a mournful warning before her eyes in the case of poor Hinks and his
wife, who were now kept from the workhouse only by charity. But at this
juncture the rescuer appeared. Mr Quarmby and certain of his friends
were already making a subscription for the Yules' benefit, when one of
their number--Mr Jedwood, the publisher--came forward with a proposal
which relieved the minds of all concerned. Mr Jedwood had a brother who
was the director of a public library in a provincial town, and by this
means he was enabled to offer Marian Yule a place as assistant in that
institution; she would receive seventy-five pounds a year, and thus,
adding her own income, would be able to put her parents beyond the reach
of want. The family at once removed from London, and the name of Yule
was no longer met with in periodical literature.

By an interesting coincidence, it was on the day of this departure that
there appeared a number of The West End in which the place of honour,
that of the week's Celebrity, was occupied by Clement Fadge. A coloured
portrait of this illustrious man challenged the admiration of all who
had literary tastes, and two columns of panegyric recorded his career
for the encouragement of aspiring youth. This article, of course
unsigned, came from the pen of Jasper Milvain.

It was only by indirect channels that Jasper learnt how Marian and her
parents had been provided for. Dora's correspondence with her friend
soon languished; in