t isn't necessary to let us know that,' said his sister Maud,
coldly.

'And in such a tone, too!' protested his sister Dora.

'Who is it?' inquired Mrs Milvain, looking at her son with pained
forehead.

'I don't know. It happened to catch my eye in the paper yesterday that
someone was to be hanged at Newgate this morning. There's a certain
satisfaction in reflecting that it is not oneself.'

'That's your selfish way of looking at things,' said Maud.

'Well,' returned Jasper, 'seeing that the fact came into my head, what
better use could I make of it? I could curse the brutality of an age
that sanctioned such things; or I could grow doleful over the misery of
the poor--fellow. But those emotions would be as little profitable to
others as to myself. It just happened that I saw the thing in a light of
consolation. Things are bad with me, but not so bad as THAT. I might be
going out between Jack Ketch and the Chaplain to be hanged; instead of
that, I am eating a really fresh egg, and very excellent buttered toast,
with coffee as good as can be reasonably expected in this part of the
world.--(Do try boiling the milk, mother.)--The tone in which I spoke
was spontaneous; being so, it needs no justification.'

He was a young man of five-and-twenty, well built, though a trifle
meagre, and of pale complexion. He had hair that was very nearly black,
and a clean-shaven face, best described, perhaps, as of bureaucratic
type. The clothes he wore were of expensive material, but had seen a
good deal of service. His stand-up collar curled over at the corners,
and his necktie was lilac-sprigged.

Of the two sisters, Dora, aged twenty, was the more like him in visage,
but she spoke with a gentleness which seemed to indicate a different
character. Maud, who was twenty-two, had bold, handsome features, and
very beautiful hair of russet tinge; hers was not a face that readily
smiled. Their mother had the look and manners of an invalid, though she
sat at table in the ordinary way. All were dressed as ladies, though
very simply. The room, which looked upon a small patch of garden, was
furnished with old-fashioned comfort, only one or two objects suggesting
the decorative spirit of 1882.

'A man who comes to be hanged,' pursued Jasper, impartially, 'has
the satisfaction of knowing that he has brought society to its last
resource. He is a man of such fatal importance that nothing will serve
against him but the supreme effort of law. In