dded, and grinned,
and then, deliberately crossing the street, gained the door, and knocked
loudly. Still Alice did not stir--her senses seemed to have forsaken
her. Presently the stranger's loud, rough voice was heard below, in
answer to the accents of the solitary woman-servant whom Alice kept in
her employ; and his strong, heavy tread made the slight staircase creak
and tremble. Then Alice rose as by an instinct, caught her child in her
arms, and stood erect and motionless facing the door. It opened--and the
FATHER and DAUGHTER were once more face to face within the same walls.

"Well, Alley, how are you, my blowen?--glad to see your old dad again,
I'll be sworn. No ceremony, sit down. Ha, ha! snug here--very snug--we
shall live together charmingly. Trade on your own account--eh?
sly!--well, can't desert your poor old father. Let's have something to
eat and drink."

So saying, Darvil threw himself at length upon the neat, prim little
chintz sofa, with the air of a man resolved to make himself perfectly at
home.

Alice gazed, and trembled violently, but still said nothing--the power
of voice had indeed left her.

"Come, why don't you stir your stumps? I suppose I must wait on
myself--fine manners!--But, ho, ho--a bell, by gosh--mighty grand--never
mind--I am used to call for my own wants."

A hearty tug at the frail bell-rope sent a shrill alarum half-way
through the long lath-and-plaster row of Paradise Place, and left the
instrument of the sound in the hand of its creator.

Up came the maid-servant, a formal old woman, most respectable.

"Hark ye, old girl!" said Darvil; "bring up the best you have to
eat--not particular--let there be plenty. And I say--a bottle of brandy.
Come, don't stand there staring like a stuck pig. Budge! Hell and
furies! don't you hear me?"

The servant retreated, as if a pistol had been put to her head, and
Darvil, laughing loud, threw himself again upon the sofa. Alice looked
at him, and, still without saying a word, glided from the room--her
child in her arms. She hurried down-stairs, and in the hall met her
servant. The latter, who was much attached to her mistress, was alarmed
to see her about to leave the house.

"Why, marm, where be you going? Dear heart, you have no bonnet on! What
is the matter? Who is this?"

"Oh!" cried Alice, in agony; "what shall I do?--where shall I fly?" The
door above opened. Alice heard, started, and the next moment was in
the street. She ran on