ed a large slice of bread and meat and a mug of beer
into a corner, and applied himself to disposing of them with great
voracity.

'Ah!' said the old man turning to me with a sigh, as if I had spoken to
him but that moment, 'you don't know what you say when you tell me that
I don't consider her.'

'You must not attach too great weight to a remark founded on first
appearances, my friend,' said I.

'No,' returned the old man thoughtfully, 'no. Come hither, Nell.'

The little girl hastened from her seat, and put her arm about his neck.

'Do I love thee, Nell?' said he. 'Say--do I love thee, Nell, or no?'

The child only answered by her caresses, and laid her head upon his
breast.

'Why dost thou sob?' said the grandfather, pressing her closer to him
and glancing towards me. 'Is it because thou know'st I love thee, and
dost not like that I should seem to doubt it by my question? Well,
well--then let us say I love thee dearly.'

'Indeed, indeed you do,' replied the child with great earnestness, 'Kit
knows you do.'

Kit, who in despatching his bread and meat had been swallowing
two-thirds of his knife at every mouthful with the coolness of a
juggler, stopped short in his operations on being thus appealed to, and
bawled 'Nobody isn't such a fool as to say he doosn't,' after which he
incapacitated himself for further conversation by taking a most
prodigious sandwich at one bite.

'She is poor now'--said the old men, patting the child's cheek, 'but I
say again that the time is coming when she shall be rich. It has been a
long time coming, but it must come at last; a very long time, but it
surely must come. It has come to other men who do nothing but waste and
riot. When WILL it come to me!'

'I am very happy as I am, grandfather,' said the child.

'Tush, tush!' returned the old man, 'thou dost not know--how should'st
thou!' then he muttered again between his teeth, 'The time must come, I
am very sure it must. It will be all the better for coming late'; and
then he sighed and fell into his former musing state, and still holding
the child between his knees appeared to be insensible to everything
around him. By this time it wanted but a few minutes of midnight and I
rose to go, which recalled him to himself.

'One moment, sir,' he said, 'Now, Kit--near midnight, boy, and you
still here! Get home, get home, and be true to your time in the
morning, for there's work to do. Good night! There, bid him good night,
Nell,