let me persuade you,' said the
child, 'to think no more of gains or losses, and to try no fortune but
the fortune we pursue together.'

'We pursue this aim together,' retorted her grandfather, still looking
away and seeming to confer with himself. 'Whose image sanctifies the
game?'

'Have we been worse off,' resumed the child, 'since you forgot these
cares, and we have been travelling on together? Have we not been much
better and happier without a home to shelter us, than ever we were in
that unhappy house, when they were on your mind?'

'She speaks the truth,' murmured the old man in the same tone as
before. 'It must not turn me, but it is the truth; no doubt it is.'

'Only remember what we have been since that bright morning when we
turned our backs upon it for the last time,' said Nell, 'only remember
what we have been since we have been free of all those miseries--what
peaceful days and quiet nights we have had--what pleasant times we have
known--what happiness we have enjoyed. If we have been tired or
hungry, we have been soon refreshed, and slept the sounder for it.
Think what beautiful things we have seen, and how contented we have
felt. And why was this blessed change?'

He stopped her with a motion of his hand, and bade her talk to him no
more just then, for he was busy. After a time he kissed her cheek,
still motioning her to silence, and walked on, looking far before him,
and sometimes stopping and gazing with a puckered brow upon the ground,
as if he were painfully trying to collect his disordered thoughts.
Once she saw tears in his eyes. When he had gone on thus for some
time, he took her hand in his as he was accustomed to do, with nothing
of the violence or animation of his late manner; and so, by degrees so
fine that the child could not trace them, he settled down into his
usual quiet way, and suffered her to lead him where she would.

When they presented themselves in the midst of the stupendous
collection, they found, as Nell had anticipated, that Mrs Jarley was
not yet out of bed, and that, although she had suffered some uneasiness
on their account overnight, and had indeed sat up for them until past
eleven o'clock, she had retired in the persuasion, that, being
overtaken by storm at some distance from home, they had sought the
nearest shelter, and would not return before morning. Nell immediately
applied herself with great assiduity to the decoration and preparation
of the room, and h