t--and in the constancy and devotion of her life,
and in the sacrifice she had made of ease, enjoyment, and hope, he saw
the bitter fruits of his old crime, for ever ripe and fresh.

She stood at the door looking after him, with her hands loosely clasped
in each other, as he made his way over the frowzy and uneven patch of
ground which lay before their house, which had once (and not long ago)
been a pleasant meadow, and was now a very waste, with a disorderly crop
of beginnings of mean houses, rising out of the rubbish, as if they had
been unskilfully sown there. Whenever he looked back--as once or twice
he did--her cordial face shone like a light upon his heart; but when he
plodded on his way, and saw her not, the tears were in her eyes as she
stood watching him.

Her pensive form was not long idle at the door. There was daily duty to
discharge, and daily work to do--for such commonplace spirits that are
not heroic, often work hard with their hands--and Harriet was soon busy
with her household tasks. These discharged, and the poor house made
quite neat and orderly, she counted her little stock of money, with
an anxious face, and went out thoughtfully to buy some necessaries for
their table, planning and conniving, as she went, how to save. So sordid
are the lives of such lo natures, who are not only not heroic to their
valets and waiting-women, but have neither valets nor waiting-women to
be heroic to withal!

While she was absent, and there was no one in the house, there
approached it by a different way from that the brother had taken,
a gentleman, a very little past his prime of life perhaps, but of a
healthy florid hue, an upright presence, and a bright clear aspect, that
was gracious and good-humoured. His eyebrows were still black, and
so was much of his hair; the sprinkling of grey observable among the
latter, graced the former very much, and showed his broad frank brow and
honest eyes to great advantage.

After knocking once at the door, and obtaining no response, this
gentleman sat down on a bench in the little porch to wait. A certain
skilful action of his fingers as he hummed some bars, and beat time
on the seat beside him, seemed to denote the musician; and the
extraordinary satisfaction he derived from humming something very slow
and long, which had no recognisable tune, seemed to denote that he was a
scientific one.

The gentleman was still twirling a theme, which seemed to go round and
round and rou