rtisement of a stranger. I may
find a home for a motherless child--a home that will cost you nothing."

She drew him into the street. "But can this be the child of--of--Matilda
Darrell?"--

"Bella!" replied, in coaxing accents, that most execrable of
lady-killers, "can I trust you?--can you be my friend in spite of my
having been such a very sad dog? But money--what can one do without
money in this world? 'Had I a heart for falsehood framed, it would ne'er
have injured you'--if I had not been so cursedly hard up! And indeed,
now, if you would but condescend to forgive and forget, perhaps some day
or other we may be Darby and Joan--only, you see, just at this moment
I am really not worthy of such a Joan. You know, of course, that I am a
widower--not inconsolable."

"Yes; I read of Mrs. Hammond's death in an old newspaper."

"And you did not read of her baby's death, too--some weeks afterwards?"'

"No; it is seldom that I see a newspaper. Is the infant dead?"

"Hum--you shall hear." And Jasper entered into a recital, to which
Arabella listened with attentive interest. At the close she offered to
take, herself, the child for whom Jasper sought a home. She informed
him of her change of name and address. The wretch promised to call that
evening with the infant; but he sent the infant, and did not call.
Nor did he present himself again to her eyes, until, several years
afterwards, those eyes so luridly welcomed him to Podden Place. But
though he did not even condescend to write to her in the mean while, it
is probable that Arabella contrived to learn more of his habits and
mode of life at Paris than she intimated when they once more met face to
face.

And now the reader knows more than Alban Morley, or Guy Darrell, perhaps
ever will know, of the grim woman in iron-grey,

CHAPTER X.

"Sweet are the uses of Adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Bears yet a precious jewel in its head."

MOST PERSONS WILL AGREE THAT THE TOAD IS UGLY AND VENOMOUS, BUT FEW
INDEED ARE THE PERSONS WHO CAN BOAST OF HAVING ACTUALLY DISCOVERED
THAT "PRECIOUS JEWEL IN ITS HEAD," WHICH THE POET ASSURES US IS
PLACED THERE. BUT CALAMITY MAY BE CLASSED IN TWO GREAT DIVISIONS--
1ST, THE AFFLICTIONS, WHICH NO PRUDENCE CAN AVERT; 2ND, THE
MISFORTUNES, WHICH MEN TAKE ALL POSSIBLE PAINS TO BRING UPON
THEMSELVES. AFFLICTIONS OF THE FIRST CLASS MAY BUT CALL FORTH OUR
VIRTUES, AND RESULT