nd. No; the guilt
would be too unnatural--Heaven would not permit it. Try, and your arm
will fall palsied by your side!"

Jasper's bloodshot eyes dropped beneath the woman's fixed and scorching
gaze, and his lips, white and tremulous, refused to breathe the fierce
curse into which his brutal nature concentrated its fears and its
hate. He walked on in gloomy silence; but some words she had let fall
suggested a last resort to his own daring.

She had urged him to quit the old world for the new, but that had been
the very proposition conveyed to him from Darrell. If that proposition,
so repugnant to the indolence that had grown over him, must be embraced,
better at least sail forth alone, his own master, than be the dependent
slave of this abhorred and persecuting benefactress. His despair gave
him the determination he had hitherto lacked. He would seek Darrell
himself, and make the best compromise he could. This resolve passed
into his mind as he stalked on through the yellow fog, and his nerves
recovered from their irritation, and his thoughts regained something of
their ancient craft as the idea of escaping from Mrs. Crane's vigilance
and charity assumed a definite shape.

"Well," said he at length, dissimulating his repugnance, and with an
effort at his old half-coaxing, half-rollicking tones, "you certainly
are the best of creatures; and, as you say,

'Had I a heart for falsehood framed, I ne'er could injure you,'

ungrateful dog though I may seem, and very likely am. I own I have a
horror of Australasia--such a long sea-voyage! New scenes no longer
attract me; I am no longer young, though I ought to be; but if you
insist on it, and will really condescend to accompany me in spite of all
my sins to you, why, I can make up my mind. And as to honesty, ask those
infernal rascals, who, you say, would swear away my life, and they
will tell you that I have been as innocent as a lamb since my return to
England; and that is my guilt in their villanous eyes. As long as that
infamous Poole gave me enough for my humble wants, I was a reformed man.
I wish to keep reformed. Very little suffices for me now. As you say,
Australasia may be the best place for me. When shall we go?"

"Are you serious?"

"To be sure."

"Then I will inquire the days on which the vessels sail. You can call on
me at my own old home, and all shall be arranged. Oh, Jasper Losely, do
not avoid this last chance of escape from the perils that gather