asper Losely! Mistress would not
forgive me!"

Losely, not unreluctantly, restored the crown to his pocket; and, with
a snort rather than sigh of relief, stepped into open daylight. As he
crossed the street to join Rugge, who was waiting for him on the shady
side, he mechanically turned to look back at the house, and, at the open
window of an upper story, he beheld again those shining eyes which had
glared down on him from the stairs. He tried to smile, and waved his
hand feebly. The eyes seemed to return the smile; and as he walked down
the street, arm-in-arm with the ruffian manager, slowly recovering his
springy step, and in the gloss of the new garments that set forth
his still symmetrical proportions, the eyes followed him watchfully,
steadfastly, till his form had vanished, and the dull street was once
more a solitude.

Then Arabella Crane turned from the window. Putting her hand to her
heart, "How it beats!" she muttered; "if in love or in hate, in scorn
or in pity, beats once more with a human emotion. He will come again;
whether for money or for woman's wit, what care I?--he will come. I will
hold, I will cling to him, no more to part; for better for worse, as it
should have been once at the altar. And the child?" she paused; was it
in compunction? "The child!" she continued fiercely, and as if lashing
herself into rage, "the child of that treacherous, hateful mother,--yes!
I will help him to sell her back as a stage-show,--help him in all that
does not lift her to a state from which she may look down with disdain
on me. Revenge on her, on that cruel house: revenge is sweet. Oh! that
it were revenge alone that bids me cling to him who deserves revenge
the most." She closed her burning eyes, and sat down droopingly, rocking
herself to and fro like one in pain.

CHAPTER XVII.

In life it is difficult to say who do you the most mischief--enemies
with the worst intentions, or friends with the best.

The conference between Mr. Rugge and Mr. Losely terminated in an
appointment to meet, the next day, at the village in which this story
opened. Meanwhile Mr. Rugge would return to his "orphans," and arrange
performances in which for some days they might dispense with a father's
part. Losely, on his side, undertook to devote the intervening hours to
consultation with a solicitor to whom Mr. Rugge recommended him as
to the prompt obtaining of legal powers to enforce the authority he
asserted himself to po