no further use to which Mrs. Crane's wish
could be applied at present, finished the remainder of her brandy, and
wished her good-night, with a promise to call again, but without any
intimation of his own address. As soon as he was gone, Mrs. Crane once
more summoned Bridget.

"You told me last week that your brother-in-law, Simpson, wished to go
to America, that he had the offer of employment there, but that he could
not afford the fare of the voyage. I promised I would help him if it was
a service to you."

"You are a hangel, miss!" exclaimed Bridget, dropping a low
courtesy,--so low that it seemed as if she was going on her knees. "And
may you have your deserts in the next blessed world, where there are no
black-hearted villings."

"Enough, enough," said Mrs. Crane, recoiling perhaps from that grateful
benediction. "You have been faithful to me, as none else have ever been;
but this time I do not serve you in return so much as I meant to do. The
service is reciprocal, if your brother-in-law will do me a favour. He
takes with him his daughter, a mere child. Bridget, let them enter
their names on the steam-vessel as William and Sophy Waife; they can, of
course, resume their own name when the voyage is over. There is the fare
for them, and something more. Pooh, no thanks. I can spare the money.
See your brother-in-law the first thing in the morning; and remember
that they go by the next vessel, which sails from Liverpool on
Thursday."

CHAPTER XVI.

Those poor pocket-cannibals, how society does persecute them! Even
a menial servant would give warning if disturbed at his meals. But
your man-eater is the meekest of creatures; he will never give
warning, and--not often take it.

Whatever the source that had supplied Jasper Losely with the money from
which he had so generously extracted the sovereigns intended to console
Waife for the loss of Sophy, that source either dried up or became
wholly inadequate to his wants; for elasticity was the felicitous
peculiarity of Mr. Losely's wants. They accommodated themselves to the
state of his finances with mathematical precision, always requiring
exactly five times the amount of the means placed at his disposal. From
a shilling to a million, multiply his wants by five times the total
of his means, and you arrived at a just conclusion. Jasper called upon
Poole, who was slowly recovering, but unable to leave his room; and
finding that gentleman in a more melan