ight prove awkward; and as for 'Master Albert,' he lives but
on general sufferance. There has been a long run of luck against me;
nothing but ill-fortune since the day I might have married Hester, and
yet hung back, and that very same year she marries another, and inherits
an immense fortune in India. What a blow to each of us! Such has been
my lot through life; always backing the loser till the very moment when
luck changes, and his turn comes to win."

As these thoughts passed through his mind, weariness, the silence of the
hour, the darkened room, induced slumber; and although once or twice he
made a half-effort to arouse himself and go home, the listless feeling
gained the mastery, and he dropped off to sleep. The uneasy consciences
have oftentimes very easy slumbers. Norwood's was of the calmest; not a
dream, not one flitting fancy disturbed it.

It was already nigh day as he lay thus, when the dull roll of wheels
beneath the window in part awoke him; at least, it so far aroused him
that he remembered where he was, and fancied that it might be George
Onslow, on the return from his dinner-party. He lay for some minutes
expecting to hear his step upon the stair, and see him enter the room;
but as all seemed to resume its wonted quiet, he was dozing off again,
when he heard the sound of a hand upon the lock of the door.

It is one of the strange instincts of half-slumber to be often more
alive to the influence of subdued and stealthy sounds than to louder
noises. The slightest whisperings, the low murmurings of a human voice,
the creaking of a chair, the cautious drawing back of a curtain will jar
upon and arouse the faculties that have been insensible to the rushing
flow of a cataract or the dull booming of the sea.

Slight as were the sounds now heard, Norwood started as he listened to
them, and, at once arousing himself, he fixed his eyes upon the door, in
which the handle was seen to turn slowly and cautiously. The impression
that it was a robber immediately occurred to him, and he determined to
lie still and motionless, to watch what might happen. He was not
wanting in personal courage, and had full confidence in his strength and
activity.

The door at last opened; at first, a very little, and slowly, then
gradually more and more, till, by the mysterious half-light to which his
eyes had grown accustomed, Norwood could see the flounces of a female
dress, and the small, neat foot of a woman beneath it. The fain