nearly one o'clock,
and still she made no movement to retire; but seemed waiting for
some one, and yet not in anxious expectation. At last the door below
was opened, and footsteps came shuffling along the hall, and noisily
up the stairs. In a moment or two, her room-door was swung widely
open, and her husband staggered in, so drunk that he could scarcely
keep his feet.

"And pray what are you doing up at this time of night, ha?" said he,
in drunken anger.

"You did not like it, you know, because I was in bed last night, and
so I have sat up for you this time," his wife replied, soothingly.

"Well, you've no business to be up this late, let me tell you,
madam. And I'm not agoing to have it. So bundle off to bed with you,
in less than no time!"

"O Henry! how can you talk so to me?" poor Mary said, bursting into
tears.

"You needn't go to blubbering in that way, I can tell you, madam; so
just shut up! I won't have it! And see here: I must have three
hundred dollars out of that stingy old father of yours to-morrow,
and you must get it for me. If you don't, why, just look out for
squalls."

As he said this, he threw himself heavily upon the bed, and came
with his whole weight upon the body of his child. Mrs. Fenwick
screamed out, sprang to the bedside, and endeavoured to drag him off
the little girl. Not understanding what she meant, he rose up
quickly, and threw her from him with such force, as to dash her
against the wall opposite, when she fell senseless upon the floor.
Just at this moment, her father, who had overheard his first angry
words, burst into the room, and with the energy of suddenly aroused
indignation, seized Fenwick by the collar, dragged him down-stairs,
and thence threw him into the street from his hall-door, which he
closed and locked after him--vowing, as he did so, that the wretch
should never again cross his threshold.

All night long did poor Mrs. Fenwick lie, her senses locked in
insensibility; and all through the next day she remained in the same
state, in spite of every effort to restore her. Her husband several
times attempted to gain admittance, but was resolutely refused.

"He never crosses my door-stone again!" the old man said; and to
that resolution he determined to adhere.

Another night and another day passed, and still another night, and
yet the heart-stricken young wife showed no signs of returning
consciousness. It was toward evening on the fourth day, that the
family, wit