tarnished
treasures, some of which were in small morocco cases. To one of the
latter Antoine's attention was directed, for it lay open as though it
had been hastily placed there, and covered with a piece of torn
point-lace. Removing this the young man saw a portrait, the picture of a
face so sweet, and eyes so penetrating, that he uttered an involuntary
cry. It was a deeper feeling than mere surprise or admiration that
prompted it, however. His hand trembled as he replaced the miniature,
after gazing at it with an expression of mingled wonder and terror. At
that instant the watchman passed crying the first hour after dark; and,
carefully replacing the cup, he turned the key in the cabinet door and
hurried from the room.

Now all of my story that remains to tell took place in the next three
hours, after Antoine left the house with a strange sense of wonder and
confusion in his mind; so I must explain a little the situation of the
young man--the enmity of Bashley.

It had happened, then, some months before, that Bashley being away for a
day's holiday, Antoine took his place at the scale; for it was a slack
time, and few workpeople were there to be served. He believed he had
given out the last skein of silk, and had weighed the last bobbin, so
shutting the slide, and putting up the bar, he unlocked an inner door,
and went into the house and up the stairs. Pausing on the first landing,
as he frequently did, to look thoughtfully over the balustrade and down
the well-staircase, he became aware that one person yet remained quietly
seated on the bench below. As he uttered some slight exclamation at his
own negligence, a face was turned upward towards his own--a face of such
sweet, pure, girlish beauty that he held his breath lest it should be
bent from his searching gaze--as indeed it was, but not before the plain
straw bonnet had fallen backward and left a wealth of sunny hair glowing
beneath the light that shone down upon it. A confused sense of some
picture of an angel upon Jacob's ladder that he had seen in an old
family Bible came into Antoine's thoughts as he stood and looked; but in
another moment the girl had replaced her bonnet, and with her face bent
down sat waiting as before.

In a minute he was beside her.

"Pardon me," he said, with an involuntary bow; "I thought everyone had
gone. What is it that I can do for you?"

There was no embarrassment except that of modesty as she curtseyed
before him. She might hav