ds with her. Petticoat interest there at least
will be innocent and safe. And I know nothing so likely to keep a big,
passionate heart like Tom's, now aching with a horrible void,
occupied and softened, and turned to directions pure and gentle, as an
affectionate interest in a little child."

The minstrel changed colour: he even started. "Sir, are you a wizard
that you say that to me?"

"I am not a wizard, but I guess from your question that you have a
little child of your own. So much the better: the child may keep you out
of much mischief. Remember the little child. Good evening."

Kenelm crossed the threshold of The Golden Lamb, engaged his room, made
his ablutions, ordered, and, with his usual zest, partook of his evening
meal; and then, feeling the pressure of that melancholic temperament
which he so strangely associated with Herculean constitutions, roused
himself up, and, seeking a distraction from thought, sauntered forth
into the gaslit streets.

It was a large handsome town,--handsomer than Tor-Hadham, on account of
its site in a valley surrounded by wooded hills, and watered by the fair
stream whose windings we have seen as a brook,--handsomer, also, because
it boasted a fair cathedral, well cleared to the sight, and surrounded
by venerable old houses, the residences of the clergy or of the quiet
lay gentry with mediaeval tastes. The main street was thronged with
passengers,--some soberly returning home from the evening service; some,
the younger, lingering in pleasant promenade with their sweethearts or
families, or arm in arm with each other, and having the air of
bachelors or maidens unattached. Through this street Kenelm passed with
inattentive eye. A turn to the right took him towards the cathedral and
its surroundings. There all was solitary. The solitude pleased him,
and he lingered long, gazing on the noble church lifting its spires and
turrets into the deep blue starry air.

Musingly, then, he strayed on, entering a labyrinth of gloomy lanes, in
which, though the shops were closed, many a door stood open, with men
of the working class lolling against the threshold, idly smoking their
pipes, or women seated on the doorsteps gossiping, while noisy children
were playing or quarrelling in the kennel. The whole did not present the
indolent side of an English Sabbath in the pleasantest and rosiest point
of view. Somewhat quickening his steps, he entered a broader street,
attracted to it involuntarily