keen look of inquiry on her daughter.

"'Nor do I mean that you should,' coldly retorted Rachel. 'My secret is
worth keeping. You will know it one day too soon.'

"We had now reached home, and the presence of the strange woman put an
end to this mysterious conversation. Though only a boy of eight years
old, it struck me as so remarkable, that I could never forget it; and
now, when years have gone over me, I can distinctly recall every word
and look which passed between those sinful women. Alas, that one should
be so near to me.

"But you are sleepy, Geoffrey. The rest of my mournful history will
help to wile away the tedium of the long to-morrow."

CHAPTER XVI.

GEORGE HARRISON CONTINUES HIS HISTORY.

"The sorrows of my childhood were great," continued George, "but still
they were counterbalanced by many joys. In spite of the disadvantages
under which I laboured, my gay, elastic spirit surmounted them all.

"Naturally fearless and fond of adventure, I never shrunk from
difficulties, but felt a chivalrous pride in endeavouring to overcome
them. If I could not readily do this at the moment, I lived on in the
hope that the day would arrive when by perseverance and energy, I
should ultimately conquer.

"I have lived to prove that of which I early felt a proud conviction;
that it is no easy matter for a wicked person, let him be ever so
clever and cunning, to subdue a strong mind, which dares to be true to
itself.

"Dinah North felt my superiority even as a child, and the mortifying
consciousness increased her hatred. She feared the lofty spirit of the
boy whom her tyrannical temper could not tame; who laughed at her
threats, and defied her malice, and who, when freed from her control,
enjoyed the sweets of liberty in a tenfold degree.

"Sir Alexander put me to a school in the neighbourhood, where I learned
the first rudiments of my mother tongue, writing, reading, and simple
arithmetic. The school closed at half-past four o'clock in the
afternoon; when I returned to the Lodge, for so the cottage was called
in which we resided, and which stood just within the park at the head
of the noble avenue of old oaks and elms that led to the Hall. Two of
the loveliest, sweetest children nature ever formed were always at the
Park gates watching for my coming, when they ran to meet me with
exclamations of delight, and we wandered forth hand in hand to look for
wild fruit and flowers among the bosky dells and romanti