sure he would think differently upon the
matter; but for me to stay here for the ensuing year, as I now am forced
to do, whether or no; and for me to feel that every time those cold eyes
are turned upon me, they believe themselves to be looking on a thief!
Oh, my God! Guly, it is too much!"

Arthur was intensely excited, and the veins in his forehead stood out
like cords, so swollen were they, and his face was deeply flushed.

Guly's heart ached for him, and he was trying to think of something
which he could say to comfort him, when he was called away by a
customer, and, with a kindly pressure upon his brother's hand, he left
his side.

Arthur also stepped back to his place; but every attitude he assumed,
every changing expression of his handsome face, told the restless misery
of that young heart, and the crushing weight upon that lofty spirit.

Guly waited anxiously for night to come, that he might talk to, and try
to encourage, Arthur. When the lamps were lighted, and the customers had
gradually thinned out, he was about to cross over and speak to him. To
his surprise he saw that his place was vacant, and he was nowhere to be
seen. A sharp pang went through the boy's heart, succeeded by a
sickening faintness; and he leaned against the counter for support,
filled with undefined fears of sorrow, and danger, and unhappiness.

With a blush at his apparently causeless emotion, he stepped to the
clerk who always stood next to Arthur, and inquired if he knew where he
had gone.

"No," the young man said; "he went out about half an hour ago, and Mr.
Quirk was with him."

"Quirk!" ejaculated Guly, involuntarily, while the pang went through his
breast again; and seizing his cap, he started forth, in the hope of
discovering Arthur's where-abouts.

CHAPTER XVI.

"Press me not, I beseech you, so;
There is no tongue that moves, none, none i' the world,
So soon as yours could win me; so it should now,
Were there necessity in your request, although
'Twere needful I denied it."

Winter's Tale.

Through the damp streets, where shone mistily through the heavy fog the
lamps on the corners, Guly, with anxious heart and hurried step,
wandered alone. He sought every place of which he believed his brother
to have any knowledge, and left no spot unvisited where they had ever
been together. All in vain. None of whom he inquired had seen Arthur,
and of many he could not bring himself to inquire,