made so much noise?"

"Yes, papa."

"By-the-bye, there is an article to-day on you: have you seen it? No?
But you should see it; it is very smart. My dear" (to Jael), "will you
go to my study, and bring the Liberal here?"

"Yes, but meantime, I want you to advise him not to subject himself
to more gunpowder and things, but to leave the town; that is all the
wretches demand."

"And that," said Henry, with a sly, deferential tone, "is a good deal to
demand in a free country, is it not, sir?"

"Indeed it is. Ah, here comes the Liberal. Somebody read the article to
us, while he works. I want to see how he does it."

Curiosity overpowered Grace's impatience, for a moment, and she read the
notice out with undisguised interest.

"'THE LAST OUTRAGE.

"'In our first remarks upon this matter, we merely laid down an
alternative which admits of no dispute; and, abstaining from idle
conjectures, undertook to collect evidence. We have now had an interview
with the victim of that abominable outrage. Mr.---- is one of those
superior workmen who embellish that class for a few years, but
invariably rise above it, and leave it' (there--Mr. Little!)--'He has
informed us that he is a stranger in Hillsborough, lives retired, never
sits down in a public-house, and has not a single enemy in Hillsborough,
great or small. He says that his life was saved by his fellow-workmen,
and that as he lay scorched--'(Oh, dear!')

"Well, go on, Grace."

"It is all very well to say go on, papa--'scorched and bleeding on the
ground and unable to distinguish faces' (poor, poor Mr. Little!) 'he
heard, on all sides of him, expressions of rugged sympathy and sobs, and
tears, from rough, but--manly fellows, who--'(oh! oh! oh!")

Grace could not go on for whimpering, and Jael cried, for company. Henry
left off carving, and turned away his head, touched to the heart by this
sweet and sudden sympathy.

"How badly you read," said Mr. Carden, and took the journal from her.
He read in a loud business-like monotone, that, like some blessed balm,
dried every tear. "'Manly fellows who never shed a tear before: this
disposed of one alternative, and narrowed the inquiry. It was not a
personal feud; therefore it was a Trade outrage, or it was nothing. We
now took evidence bearing on the inquiry thus narrowed; and we found the
assault had been preceded by a great many letters, all of them breathing
the spirit of Unionism, and none of them intimating a private