pon those who outrage social conventions; scarcely a
_soupcon_ of its bitterness had troubled her palate!

But Forrester and I had seen and experienced too much of human life not
to distrust the policy of flying in the face of society. We knew that
the recoil would strike us down. A middle course was, therefore, hit
upon, and finally adopted. It was agreed that Forrester should go back
to London, for the purpose of seeing the dwarf again, armed with
authority from us to open a negotiation for a divorce--thus, at least,
showing that we were ready to meet all the legal consequences of our
act, and throwing upon him the consequences of a refusal.

Long after midnight we sat discussing these questions, and were forcibly
impressed throughout by the quiet earnestness with which Forrester
entered into our feelings. He was the only friend we had--the only one
that had come to us in the season of darkness and trouble, and we clung
to him wildly in our loneliness.

The next day he went back to London, promising to return within two
days. It seemed to us that those two days lasted a month. At length they
passed away, but Forrester had not returned. A third and a fourth day
passed, and our impatience became intolerable. Morning and night we
watched in agonizing suspense; but the sun rose and set, and still
Forrester had not returned.

(TO BE CONTINUED.)

SOMNAMBULISM.

That a person deeply immersed in thought, should, like Dominie Sampson,
walk along in a state of "prodigious" unconsciousness, excites no
surprise, from the frequency of the occurrence; but that any one should,
when fast asleep, go through a series of complicated actions which seem
to demand the assistance of the senses while closed against ordinary
external impressions is, indeed, marvelous. Less to account for this
mysterious state of being, than to arrange such a series of facts as may
help further inquiry into the subject, we have assembled several curious
circumstances regarding somnambulism.

Not many years ago a case occurred at the Police-office at Southwark, of
a woman who was charged with robbing a man while he was walking in his
sleep during the daytime along High-street, in the Borough, when it was
proved in evidence that he was in the habit of walking in his
somnambulic fits through crowded thoroughfares. He was a plasterer by
trade, and it was stated in court that it was not an uncommon thing for
him to fall asleep while at work on the