hat a woman had got the better of him, and he resolved,
if he ever got out, that he would make Mrs. Hardwick suffer, he didn't
quite know how, for the manner in which she had treated him.

Time passed. Every hour seemed to poor Jack to contain at least double
the number of minutes which are usually reckoned to that division of
time. Moreover, not having eaten for several hours, he was getting
hungry.

A horrible suspicion flashed across his mind. "The wretches can't
mean to starve me, can they?" he asked himself, while, despite his
constitutional courage, he could not help shuddering at the idea.

He was unexpectedly answered by the sliding of a little door in the
wall, and the appearance of the old man whose interview with Peg has
been referred to.

"Are you getting hungry, my dear sir?" he inquired, with a disagreeable
smile upon his features.

"Why am I confined here?" demanded Jack, in a tone of irritation.

"Why are you confined?" repeated his interlocutor. "Really, one would
think you did not find your quarters comfortable."

"I am so far from finding them comfortable that I insist upon leaving
them immediately," returned Jack.

"Then all you have got to do is to walk through that door.

"It is locked; I can't open it."

"Can't open it!" repeated the old man, with another disagreeable leer;
"perhaps, then, it will be well for you to wait till you are strong
enough."

Irritated by this reply, Jack threw himself spitefully against the door,
but to no purpose.

The old man laughed in a cracked, wheezing way.

"Good fellow!" said he, encouragingly, "try it again! Won't you try it
again? Better luck next time."

Jack throw himself sullenly into a chair.

"Where is the woman that brought me here?" he asked.

"Peg? Oh, she couldn't stay. She had important business to transact, my
young friend, and so she has gone; but don't feel anxious. She commended
you to our particular attention, and you will be just as well treated as
if she were here."

This assurance was not very well calculated to comfort Jack.

"How long are you going to keep me cooped up here?" he asked,
desperately, wishing to learn the worst at once.

"Really, my young friend, I couldn't say. We are very hospitable, very.
We always like to have our friends with us as long as possible."

Jack groaned internally at the prospect before him.

"One question more," he said, "will you tell me if my sister Ida is in
this house?"

"Your si