to keep out the sun. The little slip of garden was left
solitary--baking and cracking in the heat. The square was silent;
desolately silent, as only a suburban square can be. I walked up and
down the glaring pavement, resolved to find out her name before
I quitted the place. While still undecided how to act, a shrill
whistling--sounding doubly shrill in the silence around--made me look
up.

A tradesman's boy--one of those town Pucks of the highway; one of those
incarnations of precocious cunning, inveterate mischief, and impudent
humour, which great cities only can produce--was approaching me with his
empty tray under his arm. I called to him to come and speak to me. He
evidently belonged to the neighbourhood, and might be made of some use.

His first answer to my inquiries, showed that his master served the
household at North Villa. A present of a shilling secured his attention
at once to the few questions of any importance which I desired to put
to him. I learned from his replies, that the name of the master of the
house was "Sherwin:" and that the family only consisted of Mr. and Mrs.
Sherwin, and the young lady, their daughter.

My last inquiry addressed to the boy was the most important of all. Did
he know what Mr. Sherwin's profession or employment was?

His answer startled me into perfect silence. Mr. Sherwin kept a large
linen-draper's shop in one of the great London thoroughfares! The
boy mentioned the number, and the side of the way on which the house
stood--then asked me if I wanted to know anything more. I could only
tell him by a sign that he might leave me, and that I had heard enough.

Enough? If he had spoken the truth, I had heard too much.

A linen-draper's shop--a linen-draper's daughter! Was I still in
love?--I thought of my father; I thought of the name I bore; and this
time, though I might have answered the question, I dared not.

But the boy might be wrong. Perhaps, in mere mischief, he had been
deceiving me throughout. I determined to seek the address he had
mentioned, and ascertain the truth for myself.

I reached the place: there was the shop, and there the name "Sherwin"
over the door. One chance still remained. This Sherwin and the Sherwin
of Hollyoake Square might not be the same.

I went in and purchased something. While the man was tying up the
parcel, I asked him whether his master lived in Hollyoake Square.
Looking a little astonished at the question, he answered in the
affirm