entreat!"

"Why not?" she asked haughtily.

"Because," answered the captain, "that is the way which leads to Mr.
Huxtable's."

In the ungovernable astonishment of hearing his reply she suddenly
bent forward, and for the first time looked him close in the face.
He sustained her suspicious scrutiny with every appearance of feeling
highly gratified by it. "H, U, X--Hux," said the captain, playfully
turning to the old joke: "T, A--ta, Huxta; B, L, E--ble; Huxtable."

"What do you know about Mr. Huxtable?" she asked. "What do you mean by
mentioning him to me?"

The captain's curly lip took a new twist upward. He immediately replied,
to the best practical purpose, by producing the handbill from his
pocket.

"There is just light enough left," he said, "for young (and lovely)
eyes to read by. Before I enter upon the personal statement which your
flattering inquiry claims from me, pray bestow a moment's attention on
this Document."

She took the handbill from him. By the last gleam of twilight she
read the lines which set a price on her recovery--which published the
description of her in pitiless print, like the description of a strayed
dog. No tender consideration had prepared her for the shock, no kind
word softened it to her when it came. The vagabond, whose cunning eyes
watched her eagerly while she read, knew no more that the handbill which
he had stolen had only been prepared in anticipation of the worst, and
was only to be publicly used in the event of all more considerate means
of tracing her being tried in vain--than she knew it. The bill dropped
from her hand; her face flushed deeply. She turned away from Captain
Wragge, as if all idea of his existence had passed out of her mind.

"Oh, Norah, Norah!" she said to herself, sorrowfully. "After the letter
I wrote you--after the hard struggle I had to go away! Oh, Norah,
Norah!"

"How is Norah?" inquired the captain, with the utmost politeness.

She turned upon him with an angry brightness in her large gray eyes. "Is
this thing shown publicly?" she asked, stamping her foot on it. "Is the
mark on my neck described all over York?"

"Pray compose yourself," pleaded the persuasive Wragge. "At present I
have every reason to believe that you have just perused the only copy in
circulation. Allow me to pick it up."

Before he could touch the bill she snatched it from the pavement, tore
it into fragments, and threw them over the wall.

"Bravo!" cried the captain. "Y