has been taken
very ill. I found him in a fit upon the floor--'

'I'll run for a doctor'--said Kit, seizing his brimless hat. 'I'll be
there directly, I'll--'

'No, no,' cried Nell, 'there is one there, you're not wanted,
you--you--must never come near us any more!'

'What!' roared Kit.

'Never again,' said the child. 'Don't ask me why, for I don't know.
Pray don't ask me why, pray don't be sorry, pray don't be vexed with
me! I have nothing to do with it indeed!'

Kit looked at her with his eyes stretched wide; and opened and shut his
mouth a great many times; but couldn't get out one word.

'He complains and raves of you,' said the child, 'I don't know what you
have done, but I hope it's nothing very bad.'

'I done!' roared Kit.

'He cries that you're the cause of all his misery,' returned the child
with tearful eyes; 'he screamed and called for you; they say you must
not come near him or he will die. You must not return to us any more.
I came to tell you. I thought it would be better that I should come
than somebody quite strange. Oh, Kit, what have you done? You, in
whom I trusted so much, and who were almost the only friend I had!'

The unfortunate Kit looked at his young mistress harder and harder, and
with eyes growing wider and wider, but was perfectly motionless and
silent.

'I have brought his money for the week,' said the child, looking to the
woman and laying it on the table--'and--and--a little more, for he was
always good and kind to me. I hope he will be sorry and do well
somewhere else and not take this to heart too much. It grieves me very
much to part with him like this, but there is no help. It must be
done. Good night!'

With the tears streaming down her face, and her slight figure trembling
with the agitation of the scene she had left, the shock she had
received, the errand she had just discharged, and a thousand painful
and affectionate feelings, the child hastened to the door, and
disappeared as rapidly as she had come.

The poor woman, who had no cause to doubt her son, but every reason for
relying on his honesty and truth, was staggered, notwithstanding, by
his not having advanced one word in his defence. Visions of gallantry,
knavery, robbery; and of the nightly absences from home for which he
had accounted so strangely, having been occasioned by some unlawful
pursuit; flocked into her brain and rendered her afraid to question
him. She rocked herself upon a chair, w