last it
appeared Mrs. Transom was inordinately fond. Her chatter was
interrupted at length with some abruptness.

"I suppose," said 'Lizabeth meditatively, "you was pretty, once."

Mrs. Transom, with her hand on the bottle, stared, and then tittered.

"Lud! my dear, you ain't over-complimentary. Yes, pretty I was, though
I say it."

"We ain't neither of us pretty now--you especially."

"I'd a knack o' dressin'," pursued the egregious Mrs. Transom, "an' nice
eyes an' hair. 'Why, Maria, darlin',' said William one day, when him
an' me was keepin' company, 'I believe you could sit on that hair o'
yours, I do reely.' 'Go along, you silly!' I said, 'to be sure I can.'"

"He called you darling?"

"Why, in course. H'ain't you never had a young man?"

'Lizabeth brushed aside the question by another.

"Do you love him? I mean so that--that you could lie down and let him
tramp the life out o' you?"

"Good Lord, girl, what questions you do ask! Why, so-so, o' course,
like other married women. He's wild at times, but I shut my eyes; an'
he hav'n struck me this year past. I wonder what he can be doin' all
this time."

"Come and see."

'Lizabeth rose. Her contempt of this foolish, faded creature recoiled
upon herself, until she could bear to sit still no longer.
With William's wife at her heels, she mounted the stair, their shoeless
feet making no sound. The door of the old man's bed-room stood ajar,
and a faint ray of light stole out upon the landing. 'Lizabeth looked
into the room, and then, with a quick impulse, darted in front of her
companion.

It was too late. Mrs. Transom was already at her shoulder, and the eyes
of the two women rested on the sorry spectacle before them.

Candle in hand, the prodigal was kneeling by the dead man's bed. He was
not praying, however; but had his head well buried in the oaken chest,
among the papers of which he was cautiously prying.

The faint squeal that broke from his wife's lips sufficed to startle
him. He dropped the lid with a crash, turned sharply round, and
scrambled to his feet. His look embraced the two women in one brief
flicker, and then rested on the blazing eyes of 'Lizabeth.

"You mean hound!" said she, very slowly.

He winced uneasily, and began to bluster:

"Curse you! What do you mean by sneaking upon a man like this?"

"A man!" echoed 'Lizabeth. "Man, then, if you will--couldn't you wait
till your father was cold, but must needs be gro