small facts accounted for the hour's respite we had enjoyed at the
inn, and terminated the runner's narrative of his own proceedings.

On arriving at our destination I was, of course, immediately taken to
the jail.

Alicia, by my advice, engaged a modest lodging in a suburb of
Barkingham. In the days of the red-brick house, she had seldom been seen
in the town, and she was not at all known by sight in the suburb. We
arranged that she was to visit me as often as the authorities would let
her. She had no companion, and wanted none. Mrs. Baggs, who had never
forgiven the rebuke administered to her at the starting-point of our
journey, left us at the close of it. Her leave-taking was dignified and
pathetic. She kindly informed Alicia that she wished her well, though
she could not conscientiously look upon her as a lawful married woman;
and she begged me (in case I got off), the next time I met with a
respectable person who was kind to me, to profit by remembering my past
errors, and to treat my next benefactress with more confidence than I
had treated her.

My first business in the prison was to write to Mr. Batterbury.

I had a magnificent ease to present to him, this time. Although I
believed myself, and had succeeded in persuading Alicia, that I was sure
of being recommended to mercy, it was not the less the fact that I was
charged with an offense still punishable by death, in the then barbarous
state of the law. I delicately stated just enough of my case to make
one thing clear to the mind of Mr. Batterbury. My affectionate sister's
interest in the contingent reversion was now ( unless Lady Malkinshaw
perversely and suddenly expired) actually threatened by the Gallows!

While calmly awaiting the answer, I was by no means without subjects
to occupy my attention when Alicia was not at the prison. There was
my fellow-workman--Mill--(the first member of our society betrayed by
Screw) to compare notes with; and there was a certain prisoner who
had been transported, and who had some very important and interesting
particulars to communicate, relative to life and its chances in our
felon-settlements at the Antipodes. I talked a great deal with this man;
for I felt that his experience might be of the greatest possible benefit
to me.

Mr. Batterbury's answer was speedy, short, and punctual. I had shattered
his nervous system forever, he wrote, but had only stimulated his
devotion to my family, and his Christian readiness to