s a young
sister living, and her greatest desire was, to help that sister. I
could tell her nothing but that there was such a sister; beyond that, I
knew nothing. Her inducement to come to me, relying on my confidence,
had been the hope that I could tell her the name and place of abode.
Whereas, to this wretched hour I am ignorant of both. * * * *

"These scraps of paper fail me. One was taken from me, with a warning,
yesterday. I must finish my record to-day. She was a good,
compassionate lady, and not happy in her marriage. How could she be!
The brother distrusted and disliked her, and his influence was all
opposed to her; she stood in dread of him, and in dread of her husband
too. When I handed her down to the door, there was a child, a pretty
boy from two to three years old, in her carriage.

"'For his sake, Doctor,' she said, pointing to him in tears, 'I would
do all I can to make what poor amends I can. He will never prosper in
his inheritance otherwise. I have a presentiment that if no other
innocent atonement is made for this, it will one day be required of
him. What I have left to call my own--it is little beyond the worth of
a few jewels--I will make it the first charge of his life to bestow,'
with the compassion and lamenting of his dead mother, on this injured
family, if the sister can be discovered.' She kissed the boy, and
said, caressing him, 'It is for thine own dear sake. Thou wilt be
faithful, little Charles?' The child answered her bravely, 'Yes!' I
kissed her hand, and she took him in her arms, and went away caressing
him. I never saw her more. As she had mentioned her husband's name in
the faith that I knew it, I added no mention of it to my letter. I
sealed my letter, and, not trusting it out of my own hands, delivered
it myself that day.

"That night, the last night of the year, towards nine o'clock, a man in
a black dress rang at my gate, demanded to see me, and softly followed
my servant, Ernest Defarge, a youth, up-stairs. When my servant came
into the room where I sat with my wife--O my wife, beloved of my heart!
My fair young English wife!--we saw the man, who was supposed to be at
the gate, standing silent behind him.

"'An urgent case in the Rue St. Honore,' he said. It would not detain
me, he had a coach in waiting.

"It brought me here, it brought me to my grave. When I was clear of
the house, a black muffler was drawn tightly over my mouth from behind,
and my a