re recollection, only to be called up by an effort.

"Later it became all excesses, I suppose," said Beth.

"Ah!" he ejaculated in a tone of pleased regret. "I had to live like
other men of my standing, you know, and I had to pay for it. The boy
was lost, but the man developed. You may think the change a falling
off----"

He waited for Beth to express an opinion; but as it was impossible for
her to say what she thought of the difference between the conceited,
dissipated-looking, hysterical man of many meannesses, and the
diffident unspoilt promising boy, she held her peace.

When she had seen the photographs, and he had looked at them himself
to his heart's content, he did them up again, and then formally
presented her with the packet. "Will you keep them?" he said solemnly.

"Oh no!" she answered with decision. "I am not the proper person to
keep them. If they did not belong to your mother, they would be for
your wife and children."

"Ah, my wife!" he ejaculated bitterly. "I haven't a word to say
against my wife, remember that! Only--you are the one to whom I would
confide them."

"I decline the responsibility," Beth said, keeping her countenance
with difficulty.

He returned the packet to the breast-pocket of his coat. "I shall
carry them here, then," he said, tapping his chest with the points of
his fingers, "until you ask for them."

As usual, he stayed a preposterous time that day, and when at last he
went, even Beth's kindly forbearance was exhausted, and she determined
to see no more of him. He was not the man to take a hint, however, and
it was no easy matter to get rid of him. He sent her flowers, for
which she did not thank him, books which she did not read; wrote her
long letters of the clever kind, discussing topics of the day or
remarks she herself had made, which she left unanswered; called, but
never found her at home, yet still persisted, until she was fain to
exclaim: "Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest?"

"It is your own fault," said Angelica. "I warned you that good-nature
is wasted on that sort of man."

"But surely he must see that I wish to avoid him," Beth exclaimed.

"Of course he sees it," Angelica rejoined, "but you may be sure that
he interprets your reluctance in some way very flattering to himself."

"I shall really be rude to him," Beth said desperately. "He is a most
exasperating person, the kind of man to drive a woman mad, and then
blame her for it. I pity his