mother of about a dozen children, only now and then lending little Louis
a cordial cuff by way of paying the interest of the vast debt she owes
his father. Oh' (I went on), 'my orphan girl would give me many a kiss;
she would watch on the threshold for my coming home of an evening; she
would run into my arms; she would keep my hearth as bright as she would
make it warm. God bless the sweet idea! Find her I must.'

"Her eyes emitted an eager flash, her lips opened; but she reclosed
them, and impetuously turned away.

"'Tell me, tell me where she is, Miss Keeldar!'

"Another movement, all haughtiness and fire and impulse.

"'I must know. You _can_ tell me; you _shall_ tell me.'

"'I _never will_.'

"She turned to leave me. Could I now let her part as she had always
parted from me? No. I had gone too far not to finish; I had come too
near the end not to drive home to it. All the encumbrance of doubt, all
the rubbish of indecision, must be removed at once, and the plain truth
must be ascertained. She must take her part, and tell me what it was; I
must take mine and adhere to it.

"'A minute, madam,' I said, keeping my hand on the door-handle before I
opened it. 'We have had a long conversation this morning, but the last
word has not been spoken yet. It is yours to speak it.'

"'May I pass?'

"'No; I guard the door. I would almost rather die than let you leave me
just now, without speaking the word I demand.'

"'What dare you expect me to say?'

"'What I am dying and perishing to hear; what I _must_ and _will_ hear;
what you dare not now suppress.'

"'Mr. Moore, I hardly know what you mean. You are not like yourself.'

"I suppose I hardly was like my usual self, for I scared her--that I
could see. It was right: she must be scared to be won.

"'You _do_ know what I mean, and for the first time I stand before you
_myself_. I have flung off the tutor, and beg to introduce you to the
man. And remember, he is a gentleman.'

"She trembled. She put her hand to mine as if to remove it from the
lock. She might as well have tried to loosen, by her soft touch, metal
welded to metal. She felt she was powerless, and receded; and again she
trembled.

"What change I underwent I cannot explain, but out of her emotion passed
into me a new spirit. I neither was crushed nor elated by her lands and
gold; I thought not of them, cared not for them. They were
nothing--dross that could not dismay me. I saw only herself--her youn