how that was the reason they looked so dingy; but it wasn't any use until I said, "That shawl is worth one hundred glittering sovereigns." Then her eyes began to sparkle up, and she was as eager as a hawk is after the poor chickens. It was the long price that did it. If it had only been an Injan blanket, she would have bought it all the same. So, ma'am, it was the whopper that did the work.'

'But it was not a whopper, Nell. You could hardly over-estimate the value of a thing like that. It was the gift of a great man to my father.'

'A real black man, ma'am?'
'A real black man.'

'You don't say so!' exclaimed Nell, opening her eyes very wide. 'If I had known that, I daresay I could have got another pound or two for it.'

'Never mind; you have got double what I expected. In fact, I feel almost like a rich woman again. Come and let me pay my debt, and give you a share of this beside.'

'Pay your debt! O ma'am, not now!'

'But I must have you put the three pounds you lent me again into the savings-bank, and here are five sovereigns for commission.'

'For-for what?' asked Nell, drawing back and looking ready to cry.

For all your trouble; it is your due.'

'No, it ain't; I won't touch a penny of it. O ma'am, I wouldn't have believed it of you!'

'But, Nell-'

She

Nell was mortified, and the tears fairly leapt into her eyes. picked up her hat and made for the door.

'Nell!'

The child turned; there was something very sweet and pleading in the tone of that voice, which

subdued her temper in a moment.

'Did you speak to me, ma'am?' she answered meekly.

'Yes, Nell; I wanted to say that you are the only friend I have in the wide, wide world.'

'What? O Mrs. Keane !'

She threw her hat on the floor, and in a minute was down on her knees again, smiling up through her tears, like an April morning.

You won't say anything more about the money, ma'am,' she whispered.

'No, not if it vexes you; but you and I will put back eight pounds in the bank for Lennard, now that we are so very rich. It will be drawing interest, you know, and be ready if he wants it.'

'But will you promise to draw it out yourself, if-if

'If I am very much in need? Of course I will.'

'Then I will put it there.'

She held out her little hand and took the money offered her, half ashamed, as though she were stealing it.

I hope the angels ain't looking at us all the time,' she said dejectedly, putting the sovereigns into her pocket.

'And why, little one?'

'Because she would think me wrong in taking it, perhaps.'

'She would think you a good grateful little thing, and love you as dearly as I do.'

'I am afraid not.'

Nell shook her head, but still knelt on, as if waiting for something.

'You haven't told me yet who bought the shawl.'

'Don't ask me, ma'am. I promised not to tell.'

'Then I won't ask you-only was it any one I know?"

'You know, ma'am! Not a bit of it. She may set up for a lady

a mocking angry laugh, and sent some jesting remark at the first strange man who looked back at her.

Ursula did not wear her blue dress; for it had been prohibited at once. The long trailing skirt and fluttering misty lace might answer for a quieter affair; but something more startling and piquante was required for this 'ball.' So once more the little dressmaker on the fourth-floor back had been employed in devising a costume which Ursula insisted should make her look just like a 'flame.' The dress should be black with scarlet points, a double border, grotesque of fashion, vivid in hue.

John Lock listened to all she said with a cool crafty smile. She was perhaps right in her choice, he thought; for the dash and spirit natural to her would give zest and piquancy to her curious attire.

Ten minutes of astonishment at the scene, another ten minutes given to observation, and Ursula was perfectly at home amidst the motley crowd, where she fairly appalled her companion by the sparkle of her eyes and the sharpness of her speech. She danced, too, in spite of his remonstrances. She danced with the grace of a goddess and the spirit of a Frenchwoman, laughing brightly at her partners, and coquettishly lowering and lifting her long raven lashes as she hurled back jest for jest.

The tall swarthy man with black beetling brows and heavy jowl, whom she persisted, with an ironical familiarity, in addressing as 'father,' kept close to her all the time; but there was a good deal of impatience in his gestures, and something very akin to rage in the glitter of his dusky eyes whenever she gave herself up more recklessly to the gaiety around.

'Come,' he ordered at last, grasping her hand not too gently, we have had enough-more than

enough of all this. I am tired of keeping guard over your flirtations.'

6

'Don't be cross,' she replied. This is no place for parental scolding. And you have hurt my hand.'

She was boiling over with scarcely repressed anger, and he felt that under her words there was both dislike and satire.

'Had I dreamed of such goingson, you should never have come here,' he muttered through his set teeth.

She felt that he was not to be trifled with, and shrank back a little from his scowl; but she laughed again, though nervously.

"We will go and look on at all these people jostling one another,' she said quietly, taking his arm; but I would rather dance. I love to dance!'

'Then I will dance with you,' said the man, almost fiercely; and seizing her round the waist, he whirled her into the crowd, and took away her breath by the impetuous movement.

But Ursula liked it, and liked her partner a thousand times the better that he flung aside all attempts at grace, and danced like a veritable savage. Her feet kept time to his, and a deep glow of intense enjoyment burned on her face. As the dead black and gleaming scarlet. of her dress flashed in and out among the dancers, she looked like a beautiful fiend.

'Now,' said John Lock, as she paused and panted, but with her foot advanced for a second start. And before she could speak he fairly hurled himself and her again into the vortex, and absolutely tired her out with their physical

exertion.

'Oh!' she cried, with a desperate struggle for breath as he led her out of the whirl, 'I am ready to go home now. That was something like a dance! Yes, I am ready. I

could not dance with any one tamely now.'

He looked pleased, and the two passed out of the door.

While standing on the pavement waiting for a vehicle to draw up, Ursula said something, with a soft and mellow laugh, that attracted the attention of a bystander at

once.

The young man started, then made a step forward.

Ursula broke off her sentence with a faint gasp. Gathering her cloak round her, she sprang into the carriage, and ensconced herself in a dark corner. All of a sudden an idea struck her; and leaning out of the window that was towards the road, she called out, audibly enough,

'Father, what are you delaying for ?'

The gaslight lay full on the young man's face, and Ursula saw it change and brighten. With a slight wave of his hand he turned and disappeared; for that word 'father' had satisfied an anxiety that he had suffered all the evening.

Tell the man to drive fast; I am tired,' murmured the girl to John Lock, who, after a parley with the driver, got slowly in.

'He will drive fast enough without telling. You may be sure he is quite as tired as we are,' was the offhand careless reply. After all, public balls are horrible nuisances.'

She did not care to answer. She was too anxious and nervous for a contest of words. Did Bernard see that John Lock was her solitary companion? she wondered, with a frightened tremor running through her frame; but a smile crept over her lovely false lips as she remembered how she had deceived him.

'It is too late for you to come in,' she said imperiously. Father must be in bed. Good-night.'

John Lock caught her hand and

tried to draw her towards him; but she eluded his grasp, and, using her latchkey, she pulled the door to after her, leaving the man outside, rebuffed and out-generaled.

'Nonsense!' he muttered, with an oath. 'I know Ralph Pierce is up and watching. I'll pay her out for this!'

Slouching his hat down well over his eyes, and lighting a cigar, he glanced up at the third-floor window, where a light was gleaming.

'Of course! The old man is up. How he trembled when I insisted on taking the girl out! Well, well; we'll give him something to tremble about more serious than this one of these days.'

Ralph Pierce was up and watching, as had been surmised. He sat near the hearth, with his clasped hands drooping between his knees, and his face bent over his chesthis whole attitude full of despond

ency.

Ursula went up to him and laid a finger on his shoulder.

'Go to your room, father; you look tired,' she remarked carelessly. Pierce got up and turned a terribly haggard countenance upon her. Is he coming up?' 'He-who?'

'Lock. That-that-'
'No; I sent him away.'

"That's a good girl! Ursula, Ursula, keep that man at a distance always at a distance! Though he kill me, I would have you do that. Child, do you understand? Now I will go to bed. I am glad—so glad that you would not let him come up. It is an unseemly hour; but he is so persistent, you know. Kiss me, Ursula, and for God's sake recollect what I say!'

She held up her mouth sleepily for the kiss, said good-night, and, directly she was alone, took up a lamp, and holding it before her looking-glass, fell to examining herself curiously, as if she had been a

third person, and the exquisite face before her a work of art.

The dress was a becoming one. The head and bust thrown back from the mirror, shadowed by the dense dead blackness of the corsage, and brightened by the vivid scarlet of her cloak, produced an artistic effect which startled herself.

'And this face and figure are the property of a poor man!' she exclaimed bitterly; 'are only to grace a trumpery cottage in the dull wearisome country! But yet Bernard is so handsome!' she added, softening. Dear me, why can't such men as he have money instead of such horrible—'

She stopped short, heaved a heavy sigh. Then, pulling off her dress impatiently, she threw it in a heap on the bare floor.

It was almost daylight when she went to bed; but even then she lay awake, thinking over the two lives offered her-drifting away from the right and forming excuses for the wrong-till the glorious sun, shining in upon her, showed how heavy her eyes had become, and what dark shadows had crept around them during her first real contest with her own heart.

CHAPTER XXX.

DRIFTING AWAY.

JOHN LOCK did not make his appearance the day after the ball— much to Ursula's surprise-so she was left unfettered to continue her struggle with herself. Bernard came, however, and the girl shrank back, pale and breathless, half afraid to see him ; but when he was fairly in the room she started up with an involuntary exclamation of surprise breaking from her lips, for his face was white and set, and his

eyes were full of trouble, nay more, of pain. What did he know? How much did he guess? These questions made Ursula tremble within herself. She stood up, covertly supporting herself against her chair, and waited a moment for him to speak.

Bernard went towards her, reached out both arms, and clasped her close to him, while she felt his heart heave and struggle like some wounded thing.

'What is it—have I done wrong are you angry with me?' she asked, with an effort.

'Angry with you-no!'

His voice shook, and he kissed her fervently over and over again, as though each caress was a farewell.

'What is it then, Bernard ?'

'Are we to be parted, Ursula, or will you go with me wherever I go?'

She thought of the country life he had described, the dreariness, the drudgery she had pictured, and a ball rose up in her throat from a sensation of distaste and even repulsion to such a lot in life. "Where are you going?'

'To London-or rather to the outskirts of London-to toil hard for means to keep you and myself, to save every farthing towards a rainy day; in other words, a wellknown picture-dealer has written to me to go to the metropolis at once, where work will be insured me and fair remuneration given. Who it is that has my interest so much at heart I have not an idea, but I have made up my mind not to reject the opportunity Fortune offers me.'

'To toil hard to keep you and myself, to save every farthing towards a rainy day.'

These words of his rang through the girl's brain; they did not sound inviting. She knew who had Bernard's interest so much at heart.