Lucretia, Volume 4.

val looked at the high walls with the sailor's bold desire for adventure, while confused visions reflected from plays, operas, and novels, in which scaling walls with rope-ladders an

strange guide; and the pity he had before conceived for Beck increased upon him as he talked and listened. This benighted mind, only illumined by a kind of miserable astuteness and that "cunning of the belly" which is born of want to engender avarice; this joyless temp

riend, come to me," s

f his mind. He stood, with his hat off, watching the wheels of the cabriolet as it bore away the happy child of fortune, and then,

ldren imbibe vice with their mother's milk. Here Prostitution, commencing with childhood, grows fierce and sanguinary in the teens, and leagues with theft and murder. Here slinks the pickpocket, here emerges the burglar, here skulks the felon. Yet all about and all around, here, too, may be found virtue in its rarest and noblest form,-virtue outshining circumstance and defying temptation; the virtue of utter poverty, which groans, and yet sins not. So interwoven are these webs of

of the alleys, a rough hand seized him by the arm, and suddenly a group of girls and tatterdemalions issued fr

r of the grim blackguard who had seized

perhaps rightly) to be the last remains of some ancient building of importance, around which, as population thickened and fashion changed, the huts below it had insolently sprung up. Quaint and massive pilasters, black with the mire and soot of centuries, flanked the deep- set door; the windows were heavy with mullions and transoms, and strongly barred in the lower floor; but few of the panes were whole, and only here and there had any attempt been made to keep out the wind and rain by rags, paper, old shoes, old hats, and other ingenious contrivances. Beside the door was conve

opened, a head peered forth, and one of those voices peculiar

an?" asked the st

torney-at-law, sir, at you

nswered th

e cracked voice to some one wit

rm, half-undressed, with an inch of a farthing rushlight glimmering through a battered

u live

ringe habitual to him. "H-up the

mbled Jason, as he nearly stumbled over sundry broken chattels, and gai

er, halting at the second floor, demanded, in no gentl

e such a rumpus, or

r No. 7? And who t

't abide having his night's rest sp'ilt. And he's the houtrageoustest great cret

ed abruptly. A huge head, covered with matted hair, was thrust for a moment through the aperture, and two dull eyes,

lap of near thunder, "if you two keep tramp, tramp, there cl

ranger, advancing; "just stand where you are:

hest and shoulder. But the adventurous visitor was not to be daunted. He too

tist were so new to him that they actually inspired him with terror. He slunk back, banged to the door; and the

take care of No. 1. Lea

n his den, and the sound made Beck clamber the quicker, till at the next landing-pl

and canvas. There was a good fire on the hearth, though the night was warm; there were sundry volumes piled round the walls, in the binding peculiar to law books; in a corner stood a tall desk, of the fashion used by clerks, perched on tall, slim legs,

He was dressed in a gray-flannel gown and short breeches, the stockings wrinkled and distained, the feet in slippers. The stomach was that of a portly man, the legs were those of a skeleton; the cheeks full and swollen, like a ploughboy's, but livid, bespeckled, of a dull lead-colour, like a patient in the dropsy. The head, covered in patches with thin, yellowish hair, gave som

about it, half ragamuffin, half clerk; while in strong contrast appeared the new-comer, scrupulously neat, new

, in torn shirt open at the throat, with apathetic, li

id the inmate of the chamber to Bec

? How do you do? Always smart and b

abman," answered Jason, dryly; and with his handkerchief he careful

ymede, your valet, y

rushes my coat, cleans my shoes, and after his day's work goes an

ed hard at a flake of his

rhood, that?" asked

. "He works for his bread,-instinct! Turnspits and truffle-dogs and some

k your vile spirits; t

am any ma

old black thoughts out of your

k thought

nce you paid me for recommending the nurse w

poor

in eyebrows and gna

oward, as

. You brave the substance, and tremble at the shadow.

se of your yellow hair, or your love for the golden fleece; but your ol

and added greatly to the comeliness of features which many might call beautiful, and all would allow to be regular and symmetr

and a hideous grin on Grabman's face contrasted t

housands; that may take you from this hovel to speculate at the West End; that may change your gin into Lafitte, and your herri

upper, he leaned his elbows on the table and his chin on his damp palms, while eyes that positive

ss to relate brought upon this girl her uncle's displeasure,-she was dismissed his house. Shortly afterwards he died, leaving to his kinsman-a Mr. Vernon- -his estates, with remainder to Vernon's issue, and in default thereof, first to the issue of the younger niece, next to that of the elder and disinherited one. The elder married, and was le

said Grabman. "This son

n? What year?

his creditors. We know that he went to India; but if residing there, it must have been under some new name, and we fear he is now dead. All our inquiries, at least after this man, have been fruitless. Before he went abroad, he left with his old tutor a child corresponding in age to that of Mrs. Braddell's. In this child she thinks she recognizes her son. All that you have to do is to trace his identity by good legal evidence. Don't smile in that foolish way

rdworth

use of a favourite Radical godfather; I, because Honore is an inconvenient Gallicism. And perhaps when Honore Mirabeau (my go

e mother's

; she was married under that o

paper given to him, "it is at Liverpool that the

succeed, and therefore I spared no pains to find out Nicholas Grabman. You have the true ferret's faculty; you, too, are a lawyer, and snuff evidence in every breat

a bond to

y word. Trust to the last; if I break it,

found, does this son succeed? Did this Mr. Vernon leave no

ter, too, left a daughter; both are poor, sickly creatures,-their lives not worth a straw. Never mind them. You find Vincent Braddell, and he wi

chyards. He chuckled, and his hair bristled. But after a pause, in which he seemed to wrestle with his own conscience, he said: "Well,

ing like subdivi

h will be

onfidant's hands. "But mind you waste it not. No tricks, no false play, with m

d Grabman, eagerly, and clasping his

thyself decent clothes, be sober, cleanly, and respectable. Act as a

ather Gabriel Varney, with that fearless, reckless bravado of temper which, while causing half his guilt, threw at times a false glitter over its baseness, piqued by the cowardice of his comrade, gave a lust

he upward flare of the candle showing the deep lines ploughed in his hideous face, and the immense strength of hi

e?" said the terrible vo

trait as Pluto. He was t

over Gabriel Varney. This last, ever on his guard, sprang aside,

-cock finished the sent

fury gave a momentary

u again one o' these day

in ten t

hand, Master Grave-stealer.

e convict-ship. I knows what that is! I was chained night and day once to a chap jist like you. Didn't I brea

irritable fancy (always prone to brood over terrors),-the image of that companion chained to him night and day,-sud

, which gratified his brutal self- esteem; he retreated slowly, inch by inch, to the door, followed b

ng at the door-handle with one hand, while the other grasped his pistol with a strain of horror, he succeeded at last in winning access to the street, and stood a m