Eve's Ransom

impressive enough to eyes beholding it for the first time. On the afternoon of his last day at Dudley he stood by the window and looked for

its topmost trees the ruined keep of Dudley Castle. Along the foot of this hill ran the highway which descends from Dudley town-hidden by rising ground on the left-to the low-lying railway-station; there, beyond, the eye traversed a great plain, its limit the blending of earth and sky in lurid cloud. A ray of yellow sunset touched the height and its crowning ruin; at the zenith shone a

s father, himself the wreck of a would-be painter, rudely discouraged this ambition; by way of compromise between the money-earning craft and the beggarly art, he became a mechanical-draughtsman. Of late years he had developed a strong taste for the study of architecture; much of his leisure was given to this subject, and what money he could spare went

friend Narramore. Kinsfolk he had none whom he cared to remember, except his sister; she lived at Wolverhampton, a wife and mother, in narrow but not oppressive circumstances, and Hilliard had take

eatness. The friends asked each other how it could possibly benefit anyone to embark in such a business as that, and laughed over the display. While he was laughing, Hilliard became aware of a woman in the doorway, evidently the shopkeeper; she had heard their remarks and looked distressed. Infinitely keener was the pang which Maurice experienced; he could not forgive himself, kept exclaiming how brutally he had behaved, and sank into gloominess. Not very

one of desperation centred in self. Every suggestion of native suavity and prudence was swept away in tumultuous revolt. Another twelvemonth of his slavery and he would have

light vanished from his room th

Mr. Hilliard," call

t present lie had none, but the pretence of eating was a way of pa

im. Among an assemblage of types excelling in ugliness of feature and hideousness of costume-types of toil-worn age, of ungainly middle life, and of youth lacking every grace, such as are exhibited in the albums of the poor-there was discoverable one female portrait in which, the longer he ga

linen collar, and, so far as could be judged from the portion included in the picture, a homely cloth gown. Her features were comely and intelligent, and exhibited a gentleness, almost a meekness of expression which was as far as possible from seeming affected. Whe

ent, and dreaded the possible disclosure that he had admired a housemaid or someone of yet lower condition. Nor could he trust his judgment of the face: perhaps it shone only by c

ng, in the strength of its appeal to his emotions. Another man might pass it slightingly; to him i

not given to vulgar gossip. Her purpose in entering the room at this moment was to as

rprised that the woman should care enough about him to make the req

arrassment, as he saw Mrs. Brewer's look rest

noticing her. But it doesn't do her justice; she's better looking than that. It was took better

peated the name to h

ure, that she went away to do better for herself. She hasn't been home since then, and we don't hear of her coming,

rvice?" but could not voice the word

ke it. Then Mr. Reckitt, the ironmonger, a friend of her father's, got her to help him with his books and bills of an evening, and when she was seventeen, because his business

e had a lot

ught to have been paying men of his own. The drink-that's what it was. When our Martha first knew them they were living at Walsall, and if it hadn't a' been for Eve they'd have had no home at all. Martha got to know her at the Sunday-school; Eve used to teach a class. T

e family?" Hil

girl than Eve there never was. Our Martha lived with her aunt at Walsall-that's my only sister, and she was bed-rid, poor thing, and had Martha to look after her. And when she died, and Martha came back here to us, the Madeley family came here as well, 'cause the father got some ki

's inter

the other girl had the 'sipelas, and she died, and just as they was carrying her coffin out of the house, who should come up but her father! He'd been away for nearly two years, just sending a little money now and then, and he didn't even know the girl had been ailing. And when he saw the coffin, it took him so that he fell down just like a dead man. You wou

ned only Eve an

ll right, Eve left home. I don't wonder at it; it wasn't to be expected she could forgive him for all the harm and sorrows he'd caused. She went to Birmingham for a few mon

eem to be h

e's made friends in London, but we haven't heard about them. Martha was hoping she'd have come for Christmas, but it seems she couldn't get away for long enough from busines

ithout remark. He was not quite sure that

ours about the cold, dark roads, he came in to have his supper a

be anywhere near, but if you happened to walk that way, we should take it kindly if

paper, glanced at it, and folded it to put in his pocket. Mrs. Brewer

call and leave you

e slept his rest was troubled with dreams of an anxious search about the highways and byway

heard these hideous noises with pleasure: they told him that the day of his escape had come. Unable to lie still, he rose at once, and went out into the chill dawn. Thou

's album tempted him to look once more

nder?" asked his landlady, when th

Dudley, I shall come he

ssurance that fate would have no power to draw h