A Perilous Secret

fair girl about four years old, sat on

round the little girl, so that only her fair face with blue eyes and golden hair peeped out; and the young father sat in his shirt sleeves, looking down on her with a loving but an

nic, a mineralogist, a draughtsman, an inventor. Item, a bit of a farrier, and half a surgeon; could play the fiddle and the

ome meritorious men for a limited time. Generally, we think, good fortune and ill fortune succeed each other rapidly, like red cards and black; but to some ill luck co

employer died or sold his business. If he patented an invention, and exhausted his savings to pay the fees, no capitalist

ted ￡50 as a merchant's clerk, and was in negotiation for a small i

broken-hearted and poor, impoverished by the doctors, and pauperized by the undertaker. Then his crushed heart had b

iend had taken the huff, and had not written to him since. But Hope knew he was settled in Hull, and too good-hearted at bottom to go from his word in his friend's present sad condition

dle, and a reaping hook; for it was a late harvest in the north, and he foresaw he should have to work his way and play his way, or else beg, and he wa

still as he travelled his small pittance dwindled. Yet half-way on this journey fortune smiled on him suddenly. It was in Derbyshire. He went a little out of his way to visit his native place-he had left it at ten years old. Here an old maid, his first cousin, received Grace with rapture, and Hope pottered about all day, reviving his boyish recollections of people and places. He had left the village ignorant; he returned fu

s a retired warrior, Colonel Clifford. Hope knew that very well

oal on his land, he froze directly; told him that two gentlemen in that neighborhood had wasted their money groping the bowels of the earth for coal, because of delusive indications on the surface of the soil; and that for his part, ev

ere, that's enough. I am much obliged to you, sir, for bringing me information you think valuable. You are travelling-on foot-short of funds p

her." So he pocketed the half-sovereign, and bought his little Grace a neck-handkerchief, blue with white spots; and so this un

Her mother had died of consumption: were the seeds of that fatal malady in her child? If so, hardship, fatigue, cold, and privation would develop them rapidly, and she would wither away into the grave before his eyes. So he looked down on her in an ago

et of swans coming round a bend of the river. Hope told her all about the royal birds, and that they belonged to sovereigns in one district, to cities in anot

two; but here Hope spent his last farthing on Grace's supper at an eating-house, and had not wherewithal to pay for bed or breakfast at the humble inn. Here, too, he took up

effect that Mr. Samuelson, of Hull, had built a gigantic steam vessel in that port, and was going out to

wn went his head and his hands, and he sat all of a heap, cold at heart. Then he began to disbelieve in everything, especially in honesty. For why? If he had only le

ted with it in the rear. At the side of the offices were pulleys, cranes, and all the appliances for loading vessels, and a yard with horses and vans, so that the whole frontage of the premises was very considerable. A brass plate said, "R. Bartley, ship-broker and commission agent"; but the man was evidently a ship-owner and a carrier besides; so this miscellaneous shop roused h

, a nose like a hawk, and thin lips. The other was quite a young fellow, with brown hair, hazel eyes, and an open countenance. "Many a hard rub puts a po

. The other was to Hope's left, through a very small office, generally occupied by an inferior clerk, who kept an eye upon the work outside. However, thi

hen he opened the inner door and looked in on the two clerks, pale and haggard, and apprehensive of

I see Mr

garments and dusty shoes, and said, dryly, "Hum

"I want employment. But I do want it very b

e young fellow, warmly. "Why, y

educated man, and I could do the whole business o

it till half past one. He lunches at one, and he isn't quite such a brute after luncheon. Then you come in like Julius Caesar, and brag like blazes, and offer him twe

eagerly. "But whether I succeed with him o

ll stumped in turn." Then he began to chase a solitary coin into a corner of his waistcoat pocket. "Look here, I'll lend you a shilling-pay me ne

blushing, "and because it is offered

parted for the time, little dreaming, either of them, what a chain they we