M. or N. Similia similibus curantur.""

led it, by a young gentleman, whose duty it was to be in attendance at all hours from sunrise to sunset, when nobody else was in the way, and w

owers and the patience of the general public in his exertions. It was not, therefore, the step of this trusty guardian which fell sharp and quick on the stone stair o

. "As usual," he muttered, "telegram and letter, same date--same place. Arrive together, of course! Chances are, if there is any hurry you get the letter before the telegram. Halloa! here's a business. Bargrave's sure to be a

Pushing her hair off a grimy forehead with a grimier hand, she listened to his directions, staring vacantly, as is the manner of her

e mustn't leave it on any consideration while I'm away. I'm go

led a hansom, and in less than a quarter of an hour was in his uncle's break

us and leisurely repast as is consumed by one who dines at six, drinks a bottle of port every day at dessert, and never smoked a cigar in his life. No earthly consideration would hurry him for the ne

o hand last night. Be so good as to make a note on the back. Three doctors, does she say? Bless me! They'll never let him get over it. Most unfortunate just now, on account of

es to the station we may as well give an account

hand at whist. While he lived, though it was a mystery how he lived, he kept Mrs. Ryfe "very comfortable," to use Bargrave's expression. When he died he left her nothing but the boy Tom, a precocious

she was laid in the same grave. Then her brother took the boy Tom, and put him into his own business, making him begin by sweeping out the o

er one was doubtless the head clerk's ruling maxim; but while thus attending to his personal welfare, he never failed to affect a keen interest in the affairs of numbers t

om Ryfe, like other notabilities, was not without this crevice in his armour, this breach in his embattled wall. He had shrewdness, knowledge of the world, common sense, and

ou see if I don't. A wife that can move, uncle, cool, and calm, and lofty, like an air balloon; wearing her dresses as if she was made for them, and her jewels as if she didn't know she'd got them on; looking as much at home in the Queen's drawing-room as she does in her own. That's my sort, and that's the

ed womankind in general as an

nk, the more I like 'em. Better put it off a little, Tom. It can be done any day, my boy, when you've an hour to spare. I wouldn't be in a hurr

selves too deeply for speedy withdrawal. He reflected with great satisfaction on his own fastidious rejection of several "suitable parties," as he expressed it, who did not quite reach his standard of aristocratic perfection, remembering how Mrs. Blades, the well-to-do widow, with fine eyes and a house in Duke Street, had fairly landed him but for that unfortunate dinner at which he detected her eating fish with a knife; how certain

y chance shouldn't be as good as another's. I'm not such a bad-looking chap when I'm dressed and my hair's greased. I can do tricks with cards like winking. I can ride a bit, shoot a bit--'specially pigeons--dance a bit, and make lov

ouse in which the dead lie yet unburied, a feeling of horror, the result of some unlooked-for and additional calamity, seemed to predominate; and Tom was hardly surprised, however much he

hout time to set his house in order, without

morandum the while, she gave him her directions for the funeral and its ceremonies; desired him to ascertain at once the state of her late father's affairs, the amount of a succession to which she believed her

n? It is not too much to say that for twenty miles he positively hated her, striving fiercely against the influence, which yet he could not but acknowledge. In another twenty, his good opinion of h

hands, and make up her mind for her before she can turn round--young, too, and not so bad-looking, though I dare say she's used to good-looking chaps enough. The man's game who went in for Miss Bruce would be this: constant attention to her interests, supreme disregard for her feelings, and never to let her have her own way for a moment. She'd be so utterly taken aback she'd give in without a

Tom's reflections in the railway carriage; and long before he reached his uncle's house, he had made up his mind to "go in," as he called it, fo

re prospects of the lady in question. Her father had died without a will. That fact seemed pretty evident, as he

ch of a business man, and he couldn't have disentangled his affairs sufficiently to make 'em clear, except to me. It's a sad pi

Tom, thinking of Maud's dark eyes, and

er the deed while you were down there to-day. It is so worded that a male heir might advance a prior claim. There is a male heir, a parson in Dorsetshire, not

applying himself once more to the port; but Bargrave had drawn

a conclusion adverse to Miss Brace's interest; but then, as the younger man observed, "the beaut

vating Miss Bruce had actually come home, when the post brought him a little note from that lady, which afforded him

ought Tom, 'ah! that soun

ouble you with a commi

taining some diamond or

eller at Mr. Bargrave's

it down with yo

very ob

d Br

o be at the office in time to receive the diamonds. That boy was out of

ment, except it's a man with a packet of jewelry. Take it in yourself, and bring it her

', sir?" asked Dorothea. "I should lik

nd about the parcel, though," he added, in the exuberance of his spirits. "The

, going back to her

elf in the outer office, whither he had resorted in a fidget to compare a time-table with a railway-map of England. He fretted to set off at once. He had finished his business; he had nothing to do now but

ht across the summer sky. Even so different was the Dorothea of the unkempt hair, the soapy arms, the dingy apron, and the grimy face, from a gaudy damsel who emerged in the after

general redundancy of outline, despite of which drawbacks, however, she attracted many admiring glances from cab-drivers, omnibus-conductors, a precocio

l, though it was but a flashy, dirty-looking gin-shop, standing at a corner where two streets met. Her colour rose though, hig

, but old Batters, he come in just now, and your young