M. or N. Similia similibus curantur.""

without that inconvenient feminine appendage--a heart. Dorothea trembled and turned pale when the door o

e the air of half-drunken bravado and assumed recklessness which marred a naturally resolute expression of countenance. He wore a fur cap, a velveteen jacket, and a bright-red neckcloth, secured by

o him with the fond tenacity of a woman who

mbination of low-class gallant

You don't look hearty, my lass. Step i

ingly in the come

ould, if I was queen. But I doesn't want you to treat me, Jim, leastways not this turn; I wants you to come for a wal

t wearied expression a woman ought most to dread

iness first, and pleasure arter. Sp

a dark and quiet by-street. She crossed her work

on now. I don't half like it, dear. It's for your sake I don't hal

m. "Stow that, lass,

eyed without delay, though her voice faltered and

could have set down and cried. Now, to-day I wanted to see you so bad, at any rate, and, thinks I, here's a bit of news as my Jim will like to learn. Look now: young master, he's a-goin' to a place they call B

nswered Jim, "and not ten minutes

pocket, or your hat. O, Jim! Jim! if you should chance on a stroke of luck this turn, won't you give the trade up for good

that looked up into the ruffian's was almost beauti

ar from his coat-pocket, an

ights, to be valuable. Did ye get a fe

ll; "but I hadn't no call to be curious, for he told me what

you're sure he said diamonds? Come, you have done it, my lass. Give us a kiss,

weary step and a heavy heart. Some unerring instinct told her, no doubt, that she was giving all and taking nothing, offer

l in the same carriage with Tom, who attributed the compliment to his lately-constructed coat and general appearance as a swell of the first water. "He don't often get such a chance," thought Mr. Ryfe, accepting with extreme graciousness the other's civilities as to open windows and change of seats. He even went so far as to take a proffered cigar from the case of his fellow-traveller, which he would have smoked forth-with, but for the peremptory objections of

cting one for his own consumption, offered another, with much suavity, to Tom Ryfe, surveying meanwhile, with inquisitive glances, the bulge in that gentleman's b

hound. I could hunt a scamp all over England by nose--by nose, I tell you, sir, and worry him to death when I ran into him; and I would too. Now, sir, if you choose to be chloroformed, I don't. I'm not anxious to be taken out of this compar

ntences of dissent, while the passenger in spectacles, consigning his lozenges to an inner pocket, buried himself in the broad sheet of the Times. But it was his turn

aid he, "are y

gnified, by a shake of the hea

to remark, sir, that if you don't, you are like a school-boy carrying a pocketful of squibs and crackers on the fifth of November, unconscious that a single spark may blow him into the C

presence of mind, threw the whole of his loz

wouldn't keep such dangerous artic

ed three people for life, and a fourth for fifteen years. I once saw a man pulled down by the heels through a grating in one of the busiest streets in the City, and if I hadn't seen him he would never have come up alive. Why the police apply to me for advice many a time when people are missing. 'Don't distress yours

llowed his new acquaintance out of the carriage, this str

saw him before? I thought so. Sharper, sir, I'll take my oath of it, or something worse. I

and the gentleman in spectacles staring at eac

an uneasy attempt at a laugh, a

from offering the other a lift in the well-appointed brougham, with its burly coachman, waiting to con

an intrusion on the hospitality of Ecclesfield, should it be offered him. Perhaps so scrupulous a regard for the proprieties mollified Miss Bruce in

ent of pleasing. I believe, though, that never in his life did he tie his neckcloth or brush his whiskers with more care than o

to do battle with all the force of his intellect, and (Tom began to think she could make him fool enough for anything) all the resources of his purse. The old family pictures--sad daubs, or they would never have been consigned to the bedrooms--simpered down on him with encouraging benignity. Prim women, wearing enormously long waists, and their heads a goo

self-confidence, turning his moral courage limp and helpless for the nonce, bringing insensibly to his mind the familiar refrain of "Not for Joseph"? What was there that bade him man himself against this discouragement, as true bravery mans itself

n admirable and interesting hero. Was he, indeed, a less respectable adventurer, that for steel he had to substitute French polish, for surcoat and corselet, broadcloth

he finished dressing, and walked down-stairs in a stat

d to get it over. In a glass of brown sherry he drank Miss Brace's health, and thus primed, fol

w and accepted the chair offered him, less awkwa

r sculptured chin, her fair neck, and white hands, set

y," but she stopped him in her clear, cold voice, with its patri

y jewels. I hope the man left them at your office as he p

trouble to him," but the words stuck in his throat

ing, if you have got the papers you mentioned. I lea

e sight of it roused his energies, as the shaking of a guidon rouses an old t

it appears beset with difficulties. That's my look-out. Before we begin," added Tom, with a diffident faltering of voice, partly natural, partly assumed, "forgive my asking your

h her eyes, those dark, pleasing eyes that w

said. "I am to live with her for

ter of fact, but they aroused all the pen-and-ink chivalry in Tom's nature, and he vowed in his

o oppose our claims. My uncle has great experience, and I will not conceal from you that my uncle is less sanguine than myself; but I begin to see my

business, and the steps by which he hoped eventually to succeed. Maud was too thoroughly a woman not to admire power, and Tom's intellect possessed obviously no small share of that quality, when directed on such matters as the present. In half-an-hour he had furnished her with a lucid statement of the whole case, and in half-an-hour he had inspired her with respect for his opinion, admiration of his sagacity, and confidence in h