in the intervals of their daily school. She had a plan for Lucy, but this she would not put into execution without her father's concurrence, which she foresaw it would be no easy matter to obtain. Lucy had always been his darling. She was his first-born. She was pretty; and having in his more fortunate days given her some advantages of education, he looked forward to a time when she might, by that prize which is always in a pretty woman's lottery, a fortunate marriage, regain the place in society forfeited by his misconduct.
The children were asleep. Lee, wretched and restless, was tossing on his bed, calling at every moment his patient wife from the garment which she was making by a dim light to earn one shilling. The air of the room was scarcely tempered by the single stick of wood in the stove, and all this misery was the consequence of a base indulgence in a low appetite. But the poor man paid the severest penalty in his own person. Who that looked upon his grisled hair, his bloated face, his bloodshot eyes, and his stiffened and trembling limbs, could have recognised him who, fifteen years before, was one of the most promising young lawyers of Massachusetts?
After expressing a wish for this and that, and complaining of the cold, "What in Heaven's name are we to do?" he said. "Has Barton never sent to inquire after me?"
"No—he probably does not know where we live."
"It would be easy finding out—but people don't take pains to look up poor acquaintances. Barton is no worse than the rest of the world. Lord help
