good into the dullest of all. To make it duller yet, by contrast with the past, the Golgotha for once gave up its buried treasures—broken lute, birdless cage!
Somewhere about two years after Matilda's death, Arabella happened to be in the office of the agent who collected her house-rents, when a well-dressed man entered, and, leaning over the counter, said—" There is an advertisement in to-day's Times about a lady who offers a home, education, and so forth, to any little motherless girl; terms moderate, as said lady loves children for their own sake. Advertiser refers to your office for particulars—give them!"
The agent turned to his books; and Arabella turned toward the inquirer. "For whose child do you want a home, Jasper Losely?"
Jasper started. "Arabella! Best of creatures! And can you deign to speak to such a vil"
"Hush—let us walk. Never mind the advertisement of a stranger. I may find a home for a motherless child—a home that will cost you nothing."
She drew him into the street. "But can this be the child of—of—Matilda Darrell?"
"Bella!" replied, in coaxing accents, that most execrable of lady-killers, "can I trust you?—can you be my friend in spite of my having been such a very sad dog? But money—what can one do without money in this world? ' Had I a heart for falsehood framed, it would ne'er have injured you '—if I had not been so cursedly hard up! And indeed now, if you would but condescend to forgive and forget, perhaps some day or other we may be Darby and Joan—only, you see, just at this moment I am really not worthy of such a Joan. You know, of course, that I am a widower—not inconsolable."
"Yes; I read of Mrs. Hammond's death in an old newspaper."
"And you did not read of her baby's death, too—some weeks afterward?"
"No; it is seldom that I see a newspaper. Is the infant dead?"
"Hum—you shall hear." And Jasper entered into a recital to which Arabella listened with attentive interest. At the close she offered to take herself the child for whom Jasper sought a home. She informed him of her change of name and address. The wretch promised to call that evening with the infant; but he sent the infant, and did not call. Nor did he present himself again to her eyes, until, several years afterward, those eyes
