calmly looking on the prostrate form before him, all that part of his features which was not cast into shadow by his protruding and contracted brows, bore the impress of a sarcastic smile.

`Sit down,' said Sir Mulberry, turning towards him, as though by a violent effort. `Am I a sight, that you stand gazing there?'

As he turned his face, Ralph recoiled a step or two, and making as though he were irresistibly impelled to express astonishment, but was determined not to do so, sat down with well-acted confusion.

`I have inquired at the door, Sir Mulberry, every day,' said Ralph, `twice a day, indeed, at first -- and tonight, presuming upon old acquaintance, and past transactions by which we have mutually benefited in some degree, I could not resist soliciting admission to your chamber. Have you -- have you suffered much?' said Ralph, bending forward, and allowing the same harsh smile to gather upon his face, as the other closed his eyes.

`More than enough to please me, and less than enough to please some broken-down hacks that you and I know of, and who lay their ruin between us, I dare say,' returned Sir Mulberry, tossing his arm restlessly upon the coverlet.

Ralph shrugged his shoulders in deprecation of the intense irritation with which this had been said; for there was an aggravating, cold distinctness in his speech and manner which so grated on the sick man that he could scarcely endure it.

`And what is it in these "past transactions," that brought you here tonight?' asked Sir Mulberry.

`Nothing,' replied Ralph. `There are some bills of my lord's which need renewal; but let them be till you are well. I -- I -- came,' said Ralph, speaking more slowly, and with harsher emphasis, `I came to say how grieved I am that any relative of mine, although disowned by me, should have inflicted such punishment on you as --'

`Punishment!' interposed Sir Mulberry.

`I know it has been a severe one,' said Ralph, wilfully mistaking the meaning of the interruption, `and that has made me the more anxious to tell you that I disown this vagabond -- that I acknowledge him as no kin of mine -- and that I leave him to take his deserts from you, and every man besides. You may wring his neck if you please. I shall not interfere.'

`This story that they tell me here, has got abroad then, has it?' asked Sir Mulberry, clenching his hands and teeth.

`Noised in all directions,' replied Ralph. `Every club and gaming-room has rung with it. There has been a good song made about it, as I am told,' said Ralph, looking eagerly at his questioner. `I have not heard it myself, not being in the way of such things, but I have been told it's even printed -- for private circulation -- but that's all over town, of course.'

`It's a lie!' said Sir Mulberry; `I tell you it's all a lie. The mare took fright.'

`They say he frightened her,' observed Ralph, in the same unmoved and quiet manner. `Some say he frightened you, but that's a lie, I know. I have said that boldly -- oh, a score of times! I am a peaceable man, but I can't hear folks tell that of you -- no, no.'

When Sir Mulberry found coherent words to utter, Ralph bent forward with his hand to his ear, and a face as calm as if its every line of sternness had been cast in iron.

`When I am off this cursed bed,' said the invalid, actually striking at his broken leg in the ecstasy of his passion, `I'll have such revenge as never man had yet. By God, I will. Accident favouring him, he has