long I gazed upon these mute evidences of my husband's malpractices, but though it seemed an age I think it could only have been a few moments. The love I had hitherto felt for Richard Webber seemed suddenly turned to contempt; he who but ten months since had been my pride, I now despised. Well, 'twas but reaping the harvest I had sown. I had married him against the wish of all my friends, and this was the result. Suddenly I experienced a mysterious conviction that I was not alone in the room; my cheeks grew pale, my heart beat quickly, my limbs trembled, as I turned and saw, standing within the doorway, the tall figure of my husband.

Half in terror, and half in consequence of the excitement occasioned by my discovery of the contents of the bureau, I sank into a chair speechless.

He looked intently at me for a few seconds, then advancing into the room, burst into a loud laugh, and taking my listless hand, said:

'So you've discovered my secret at last, have you? Well, mistress, do you feel any relief to your curiosity? Remember, I warned you but an hour since. Now tell me, what do you make of these things?' With the other hand he pointed at the confused mass within the bureau; but finding I did not answer him immediately, he resumed in no harsh tone. 'Lucy, I have often had it on my lips to tell you all, but at the last moment lacked the courage. To-night you have fallen into no trap; I did not leave the key in the door purposely, and returned to regain it immediately I found it was not in my pocket. Now tell me, Lucy, you are not so inexpressibly shocked at your discovery as your pale face and quivering limbs would lead me to suppose?'

Whilst he held my hand, it seemed as though I was transfixed; but

when on the conclusion of his speech he released me, and stalked towards the mantelpiece, my whole nature seemed to undergo a change. Consciousness returned, and a flood of tears came to my relief. I rose to my feet, and would have left the room without a word, but he anticipated my purpose, and striding to my side, placed his arm round my waist, and led me back to the seat I had just quitted. 'What, Lucy,' he said reproachfully, 'is it come to this? Have you no word for me, even of blame?' As he spoke he knelt by my side, he raised my chill hand to his lips, and again there thrilled through me the love of a bygone day. The knowledge that I was mated to an outcast of society-perhaps worse-was not sufficient to quench the love within He looked at me with such an expression of sorrow that I could resist no longer. All the contempt I had previously experienced for him dispersed as rapidly as it had been engendered, and I fell sobbing upon his neck. My tongue once released, I chid him for his cowardice; I bade him recall the time when I was a guileless maiden, and asked him to compare my position then, with the present; I threatened to leave him, swore to denounce him, and I know not what else. Enough, that I paused in my reproaches, simply because I was at a loss for breath to continue. He bent his head and heard me without a murmur; then, when he saw I had concluded, he asked me to listen to the story of his past life.

me.

He narrated how, when a child, he had through death lost the restraining influence of parents, and how elder brothers and sisters had been too intent upon their own affairs to devote any attention to him; how he had grown up a wild, careless, indolent youth, with no fixed principles, and no desire for aught but pleasure. I did not care for

work,' he said, 'and lacked the encouraging word that might have stimulated me to perseverance and virtuous courses. At last I took to the Turf-that is to say, I attended horse-races, and made bets upon the results. For three years I prospered, but suddenly I became beggared-that is, I should have been, had I paid what I owed. I made a heavy book against a certain horse for the Cesarewitch; that horse won, and I was "broke." I was almost tired of horse-racing; so, shaving off my thick long beard, I resolved not to pay a fraction of my obligations, but travel about the country with the few hundreds in hand until something better offered. It was a year after I had made this determination that I met you, Lucy. For the first time I felt what love was, and resolved to make myself worthy of your trusting affection. I was gratified that you placed such implicit confidence in me as to forbear making inquiries into my past life; but had you done so, dearest, I might now have been a better man, and still your husband. As it was, my good resolutions cooled, and at length I determined to hide the past from you. If you did not seek to know, why should I blight your new-born happiness? A few months after we came to London, I met some of the men with whom I had oft played games of chance when located for a week at places like Newmarket, York, and Doncaster. One of them-he is a north-country man-proposed to start a gaming-house at the West End. To disarm suspicion, the base of the building was to be converted into a tobacconist's shop, or any other kind of place where customers might be supposed to frequently enter, and the upper floors were to be used for the purposes we required. There were but few of us in the gang: the proposer of the scheme did not want many, as the thing

was to be kept quiet. In an evil hour I agreed to join them. I became the "bonnet," or decoy. To my task it fell to tempt green youngsters and seemingly wise old dotards into play. It was necessary that I should always appear as a gentleman, and this accounts for my good clothes. There is seldom anything going on before ten at night, and this is the reason why my hours are frequently so late. The time spent before that bureau has been occupied either in calculating the chances of certain games at cards, or in estimating the profits of my nefarious employment. Now you know why I have kept so much hidden from you. Say, Lucy, can you find it in your heart to award me forgiveness for the deceit I have practised, and the life of infamy to which I have brought you?'

As he drew towards a close, his voice became more tender and supplicatory in its tones. I felt to the fullest extent the degradation to which I had arrived. I knew that for the future I could no more look with trust and confidence into the face of my husband; it was apparent to me-and I think to him-that the revelations of the last hour had created a gulf betwixt us that no lapse of time could narrow; but with all this there was the consciousness that our lives were knit together, and that no power could annul the altar vows. If he was weak, I must be strong. All hope was not lost, for by repentance the past might be retrieved; and mine should be the hand to lead him from the morass into which he had fallen. These thoughts flitted through my brain with meteoric rapidity, but to him my silence was heartbreaking. Again he clasped my hand, and in quivering accents bade me speak, even though 'twere to breathe fresh censure. I tried to avert my head, but could not; there was a fascination I was still unable to resist.

Suddenly there dropped upon my hand a scalding tear; it seemed to burn into my flesh; and joyfully I exclaimed,

"This is the first sign of penitence. Many such as this, dear husband, wrung from your heart, may wash away the blackest crimes !'

He rose and clasped me in his arms. The varying emotions I had recently experienced proved too much for my feeble strength, and again I fainted. Ere morning I was a mother.

I must skip the next three months. During this time my life was a blank, for I was very ill. I was only conscious at brief and fragmentary intervals, but those intervals sent a thrill of happiness throughout my soul; for whenever I opened my eyes I saw my husband by my side, eagerly watching for a glance of recognition; and the merry crowing of my child told me there was yet something to live for. It was a long time ere I regained my strength; but what contributed more than aught else to my restoration was the constant presence of my husband.

One day in the early autumn, when I felt stronger than at any time since my illness, I ventured to ask him if he had given over his old pursuits, to which he made answer that he had not been to the gambling-rooms since the night I had discovered the nature of his employment. Frequently the other members of the gang had reproached him with his chicken-heartedness, but he was deaf to all their sneers, and had resolved never again to meet them save with one object. I bade him proceed, and then he said that he had repented of his past career, and was determined to seek some honest occupation. He had, however, in the bureau about a hundred pounds, the proceeds of the gambling scheme, and this amount he was desirous of returning to his former associates. They

had been faithful to him, and to them he would not prove treacherous. The hundred pounds was about his share of the expenses that would have to be met at quarter-day for the hire of house, gas-bill, &c.; and when refunding the proceeds of his guilt he would inform them that for the future his path and theirs lay not in the same direction.

I suggested that he should send back the money instead of taking it, but he replied that he dare not trust either the post-office or a messenger if the money was to be returned, he must take it himself. I then hesitated no longer, but pressed him to seize the earliest opportunity, for he could not enter upon a new course of life until he had broken with his old companions. How vividly I can recall that conversation! I can even now see my husband, ashamed of his guilt and anxious to retrieve the past, whilst I was equally eager, yet timid, for him to pay his last visit to the gambling hell. I knew his newborn resolution would be rigidly kept, for a determined hopeful light burnt in his eyes; and inwardly I prayed that strength might speedily be given me that I might be enabled, both by act and word, to encourage him in the fresh life we were beginning.

He determined at once to be quit of his old associates, and kissing me, grasped his hat and departed.

Little did I think then that our bright hopes were to be so quickly destroyed.

Whilst he enlivened my solitude I experienced no fear of any peril that lay beyond our home; but immediately he had gone, a host of dire forebodings trooped upon me. I never thought until then of the danger that accompanied his association with the lawless men who formed the gang. Every limb trembled, but in my mind there was a fixed determination to follow him.

My former strength and energies appeared to suddenly return, and taking my bonnet and shawl, and bestowing one glance upon the sleeping innocent who lay smiling in its cradle, all unconscious of the anxiety of its parents, I left our home ere a quarter of an hour had elapsed since my husband's departure. He had given me the direction of the house, which was in a street leading off the Haymarket, and I knew that in order to baffle any police spies he invariably journeyed there in a hansom. As soon as I had left the house, an empty two-wheel cab passed me. I bade the driver stop at the top of the Haymarket, and in the space of half an hour found myself at my destination.

Arrived at the street my husband had named, I saw therein but one shop of the kind he had described.

A bold-looking painted-faced Jewess was behind the counter serving a customer: at the farther end of the shop was a half-glass door of which I had previously been told, and behind which I knew a man was in waiting ready to give warning to the gamblers in the floors above, should anything suspicious occur. By touching a secret spring in the wall, a bell was sounded in each of the upstair rooms, and as there was no light upon the stairs, time was afforded for hiding the cards, dice, &c., should the police attempt a search.

Whilst I was peering into the shop, I noticed that two men paced the street backwards and forwards without quitting it. When they reached the corners, they turned. They walked in opposite directions, so invariably met about the centre of the street, but although they were evidently acquainted with each other, no sign of recognition passed between them. At the time, although they seemed to regard me very attentively, I entertained no suspicion

of their object. I was too much engrossed with my desire to enter the house to bestow a thought upon them.

Suddenly loud cries filled the air, a lurid glare shot into the sky, and a man running along at the bottom of the street, shouted, 'Fetch the engines! The café round the corner is on fire!' The news seemed to spread instantaneously, faces pale with excitement gazed from the windows, men stood at their doorways, a noisy crowd surged along the thoroughfare, and numerous active policemen started into sight as though they had, with the cry of 'Fire!' sprung from the earth. The whole neighbourhood was as excited as if an electric shock had simultaneously passed through every house, but I noticed that the two mysterious men in the bye-street with myself neither slackened nor increased their pace.

Presently the bold-looking Jewess came to the door, opposite which I was standing hidden in a dark recess: she called to a man inside, and I heard her bid him run to the corner to see whence the fire proceeded. No sooner had he reached the top of the street than he turned and excitedly beckoned her also to

come.

She gave one glance outside (the two mysterious promenaders were then at the extremity of the street), and hastened to join her companion.

Now was my opportunity to obtain admittance: quick as thought I ran across the road, through the shop, up the dark stairs, and rushed into the chief saloon.

The excitement in the adjacent thoroughfare was evidently unknown to the throng of gamblersold and young-gathered around the card-tables; doubtless there were double windows to exclude the sound. I saw my husband in conversation with a man whom I immediately recognised as the pro

moter of the scheme. My entrance -abrupt as it was-apparently excited no attention from the eager mob watching the progress of the game. Even if any among them observed me, they unquestionably thought the man supposed to be stationed below had allowed me to pass. Directly Richard had recovered his surprise at seeing me, he placed his arm around my waist, and told me that in a few moments he should be ready to accompany me home. I narrated to him and to the man beside him the confusion caused by the fire, and was about to tell how I had eluded the observation of the two persons below, when a loud tramping was heard upon the dark stairs.

All in the room rose to their feet; cards, dice, and gold were hastily swept into pockets or to the floor: the door was burst open, and a score of policemen, headed by the mysterious men who had so persistently paced the street, darted into the room. They had evidently, like myself, availed themselves of the absence of those below to give warning.

'Make no resistance, or 'twill be the worse for you!' shouted one of the detectives. 'Surrender like wise men!'

'Surrender! no!' exclaimed the fellow standing beside my husband; we are more than you are, two to one.'

The words seemed to ring through the room with the clearness of a silver bell; scarce had the echo ceased than a rush was made to the door. I found myself with my husband borne towards the stairs. Amid a volley of oaths I heard the sounds of conflict, for the police had drawn their staves and were beating us back. Shudderingly I glanced upwards; I saw a heavy blow aimed at my husband's head;

it descended, and the grasp round my waist relaxed. Richard staggered towards a chair, but failed to reach it, and in falling, his head struck against the edge of a table. When I raised his prostrate form he cast upon me one loving glance, and then fell back dead: his skull was fractured.

The sudden realisation that I was a widow, combined with the excitement of the previous hour, acting upon my weak state of health, deprived me of consciousness, and I sank helpless by the side of him who had been called away. When, after a space of six weeks, my senses returned, I found myself in a hospital, and little by little I gathered from the nurses what had transpired during the interval. It appeared that on the fatal night only fourteen of those engaged in play had been captured, and these, proving not to be habitués of the place, were set free after paying a small fine. None of them were able to identify my poor husband, owing to the fact that he had for some time been an absentee. After the inquest, at which a verdict of' Accidental death' was returned, the body, still unrecognised, was borne to its last resting-place. All the leaders of the nefarious scheme effected their escape; and doubtless it was in consequence of the failure of the police that they wished the matter hushed up, and that I was allowed to depart from the hospital unquestioned. It was neither my interest nor desire to revive the scandal. I turned my skill as a needlewoman to account, and meeting with kind friends, was enabled to educate my boy. I shall never marry again, and it will always be a source of comfort to me to know that Richard Webber died repentant.