of the room. Josy had not latched the door below, Mrs. Hill was not in sight, and the visitor walked up to where she had heard the sound of voices.

"Are you not well yet?" said she, advancing as the children shuffled close together. "Oh, I'm not going to do any harm to you. Where's your mother, I say?"

"I'm here," said Mrs. Hill from below. down. Why did you go up-stairs?"

"Please to come

"Because I'd a mind to," said Mrs. Swinden, rudely, and turning to go down again.

"We'll shut her out," said the boy, running to close the door. "I can't bear her-the ugly woman! She makes me feel angry and wretched."

But Mrs. Swinden heard the words, rushed instantly back again, and gave the boy a sharp box on the ears, whereupon Daisy screamed with rage and terror, and her brother struck out arms and legs with heedless fury.

Jane was on the point of springing to the rescue, when she checked herself, suppressed her passion, and called from below, "I'm here; come down if you want me. Please don't meddle with the children."

66

"I'll kill you if you dare to kick at me again, sir," shouted the woman. A pretty way to bring children up to be sure! I wonder you arn't ashamed of him ;" and red with anger and exertion with the scuffle, she stood before Mrs. Hill, wondering much that the mother had not come up to take the part of her child.

"I'm sorry if he was naughty to you," said Mrs. Hill, with a strange mixture of pride and fear in her tone. "What is it you want me for?"

"Well, I suppose I can sit down; and though it's daytime I dare say you can find me something to drink-I'm thirstyand then I'll tell you.".

"I've only my beer that's left for supper," said Mrs. Hill; "you shall have that and welcome," and she produced a bottle and emptied the contents into a glass, which the woman drank off at one breath."

"I should like some more," said she, impudently.

"I'm sorry; I've no more in the house," said Jane, in a great fright at her behaviour. "But if you would get some for yourself, here's the money for it."

"A paltry sixpence," said Mrs. Swinden, taking it, nevertheless. "Now, we had better have a settling. You must pay me for the gin, and the cordials, and all I've got for you at odd times."

"I don't owe you anything," said Jane; "I paid you every penny you ever spent for me, and more too."

"Oh, no, you didn't; you've lost count, Mrs. Hill. You get plenty of money from your husband, you know; and I am a lone widow, and it's a shame for you to be in my debt. So pay me at once, or something on account."

Mrs. Hill again protested against the claim.

“Very well, take your choice. If you don't pay me, I'll summons you, and expose everything. I'll tell how you went to the Lion for drink, because you were afraid to go again to the Crown. I'll tell how you behaved that night you got drunk the first time, and the trouble I had with you. Ha, ha! do you think I've forgotten what the pretty, tidy Mrs. Hill looked like? Who'd ever have believed it? Will you pay me now, I say?"

"How much do you say it is?" gasped Jane, white with shame and passion.

"Ten shillings now, for those things I said, and the rest when I can look up the account," said the triumphant woman, maliciously.

"This is the last I will ever give you," said Jane, hastily

counting out the sum, almost the last in her possession. "Now go, and never darken my door again."

"That's as I please," said her late friend, saucily, and slowly moving towards the door; "I'll come when I choose. Good-by for the present, and teach your boy better manners than to call ladies ugly, specially when they're such friends as me."

As soon as she was over the threshold, Jane dashed the door close, bolted and locked it, against the jeers and laughter of the "lady" outside, sat down and covered her face, pressing her hands upon her forehead, and groaned, and almost foamed with a frenzy of passion.

Poor Matthew's wish that the proud spirit might be humbled began to be fulfilled now. Oh, what a sense of horrible degradation was crushing her! what frightful shame to lie at the mercy of such a person as this! Bolts and bars could not keep out the bitterness of such a condition as the tempter's insulting mockery had set before her. What could she do?

Oh, had she but cast herself, all helpless and sinful as she was, at the feet of the compassionate Jesus, she might have found peace; peace by the blood that cleanseth from all sin, and the Spirit that renews to holiness; but there is "a sorrow that worketh death," a taste of "the worm that dieth not," and this was gnawing at the heart of the unhappy Jane.

Long she sat swelling with rage and shame. Bitterly she cursed the tempter who had triumphed over her, and there was nothing but despair in the end. She had yielded herself to the soothing influences of a fatal charm, and found herself entangled in the strong meshes of a demon in disguise.

All at once she started up, and rushed to her cupboard. There stood a bottle, nearly full of the strong spirit to which she had begun to resort in secret, and instead of dashing it to fragments, and bursting her bonds, she swallowed glass after

glass of it with mad haste, and any action, however wild or shocking, was not too bad for the raving maniac she became.

With incoherent fury she denounced Mrs. Swinden, and threatened revenge; she kicked and broke her furniture, and threw several things into the fire, tossed the cradle, lately occupied by her lost baby, out into the yard, threw Matthew's chair after it, smashed a whole row of plates on the shelf, and made so fearful a noise that passers-by, failing to open the door, managed to take a look in at the window, and passed on, saying, "It's only a drunken woman!"-the most hateful thing on the face of the fallen earth.

CHAPTER XVIII.

FRIENDS WORTH KEEPING.

OBERT," said a gentlemanly young man about Robert Taylor's own height and age, laying his hand familiarly upon his shoulder, "my father says it is a pity poor Matthew should be pining for his letter, though he is so foolish as not to give his address to the postmaster; it may be some time before he is able to go for it."

"He shall not pine long if it is there, sir," said Robert; "I am going to inquire for it this evening after work; I told my mother this morning not to expect me home until late."

"I thought so," returned the other; "and I mean to go with you, unless you have better company, so expect to see me somewhere about the first turnpike."

Robert was very well pleased, and having brought a change

of dress with him to the works, he knew that his companion need not be ashamed of his appearance.

Soon after six o'clock, a light vehicle, capable of holding two people, overtook him at the appointed spot.

Young Mr. Dixon drove briskly on for some time in silence, during which we may take opportunity to say that he was now in partnership with his father, a steady, active man of business, and greatly beloved by all in his employ. The early affection he had felt for the son of the respected foreman had ripened into a strong friendship, which nothing on either side had ever interrupted, and which the excellent sense and self-respect of the workman preserved from intrusion or presumption.

"Robert," said Mr. Archibald, after a while, "you have never asked me anything about certain reports which you must have heard. Don't you care what I do for myself?"

"Yes, indeed, I do care," exclaimed Robert, with a rush of bright colour to his honest face; "and, if I hadn't felt good hope that all is right for you, I should have risked even displeasing you by speaking; but otherwise it was not for me to mention such a subject until you gave me opportunity."

"That's like my honest friend," said the other; "but what is your hope about it, on which you have settled down so satisfactorily?"

"That the young lady is a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, and, by all I can hear, worthy the love of a Christian gentleman," replied Robert, promptly.

"Then you can congratulate me when I tell you that all is settled, and that our God-yours and mine, Robert— is going to bestow on me His best earthly gift, 'a prudent wife'?"

"Yes, I can and do, with all my heart, sir," said Robert;