Hain Friswell

“ How many an old man is there who still remains in his I heart as young as he was when that heart bent down, never to rise again, at the grave of his dead love? How many a woman I lives, mature but yet a girl in heart, who cherishes the feeling which she had when her love was lost at sea—never to be heard of more, but never to be forgotten? ”

“ As when the murmuring wind reaches an Æolian harp, and dies away upon the strings it renders eloquent with music, the same sad tone is caught by the hearts of those who listen—so the little company around the bed seemed attuned to the nature of this sad shrift between the lovers. Nor did the wasted form of the one, and the bowed and whitened head of the other, serve to detracting any way from the freshness and reality of the love. ”

“ The good sister dropped her beads when Eugenie spoke. She had been so long silent, that the nurse had grown accustomed to the dumb woman she attended to, and whose lips she wetted with brandy and water; and she had so quietly’made her own soul in her constant prayers as she moved noiselessly about the room, that Mrs. Wade was forgotten, save as some necessary piece of furniture.
So in this world we become the property of each other. ”

“ But the nursing Sister nodded her white cap, as much as to signify her acquiescence, and that it was borne out by her experience.
“ I know this nurse was true to me and false to you, by a secret knowledge that a mother has. My child remained with her, was brought up by her in his earlier years; and, alas! by that secret way of nature, of which we know so little, imbibed strange moral poison in his foster-mother’s milk. Alas, Philip! he is not what his father’s son should be, nor what his mother’s teachings would have made him.” ”

“ In the picture of the father she recognized the traits of her own Philip;and had not Eugenie been full of sorrow and ill-health, which was quite a sufficient reason to attract this young lady’s love, she would have loved her for the sad sweet voice and the full-hearted memory of her own young love. ”

“ Thirty years!—for thirty years, and the light of my life gone out, leaving me half dead and darkling.
“ The blow was too severe for me to attempt to defend myself, or to recover from it I could only gather what comfort there was in prayer, and in my child—our child, my Philip!”
Winnifred listened even more eagerly than before, and pressed the thin hand more closely. The Earl gazed at the dying woman even more intensely; and the doctor, raising her form gently, gave her some more refreshment. ”

“ Tom Forster’s wine seconded the effect of the electric fluid in a marvellous way. The most admirable and subtle spirit, alcohol—the most absurdly abused of all God’s creatures, the thing which sets free the true nature of man, and then is credited by the ungrateful creature with having caused the crimes which it gave him the courage to commit—coursed through the veins of Eugenie, and made her tremble into something like reanimation. ”

“ Brownjohn went up to the boy, and put his hand on his head, quietly.
“ Why, man alive,” said he, “ I had nearly forgot you. I’m thinking of another boy—the tall one from Kensal-green. There’s I something wrong about him.”
“ Is he a bad boy?” asked Patsy, taking an interest, as boys do, in one of their own class. “There is many bad boys about, sir. Some on ’em swears dreadful.”
“ Bad enough, bad enough,” said the police-sergeant; “and bad boys grow up bad men. Don't you go and do it.”
“ I won't, sir,” returned Patsy, quickly. “ I am sorry t'other one is.” ”

“ Surely, if men knew the love that women bear them, they would never use one harsh ! phrase towards them. The memory has been a pleasant memory, and has kept me alive during a long trial.
“And, alas! what a price we mortals pay for love, for comfort, and for joy! ”

“ The good little nurse, looking up with, saintly eyes from under the cold shade of; her white cortiet, told her beads with fervour, and, it may be, thanked God that she . had escaped this trial and this sorrow caused by human passions. Was she right? I hardly know. Is the soldier better who has not 1 joined the fight? It may be so; but surely the thankfulness which arises from past trial and trouble is better than that which boasts an isolated safety.
The same sweet smile again flickered upon the thin, pale features, as if some pleasant t memory had lit up a lantern which had long been dark. ”

“ Only a petty theft”
“ It’s all a mistake, sir,” pleaded the Maltese, in his most winning tones, to the Inspector. “ Mr. Brownjohn has a spite against me—”
“ I scorn the action,” said that officer. “ —And he is anxious to hunt up something against me, because I got out of his hands once.”
“ Don’t make another mistake,” said the Inspector, somewhat sternly, to the sergeant. “I’m very much afraid that the old man you’ve picked up has had nothing to do with the matter. ”

“ Snape had ventured his opinion that it was the old story—they were going over the evidence again, like a dog over his bones; when a gruff voice was heard at the bar, ejaculating—
“ I am a honest ’ard labrin’ workin’ man, dash my old bones, and all I wants is a pint 0’ beer.”
Points rang the bell for the barman; but before the man could serve the beer, the rough voice again bawled out—
“ I labors for my bread, and I'll have my ! beer. I'm on land and water. I am a workin* man, I am; d’ye hear, I’maworkin’ roan? Come, draw the beer, yer skulkin’ feller. You aint a workin' man, are yer?” ”

“ Here the boy’s eyes twinkled with an extraordinary intelligence.
“ Yes, sir,” he said, “there’s a spoon or two of the padrone’s there. I see ’im take ’em.”
“ And he must answer for it,” ejaculated:j the police officer. “ People are not to be robbed because they are poor foreigners.”
“ They are my own, cursed pig!” replied the Italian, to Patsy. “ Devil’s imp—I was right to hate you as I did.”
“ That may be,” continued Brownjohn, as Patsy was silent. “ Besides, Negretti, you are not with clean hands. ”

“ In a moment, also, Brownjohn’s great hand was twisted in his collar, and Negretti was dexterously twisted into the middle of the room; while Patsy, who had come to the rescue, picked the singed bundle from the fire.
“Cleverly done, boy,” said the policeman. “Now, look here, Negretti,” headded, “ this won’t do. Don’t be foolish. You know I can hold you till all is blue—at least your face would be if I throttled ! you. But I hate hard measures. Theremust be something in that bundle, or you wouldn't be so anxious to burn it.” 11
“ Nothing that concerns you,” returned the Maltese, savagely. ”

“ Points. A very grateful heart you must have; for yours is a very pleasant business, and does good to humanity.”
“Entertains both man and beast,” said Points, chiming in with his tailor and customer. “And I’m glad to hear you say so; because, Mr. Snape, you aint of the or’nary sort, you aint.”
“You’re very good,” returned the tailor, blowing his cloud of tobacco smoke through the window.
“ I’ve a favour to ask of you, Mr. Snape,sir,” said the landlord. “And it is, sir, that you will take half a pint with me.” ”

“ Know by his face. He isn’t one as tells lies.”
“ Hope he will,” returned the officer. “Maybe he will. Some of those city fellows are uncommon good to sharp boys; and you’re a sharp un. Well, here’s a shilling, Patsy. You can go. If you don’t get anything, come back to me, and I’ll try to help you.”
“ But there’s t’other one, sir,” returned Patsy, making no signs to go. “T’other one, as broke my shin bone a’most—him you called Seizer .”
“ By George!” returned Brownjohn, “that old fellow’s evidence has put everything else out of my head. Where is Cesar, eh?”
“ Locked up, sir,” returned Patsy. ”

“ Boy says that there were some spoons in the bundle as belonged to the keeper of the coffee-house where I picked up this Italian here.”
“ Well, there’s no harm in looking,” returned the Inspector. Then, seeing the resdess manner and glaring eyes of Negretti, he added, “ Now, you just keep quiet, and you’ll come to no harm. A man comes to harm always by himself. If you’re right, then you may go; if you’re wrong, then you must answer for it. That’s our way here.”
“ ’Sh!” hissed the Maltese, as if he were weary of the altercation. “ Do as you like— I am weary of the business. ”

“ She rose forward, and concluded what she was saying— which had been some guarded statements of a proposition made by her son—and said—
“He is here. I feel his presence. He is my bane, my punishment. He is a Murderer! ”

“ I thought I heard a splash, but didn’t mind it till the old hoss was jerked off his legs a’most, by the barge cornin’ ashore. I went back to swear a bit at Molly, and saw the tiller swingin’ a-one side with no-but nobody there. Then a cold sweat come over me. I pulled up, and run back. There warn’t no Molly. I never see her more till she turned up, three days arterwards, at one of the lock gates. Poor Molly!”
“ Dropp’d over,” cried the landlord.
“ Just so,” said the bargee.
“ Well,” cried Jasper, hurriedly, “we can't bring poor Mrs. Bulger back to life again.” ”

“ Countess Glengall’—’pon my soul!” cried the editor, “ the world is very censorious. Who would be a person in high station? How each rumour is caught hold of, and every crack in a reputation is made wider by these fellow-s. ”

“ It does not altogether desert the innocent.”
“ No,” thought Tom Forster, “ but it lets them get into strange scrapes. A wonderful provision in this world of trial. Let us hear what this man’s evidence is.”
Mr. Bulger, who had taken his hairy cap off a bristly, bullet-shaped head, was looking round the office—up at the ceiling, down at the floor, at the magistrate; then, on meetj ing his eyes, throwing his own glance in thecontrary direction. He held his cap very, tightly in both hands, as if he expected that Justice or the Police would snatch it off*. ”

“ Points, with all their new-fangled police, with their swallow-tailed coats and pewter buttons, like military officers.”
“ I wish you had the contract for the men’s coats,” said the publican, nudging the tailor, whereat they both laughed.
“And I wish you had the supply of the beer what the whole force drinks,” returned the tailor. Never were two persons in a more friendly state of mind. Mr. Points had just informed his friend that the police had been stirring, “ because,” said he, “ one on ’em gave notice to that tall boy to be up to the office before twelve this morning;” ”

“ It is a very natural feeling this, with hard workers. The wonder is that we do not see more of it; and that, as a rule, the working classes—especially the small masters—are to be found so constantly at work. For three hundred and ten days out of the three hundred and sixty-five, Jasper Snape was to be found at his board, cross-legged, with his 1 pale face peering out of his window—blue I with cold in the winter, and wet with perspiration in the summer. ”

“ The good little man—who had a tender heart too—would have been just as eager to annihilate the reputation of a rival; or to have criticised, in one of the journals devoted to medical science, the works of a brother with such biting gall, that the said brother might have languished and have died from the wound, and Dr. ”