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CHAPTER XV.

"How piteous is powerless pity! And how despicable the despite that tortures the pitiful and weak! Earth has many strange sights, but none more wonderful than that of useless agonies bewept by loving eyes that see nor remedy nor relief." -Dyson Brooke.

MEANWHILE Mrs. Jannings had awaited, in a state of extreme anxiety, the return of her strange lodger, Mrs. Smith. Hour after hour passed, and the shades of night fell, and her alarm deepened. "And all turnin' out so fortunit," she wonderingly soliloquized, keeping her hands engaged in rubbing the new furniture, for she found her fingers were too restless to go on with any of her sewing; "all turnin' out so fortunit, if people wasn't so perwerse, as I used to say to Tam, Tam, says I, what's the use

of goin' on so, says I,-lorks! how wild she did look when I said 'weddin',' as I didn't go to offend her, well, says I, Tam, says I, how can a woman have everythink clean, says I, when we only lives in one room, says I,—wherever can she be got to? She's gone and drownded herself, as is so perwerse, as things was a-goin' too fortunit, as she had plenty of work, and a beautiful house like this here, as is a palass after livin' in one room, as what Tam means I can't tell acallin' it a Paradise regained, as is better than the Paradise lost, as Paradise Row ain't lost, as it was there this blessed mornin', as I says to Tam, Tam, says I, but he says to me, little wifey, says he, then it's a pity as the Row isn't lost, says he, for it ain't much credit to creation, says he, and if it was lost, says he, not even the devil would care to find it agen, and pick it up,—and yet maybe, says he, and very tender-like he spoke, says he, 'maybe the Good Shepherd would go after it until he found it, says he;-as I hopes the Good Shepherd-and God forgive me for takin' the blessed words on my sinful lips-'ll go after this poor wild Mrs. Smith, as is gone so

queer; as is time to put the children to bed, a hour ago, bless their little hearts."

The children were by no means desirous of being put to bed. They always got on excellently together, and had been enjoying the afternoon on the floor immensely. Polly was prodigiously pleased at such a long opportunity of pulling the little Noni about, brushing his curly hair with a piece of paper, making elaborate calculations of the number of his fingers or toes, and gently biting the little creature, or kissing it, as either mode seemed to her the best for prosecuting her investigations into this mysterious puzzle of humanity. Bites and kisses,-so the world had begun to Helen's poor child, as to the rest of us; happy if we do not get quite eaten up before the kissing time comes;-though, perhaps, it is equally disagreeable to be eaten up afterwards. However, in this case, even Polly's bitings were so kind, that they gave the poor little creature rather the idea of petting; and perhaps, like some older folk, he could not have quarrelled with the large-eyed little woman even if it had been her pleasure to have gobbled him up utterly.

Polly had an especial objection to being put to bed. She was never suffered to reach that land of promise, downy slumbers, without passing through a Jordan of washing. In the morning and evening scene, when Mrs. Jannings prepared the floods, Polly contributed the thunders, and there was usually a terrible storm; that cleared up, however, as soon as Mrs. Jannings held up the little white chemise-a flag of truce in the war. "Bless the child! what lungs she has got, as 'll be very useful if she ever has a husband like my Tam, as 'll want shoutin' at, as he used to, as I could never shout loud enough to overbear him, though I had got good lungs too, as I used to say to Mrs. Swile, my dear, says I, as we were wery thick friends when we lived in one room, as I ain't going to grow proud and forget, though we has a country house now, as is what Mr. Magney meant when he said as you must keep Polly very clean and tidy, said he, that blessed mornin', 'cos, said he, she comes from the country, and now I knows that the country is so much dirtier than the streets, for there the dirt is never more than two inch, or three inch, but

here it's deeper than the spades, and in my opinion is all dirt, specially the turmut fields, as is what Mr. Magney meant, 'cos he knowed that bein' from the dirty country Polly would be fond of dirt, as that she is, bless her little heart, and not be fond of washin'."

But when the children were finally tucked up in their little beds, Mrs. Jannings became the more anxious in the lonely silence, and could do nothing but start up at the supposed sound of footsteps, open the door, and then return to sit by the window watching.

Tam was sure to be late. For, first, as long as it was light he remained in the new church at overwork. Early and late he was there now, for he had been promoted to carve some of the Gothic capitals of the octagonal aisle-columns, and was entirely fascinated with his higher employment. His well-trained hand had long learned a rare fidelity of execution, and now his aroused intelligence directed the hand to create things of beauty. That Monday he had gathered poppies out of the wheat-field as he passed to work, and had arranged four of them, with their