"You had at least a clear conscience," his wife answered.

"Do hush, will you?" Slade was now angry. "One would think, by the
way you talk sometimes, that I had broken every command of the
Decalogue."

"You will break hearts as well as commandments, if you keep on for
a few years as you have begun--and ruin souls as well as
fortunes."

Mrs. Slade spoke calmly, but with marked severity of tone. Her
husband answered with an oath, and then left the room, banging the
door after him. In the hush that followed I retired to my chamber,
and lay for an hour awake, pondering on all I had just heard. What
a revelation was in that brief passage of words between the
landlord and his excited companion!





NIGHT THE FOURTH.

DEATH OF LITTLE MARY MORGAN.


"Where are you going, Ann? "It was the landlord's voice. Time--a
little after dark.