sult to the death; but she knew not what to think after what she had just heard. “I will insist on knowing it!" she exclaimed. "The girl is young and simple, and may be easily imposed upon by -” "Hush! hush!" interposed Miss Sowersoft, "they are coming out!" As they came out, Miss Maria looked thunder at Fanny, and bade the doctor good morning with a peculiar stiltiness of expression, which implied, in her own opinion, a great deal more than anybody else could possibly have made of it. "Have her down stairs directly!" continued the lady of the estab lishment, (for Fanny had gone up stairs,) as soon as Mr. Rowel had passed out of hearing. "A nasty huzzy !—If she did not answer me every thing straight forwards, I should know what to think of it, and what to do as well, that I should! But you can do as you like, Mrs. Clink." Colin's mother called Fanny down stairs again, and took her, followed by Miss Maria, into the same room in which she had so recently held her colloquy with her uncle the doctor. CHAPTER XIX. Displays Miss Sowersoft's character in a degree of perfection unparalleled on any previous exhibition.-Fanny's obstinacy incites Mrs. Clink to turn her adrift upon the world. HAVING entered the room, Miss Sowersoft first peeped out to see that no listeners were in the neighbourhood, and then cautiously closed the door-all the blood in her veins mustering up in red rebellion against poor Fanny, as she stared at that young woman through two dilated eyes, with something of the expression of a hand-grenade with a newly-lit fusee. "Take a chair, Mrs. Clink," said Miss Maria, in a tone which de noted more than her ordinary attention to etiquette, as she still kept her eyes on Fanny, in order to make her feel her own insignificance the more keenly by the contrast; "do be scated;" and she drew up ano. ther chair for herself, while Fanny was left standing, as best became a servant-and a culprit. "Now, I am quite ready to begin. Have it out of her at once-I would not stand on ceremony with anybody like her!" "What is it, Fanny," asked Mrs. Clink, "that the doctor has been talking to you about ?" "I cannot answer that," replied Fanny: "I have promised to tell nobody, and I must keep my word." "There!-that's sufficient!" cried Miss Maria, "that is plenty! You see what it is. She has promised, and will not explain it. I knew before, as well as if I had heard, how it would all be. She has compromised herself, just as such a young face-proud huzzy was sure to do. It is a wonder to me, Mrs. Clink, how you have contrived to keep her respectable so long." I did not intend to talk to you, Miss Sowersoft," replied Fanny; but I will tell you that I have always been too respectable for what you seem to think." "Answer me, Fanny," interposed Mrs. Clink. will answer me." "I cannot, ma'am," said Fanny. "You positively will not, do you mean to say?" "I am sure you "Indeed I cannot, because I have promised I would not; but it is nothing of the least harm." "Oh, no!" exclaimed Miss Sowersoft, "not the least harm!-to be sure not!-oh, no! She is very innocent, no doubt." "If I discharge you from your service unless you do tell me, what then?" asked her mistress. "I cannot help it if you do," said Fanny, as she burst into tears at the bare mention of quitting that place which had been as a home to her nearly all her life. "Then I positively insist either that you do tell me all about it, or stay with me no longer than until you can suit yourself elsewhere. I do not wish to part with you,-far from it. You have been with me almost all your life, and I should not like to see the day when you turned your back upon my door for the last time; but I cannot have this silence and secrecy about such an affair as the present. I have known enough, and more than enough, of the ruin and misery that may ensue, to allow of it in any young woman under my care. I cannot have it, Fanny, and will not have it; so you must make your choice." Fanny cried bitterly, and with some difficulty made herself understood amidst so many sobs and sighs, as she protested that she dared not tell more than she had told; that, on her solemn word, it was not about anything that could in the least injure her. "Well, I must say I give her credit for what she says," remarked Mrs. Clink, in an under tone, to Miss Maria. "Give her a birch rod !" exclaimed the latter lady. "I wonder how you can allow yourself to be so easily imposed upon ! It is all her artfulness, and nothing else. She is as cuuning as Satan, and as deep as the day is long, she is! Ask her what made the doctor say he would do something for her, let her unriddle that, if she can." Mrs. Clink accordingly continued the examination much in the manner already described, and with about the same success. Fanny resisted all inquiry as strenuously as at first, until at length Mrs Clink gave her a formal warning to seek out for another situation, and to leave her present place as soon as she had found one. Fanny replied, that she would go begging rather than betray the trust reposed in her, as she believed that Providence would never let her starve for having done what was right. "What a wicked wretch she is!" Miss Sowersoft exclaimed, when she heard poor Fanny's expression of trust in a more just power than that which now condemned her; "I am sure her horrible wickedness turns me white to hear it." This female tribunal having dissolved itself, much as some other popular tribunals do, simply because nothing further remained to engage its attention, Miss Fanny was dismissed up stairs again, and the other two ladies remained below to discuss in private the question of Colin's removal home, until such time as his recovery might admit of his return to the labours of the farm. It will be quite sufficient to state, as the result of their deliberations, and in conclusion of this last chapter of our first book, that within eight-and-forty hours afterwards our hero, being somewhat recover. ed, was laid on a bed placed in a cart, and carried home; that Fanny attended him there during some brief space of time afterwards, until she procured another situation, and left Mrs. Clink's service at once and for ever; and that these changes, together with some others of very superior importance, which I shall proceed immediately to relate, brought about such a "new combination of parties" amongst the personages, great and small, who have figured in our pages, as cannot fail, when explained, to throw great light upon the yet dark and abstruse points of this veritable history. THOSE DUSTMEN'S BELLS. THOSE dustmen's bells, those dustmen's bells, The Peelers now pass all their time How oft, as I have lain in bed, Those morning bells have split my head; Joy, joy!-the New Police Act's past, But when the present Lord Mayor's gone, No; every Beak the law compels 24th Sept., 1839. J. S. Chapter XIV.-How Jack Sheppard was again captured. THE CHELSEA VETERANS (DUMALTON'S STORY), 66 BY THE REV. G. R. GLEIG, AUTHOR OF THE SUBALTERN" Chapter II.-Which speaks of processions, rumours of war, and wars. TO JULIA, THE TOLEDO RAPIER A TALE, MORAL ECONOMY OF LARGE TOWNS-CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, 450 BY J. AUGUSTINE WADE 462 BY DR. W. TAYLOR 476 THE REAPER AND THE FLOWERS, BY HENRY WORDSWORTH LONGFELLOW 482 483 THE PATRON KING, WITH AN ILLUSTRATION, BY MRS. TROLLOPE BY THE HON. JAMES ERSKINE MURRAY THE ABBOT'S OAK A LEGEND OF MONEY-HUTCH LANE, 496 BY DALTON 508 REMARKABLE SUICIDES, 66 BY DR. MILLINGEN, AUTHOR OF CURIOSITIES OF MEDI- A gentleman resolves, Chapter I-Diamond cut Diamond; the two rogues. Chapter III.-Colin takes steps to extricate Fanny from her difficulties; but is in- 540 PROSPECTUS OF A NEW JOINT-STOCK SUICIDE COMPANY |