sightless creature is he that robbed you. Then I will turn him out; but till then I will protect him. Sit down, Stephen."

"I must go," said Anna. "I say nothing now, Mr. Durell, about protection being every body's right; and, as to insult

The tears sprang to her eyes, and she found it best to hasten away. She did not think she could stand another fiery glance from Durell, or bear to look again at Stephen, as he stood, the personification of resigned meekness.

"You will come again," said Mrs. Durell, anxiously, as she followed Anna to the door.

"I don't know, indeed. Mr. Durell would make one think one's self wrong, in spite of every thing. He means only to be generous. He almost frightens me, lest I should have made a great mistake. I am sure, in that case, I could not do enough to make up for it. But, if ever I

was certain, it is now."

"There is no mistake, my dear, depend upon it. I have been suspecting, for some time, that Stephen is not so blind as he seems. Do not fret yourself about anything my husband said: but I am very sorry— -the first time of your coming" ing

"O, don't be sorry. If it had been you, I should have minded it much more. Do you know, Mrs. Durell, I often wonder what would become of us all, if women quarrelled as men do.

-Well; I know it is said that women's quarrels are very sharp; it may be so, though I have never been in the way of seeing any but there

is something so deep and awful in men's quarrels, that I can hardly fancy their being heartily made up again."

Mrs. Durell looked as if waiting for a further explanation; but Anna caught another glimpse of Durell, and was gone.

CHAPTER V.

AN ECONOMICAL PROJECT.?

ANNA spoke from strong feeling when she reported ill of men's tempers. In her own family the maternal despotism had been very quietly borne; and the paternal rule, however strict, could not materially interfere with the objects and pleasures of the young women in a retired farm-house. But Aaron had never been quiet in the yoke; and Malet sometimes forgot the policy of the lover in resenting the dictation of the father of his beloved. Since the removal of the family to London, there had been frequent contests between Le Brocq and Aaron, each of which was more bitter and more useless than the last. It was as absurd in Le Brocq to treat his son as a child, as it was in Aaron to conclude that every order given him by his father must be more or less wrong. The effect of the mutual folly was to throw Aaron into league with Studley,- -a league which began when Studley smiled at Le Brocq's instructions to his son on matters

which neither of them understood; and which was strengthened in proportion as Le Brocq became discontented with Studley's assumption of authority in the establishment where he was only foreman, after all. The proprietor was now frequently heard to say that he had no power over his own workmen, and that his foreman and his son carried every thing their own way; while Aaron had so far advanced in his progress to independence as to refuse to answer every question because it was a question, and to consult Studley before he acted on any suggestion whatever. There was, in consequence, so much constraint in every meeting of the household, such grave silence or painful bickerings at every meal, that it began to be a doubt in the mind of each member of the family, whether it would not be better for the father and son to separate at once than to go on in the high-road to an irreconcilable quarrel.

On returning home, Anna walked straight through the yard into the manufactory, hoping that the emergency of the occasion would be a sufficient excuse with her father for the intrusion. She gave unintentional notice of her approach by jingling a pile of ware as she passed.

"Here they come,' ," said one and another within hearing, as she advanced to the kiln where some knocking was going on, and three or four persons seemed to be busy. A man, who was holding a candle stuck in a lump of clay, observed hoarsely, "Here they come." "Here they come," repeated the treble voice of the boy who was re

ceiving the blocks of baked clay which had filled up the arch. "Are they coming?" asked the mounted man who was removing the blocks, and letting out the hot air of the kiln. "Let them come, if they can't let us alone for once," growled Le Brocq, who was satisfying his sight with the piles of spirit casks ranged one above another in the kiln, with each its four rims of brown ochre, while jars and bottles were nicely packed in the spaces between, no one touching another, but with scarcely room for a hand to pass.

"Back! back! Go in!" exclaimed Le Brocq, when he saw Anna's timid face, instead of meeting the bright brown eye of Durell. "This is no place for you. You know I desired

to say.

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"But, father, I have something very particular I have seen Stephen. -No, I have not got back our linen. I am afraid we shall never get it back. Perhaps if you spoke to Mr. Durell

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"I will-I will: when he comes this afternoon. Go in, child. Go!"

"But I rather think Mr. Durell is not coming this afternoon. He says he has not seen Aaron, nor heard from him."

"Not seen Aaron! Not had the notice! Bless my soul! what are we ever to do at this rate? No more of him!" suspecting that Anna was going to say something for her absent brother. "He shall know my mind when I see him. Booth, do you think we may go on?"

Booth considered that it would be a vexatious thing to be informed against for such a trifle. It

was an ugly thing, too, to run the risk of the penalty. He stood with the bar in his hand, ringing it against the bricks.

"You can bear witness that I did all I could, by sending my son with a notice," observed Le Brocq. "I dare say we shall find it is some mistake of Anna's. It is too late now to defer

the drawing."

"As you please, sir: not that I can exactly say I witnessed Mr. Aaron's being sent with the notice; but I dare say it will be all safe enough, sir. Shall I go on ?"

"You could not draw all the large, and leave the duty-paid, could you? No, no; I see that would not do. You may go on."

Studley came up while the hot ware was being quickly handed from man to boy, and from boy to the ground where it must stand to cool.

"So! No spies to-day! We are in luck. I thought Durell would oblige me so far as to consider you, as I made a point of requesting that he would. I congratulate you on having your premises to yourself, sir, for once. I shall take care and thank Durell."

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Speak for yourself, if you please, sir, but not for me. I am quite capable of thanking any person that I feel obliged to."

Studley made a ceremonious bow; and immediately asked Booth whether, in his old master's time, it had ever been allowed to place the ware for cooling in such a manner as he now beheld.'