friend. She was alone, excepting the nurse which I had sent her the evening before. She seemed more willing to converse, and I ventured to inquire for her husband. She told me that he had been absent for several days. "On business, I suppose,' said I. "Perhaps so,' she answered, but colored deeply.

"I asked how long they had resided in B- She said about five years.' I found that her husband was out of business, and she had labored incessantly to obtain a livelihood, until she could no longer endure the strong tide of grief that had been a long time preying upon her. She had loved her husband devotedly, and was still unwilling to have a shadow of blame rest upon him.

"As I was about leaving the house, I met her husband at the door. His coat and pantaloons were ragged and

soiled. As my eyes met his, my heart sank within me; he looked embarrassed, and passed by without speaking. Before I got home I missed my pockethandkerchief. I retraced my steps and re-entered the door unobserved, and overheard Mr. Gilbert ask his wife who I was; being informed, he said he was sorry I had found where they lived.

"I have tried to keep out of their sight ever since we moved here.'

"I don't see why you should do so, they are good people. Did you ever know them?'

"When I lived in Roselle I was acquainted with Mrs. Bradley.'

"I wish, my dear, you would renew your acquaintance.'

"No, never; I would be glad to forget them if that were possible; I have ruined you and myself. I have resolved a thousand times in my heart

to reform, and you know, Lida, that I have three times taken the pledge, and have broken it. It is impossible for me to reform while the temptation is before me; if there was a law to prohibit the sale, there would be some chance for a man to reform, but as it is, it is impossible.'

66 6

During this I had been sitting on a stool in the hall, as curious to listen as I was unwilling to disturb; during their conversation, my thoughts returned to the scenes of our childhood and youth, for there was something in the dark eye of that stranger, that I had just passed, and of whose veiled history I had obtained an outline, which awakened a train of strange suspicion that had never before been awakened on any similar occasion. I had seen poverty stretching out her bony arms, and the poor inebriate clothed in rags. I have heard the cry

of the famished child, and witnessed the tears of the heart-broken mother. I had seen the bloated and drunken husband stagger thoughtlessly by the lifeless remains of his murdered wifeall this without thinking that it was possible that I should ever meet our dear brother. It was not easy for me to do that which I did, leave the house and seek my own home, without an explanation. I related the above to my husband, who proposed to accompany me to the house of the invalid. We called the next day, hoping to find Mr. Gilbert in. Biddy, the nurse, Isaid that he had been absent seveval hours; we found Mrs. Gilbert not as well as she was the day before. She had a high fever, and her cough had increased. I inquired of Biddy the cause; she said, this is rent-day, and they have no means of paying.'

"Mr. Gilbert did not rest during the

night. He has gone to seek work; their landlord was here early this morning, and threatened to set everything out of doors, if the rent was not settled before night.

"Mrs. Gilbert was taken with a heavy chill while she was here, and has been growing worse ever since. Just before you came in she took from her bosom this gold locket, containing the likenesses of her father and mother, and wished me to leave it at the pawnbroker's. She kissed it so many times before she could give it up, and said, 'Must I part with this last relic of happier days!" When I took it from her hands she raised a large quantity of blood, and it was as much as I could do to keep the breath of life in her.

"Biddy's tears said plainly that if she had the money, this treasure should not be taken from the sufferer.