This is right, of course; but how much of this crime is morally chargeable to the other? I should not be surprised, if some time in the long future, he should be called on to answer the question.

A few weeks after the receipt of the Harley letter, the suit about the Bond-street house was brought to a final decision, in the Court of Appeals. That decision was in my favor, or rather in favor of my children. So Goulding not only gained nothing, but had a large bill of costs to pay, besides heavy counsel fees. The victory was dearly bought. The expenses on my side were very large. In this I felt sensibly the dif ference between Mr. Norwood and a strange lawyer, who took no personal interest in my family. After paying all that was chargeable in the suit, and then deducting the bill of Norwood and Case, now represented by Mr. Case, against the estate, scarcely two thousand dollars remained! Of this two-thirds were decreed to be invested for the benefit of the two younger children. Alice's portion was retained in court, on suggestion of counsel, that she would in a few months be twenty-one, and could then receive it in person. I experienced some degree of despondency when I beheld what I once considered a sure resource for my children, to the amount of at least five thousand dollars, diminished to so small a sum. But I checked the feeling. I would not permit such an enemy to enter when of right I ought to be content, since a litigation, uncertain as every litigation is, had terminated in our favor. Besides, had I not resolved to turn whatever came to pass to my advantage? Walking on a pleasant errand is easy. Laboring for a rich result gratifying. I was now to labor always for a rich result!

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CHAPTER VIII.

MATILDA.

THERE was one thing inexplicable in Matilda Hitchcock. She did not exhibit the least feeling at the loss of her mother. Except that she was more reserved than before, no one could perceive the slightest difference in her demeanor. The fact that she was now to be an inmate of my house, and, as it would seem, dependent on me, appeared to irritate her. So far from manifesting any gratitude, a stranger would suppose she was suffering daily some wrong at my hands. At length I spoke to Alice about her singular conduct, and suggested that my daughter should talk with her. Alice, however, advised me not to notice these strange exhibitions. She said it would only make matters worse should we pay any attention to them. "She is so different from other girls, papa. If we let her alone, her good sense will triumph; if we attempt to interfere, we shall go from bad to worse.'

I thought of Matilda's father, my classmate, and could see in the daughter, magnified and distorted, the same characteristics which had given force to the man's career; yet the same qualities led him to quarrel with his uncle at the expense of his birthright. And my heart grew soft, and I told Alice she should have her own way with her friend.

A week passed-Matilda had been with us a month

when one morning after breakfast she desired to speak with

me.

When we were alone together she said: "I want to thank you for affording me food and shelter so long. I am now going to leave."

I was astonished. "Where are you going, my child ?” "I do not know; where I can support myself."

"Ah! you think my circumstances so straitened that you are an additional burden. Is it not so ?"

"No, indeed, it is not. Had you been rich, I would not have staid one week. It is because I know you are not rich that I have been able to remain so long."

"I scarcely understand you."

"I do not know if I understand myself," exclaimed Matilda passionately; "but yes, you can, you do understand how in the family of a person of wealth I should feel all the time as if I were the object of their complacent charity. In your house I have no such feeling, because I know you are struggling hard yourself and cannot feel the rich man's contempt for the poor. I can't explain myself," she added with impatience; "I only can repeat what I have said."

"Then, why can't you remain with us."

"Because I am not willing to be dependent. I wont be dependent on any body. Mother fretted her life away, indebted daily to the patronizing charity of religious hypocrites, who claim to confer favors by giving her work to do at half-price. She is dead and gone. I am glad—yes, glad her weary life is over. For me, I will never be dependent on human being, no, not for the slightest aid."

I looked earnestly at the girl. She seemed almost to defy me. My first impulse was to show becoming indignation, and with all proper severity of manner to read her a sound moral lecture on the folly, the wickedness of such feelings, to austerely explain how we all are, and must be dependent: first on GOD, then on each other, and so forth. My mouth was open with an important dignity to go through with these trite truisms. But I paused ere I spoke the first word of my discourse, for something told me that the girl's destiny would turn on my treatment of her that morning. There she sat, self-willed and imperious. Her manner, too, was provoking and tantalizing. Strange, what a marvellous beauty she displayed in this exhibition. There was no affectation in the scene, not a bit. She was thoroughly genuine.

Her decided, independent bearing, coupled with expressions which certainly showed a wrong state of feeling, and were very censurable, prompted me to the moral harangue aforesaid; the interest excited by displays of so extraordinary a nature, the recollection of her orphan condition, the thought of how weak and powerless she really was, while she bore herself so bravely, touched me aright, and the idea of the moral lecture vanished. A natural view of the situation came in its place.

แ "You are not so far out of the way, Matilda, as some persons might suppose," I said. "You are too old for me to manage as I would Anna, and therefore, I think, old enough to be reasonable. Now then, as you have no plan except to avoid a state of dependence, which is intolerable to you, and as I know you love Alice and the children, and used to like to come here, I propose that you pay into the

common treasury what really, on a fair computation, we shall decide it actually costs us extra for your being here. For the present, your needle can easily provide that, without any appeals to the 'benevolent' people you detest so much, and we will hope something better in the future. Beyond this, I am sure you wont insist on my making money out of you as a boarder.” I smiled. The tears came into Matilda's eyes, and she walked hastily out of the room. From that day it was all right. Alice and she fixed the rate of the weekly stipend; in short, the latter interested herself at once in our daily routine, and, through my daughter, soon came to know as much of my own daily affairs as Alice herself. I do not mean to say that her infirmities of temper were cured; by no means. But she felt at home in our house, and appeared to take the same interest in what occurred as if she was one of my own children; and I believe, from that time she had for me feelings similar to, if not as strong, as those she would have had for her own father. The fact was, Matilda required from her infancy a firm but reasonable and consistent government. When I got better acquainted with her, I discovered she relished the rule of a strong hand, provided it really was strong and always right. Her mother had not undertaken to restrain her. She knew, indeed, how to touch her feelings, and unfortunately, used to strike the string too often. Indeed, to the weakness of her mother's management could be attributed a great share of the daughter's faults.

Long as I had lived in the house I now occupied (over