The interesting penitent (expecting Lady Janet's visit) was, of course, discovered in a touching domestic position! She had a foundling baby asleep on her lap; and she was teaching the alphabet to an ugly little vagabond girl whose acquaintance she had first made in the street. Just the sort of artful tableau vivant to impose on an old lady-was it not?

'You will understand what followed, when Lady Janet opened her matrimonial negotiation. Having perfected herself in her part, Mercy Merrick, to do her justice, was not the woman to play it badly. The most magnanimous sentiments flowed from her lips. She declared that her future life was devoted to acts of charity; typified of course by the foundling infant and the ugly little girl. However she might personally suffer, whatever might be the sacrifice of her own feelings-observe how artfully this was put, to insinuate that she was herself in love with him!-she could not accept from Mr. Julian Gray an honour of which she was unworthy. Her gratitude to him and her interest in him alike forbade her to compromise his brilliant future, by consenting to a marriage which would degrade him in the estimation of all his friends. She thanked him (with tears); she thanked Lady Janet (with more tears); but she dare not, in the interests of his honour and his happiness, accept the hand that he offered to her. God bless and comfort him; and God help her to bear with her hard lot

6

The object of this contemptible comedy is plain enough to my mind. She is simply holding off (Julian, as you know, is a poor man), until the influence of

1

Lady Janet's persuasion is backed by the opening of Lady Janet's purse. In one word-Settlements! But for the profanity of the woman's language, and the really lamentable credulity of the poor old lady, the whole thing would make a fit subject for a burlesque.

'But the saddest part of the story is still to come.

'In due course of time, the lady's decision was communicated to Julian Gray. He took leave of his senses on the spot. Can you believe it ?—he has resigned his curacy! At a time when the church is thronged every Sunday to hear him preach, this madman shuts the door and walks out of the pulpit. Even Lady Janet was not far enough gone in folly to abet him in this. She remonstrated, like the rest of his friends. Perfectly useless! He had but one answer to everything they could say: "My career is closed." What stuff!

You will ask, naturally enough, what this perverse man is going to do next. I don't scruple to say that he is bent on committing suicide. Pray do not be alarmed! There is no fear of the pistol, the rope, or the river. Julian is simply courting death-within the limits of the law.

This is strong language, I know. You shall hear what the facts are, and judge for yourself.

Having resigned his curacy, his next proceeding was to offer his services, as volunteer, to a new missionary enterprise on the West Coast of Africa. The persons at the head of the Mission proved, most fortunately, to have a proper sense of their duty. Expressing their conviction of the value of Julian's assistance in the most handsome terms, they made it nevertheless

a condition of entertaining his proposal that he should submit to examination by a competent medical man. After some hesitation he consented to this. The doctor's report was conclusive. In Julian's present state of health the climate of West Africa would in all probability kill him in three months' time.

Foiled in his first attempt, he addressed himself next to a London Mission. Here, it was impossible to raise the question of climate; and here, I grieve to say, he has succeeded.

'He is now working-in other words, he is now deliberately risking his life—in the Mission to Green Anchor Fields. The district known by this name is situated in a remote part of London, near the Thames. It is notoriously infested by the most desperate and degraded set of wretches in the whole metropolitan population; and it is so thickly inhabited that it is hardly ever completely free from epidemic disease. In this horrible place, and among these dangerous people, Julian is now employing himself from morning to night. None of his old friends ever see him. Since he joined the Mission he has not even called on Lady Janet Roy.

'My pledge is redeemed-the facts are before you. Am I wrong in taking my gloomy view of the prospect? I cannot forget that this unhappy man was once my friend; and I really see no hope for him in the future. Deliberately self-exposed to the violence of ruffians and the outbreak of disease, who is to extricate him from his shocking position? The one person who can do it is the person whose association with him would be his ruin-Mercy Merrick. Heaven only knows what

I.

From MR. HORACE HOLMCROFT to MISS GRACE
ROSEBERRY.

I HASTEN to thank you, dear Miss Roseberry, for your very kind letter, received by yesterday's mail from Canada. Believe me, I appreciate your generous readiness to pardon and forget what I so rudely said to you at a time when the arts of an adventuress had blinded me to the truth. In the grace which has forgiven me I recognise the inbred sense of justice of a true lady. Birth and breeding can never fail to assert themselves; I believe in them, thank God, more firmly than ever.

'You ask me to keep you informed of the progress of Julian Gray's infatuation, and of the course of conduct pursued towards him by Mercy Merrick.

If you had not favoured me by explaining your object, I might have felt some surprise at receiving, from a lady in your position, such a request as this. But the motives by which you describe yourself as being actuated are beyond dispute. The existence of Society, as you truly say, is threatened by the present lamentable prevalence of Liberal ideas throughout the length and breadth of the land. We can only hope to protect ourselves against impostors interested in gaining a position among persons of our rank, by becoming in some sort (unpleasant as it may be) familiar with the arts by which imposture too frequently succeeds. If