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through every corner of the room could be traced by its loud and startled buzz, while I followed in pursuit, reckless of

answered, in a low whisper too, "Look, look, it is a fly! there-behold-he is drawing it again; why now-only see-he is drawing it once more. Just look-one-two-three, the destruction of every obstacle in my he is covering the board with them ?" Who path, heedless of the loud crash of china was it again who called out in a louder and glass, of the terrified screams of those tone, "Nay, you are leaning over him too who witnessed the awful scene, urged onheavily; you prevent his very breathing-wards by the sole resolve to crush the obhe will faint-give him air, for God's sake?" noxious creature out of sight, at once and The exclamation recalled me to myself. I for ever, shrieking out as I rushed backsummoned all my courage to rid myself wards and forwards from the door to the from the oppression of my obtrusive com- fireplace, from the window to the wall, in panions, and by a rough gesture made them that insane, fantastic chase : both slide heavily to a distance along the polished floor. At that moment the brusque movement I had made must have caused the old man to start, for he suddenly brought the light close to the dead man's face, and there, upon the foreheadby all the powers of Heaven!-was the deadly bluebottle fly, which had pursued the murdered man with such mysterious and fiendish tenacity even unto death, nay, even beyond, for his very corpse was not suffered to remain in peace!

With the gesture of a madman I started to my feet, dashing my drawing to the floor, and rushing towards the bed, having no other thought, no other aim, than the extermination of the fiend I felt sure would follow the corpse down into the very grave. But the aged attendant, weak and dimsighted as he was, had beheld it too, and with trembling hand was seeking to brush it reverently away. The shrill, wheezing noise, and the loud and angry buzz which had grown so familiar, yet so ominous to my ear, were heard once more. But this time the madness which had been smouldering all day, burst forth without restraint, beyond control. I leaped into the air, while an unearthly shriek, or rather yell, echoed through the apartment, and so they have told me since-was followed by a tremendous oath, unholy at all times, but doubly so in its awful effect, uttered thus in the presence of the dead! An exclamation of agony burst from the lips of the priest, and a low cry of anguish from those of the sister of charity, aroused at last from her devotions by this apparent visitation of some unhallowed spirit. But the madness had declared itself, and was now beyond all human control, and I was utterly unconscious of the confusion and dismay of those around me seeking in vain to hold me down as I bounded, like one possessed, from one end of the room to the other, upsetting the tapers, and leaping over the furniture in chase of the bluebottle fly, whose flight

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Avaunt, thou fiend, to whom the lifeblood itself is not sufficient prey! Canst thou not leave the dead to the devouring grave? Must thou dispute, with loud brazen trumpet, the right of the silent worm? Ah! thou shalt not escape this time. Help me, oh reverend father! Seize him, boy. Look, he is seeking to fly out by the window. Nay, see, he is now running along the head-gear of the sister of charity!"

I have remembrance of a heavy blow dealt with all the strength of my arm-of the cry of horror which echoed through the chamber as the sister sank to the floor-of the sensation of some living thing struggling within my fierce grip, and of the vivid pain which shot through my whole frame as it was crushed against my burning palm, as though I had seized the head of some monstrous snake, whose deadly fangs had fastened on my flesh-and I remember nothing more, save the wild triumphant laugh with which I fell backwards against the fender, and the sudden darkness that succeeded to the red and fiery glare which had seemed to envelop every object during the unearthly chase of the fly. The whole household had been aroused, and the whole apartment was filled with the servants, who came flocking from all parts of the mansion, terrified at the noise proceeding thus from the death-chamber. I was borne home, a raving maniac, to my mother; and so violent was the state of madness into which I had been thrown, that, by the doctor's stern command, I was conveyed to the hospital, as the worthy man, who had always been a friend of our family, declared that he could not be answerable for a patient in such a state, whose window on the fifth story looked out upon the pavement of the street.

And my mother wept sorrowfully, and, bowing her head, submitted to the decree. But she followed me, giving up her home and all her cherished household gods, so that if the power of recognition were ever

to be restored, her face might be the first to greet me. For more than forty days and nights did she watch me with unwearied care, and when the convalescence, worse than the disease, declared itself, she bore that, too, without a murmur. She has sat in a darkened room for days and weeks together, silent and motionless by my side, holding my hand in hers to quiet the fancy which had seized upon me that I was about to fall into the yawning preci pice which, in spite of the utter obscurity, I could distinctly behold for ever opened at my feet. Had I not felt the warm and earnest pressure of her grasp, I should have fallen into the dark tide of despair that dread follower of brain fever, more frightful than its wildest paroxysms. It was only during the rare intervals when I slept that she durst move from the painful torture to which my insane fury had condemned her. During the bitter trial of those weary days and nights her frame grew bent and aged, and her brow grew wrinkled before her time; yet her soul seemed steeped in a very bath of youth and sunshine, and she it was who brought back to me the hope and trust which of right should have been mine, but which, without her help, I should have lost for ever!

When my mother had thus snatched me from the jaws of the tomb, and the doctors had pronounced my cure a miracle, we left Paris for awhile, and lived in utter solitude in the country. I was happily free from any anxiety on the score of money, for the poor Duchesse de Méréville, who died just as I began to recover strength, left me a small sum to enable me to pursue my studies for a year, "without disquietude or anxiety as to the subject of his daily bread, not wishing," the poor lady said, "to make him a rich man, but a good painter." So I resumed my pencil and palette, and as memory brought back the events of my dread "holiday" at Meudon, so did Nature whisper again to me the secret she had confided to me beneath the White Thorn. My mother could easily understand why I would never venture on the painting of another portrait. The likeness of the dead Count de Sorgerac was the last I ever essayed to draw, and I feel that, were I to attempt another, that dead pale face would arise beneath my pencil. So that the study of landscape seemed to come as a natural consequence of the long country walks which brought back my health and strength, completing the cure my dear mother had

begun. My success-for I have been successful beyond my deserts-has been her reward.

CASTAWAY.

BY THE AUTHOR OF BLACK SHEEP," "WRECKED IN PORT," &c. &c.

BOOK III.

CHAPTER VI. MR. DELABOLE SHOWS HIS HAND. EVERY two or three years, at greater or less intervals, there comes upon the City of London a something which may or may not be the precursor of a panic, but which, in itself, is a species of blight with very gloomy influences. It spreads from the highest to the lowest, from the magnates who meet in the Bank parlour, to settle the 'rate of discount, down to the copying clerks and the office lads at fifteen shillings a week. The brokers and jobbers come on 'Change earlier, and remain considerably later than usual; anxious telegrams, couched in mysterious language, flash to and fro between the metropolis and the great centres of commerce, the City editors of newspapers, mysterious men, whose ordinary communications to the journal by which they are employed are only made through their clerks, then appear in person, in the dingy penetralia of Fleet-street, and the intelligence which they convey is as carefully weighed and as jealously printed as the leakage of the deliberations of a cabinet.

Some such state of affairs exists at the present moment. See the roofs of the inward-bound suburban omnibuses, masses of waving newspaper broadsides, in which are buried the clerks who are devouring their contents; hear the hum which buzzes through every chop-house and tavern within a mile of the Royal Exchange; chop-houses and taverns, at this autumnal time of the year usually deserted, but now overflowing, as in high mid-winter, with a crowd of eating, drinking, talking guests. See the homeward-bound continental steamers and the London hurrying trains crammed with chairmen, directors, managers, secretaries, and staff, who have been away pleasureseeking on their annual holiday, but are summoned back to duty by the first breath of the note of danger. See the one-eyed appearance of the houses in Belgravia and Tyburnia, to which the master has returned alone-leaving his family in the German gambling-place, on the Italian lake, or by the English seaboard-and where he shivers

amidst the holland-covered furniture of the gloomy dining-room, slips about in the carpetless bedroom, and tosses in the illmade bed, "done for" by the fluffy female in charge of the house. See the chambers only half painted, and the lodgings with temporary denizens inducted into them, to the horror of the regular tenants who have unexpectedly returned. See the dreary days and long nights intended to have been spent in sketching-parties, and picnic-parties, and flirtations; on Swiss mountains; in looking on at the board of green cloth, and watching the spinning ball, or the shuffled cards; in bathing, and boating, and pleasure - taking generally; but now condemned to be passed over deeds and ledgers, in file biting and hair splitting, and wondering when the worst will come, and how it is to be met.

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Delabole had lent a hand, had gone to un-
utterable grief. These two worthies had
long since seceded from them, and their
places had been filled by men of minor ca-
pacity and considerably less courage. Men
who pottered when they ought to have
struck, and struck when they ought to
have delayed; inferior beings, whose fate
was dismissed by Mr. Delabole with a
shoulder-shrug, and by Mr. Vane with a
contemptuous oath. But the Terra del
Fuegos stood firm at a time when every
public company in London was under the
harrow of discussion, and, so far as pos-
sible, examination. It may be imagined
that it did not escape its share of censorious
gossip. Clerks will talk; even such in-
tensely respectable men as those, old and
young, employed under Mr. Vane. What
the clerks said was merely this.
whereas the letters and reports from the
mines, after having been read by the ge-
neral manager and the board, were usually
sent into the outer office to be copied, those
recently received had been detained by the
general manager. On its being further de-
bated amongst the clerks whether these re-
ports had been submitted to the directors or
read and bottled by the "Toff" and "Pod,"
names by which Mr. Vane and Mr. Dela-
bole were distinguished by their subordi-
nates, the question being put to the vote,
it was carried by a majority that the re-
ports had been read and bottled by the
said T. and P. It is further noticed by
the employés that the "Pod" had been
away from London for a fortnight, and that
the "Toff," who had returned from his short
holiday, and was on duty again, had been
constantly in receipt of telegrams, which
scarcely seemed to improve his temper.

The Bank rate of discount has gone up two per cent, money is tight, and several old-established houses are declared to be cranky." As for the new companies, which came into notice two years ago, in the first blush of the "promoting" period, eight or nine of them have gone already. Little Mr. Grimmer, the celebrated bankruptcy attorney, now staying down at Margate, where he has taken a house on the Fort, and where his phaeton and pair are the admiration of the neighbourhood, reads the money article of the evening paper with infinite gusto, and instructs his youngest daughter, whom he idolises, to mix him another glass of whisky-and-water, to which a portion of the news he re-peruses as he drinks it adds a lemony flavour. No need for Mr. Grimmer to hurry up to town yet his clerks know when his presence is required, and can summon him by telegraph. Meanwhile let him ozonise his wiry But there were other signs of coming little body as much as possible, and rest squalls which the respectable clerks did not his busy brain. There will be plenty of notice, but to which the initiated might work for him when Term begins in No- well pay attention. Little Mr. Naseby, for vember, when, in the Bankruptcy Court, the first time in his life, drove down to the the "judges are met a terrible show"- City offices of the company, in which he and when "dividend deferred," and "ap- held so large a stake. He asked for Mr. plications to register," register," "trustees' re- Delabole, but, in that gentleman's absence, leases," and all the jargon of the court shall was ushered in to Mr. Philip Vane. His mean costs, and costs, and costs, all to be manner was wearied and languid, soft and added by Mr. Grimmer to the heap already sybaritic as usual; but the questions he put put away in store for the sole benefit of his to the general manager were keen and probbright-eyed little daughter. ing. Mr. Vane had seen Mr. Naseby before, knew that he enjoyed Delabole's confidence, knew also that he was a perfumer in Bondstreet. Dissatisfied with Delabole for the moment, and with Mrs. Bendixen's immediately - to-be-touched sixty thousand pounds before his eyes, Philip Vane thought

Amidst the smashes which were resounding on every side no harm had yet come to the Terra del Fuegos Mining Company. Several apparently flourishing speculations, originally promoted by Philip Vane, and to the floating of which Mr.

fit to snub Mr. Naseby, and to reply, first vaguely, and then insolently, to the queries put to him. Nothing could be better bred than the little perfumer's manner; a short dry cough was his strongest deprecation of the treatment which he received. He bowed himself out politely, and took off his hat to the clerks generally as he passed through the outer office. But on his way to the West End he stopped his brougham in Throgmorton-street, and instructed his brokers, Messrs. Bullen and Baren, to sell out every share he possessed in the Terra del Fuegos Silver Mining Company.

Mr. Parkinson, of Thavies Inn, was also considerably disquieted at the aspect of affairs, and the government office clerks and the financially hampered barristers who attended at his chambers for the purpose of money-borrowing, found him more than ever astonished at the nature of their requests, and more than ever disinclined, as they phrased it, "to part." Mr. Parkinson, knowing himself to be a vulgar, weak, and irritable man, wisely refrained from visiting the City office, where Philip Vane would, he was perfectly certain, have probed each of his tenderest sores, and probably exasperated him into committing himself. But he found means of communicating with Mr. Delabole, with whom he had an intimate acquaintance of many years' standing, and the replies which he received from that gentleman, though short, were so extremely irritating, that Mrs. Parkinson expressed herself roundly on his domestic bearing, and even the vicar hinted that his churchwarden was more prompt to anger than he had supposed. And there were other directors and shareholders who, many personally and some by letter, were worrying the office to know how matters stood, and asking for information which was in no degree imparted to them.

All this time Philip Vane was to be found at his post, attending to business with the greatest regularity, seeing everybody who desired admittance to him, and saying to each and all of them as little as possible. From the hour of his initiation into a high City position, he had dropped his soft, specious, pleasant manner, and adopted a sharp, curt tone, partly because he thought it was business-like, partly to save time, which now was really valuable to him. But since this gloom had settled down upon the financial world, his tone had become more curt than ever. He returned the briefest answers to all questions put to him, and when any visitors were shown in to

him, invariably stood up, that the new comers might not have any excuse for sitting down.

"That's

"Good morning," he echoed, on the tenth day of the pressure, after a fussy old retired admiral, who had just taken his leave, "and be hanged to you," he added, as he saw the door safely close. the fifth man I have seen during the quarter of an hour I have been here, and I have not had time to look at my letters yet.' He sat down at his desk and began rapidly sorting into two divisions the large mass of papers which lay upon it. The larger of these two divisions he sent into the outer office by a clerk summoned for the purpose, while he ran his eye again over the smaller ones, and selected therefrom one letter for immediate perusal. It was very short, but its contents seemed to be satisfactory. "At last," he muttered, as he placed the letter carefully in the breast-pocket of his coat, "at last I am to obtain a little relief from this perpetual wear and tear of body and soul. He is coming back to-morrow, he says, and I shall put it plainly to him at once that my marriage must be no longer postponed, no matter what might be the consequences. He will oppose it, I know that, urging as his reason the panic and the dubious information last received from the mines, but I am determined not to be put off any longer. In-I was going to say in gratitude to him, but I do not think there is much of that in my composition-in deference to his wishes, that's a better phrase, I have postponed it two or three times, partly because he has undoubtedly done me many good turns, and may have the opportunity of doing me many more, and partly because he has, or had, strong influence with Mrs. Bendixen, which he might have used against me. If, however, I judge women rightly-and I ought to be able to, if experience is of any use in such matters-from what I have noticed of the widow during the last few days, I may safely pit myself against that or any other influence. is no question of giving me up, the boot is on the other leg, by George; all she seems afraid of is of losing me. Wonderful how extraordinary attentive, and all that kind of thing, she has been since she came back from the Isle of Wight; never seems to like to let me out of her sight, and remains in London during all this beastly muggy weather for the mere sake of seeing me every day. Odd, but gratifying-uncommonly gratifying." And, from the mere

There

force of habit, Mr. Vane opened a drawer in his desk, and took from it a handmirror, into which he looked for some moments at the bright black eyes, and the sound pearly teeth, and the close-cut beard, which had worked so potent a charm.

"And what brings you into the City today, Doctor Asprey," asked Philip Vane, when they had exchanged salutations, "after being so recently here? You are not one of those gobemouches who come down to pick up rumours that they may repeat at evening-paper time in their clubs, nor are you our own artist,' commissioned to sketch the scene of the panic for one of the illustrated journals.”

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"No," said the doctor, with a quiet smile, "I do not aspire to any such high position. I simply looked in to know if you had heard anything of Delabole; if you had any precise information as to the date of his return."

"I had a letter from him this morning," replied Vane, " in which he says he shall be back without fail to-morrow.'

"Yes," he added, as he replaced the glass and closed the drawer, "I think I could defy my friend Delabole, if there were to come any split between us. He might counsel the widow, but I should carry her off. She would thank him; she would cling to me. With the chances before me, I will defy any one in the world, except- And a cold shiver ran through him as the thought passed across his brain -"except that parson at Springside. I have contrived to keep the thought of that cursed fellow, and all he said, well under, but it will surge up from time to time. Yes, if "To-morrow, good," said the doctor, he were quieted I should be perfectly safe; with the slightest manifestation of relief at for Madge, beyond confessing it to him, has the intelligence. "I am glad to hear it, but evidently neither the application nor the I should not have come into the City on inclination to take any further steps. Per- purpose, even to make this inquiry. The haps she does not even know anything fact is, I was summoned down to a very about my intended marriage. This man special meeting of the board of the inDrage learned it doubtless from that in-surance office opposite, the Friendly Grasp, fernal paragraph in the paper; but Madge never used to read any papers except the Haresfoot, and it would scarcely be in that. I wonder," he thought to himself, leaning back in his chair dreamily, and plunging his hands into his pockets, "where Madge is and what she is doing! I never could see her name in any London playbill, or hear of any one at all resembling her. How did this parson come to know her? How did he become so intimate with her that she should confide to him that great secret? He may be the chaplain of some hospital, and she may have told him when she was very ill! Perhaps she's dead! I never thought of that." And for the first time since his separation from her, Philip Vane had a kindly recollecton of the young wife whom he had deserted years ago.

He was roused from his reverie by a rap at the door, followed by the entrance of a clerk, who laid a card upon the table, and was bidden to usher the visitor in. The visitor when he entered happened to be Doctor Asprey, dressed, as usual, with scrupulous care, soft, bland, and placid. The clerk placed a chair for Doctor Asprey, who was not one of those clients whom the general manager received standing. Even if the doctor had not been, as he was, an intimate and constant visitor at the office, he was not the style of man whom one could have treated with such impertinence.

to which I am consulting physician. An awkward business; a widow has made claim for seven thousand pounds, the sum for which her husband was insured."

"There is nothing strange in that surely, my dear doctor," said Philip Vane, smiling.

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Nothing at all," said the doctor. "One noticeable feature in the case is, that the directors know that the man was poisoned, but there is nothing particularly strange in that."

"Know he was poisoned! They suspect so, you mean.'

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They know it, my dear sir. I know it. I am as morally certain of it as I am that you are talking to me now."

"And whom do they imagine to be the murderer ?"

"The widow," said the doctor, quietly, "and an accomplice, a young man, a general practitioner, whom, it is said, she is about to marry."

"The insurance office will fight the case, of course ?" asked Vane.

"I think not. I strongly counselled them not, as it is comparatively a young office; and I strongly advised them to wait for some future case before coming before the public with a prosecution."

"Some future case! Do you mean to say these things are of common occurrence ?"

"My good sir, there are hundreds of

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