The Storyteller. SELLING OFF.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXV, Issue 48, 1 April 1898, Page 23

The Storyteller. SELLING OFF.

(By one of the Sellers.) " Mr. Tomkyns ! " " One moment, Miss." " Mr. Tomkyns ! " in a shriller key. "At your service, Miss." But when the thin, sallow, little shop-assistant did come to attend to the wants of the showy blonde behind the counter, Miss Meg Scarlett received him with cold disdain, and his tardiness was punished by an icy hauteur which infinitely amused one at least of the purchasers. " This lady wants to know if we have any more of this (jrenat velvet in stock, also would you inquire in the feather department if they have an aigrette which would match the velvet, and you might tell Mademoiselle Helene that I am bringing a lady presently to look at her selection of Paris millinery, and," in a lower and sharper tone, " if you could execute the commission's before Christmas I should be personally obliged." Poor flustered Mr. Tomkyns bustled off with obsequious alacrity ; it was evident that his lady divinity might trample on him as much as she liked, and that he enjoyed the trampling as much as she did. My companion and I exchanged glances, and we both surveyed the beautiful shop-girl, who had adopted an attitude of patient listlessness, which betrayed at once her weariness of body and languor of mind. " We are preparing for our annual summer sale." she said to me in the conventional tones of a well-trained shop assistant, " so things have got a little misplaced ; but I have no doubt we have the article you want if you do not mind waiting a few moments." Contrary to the usual custom of shoppers, we did not mind ; and when we emerged from this large West End emporium our interest had stimulated not flagged in the fair-faced, attractive seller. " Did you ever see such, sweet, inscrutable, grey eyes 1 " exclaimed my partner in our shopping expedition, as we bowled along in a hansom towards Kensington, he puffing a mild cigarette. " Depend upon it, that girl has a history." " How romantic you men are, Bertie," I said, with the wisdom of a woman of the world, " I daresay her mother keeps a lodginghouse and she goes out just because she is dull at home." " You girls never go beneath the surface," Bertie Ingram replied in a squashing accent ; " that may have been her primary object ; but if so she has achieved it, you bet," and the embodiment of the mature experience of eighteen years surveyed me with undisguised contempt. " That shop-girl life must be a curious existence," I remarked. " I should like to try it. I know a bodice-hand in this very establishment. Do you think, Bertie, your mother would give me a reference if I applied as an extra hand for the coming sale ! " " I'll answer for her, never fear," said my escort, eagerly, " and if you manage it, I'll come and look you up." '• Or the mysterious blonde with the inscrutable grey eyes," I answered laughingly, as we drew up at our destination. '• All right, Bertie, it's a bargain, is it not 1 " A week later, and by contrivances with which it is unnecessary to detain the reader, I was installed as sale help to Miss Me a ' Scarlett in the ribbon and lace department, and was to live indoors as she did. Txiis arrangement made a considerable diminution of salary but money not being the object aimed at, I made no difficulty as to terms. " The respectability of the system more than compensated for the lowness of the wages," remarked the manager in rather a severe tone to me when he engaged me ; " and I fancy a reference from a firm like ours will be worth a great deal to you," with a marked emphasis on the last pronoun. 1 meekly acquiesced, though his sneering allusion I failed to grasp. I had accomplished my design, and prepared blithely to fulfil my duties. They were of an elastic though arduous description. I will describe those common to all first. A big bell roused us at 7 a.m. We slept eight in a room, in neat little beds, curtained off from each other, a diminuthe mirror hanging over a diminutive washstand. There were two gases, and the^e were allowed to be lighted for ten minutes each morning to curl our fringes. At 8 a.m. we had to present ourselves at breakfast served in the basement. We commenced with a chapter of the Bible and an extempore prayer, the service was performed by the male manager-in-charge, who did his part with great unction and force, though the moral of it was rather lost on those who knew he had deserted his wife. A fine of 6d was exacted from the outworkers who did not patronise this religious ceremony, and 3d was knocked off our weekly earnings if we failed to avail ourselves ot the spiritual advantages so considerately provided for our 6ouls. The meal was good of its kind, tea, and bread, and butter, ad libitum, occasionally a herring each, and sometimes a fried ej>g. We sat according to our respective grades, and it required a perfect education to know why Misß must be placed at the bottom of the table, while Miss naturally took a seat at the top. The dormitories were locked to us after 9 a.m., but the splendid lavatories on the lower floors abounded with mirrors and up-to-date toilet accessories ; in some of them the shop assistants openly kept powder boxes labelled with their own names, so that art might conceal the ravages of bad air and fatigue made on the most youthlul countenances. The morning work was desultory but hard ; many goods had to be re-labelled, those en evidence brushed and refurbished, counters had to be dusted, boxes tidied, remnants sorted, and yesterday's orders finished or attended to. Customers dropped in slowly up to mid-day, then they crowded up in shoals, talking, gesticulating, bargaining, till one's head ached, and one's legs and arms literally I

quivered with a quick, throbbing sort of pain due to the strained tension of the nerves.

A detachment of employes, male and female, was due at dinner at 12, another at 1 p.m., but of course a meal was subservient to business, and if a jaded seller could only sit down to a pldte of half -cold roast mutton, a glass of flat ale, and a tepid, under-donu suet dumpling at 12.40, she must take it in the ordinary cour.-e that at 1 p.m. her place must be oleared whether she had completed the unappetising refection or not, to make room for batch No. 2. The chef had to do his duty ; her meal was carved and served by 12 prompt, and by 1 p.m. as promptly it had to be cleared away ; it was her look-out to imitate his punctuality. The afternoon was very fatiguing, customers streamed in without cessation, wanting everything, wanting nothing, and making such a precious fuss about a trifle that I wondered the sellers ever kept their tempers at all, or knew what they were doing. Tea was to be had standing if one dared to leave one's post. We were supposed to close at 8 p m., and those that lived outside made a point of leaving then, whether there was a pressure of work or not ; so it fell heavily on the indoor hands who had to attend to purchasers who arrived at the last minute, and haggled over every farthing. After the shutters were up there was much to be done, and it was always eleven p.m. before supper of cold meat, bread, and beer was finished, public prayers over, and we retired to our cells, and the gas was turned off.

Outwardly our lives were very sombre and monotonous ; but if anyone could have taken a peep behind the scenes he would have seen they were just the reverse.

Everybody was in love, and somehow the couples were always getting mixed. If the fair young man who presided over the glove counter dared to smile at the fuzzy -headed young lady with a blue ribbon round her neck, the fuzzy-headed young lady with a pink ribbon scowled fiercely at him for a whole day and pinched the favoured rival every time she passed her. It always required some delicate manoeuvring to discover if one's particular admirer was going to first or second dinner, and so to arrange that (accidentally, of course) you were having your meal at the same hour. It was a common thing to hear a young lady say nonchalantly within hearing of her swain : " It is my turn to go to first dinner to-day, and nothing shall prevent me, that I do declare." And woe betide the same devoted swain if anything prevented him either. Talking, except on business, was strictly forbidden, and attention to this rule was enforced by a fine when infringed ; but constant communication with each other was kept up by surreptitious notes which found their way into belts, sleeves, pockets, etc., these notes being in French, shorthand, or hieroglyphics. What with bickerings, jealousies, loves and feara, the place was always rife with excitement, and added to this there was the forbidden delight of getting those who lived outside to smuggle in food and drink according to taste, which food had to be eaten in the dark after the witching hour of midnight, to the accompaniment of much girlish laughter and giggling. But the conventional meals were not always without conviviality. One of our shopwalkers, Mr. Bland, hired himself out as a danoer to parties where gentlemen were in the minority, and his tales of the sayings and doings of the upper ten evoked much hilarious mirth. Another, Teddy Richmond, "did a little " in the comic way, and his little was enough to excite our risible faculties to a very considerable extent. Though we irreverently called him Teddy Richmond, he was a fat, fatherly man, who was both gallant and impartial in his attentions to the fair sex, and was constantly making presents to one or other of us in the shape of fans or fancy articles. I had not been there more than a few days when something more serious engaged all our attention. There was a thief amongst us ! As is customary at all big sales, private detectives were employed as shop walkers, kleptomaniacs were carefully shadowed, but in spite of every precaution goods went, and went rapidly. " It's a practised hand, depend upon it," said nervous little Mr. Tomkyns rubbing his red knuckles, '• I rather enjoy the way he is baffling the police, don't you, Miss Scarlett ?" Meg smiled languidly but made no answer. Indeed she was seldom known to converse, and though her beauty attracted many of her fellow-workers, her staid, imperious way kept them all at a respectful distance. She treated the girls with the same bweet, lofty indifference, which did not endear her to her own bex, except to Hattie Peploe, a merry, warm-hearted little maiden, with skin as brown as a gipsy's, and vivacious brown eyes, that looked brimiul of affection and fun. On the ground that contrasts agree, Hattie had taken to Meg Scarlett amazingly, and no vv putting her arm through hers, as we wera leaving the supper-table, she observed :—: — " I don't believe it's a man at all ; if there's anything clever done nowadays, it always turns out to be a woman, eh, Meg /" Meg's fair face flushed and she looked annoyed. '• I don't know," she said, almost pettishly, " but I wish we had done with detectives. They make me so nervous, 1 feel I shall go into hysterics or do something dreadful." But Hattie went no further than her words. Something in her voice made me regard her intently. Her grey eyes were almost black with intense btrain of some sort, and the pulse in her long, white throat — which -was the chief of her many beauties — throbbed so palpably it was painful to witness. " I believe you," she said roguishly ; '■ wny, the new shopwalker on our side is a detective, I believe, and he is always looking at you, Meg. What will Mr. Bertie Ingrain say ? Fie, Meg. you are a flirt."

Steady, self-contained Meg was trembling from head to foot.

" Bertie Ingram is a boy," she said between her tightly-closed lips. "I am old enough to be his mother ; and now, good night, I am going to bed."

Till early dawn I lay awake listening to Meg's suppressed hysterical sobbing. What was the cause ? Did the allusion to Bertie disturb her ? Surely not. He had, it is true, suddenly developed a mania for aesthetic bits of ribbon, and rather haunted our counter in consequence ; but, as far as 1 knew, his devotiou had proceeded no further, while Meg was so staid for her five and twenty years, and he so boyish for his eighteen, that I could not conceive it possible that she was nourishing an affection for him. No ; there had always been some mystery about her, but it was not going to be explained in that way. Perhaps the suspicion with which the air was charged made one note the veriest trifles ; but it really did seem, as Hattie said, that our new shop-walker developed a tremendous interest in Miss Scarlett. He lingered about our counter, he pricked up his ears when she spoke and would suddenly address her, as it to make her raise the eyes that were so persistently lowered. Such conduct was naturally trying, and poor Meg lost all her nerve. She started if spoken to abruptly, she coloured at every trifle and her shapely white hands fluttered as she served the crowding rust >niers. Hattie and I, who worked each side of her, became anxious about her health. She was so unlike herself ; Hattie lound her one day in the passage, wringing her hands and crying : " I shall go mad, I know 1 shall," ohe kept saying, but no cause would she give for her grief. Another circumstance occurred to deepen our perplexities. A gentleman began to pay frequent visits to the shop, bringing a different lady every time ; they always made purchases at Meg's counter, and he eyed her with his gleaming black eyes almost fiercely the while. He was noticeable, being taller than most men, as thin as a scarecrow, and with a long black beard that added to the ghastly pallor of his face. Hattie and I had a confidential chat, of which he was the subject. " Do you think his beard is false,' I asked, " and that he is another detective ? " "No fear," she replied briskly. '"A detective would make up better than that ; he is a genuine foreigner, I bet, but for some reason Meg is dead frightened of him. Perhaps he is her husband whom she thought dead." We laughed at the wildness of her words, and the matter passed from our minds. That very evening as we were leaving the supper table the manager asked us to stop. " You can go," he said with a smile to Meg, who was a special favourite, for she never frivolled or romped. '* and you,"' indicating me, "what 1 have to say cannot possibly concern cither of you, and the gentlemen can go, too," with a wave of hi^ hand in the direction of the door. Then, without waiting until we were absolutely gone, he raised his voice and began :— •'Something very painful has come to my knowled-je, and because I am bound to protect the young ladies under my oare. I feel it niy dnty to read aloud a letter I received to-day. I trust to your honour to let me know to whom it refer-, so that ior the safety of all I may know what steps to take in the matter." Here he drew an envelope from his pocket, and every neck was craned that not a word should be lost. Meg and I stayed in the doorway, she with a look of such guilt in the shrinking attitude, such despairing defiance in the quivering nostril, that my heart ached for her as she stood thus alone. The letter was as follows :—: — "Dear Sir, — I have discovered, from personal observation, that among the young ladies of your establishment dwells one who is legally my wife. W e all know the weakness of our sex win n a beautiful woman is concerned, and no doubt von are beirieiidniur her after believing a cock and bull tale ot desertion, violence, and the like. So I shall not bandy words with you, sir. but stiai^htw.iy come to deeds. Kindly tell my wife that on the vciy first chance I shall shoot her through the heart. In this way we dual with traitors in the Australian bush. I remain, faithfully yours, — Dick Leith." A thrill of suppressed horror ran through the assembly as the manager finished reading. But the expression on Meg's tace was one of absolute relief. "Now," proceeded the manager with evident embarrassment, "thiswffy be the letter of a m daian ; it is evidently that of a scoundrel and a cad. In any c.i-w 1 am bound to notice it, and 1 have adopted the most straighttor »\aid course of submitting the contents to you, and I beg the one whom ii concerns 1 to acqu mit Us with the truth, secure of our pr tejtion, if protection she needs." His eyes scanned with keen scrutiny the two rows ot surpiined, curious, eager listeners, but not ouee did he glance at the doorway, where Meg stood with white hands clasped still as a marble statue. He saw astonishment, fear, suspicion, doubt written on the faces before him, but on none the expression of guilt. The silence became felt. His voice had a tinge of regret when he ppoke again. ■• I shall be sorry," he said, " to have to tell the heads of our firm that their generosity in the matter has not met w ith a similar response. You are all aware that we only employ nn»lc hands in the shop, and, therefore, some young lady came to us w it a ialso credentials, and is living here undor an assumed name ' " Perhaps the leiter is a hoax," suggested JLitt ; c in her pott, bird -like voice from the doorway. For the first time he looked to where she stood. "Perhaps," he repeated absently, and his eyes mot those of Meg. She started as if but just awake, and stepped forward a\ ith her face all aflame '■ That letter was from my husband," she said calmly and clearly. "1 am Mrs. Leith." There was nothing of the jiuilty creature about her now. She stood straight aud untiiuchmg with the light falling on the Grecian

shaped head which was proudly thrown back, showing the graceful curve of her swanlike throat. She gave no explanation she made no apology, nor did she seem to feel the fire and flash that shot from many an eye of triumph and malice, and petty bpite gratified, for can a woman be fair and not have foes ? She had to deal with the manager, and with the manager alone she dealt. He showed his concern, hers was hidden. ''This must be very painful to you— Mrs. Leith "— with a gentle hesitation over the name, '• and I am sure no one wishes to increase your distress. Come to-morrow after breakfast in the oftee, and we will talk the matter over." I am afraid that many tell asleep that nig-ht with the conviction that wheth ;r Dick Leith was mad or bad~he was right in saying that a woman's beauty sways a mar. Of that interview in the office Meg never told a word, not even to Hattie Peploe. But it leaked out somehow that Meg had once been on the stage, that while touring in the provinces she had met and married Mr. X .chard Leith, a rolling stone with neither manners nor morals, who, after ill-treating his wife in every possible way, finally absconded with a large sum of money belonging to the manager of the very theatrical company who had engaged Me/s services. It further transpired, again through that convenient medium ' somehow,"' that a shadow of complicity rested on the wife, who, in her mad eagerness to get rid of an unwelcome spouse, lent a willing ear to any means that effected a separation. Anyhow, she disappeared suddenly from the boards, and for three years a palefaced, desperate woman faced a world that refused her food because she could not produc - a reference. She had been in Messrs. s' employ for nearly two years, and had given unqualified satisfaction in every way. Apparently they were in no hurry to get rid of her. Each morning saw her at her post, a little quieter, a little paler than usual. Some of the subordinates tried to make friends with her on account of her " troubles." But in vain. She repelled all advances with an ioiness which chilled the warmest hearted. Even ardent, irrepressible Bertie could not fail to note her altered demeanour, though when he heard of her early marriage and sad consequences he was loud in expressions of indignation and revolt. '■ Poor girl," he exclaimed, " to be tied to such a scoundrel, and of course all you women look down on her for what she has gone through. She wants aIL the sympathy she can get." And so he came even oftener than before. I often fancied that the ice would have liked to melt to him. I have seen the great grey eyes linger wistfully on his boyish face, and the set lips soften and quiver as he poured out with youthful enthusiasm his belief, his i.uth, his worship of her as the one perfect ideal of his life. "• lie is so true," she said once to me with infinite pathos, " and none ot you can tell what that word means to me." •Meanwhile the mysterious foreigner had completely disappeared, and everyone went on as usual — even the thief. Well, no, that is scarcely true. The thief was not influenced by the Lite depressing circumstances ; he seemed to revel in his surroundings. He was quite at home, and metaphorically snapptd his lingers at detective-*, employes, and the sage manager himself. lie took irono n the right, from the lelt, from above, from below, whatever his fancy prompted ; yea. even the customers were not sate from his aJI-prying eyes Lady D ■ dropped a diamond earring in the shop, so she aveired. It was never seen again. The Hon. Mrs. X • laid a cut-u r ki-s scent-buttle fur a moment on the counter. The strictest search, tailed to rind any trace oi it. A society beiuty was positive '•he wOlw ol c a sold bundle when she entered our premisf s ; she left fieiu b in»leless. A u.usio ball star hud a pearl pinto fasten her \eil. but the pearl pin departed iroui its owner during her quarter ot tin hour's sojourn tit Me sts . And all the time we were kept under the strictest surveillance, our boxes searched, and the little trotters (errand yiils) examined at intervals. The matter baffled all professional scrutiny. About this time a- carious incident happened. Hattie was dusting our counter one morning when her foot touched something hard. " Oh, look," she said, ''here is the diamond solitaire Madame la t>\\ ore she lost yesterday." " You are mistaken, said Meg quietly, " that is mine," and she held out her hand. llattio look( (1 at her, puzzled : we had never seen Meg with anything so handsome. " I cannot be mistaken," Meg went on firmly, though there w«is a curious glitter in her eyes ; '• Bertie Ingram g.ive me a pair for my birthday. .See. heie is the other," and she showed something sparkling wrapped in tissue paper. She was so cool over it. one was bound to believe her, and Hattie gave up the solitaire. But it lei I me more puzzled stili, for I knew Btitie could not afford real gems, and be would not have offered her anything else. And now the sale was virtually at an end, and the employes' ball was to mark the conclusion. The weather had been so hot, and tiie pmvLw'wrs so many, that we weie sill too weary to look forward with my picture to it. an<l a day in the country would have been much i.iore enj'.j cd. lint it was iho custom of the firm, and they would have felt mncli nggrii ved it anyone had pleaded iatiyue ns an excuse tor absence. Each hand was allowed to invite a friend of the opposite se\' : 1 brought Bertie at his urgent request, thoujjh I 1 eared the wisdom oi his seeing too much ot his silent dniuiry. 'lhe ball was h<-M at an hotel, ami on the hottest night of that very hut Hinim r we oowded into a room which wa= stilling with a lvdiiMdauc yof g.i«. The \v\ills with pink glazed cahco, .<n<i the ear was demeaned by the noise of a too nuincous band. 1 hero was no stinting m either w me or whiskey, and the 3'oung pi npio evidently me nit to n akc up lur the previous peiiod or. enlorc.d .sil'.'U'.e and icstraini.

It was all glare and glitter and uproarious mirth, all except one dark corner, where a little group stood talking with lowered voices and grave, troubled faces. The oentre of this group was the manager ; two partners of the firm were near, and each was listening intently to the communications of a tall man with a loner black beard and a face of ghastly pallor, who was accompanied by two friends. Mr. Tomkyns had no lady-love but Meg, and when he saw her appropriated by Bertie, he had nothing to do but wander aimlessly about. In this way he hovered near the gloomy group, and divining that Mrs. Leith was the subject of their whispers, he thought it due, in his allegiance to her, to listen to their conversation. " I should not believe it on your assertion," lie heard the manager say. " My dear sir," said the bearded man grimly, " I don't ask you, though remember nothing can be proved against me except a rather suspicious flight. However, suppose you drop my personality ; it is not as interesting as hers. She is my wife ; she is the most accomplished thief in London. I am as proud of one fact as the other. It has been a real pleasure and a lesson in ingenuity to track her little devices. She is in touch with the biggest female gang of the day. Every article you have lost she has taken and passed at once out of the shop to one of her confederates. How do I know ? Because I accompanied them, and knowing a thing or two in that line, twigged how the game was played. I puzzled Mrs. Meg by showing myself in their presence when she thought she had packed me safely off to Australia. " But she kept her countenance finely, supposing I was in the swing coo. But when I wrote, and said I would ' peach ' unless she gave ma a share of her pilferings, my lady changed her tune and said she dare not play false to her pals ; she was sworn to them and I had better go my own way, or it would be the worse for me. To threaten a cove puts his blood up, especially when that cove is your husband. She may be a victim, she never had much courage ; but in this world it is the victims who get crushed. So I frightened her rarely by sending that letter, expecting she'd rush into my arms. Not she ! She twisted you, sirs, round her little finger, and defied you to spoil her game. Then I swore to be revenged, and here I am " But Mr. Tomkyns had slipped away to confide what he had heard to Meg's t«vo staunch friends. Hattie and myself. The former, excited and impulsive, rushed straight up to the palm behind which the gentlemen were standing. "Don't believe a word of it," she cried, clasping her hands, her bright face all aglow, " that man is a horrid, cruel monster, you can see it in his face." " The cruel monster " bowed. " Don't believe a word of it," he repeated, taking her ungently by the shoulder ; " now look. Do you see her dancing with young Ingram ? Do you see the locket on his watch chain ? When next they come round that locket will be gone. Search her then and see." " You lie ! " she exclaimed. But there was something in the man's voice that made us all, from behind the palm, watch the young couple with bated breath as they glided by apparently engrossed only in the perfect rhythm of their stpp. A slight flush warmed her usually pale languor, and arrong the bcuncing, heated, romping crew her stately, graceful form was conspicuous for its dignity. Did she raise her eyes for one moment to meet those of her husband .' Did some baleful influence overpower her nature and make her but a passive instrument in the hands of a criminal of deeper dye than herself ! Who can answer these questions ' Nearer and nearer thpy came in their second circle, floating towards us even more languorously than before. A smothered cry from Hattie told her that her faith had been destroyed. There was no loc n te. on the watch chain now ! But Meg's deadly white face was alrrost jesting on Bertie's shoulder. Hattie sobbed uncontrollably. " Uont send her to prison to-night,'" she begged. "I won't leave her ; you must take me too." Hattie's hysterics were celebrated for their vigour and commotion, and she was evidently on the verge of a violent attack. A scene was the laft thing anyone desired, and before she allowed Mr. Tomkyns to lead her away she was promised that no steps should be taken until the next morning. But Meg's next action rendered the promise void. She had gone no one knew whither. Certainly not to Messrs. , for the place was locked till we all returned together. The partners looked uneasy, the manager more &o. But Mr. Leith was not to be disturbed.

'•I know Meg's haunts," he said, quietly, <- not a stone's throw from here. We can walk, but I only want one companion. 1 will bring her back with me, never fear. These gentlemen," pointing to the private detectives, " can follow leisurely."

So the manager and Dick Leith went down the steps. Bertie met us in the hall.

" What is it .'" he said, looking from one to the other ; "if danger threaten Meg, I shall come too."

I pointed to a dark cloak, which he flung round me, and taking his arm we followed the others.

At a tall, dingy house we stopped ; there was a light only in the top floor. Mr. Leith knocked and entered ; up a steep, dark staircase W3 groped, hearing muttered curses from the inmates of one floor, whose rest we disturbed by our stumbling movements, meeting a drunken wretch who was lurching his way down in the dark, and who tried to steady himself by grasping my shoulders as we passed him in our ascent.

Tke top landing was reached at last, a crazy door was pushed bick ; then a strange sight met our eyes. There were windows into t le front and back streets ; these were both thrown wide open, for the heat was still intense. The moonlight streamed in on a girl standing before a cracked mirror, on which stood a tallow candle.

It was Meg in her ballroom finery, the moon lighting up with almost unearthly radiance the fair white neck and the round, soft arms which gleamed forth from the dress of pale pink chiffon. The room was squalid in the extreme, no carpet, no curtains, one chair, an old chest, and a three-legged table. Cobwebs shimmered in the corners, dust lay thick upon the floor. She had several trinkets in her hand, among them Bertie's locket. She turned round when we entered, and the hunted, wild look in her eyes showed that sanity and she were for a time apart. " The game up," said Dick Leith jauntily, " Meg, old girl, you've had your day. lam sorry, but you drove me to it." His voice jarred her to frenzy. "And what did you drive me to?" she cried, unconsciously assuming a dramatic attitude. " God knows I knew little of guilt till I met you, Dick Leith. You took a young girl and trained her in vice till she loathed you and all men because they were of your sex. lam what you made me. You have trampled on me, blighted my happiness, and now take pleasure in my pain. But you shall not see me suffer. I can be even with you yet." She had raised her voice to a passionate scream, and he moved forward, whether to soothe or strike her will never now be known. But she pushed him from her with a strength that seemed impossible, and with a tragic gesture flung aloft her arms. " Dare to touch me," she cried, " never again, Dick Leith, never again," and before anyone could guess her intention, the distraught creature rushed forward and threw herself out of the window. A sickening thud brought home to us the horror of the catastrophe. Bertie was the first to rush down the rickety staircase into the yard, where already a crowd of the kind to be expected in that vicinity had congregated round the mangled heap which was all that remained of poor Meg Scarlett. Like a wild animal Bertie fought his way through, pulling me after him. He bent over the body and reverently lifted the goldenhaired head, bruised and disfigured with blood. Then the reality of it overpowered him. He put it down and turned to me with a face white with anguish from which the boyishness had for ever fled. " She is quite dead," he whispered hoarsely, and, swaying, would have fallen to the ground had not a policeman come to his assistance. Dick Leith bent over the body, and the muscles of his face worked with some sort of agitation. " I swore to be revenged," he was heard to mutter, " but it's a pity for — she was the smartest thief in London." — The Catholic Fin tide.