The American and his wife took charge of the little boy, the deceased
brother having by his will left his sister the guardian of his only
child,--and in event of the child's death the sister inherited. The
child died about six months afterwards,--it was supposed to have been
neglected and ill-treated. The neighbors deposed to have heard it
shriek at night. The surgeon who had examined it after death said that
it was emaciated as if from want of nourishment, and the body was
covered with livid bruises. It seemed that one winter night the child
had sought to escape; crept out into the backyard; tried to scale the
wall; fallen back exhausted; and been found at morning on the stones
in a dying state. But though there was some evidence of cruelty, there
was none of murder; and the aunt and her husband had sought to
palliate cruelty by alleging the exceeding stubbornness and perversity
of the child, who was declared to be half-witted. Be that as it may,
at the orphan's death the aunt inherited her brother's fortune. Before
the first wedded year was out, the American quitted England abruptly,
and never returned to it. He obtained a cruising vessel, which was
lost in the Atlantic two years afterwards. The widow was left in
affluence, but reverses of various kinds had befallen her: a bank
broke; an investment failed; she went into a small business and became
insolvent; then she entered into service, sinking lower and lower,
from housekeeper down to maid-of-all-work,--never long retaining a
place, though nothing decided against her character was ever alleged.
She was considered sober, honest, and peculiarly quiet in her ways;
still nothing prospered with her. And so she had dropped into the
workhouse, from which Mr. J---- had taken her, to be placed in charge
of the very house which she had rented as mistress in the first year
of her wedded life.

Mr. J---- added that he had passed an hour alone in the unfurnished