wish to tell you. I owe you a debt to-night for having prevented me
from committing a crime. You saw that I had the spade and pickaxe
ready in the cottage. Well, I confess I lusted for that gem. I was
arguing out the case with my flute when you came in."

"If," said I, "you wish a share--"

"Another word," he interrupted very gravely, "and I shall be forced
to think that you insult me. As it is, I am grateful to you for
supporting my flute's advice at an opportune moment. I will now
leave you. Two hours ago I was in a fair way of becoming a criminal.
I owe it to you, and to my flute, that I am still merely a lawyer.
Farewell!"

With that he turned on his heel and was gone with a swinging stride
up the path and across the moor. His figure stood out upon the
sky-line for a moment, and then vanished. But I could hear for some
time the tootle-tootle of his flute in the distance, and it struck me
that its note was unusually sprightly and clear.


THE RETURN OF JOANNA.


High and low, rich and poor, in Troy Town there are seventy-three
maiden ladies. Under this term, of course, I include only those who
may reasonably be supposed to have forsworn matrimony. And of the
seventy-three, the two Misses Lefanu stand first, as well from their
age and extraction (their father was an Admiral of the Blue) as
because of their house, which stands in Fore Street and is faced with