him."

Such was the gist of the communication, and Theodore, hardened by his
father's severity, and unable to bear the privations of a narrow income,
absented himself more and more from their wretched lodgings, and tried to
drown his cares by drinking himself into a state of semi-idiocy.

There is little more to relate of this ill-starred marriage, of which
Bluebell was the fruit; for soon after her birth young Leigh was killed
by being upset out of a dog-cart.

Driving home with unsteady hands from mess one night, he collided with
a street car, which inevitably turned over the two-wheeled vehicle.
Theodore was pitched out, his head striking on the iron rails, and never
breathed again.

Whatever grief Sir Timothy may have felt at his son being snatched from
him, unreconciled and unforgiven, did not show itself in mercy to the
widow.

Mr. Vellum was again in requisition, and proposed, on behalf of Sir
Timothy, to make Mrs. Leigh a suitable allowance on condition that she
remained in Canada, and delivered over the child to her grandfather, to
be brought up and educated as his heiress. In case these terms were
refused, she would continue to receive annually two hundred a-year; but
no farther assistance would be granted.

Lesbia, in her loneliness and bereavement, was heart-broken at this
unfeeling proposition, and Bluebell being too young for a choice, she
consulted the voice of Nature alone, and refused to part with her child.