the house that held her--left, perhaps, in her walks some little token of
himself. But, on reflection, he felt that that luxury would be too
imprudent, and it ceased to tempt him in proportion as he reasoned
himself into the stern wisdom of avoiding all that could revive her grief
for him. At the commencement of this tale, in the outline given of that
grand melodrama in which Juliet Araminta played the part of the Bandit's
Child, her efforts to decoy pursuit from the lair of the persecuted Mime
were likened to the arts of the skylark to lure eye and hand from the
nest of his young. More appropriate that illustration now to the parent-
bird than then to the fledgling. Farther and farther from the nest in
which all his love was centred fled the old man. What if Jasper did
discover him now; that very discovery would mislead the pursuit from
Sophy. Most improbable that Losely would ever guess that they could
become separated; still more improbable, unless Waife, imprudently
lurking near her home, guided conjecture, that Losely should dream of
seeking under the roof of the lofty peeress the child that had fled from
Mr. Rugge.

Poor old man! his heart was breaking; but his soul was so brightly
comforted that there, where many, many long miles off, I see him
standing, desolate and patient, in the corner of yon crowded market-
place, holding Sir Isaac by slackened string with listless hand--Sir
Isaac unshorn, travel-stained, draggled, with drooping head and
melancholy eyes--yea, as I see him there, jostled by the crowd, to whom,
now and then, pointing to that huge pannier on his arm, filled with some
homely pedlar wares, he mechanically mutters, "Buy"--yea, I say, verily,
as I see him thus, I cannot draw near in pity--I see what the crowd does
not--the shadow of an angel's wing over his grey head; and I stand
reverentially aloof, with bated breath and bended knee.