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LIFE'S LITTLE IRONIES

ears through the police that a somewhat similar man and child had been seen at a fair near London, he playing a violin, she dancing on stilts, a new interest in the capital took possession of Hipcroft with an intensity which would scarcely allow him time to pack before returning thither. He did not, however, find the lost one, though he made it the entire business of his over-hours to stand about in by-streets in the hope of discovering her, and would start up io the night, saying, “ That rascal’s torturing her to maintain him!" To which his wife would answer, peevishly, “ Don’t ’ee raft yourself so, Ned! You prevent my getting a bit o’ rest! He won’t hurt her !” and fall asleep again.

That Carry and her father had emigrated to America was the general opinion; Mop, no doubt, finding the girl a highly desirable companion when he had trained her to keep him by her earnings as a dancer. There, for that matter, they may be performing in some capacity now, though he must be an old scamp verging on threescore-and-ten, and she a woman of four-and-forty,

May, 1898.