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all his interests in them, had not cared exclusively for the class they belonged to, how happy would things have been! A great huzza at some small performance with the bat burst from the multitude of relatives, and Randolph jumped wildly into the air to see what had happened. Sophy fetched up the sentence that had been already shaped; but she could not get it out. The occasion was, perhaps, an inopportune one, The contrast between her story and the display of fashion to which Randolph had grown to regard himself as akin would be fatal. She awaited a better time,

It was on an evening when they were alone in their plain suburban residence, where life was not blue but brown, that she ultimately broke silence, qualifying her announcement of a probable second marriage by assuring him that it would not take place for a long time to come, when he would be living quite independently of her,

The boy thought the idea a very reasonable one, and asked if she had chosen anybody. She hesitated; and he seemed to have a misgiving, He hoped his step-father would be a gentleman, he aaid.

“Not what you call a gentleman,” she answered, timidly. “He'll be much as I was before I knew your father;” and by degrees she acquainted him with the whole. The youth's face remained fixed for 8 moment; then he flushed, leaned on the table, and burst into passionate tears.

His motber went up to him, kissed all of his face that she could get at, and patted his back as if he were still the baby he once had been, crying herself the while. When he had somewhat recovered from his paroxysm he went hastily to his own room and fastened the door.

Parleyings were attempted through the key-hole,