“He seems quite taken with little Linny there.”

“I know that,” I said bitterly.

“And yet you brought him here, sir.”

“I? Brought him here?” I exclaimed. “It was going on before I knew them.”

“What! that boy—that parchment slip?” he exclaimed.

“No, no,” I said hastily. “I meant John Lister.”

As the words were leaving my lips, he of whom I spoke passed by on the other side, and turned his face to look up at the second floor, the light from a gas-lamp making his countenance perfectly clear.

“Oh!” said Mr Jabez softly; and, after standing watching the retiring figure, he too went his way.