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26 is dead, poor man, she is so sorry for the poor child that she will go at this time of night to a house she never meant to enter, to fetch her home and try and comfort her. She has a soft heart if you can only get to the right side of it. But this is a bad job, a very bad job; to think of Rattler serving me so."

Not many minutes elapsed before Mr. and Mrs. Hammond were on their way to Branxholm, for Smith was expeditious, and so was the lady. She was very silent during the journey, and indeed her husband could say little, but only gave vent to his feelings now and then by a remark and a regret as to the sad accident of the day.

Mrs. Lindsay and Jessie had tried in vain to comfort the poor orphan, or to get her to take any food, but Allan had persuaded her to swallow a cup of tea, and had wheeled in his mother's easy chair for her to sit in by the side of the bed. She was not noisy in her grief, but she looked so thoroughly heart-broken and crushed that it seemed vain to talk the kindest commonplaces to her. The Lindsays were glad to see that Mrs. Hammond accompanied her husband, for that looked kind. They knew very little about the lady; she might be a very good person among her own people, but she was reckoned very