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 thought of Houseman's frown, and his horrid words; but summut of it would ooze out of my tongue now an' then, for it 's a hard thing, Sir, to know a secret o' that sort and be quiet and still about it; and indeed, I was not the same cretur when I knew it as I was afore, for it made me take to any thing rather than thinking; and that's the reason, Sir, I lost the good crakter I used to have."

Such, somewhat abridged from its says he and says I—its involutions and its tautologies, was the story which Walter held his breath to hear. But events thicken, and the maze is nearly thridden.

"Not a moment now should be lost," said the Curate, as they left the house. "Let us at once proceed to a very able magistrate, to whom I can introduce you, and who lives a little way out of the town."

"As you will," said Walter, in an altered and hollow voice; "I am as a man standing on an eminence, who views the whole scene he is to