CHAPTER TWENTY-FIFTH.

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST.

"Thou mightier than Manoah's son, whence is thy great strength, And wherein the secret of thy craft, O charmer charming wisely?

There is none enchantment against Beauty, Magician for all time, Whose potent spells of sympathy have charmed the passive world;

Verily she reigneth a Semiramis, there is no might against her, The lords of every land are harnessed to her riumph."

MARTIN F. TUPPER.

IN a few minutes the men re-entered; Skurrick in a mood the reverse of pacific, and which rendered advisable the hint given by his better half, to the effect that they should at once retire for the night.

The movement was generally adopted; Philip following his conductor, Colly, out of the caravan by one door, to re-enter what appeared to be only another compartment of it, appropriated to the accommodation of horses, though it was at present empty.

"Can you make a shift to sleep here ?" asked Colly, setting down his lantern. "The straw's clean, and plenty of it; here's a rug too. I always sleep only too sound,-it's just use."

"Never fear," returned Steyne: "If I don't sleep here I shouldn't anywhere. How or where I should have found my bed to-night, but for you, I don't know; so I ought to be thankful."

“Not a bit; not a bit: as long as we can help one another, why its only just fair-nothing more, as I can see. Let's have a peep at that wild beast."

He set his lantern on a ledge high in the wall, and, turning a pail upside down, raised himself to the level of a small opening in the partition.

"Ah, you brute you!"-said Colly, shaking his head-" you vixen !—such a lovely creatur, too, to look at."

"What is it?" asked Steyne-" a horse ?"

"Aye, a horse it is, possessed by old Harry himself though, I think. You heard all that row just now; but that's nothing to what she'll do at times; she'll bite and fight at you with her fore-feet, like a Christian. Take a peep ?"

He jumped down, and Philip, who was taller, availed himself of a lower standing-point.

Looking through the opening, he beheld, in a similar box to that they were now in, a horse, lying upon a plentiful allowance of straw. As far as he could make out, by the dim light of a lantern, it was a splendidly formed animal, and Philip who (true to the meaning of his Greek nomenclature,) had a natural affection for the species, looked with admiration on its visible points of superiority.

"What ails the creature ?" said he, looking round to Colly; "it's panting and shivering as if it had a fit."

"Lor bless you! we're obliged to do any mortal thing to quiet her, when she's in them tantrums ; Skurrick's fit to knock her brains out many a time." "How did he get her ?"

"Swopped her for one he had-a pretty creature to look at, but no good to him, weak in the knees. I can't think how they came over him: they never would, but he'd been taking a drop more than was good for

him. And now this thing, you know, she just eats her head off, and 'll never pay him in dog's-meat."

"No, no; not so bad as that," said Philip: " she's a splendid creature-not so bad as that surely." "You'll hear by'nd-bye, when she comes to a bit."

Colly was soon snoring; but Philip sat up, covering his shoulders with the rug, and laboured to recall some long-past occurrence, some old reminiscence, stowed away, behind much subsequent accumulation, in some nook of the universal storehouse. Slowly he recalled circumstance, time, words; until suddenly, from out the dust and lumber, stood that he sought, a clear and perfect whole.

At last he slept, and was awakened, soon after daybreak, by the plunging and snorting of his unruly neighbour.

"Hear that pet ?" said Colly, who was performing a primitive toilet, by plunging his head in a bucket of water, and scrubbing it with a piece of bed-tick : "that's how she'll go on, till we can't bear it no longer."

"Don't do anything with her now, will you ?" said Steyne. "I want to speak to what did you

call him ?"

"The gov'ner? Skurrick, Jem Skurrick. Do anything!-bless your heart, I wouldn't go nigh her for a gallon of Hollands, not I! You'll come in as soon as you 're ready, you know."

So saying, he went out; and Philip mounted to the point of observation, whence he bestowed some thoughtful consideration upon the inmate of the adjoining tenement, who was champing, snorting, and

otherwise demeaning herself in a manner quite unworthy of her sex.

He then quitted his bedchamber for the fresh air of the heath. At no great distance he saw stationed another caravan, rather smaller, but of greater pretensions to appearance, than the first. An arrival had taken place in the night; the two proprietors stood in deep conference together a few yards off. The newcomer, Busby, was short, broad, and puffy. Mr. Skurrick was above the middle height, well made and wiry in form, his sallow face marked slightly with smallpox; he had keen black eyes, underneath which the skin hung loose and baggy; his thick jet hair cut close to his head; his dress an odd mixture of the groom and "gent." In his hand the never-failing whip, the thong of which he caressed incessantly, with the fingers of the other, as might a lover the tresses of his beloved; occasionally threatening with it the legs of his elfin offspring, who played their pranks about him, and who inherited with laughable exactitude their father's features; even to the corkscrew honours, for which in past times he had been remarkable.

"Go in and get some breakfast, do," said Colly, as he busied himself in his morning duties with the horses. "Mother's in there; go on."

Philip ascended the steps; the woman welcomed him kindly, and set before him the hot tea, and bread and butter, she had reserved for him.

She was bustling about the dwelling, when a child hurried up the steps, and, running to the woman, put her arms about her, and began to cry.

"He says I must do the Star-ring, and I can't

mother, I know I can't! Last time I fell, and he beat me: I'll do anything but that-"

"It's no good coming to me, dear; you know if father says so—

"I shall fall, I know! I hurt myself bad last time. I can't do it! Oh mother!"

At that moment Skurrick entered, whip in hand.

"Now, Sarah, don't be a fool!" he cried. "It's no use you smothering the child up there-she's got to do it, and that's enough."

"I ain't hindering her, Jem. Lettie dear, you must go," said the mother, loosing the little hands.

She lifted

up a

thin childish face; she was not above ten, and very small and light of her age.

"I can't, father," said she, weeping; "indeed I can't! I'll do anything else, but I get so afraid, and I'm sure to fall."

He raised the whip-" Do you want it again ?" he said: "am I to be kept here all day with your nonsense. What with one and the other of you I'm to be drove out o' my mind, I think

Mayn't Beauty do the Star-ring, father ?"

Beauty's too big; she's got plenty cast for her: besides I'm not going to get to words again at her. What I say she's to do, I'll make her do, and you too. Come."

The girl, all in tears, darted across the floor behind the dark curtain; the sobbing was heard for some moments: meanwhile the amiable Jem was swearing at his wife for encouraging insubordination.

Lettie returned—her pale face beaming through her tears.