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you shall have them, and twenty more to match them, you queen of jewels."

As he stooped to clasp them on her arms, and seated her on the couch, a silvery bell sounded outside the door.

"Come in," said the young man; and an English servant entering, said something in a low tone, as if mindful of the lady's presence.

"Ah, well; ah, let him come here. Bother the fellow!" he added, as the man left the room—“I shan't leave my girl for him. Now, ma Belle, you just turn your head that way while the brute's in I don't choose even the Bulldog to see

the room.
my pet's face."

He intimated his wish by signs to her, but Beauty did not give much heed to them. She understood some one was to see her, and her attention was all given to the fall of her robe and the turn of her bracelets, as she reclined upon her cushions.

The bell again sounded; and as the master bade "come in," the door opened, and there stepped into the boudoir, a being about as much in keeping with it as a rat in a nautilus-shell.

Taller by half a head than the young nobleman, himself above the middle height, broad of build, firm in bulk, big jointed, bullet headed. His black hair close cut, and cheeks cleanly shaved of every particle of whisker, showed his huge red flap ears to disadvantage; his high cheek bones and iron jaw more prominent than pleasant, his beetle brow hung over his heavy dark eyes like the cavern where a murdered body may lie hid.

He was dressed in a suit of green plaid stuff, fitting

him all too tightly; on his thick wrists he wore white woollen cuffs or mufflers, and in one monster fist held a short thick stick, crosswise, as we often see it carried by performers of wondrous feats of pedestrianism, and sporting bullies of all kinds.

As he closed the door, and stood ducking his head to his patron, the velvet carpet seemed to wince beneath the pressure of his hob-nailed bluchers; the music had already stopped at the motion of the master's hand to a panel, but the delicate atmosphere seemed to shudder and recoil upon itself, as from the huge man's presence there exuded a strange overpowering odour, as of some subtle spirit made gross by animal contact. It was not gin, unless gin having passed through some unknown process by human pores and fibres. Certainly it was there, of and belonging to, the man-not his breath, not his clothes, neither that ordinary scent by which we detect one who has "been drinking"-yet a palpable giving off of an essence which seemed to render significant and rational enough the theory of spontaneous combustion: you felt certain that you only had to hold a lighted match near the mountain of flesh, to have as considerable a specimen of an "indicator" as need be.

"Well, Bulldog—that'll do: you needn't come any further," said the patron. "You look in good case enough. Now don't go spoiling sport, and making an ass of yourself, like you did before. You can keep your hands off the gin and brandy when you like. That break out of yours cost me a cool hundred, you drunken brute, all for nothing too. It's a blessing Bob Allen would take you again at all; there isn't

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many trainers would, I can tell you. Is he with you? I told him to come

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A fearful shriek from the Beauty, who had just turned her eyes upon the Bulldog; and she fell into the arms of her lover, as he darted towards her.

"Confound your ugly carcase! you've frightened my little girl to death with your hangdog visage! She's fainted! by Jove she has!" and he rang half a dozen bells at once. "There, be off, and be hanged to you! I was a fool to have you here! You might have left that murderous bludgeon out of your hand where there's a lady. She can see, if she can't hear! Water, Martin! and wine, quick! give me that essence! Show the man out; be off! I'll see you to-morrow at Allen's. My angel sweet!-by Jove how lovely she looks though-she's coming to-he's gone, my queen-the brute has gone. Pardon me, my most divine, that I

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allowed him to enter."

The girl glanced fearfully round as he laid her on the couch; closing her eyes, she shuddered, as if awakening from a hideous dream.

"Curse me," growled the Bulldog, as he descended the stairs of the lordly hotel, "but that wench has made a pretty thing of it! Shouldn't ha' known her, neither, but for her shrieking out, and him saying she can't hear. It's her sure enuf; but my word she's growed a beauty, she is so. Old Skurrick's feathered his nest pretty well out of the bargain, I'll swear. Hi, that there fall when he whacked her through the hoops on fire, knocked all the speech out of her, I expect. Eh, but she's got into a good berth wi' that rich young fool."

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"What an odour that brute has left behind him! The beast bathes in gin, I believe, now he mayn't drink it. Bring wine, Martin; turn down those lamps. Ah, ma Belle smiles. You are better, my queen. Come, here is your favourite wine: drink, ma Belle."

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHTH.

THE DOCKS-A FEATHER.

"We do but row, Fate steers the boat."

HUDIBRAS.

MONTHS passed on, and found young Steyne still seeking employ. So hopeless had it now become, that as winter set in, he would gladly have accepted work which he had at first rejected, confident in the certainty of obtaining something more suitable to his capabilities and wishes. Now, in turn, his services were declined, even here: the severe weather found hundreds in a like position, with whom employment at other seasons was regular.

His store of money had dwindled slowly, in spite of every possible economy; the faster that Philip's unhappy neighbour, poor Mrs. Hinton (or Deering, as she had called herself) had been a great part of the time failing in health, and become totally dependent on him, without whose assistance she must have fared but sorrily.

The young man took care that she should want for nothing; he enlisted the services of the woman lodging beneath, who had brought him to the house

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