Just at this moment the wearied man on the poor creature's life is the beast," he added, as he bed moaned out, "A lawyer-a lawyer."

CHRISTMAS EVE AT STRANGEBURGH.

5

them that they rather like the undisturbed enjoy-burgh who would send money in this fashion. ment of fault - finding: their natures must be Well, she's a good old dame, and I think I've been somewhat akin to that of the Indian deity, over enabled to do her a little good this year." whose bedaubed features a hideous grin is supposed to spread when a human being is immolated in his honour. The good-tempered man is the man who can put up with little irritating inconveniences at home; who can join his wife at a cold dinner without enlarging upon the pleasures of a dinner at the club; who can cheerfully partake of the under-done beef or the cinder-done cutlets without declaring that he never saw such a house "that he can never get a decent thing in it," and so on, till the patient little heart, which is his, gives way, and a tear-stained pillow is the only sign of the night-long problem-how to mollify and manage the irascible spirits of the kitchen and the parlour.

When Dr. Oliver regained his feet his ruddy face glowed with the exertion, and though he looked somewhat jaded, and the shade of solitude was just visible on his face, yet you would have said at once, "What a jolly, good-tempered face!" A round, rosy face, with very few time-marks-a little thinning of the hair, and the spectacles which always shielded his merry eyes, were the only marks of age about him. If it had not been for these you would have set him down for fiveand-twenty; but taking these into account, you would probably have said five-and-thirty. Both your estimates would have been wrong; the first as much below as the second was above the real fact.

The young doctor had a very considerable practice-that is, as considerable as could be expected. Of course he could not expect to disturb the serene orbits of those two well and long established practitioners, Drs. Powderson and Cupwell; but there were, notwithstanding, some who shook their heads significantly, as though they knew something which they would not tell, but ended the prolonged gesture by saying, that a young genius was better

than an old fool.

As the doctor regained his feet he espied what he had not noticed before, a carefully-folded, but somewhat stout missive on the table.

"Careless to send money in that way," he ejaculated, as he unfolded the missive. £6 10s. in gold rolled upon the table as he did so. "With Mrs. Jingfumble's compliments. I thought so. Poor old lady! She's about the only person in Strange

While the doctor was holding this soliloquy, he had drawn a vellum-bound book, tall and narrow, from the bureau. This he opened, and entered on the credit side £6 10s. Then he made some hieroglyphics on the debit side. After this, he returned to the bureau, replaced the account book, opened two little drawers. Into one of these he deposited five sovereigns, into the other he dropped the sovereign and the half. As the coin jingled in its fall, he murmured-"A little over is better than a little under. Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase.' And truly," said he, as he locked the bureau and returned to the table, "my barns are full-that is, I mean I've got as many patients as I can manage. And to think that I'm the harumscarum creature that came here fifteen years ago, with no friends but One! I remember the psalm that Sunday morning as I sat in old Powderson's pew, feeling somewhat qualmy, I confess-' Grant thee thy heart's desire, and fulfil all thy mind.' Well, He has fulfilled all my petitions; that is, except

Now then, Nolly, none of that!

You can't expect everything all at once; it will come in good time. He will withhold no manner of thing that is good. Poor little Rose! it's harder for her, shut up all day in that great prison, with her horrid—— I'm ashamed of you, Noll !”

So saying, Dr. Oliver put his feet into his slippers, sank into the easy chair, stretched his legs; then he mixed for himself a glass of hot water,-of course there was something with the water. This refreshing beverage he sipped with the contented smile of a man who has had a hard day's work, and is thoroughly enjoying his rest.

Presently he crossed the room, and took an old brown-coloured volume from the bookshelf; he eyed the cover fondly for a moment, and then opened it reverently, while the good - humoured smile toned down to an expression of cheerful solemnity and affectionate attention.

He was so occupied when a ring was heard at the door. An expression of weariness stole over his face as he rose to answer the ring.

It was one of Dr. Oliver's customs to send Mrs. Biggs to bed at half-past ten. "Mind, Mrs. Biggs," he used to say, "don't sit up after halfpast ten. Just leave me some supper and a good

CHRISTMAS EVE AT STRANGEBURGH.

7

Mr. Gatherall scrutinised his bill very closely, but nobody ever yet was known to dispute his charges. There was something so like the imprint of justice

those generous, impulsive fellows, who never made an error of the heart in his life. 'Papa,' she said; I should have thought a less refined epithet would have suited the language of Rumble's Houses-justice, without the faintest indication of mercy It's strange altogether. I only hope I may do some good," he gasped out, as he drew his stiffened boots on. 'Your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.' Come along, my little maid!" he shouted, as he came to the foot of the stairs.

Once more the hall door was opened and closed, and the shabby little fairy trotted along by the side of the burly son of medicine over the crisp ground, just lightly covered with the feathery flakes of snow that trembled all over the pave

ment.

CHAPTER III-THE LAWYER.

READER, do you know those uncomfortable comfortable rooms? A room where every article of furniture is of the very best, and the very cosiest in appearance,-substantial-looking bookcases, of dark, warm oak colour; strongly bound, well-clad books in compact order, and well protected with figured leather lappets; chairs of cumbrous and antique comfort-a room in which everything has been thought of! stray brackets whereon to place a convenient light, opportune racks and loopholes in which to stow away pertinacious papers;—a | room, on entering which you would say, "What a comfortable room!" but a room in which you never could be comfortable! Such a room I wish you to imagine, and fumbling restlessly about it picture to yourself a tall, gaunt man, whose face seems to be formed of a mixture of the vellum and dull leather bindings of the legal folios on his shelves, and of the musty parchment deeds tied up in pink tape, and neatly arranged upon his writing-table;-a sapless face, with piercing, ferret-like, restless, roving eyes, and surrounded with sparse and lank hair of snowy whiteness. Such was Josiah Gatherall, attorney, of Strangeburgh. Nobody ever accused-nobody would have ventured to accuse Josiah Gatherall of any undue extortion or fraudulent dealing. Everybody in Strangeburgh, when pressed to say something in his favour, or to say why they disliked him, would answer, with a very unpleasant emphasis-"Oh yes! he's an honest man!"

in his face: determination, without the shadow of a relenting expression on his face; law, without the show even of an equitable liberality-that most people bowed to his word; the greatest and the least accepted his fiat unquestioningly. And he received them all alike. The Marquis of Montfeckington, with his dashing four-in-hand; Mrs. Growinton, with her lamentable and constant deficiency of h's; and old Bendles, the parish clerk, were treated exactly alike. They were his clients, but nothing more. Neither exquisite dandyism, and interesting cockneyism, and silky, smooth-stroked moustachios of the marquis, nor the uninterrupted explanations and panting apologies, and h-less periods of the matron, nor the would-be-legal phraseology of the Church official, wrought a wrinkle of wrath or the ripple of a smile on Josiah Gatherall's face. He was a lawyer, and his face was like Burns's Digest, or Coke's Compendium, or Lyttelton's Blackstone, with a ready index to which you could turn for every conceivable case.

"Bother the fellow! you never get anything out of him. Shan't trouble him again!" lisped the ladylike (I beg pardon, the unladylike) aristocrat; but within seven days of his resolution, the irongrey steeds, with their silver trappings, emblazoned with the arms of Montfeckington, might be seen champing their bits impatiently at Mr. Gatherall's door.

"E don't tell you nothing; 'e don't seem to know nothing! Oh! dear, mercy on me! I wish poor dear Diddler had lived. It's 'ard on a poor

lone woman. If there was any other law'er 'andy, I should 'ave at 'em ; but what's the likes o' me to do? But I shan't trouble 'im in a 'urry, that's all."

But the gorgeous flunkey let down the steps for the ponderous tread of Mrs. Growinton within two days of her indignant speech.

And though the parish clerk confidentially informed his neighbour Blowze, the timid little journeyman tailor, that he considered he (the clerk) was a sight better acquainted with the law than old Gatherall, yet the parish clerk contrived to have, at least, a monthly conference with the ill

And yet everybody who had any dealings with informed limb of the law.

But there are no clients in Mr. Gatherall's room seriousness, dark wavy hair bordering a fair fore to-night; he is prowling restlessly about, turning head, and shading large luminous eyes; a very his sharp, suspicious eyes inquisitively in every young face, but grave, and anxious, and pale, with direction, glancing quickly round at some unthe marks of death in it, but drinking in life accountable crackings of furniture, which sound from that well-used volume. And the lawyer was weird-like at the midnight hour. Something has transported in thought to a pretty country church; made Josiah Gatherall very restless to-night. a bridal party were just emerging; village children Perhaps he is ill at ease with himself. It is were flinging soft little nosegays beneath his feet, Christmas Eve; indeed, in a few minutes it will be and a trustful, tremulous arm was laid lightly on Christmas Day. Perhaps old memories make him his. And then the vision changed; he was still in restless. Old faces seem to start up among the the churchyard, but the sun was no longer shining, books, or in the flickering embers of the fire. He and the village children were not strewing bright is moving the books about in an unmeaning way. summer flowers before him, but were gazing with If his daughter were to come in-his daughter scared and wonder-stricken faces into a new-made Rose. She is sitting, in pale-faced patience, in the grave, and dropping a tear over one who had dismal drawing-room, waiting for the cold, legal befriended them all in her short married life. good night; the periodical tribute of parchmentlike affection, so punctiliously and methodically rendered, that it seems like the setting forth of a deed of trust-"By tenor of these presents." If his daughter were to come in and ask him (a thing she would not venture to do) what he was doing, he would only testily say--" Settling, settling. No, no; go away, child."

She hardly would answer the description of child, for the bloom of sweet seventeen had faded out of her cheeks some ten years before; and though she cherished a hope that love would one day visit her heart, and she often dreamt of a rosy face, with eyes that laughed beneath a pair of glasses, and under a quickly-thinning crop of hair-she yet continued her house duties with quiet, unrepining assiduity, often turning over the leaves of her Bible, and finding the places where it was written "Though it tarry, wait for it; it shall surely come, it will not tarry ;" and, "As thy day, so shall thy strength be;" and, "My God shall supply all your need."

Presently Josiah Gatherall, while nervously fumbling amid a heap of books, sent three or four tumbling to the ground. He stooped to pick them up, and as he was placing one of them on the table, it fell open naturally. It was a thumbed page, and down the margin might be seen faint, fairy pencilmarks.

The lawyer was not an imaginative man. Legal practice is an excellent thing for toning down an exuberant fancy; but there seemed, nevertheless, to Josiah Gatherall that some form hovered over that open page. He thought he saw bending over that book a graceful form-a face full of affectionate

The memories were very strong upon Mr. Gatherall that night, and the midnight chimes that rung out at that moment seemed to intensify their strength, for he sank into a chair before the open Bible, and his lips were about to touch the book that had raised such recollections, when his eyes were arrested by the words which lay open on the page before him. "This my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found."

So.

The words had sent the lawyer's memory out once more over the wilderness of the past. People said that Josiah Gatherall was a money-hugging man. If he gave everybody their due, which they declared they were bound to believe, as they could not prove it otherwise, they knew he would have his due, and would never forego it; but the older people of the place would say-it was not always Josiah was not always the hard, close-fisted man he is now. Ten years ago he lived-not in Strangeburgh, but in the pretty little adjacent village of Roston; he had lived there all his life since he was articled to old Grosler. He had married old Grosler's daughter, and had inherited old Grosler's house and practice. His move into Strangeburgh had not been with the view of increasing his business, for Mr. Gatherall, of Roston, paid a weekly or bi-weekly visit to Strangeburgh to meet his town clients; and for his country clients, who formed his most considerable practice, Roston was as convenient as Strangeburgh.

Nor did he forsake Roston when his young wife was taken from him, for he continued to reside there with his two children, Richard and Rose, for many years after his wife's death; but they said that he had had some trouble with his son. He