that I might be endued with strength to support my resolutions. "Amen!" whispered a low response. I looked to see from whom it came, and there was Mary kneeling by my side. CHAPTER IX. "The rarer action is In virtue than in vengeance; they being penitent, TOм BRIGHT appeared to have arrived at a stage of his story bordering on a mysterious, perplexing, and unsatisfactory one to his truly patient listeners, and yet he gave no signs of being in haste to proceed to an end. "Well, Tom," observed the Squire, "I suppose there's a little more to add by way of a finish?" "I should certainly like to know," remarked the yeoman who had sung the song, "what that lodger at the Chequers was, all about the shadows, and so forth." and This request, spoken in a remarkably sententious tone, caused a burst of laughter from the Squire; and Tom Bright's face became quite purple- -from what did not appear-perhaps a spasm. As for Mistress Bright, she became suddenly afflicted with a dry hacking cough, and had to bury her face in her handkerchief. "You see, Ned Terrywig," rejoined Tom, after a strong check upon his risible muscles, "there are as many bubbles on earth, we 're informed, as there are in water; and the lodger at the Chequers might be one of them." Ned Terrywig seemed lost in the deepest cogitation for the shortest space of time imaginable; and then, as if a phosphoric light had shot through the mist and vapours of his brain, abruptly asked— "If he was a bagsman?" 66 My opinion is," returned a sage-looking individual, whose wisdom hitherto had been pourtrayed in keeping a profoundly-still tongue, My opinion is," repeated he, "that it 's all a flam." 66 "Then take my word for it," added Tom Bright, in a manner carrying conviction with his assertion," that your opinion is wrong, Peter Crummy. If you doubt what I say," he continued, "go to the Shaft, and you may there see to this day the marks of my knife within a few feet of its brink." "It can't be all true, though," said the still unsatisfied Ned Terrywig. "Well," replied Tom Bright, smiling, "I've told ye a Christmas tale. Believe me, however, that while I sought deepdrinking, and bad company, I heard a voice silent to others, and saw shadows which were sightless to all besides. Fear ever accompanies guilt, and to be happy is to be innocent." "Good, Tom-good!" responded the Squire, approvingly. "As soon," resumed Tom, who now appeared disposed to take up the thread of his narrative," as the Squire heard what I had to say, relative to the miseries of mind and |