being off duty arrives with and a box and leaves them with a sounding kiss in the hall of the empty house the retired character of which affects mr s spirits strongly i tell you what my says mr being now an driver and well to do in the world i shouldn t allow of your coming here to be made dull like if it t for past and past is never to be forgot to them which is in besides your face is a cord l so let s have another kiss on it my dear you wish no better than to do a right act i know and my views is tliat it s right and dutiful to do this good night mrs by this time dark in her black skirts black bonnet and shawl and has her personal property packed up and has her chair late a favorite chair of mr s and the dead bargain of the sale ready near the street door and is only waiting for a fly van going to night to on private service which is to call for her by private contract and convey her home presently it comes mrs s wardrobe being handed in and away mrs s chair is next handed in and placed in a convenient comer among certain of hay it being the intention of the amiable woman to occupy the chair during her journey mrs herself is next handed in and grimly takes her seat there is a gleam in her hard grey eye as of rounds of toast of hot and of young children sharp at and son poor and all the other delights of her s castle mrs almost laughs as the fly van drives off and she com her skirts and settles herself among the cushions of her easy chair the house is such a ruin that the rats have fled and there is not one left but though alone in the deserted mansion � for there is no companionship in the shut up rooms in which its late master hides his head � is not alone long it is night and she is sitting at work in the housekeeper s room trying to forget what a lonely house it is and what a history belongs to it when there is a knock at the hall door as loud sounding as any knock can be striking into such an empty place opening it she returns across the echoing hall accompanied by a female figure in a close black bonnet it is miss and miss s eyes are red oh says miss when i looked in to have a little lesson with the children just now i got the message that you for me and as soon as i could recover my spirits at all i came on after you is there no one here but you ah not a soul says have you seen him whispers miss bless you returns no he has not been seen this many a day they tell me he never leaves his room is he said to be ill miss no ma am not that i know of returns except in his mind he must be very bad there poor gentleman miss s sympathy is such that she can scarcely speak she is no chicken but she has not grown tough with age and her heart is very tender her compassion very genuine her homage very real beneath the with the eye in it miss bears better qualities than many a less outside such qualities as will by many courses of the sun the best and brightest that fall in the harvest of the great it is long before miss goes away and before with a candle on the blank stairs looks her for company down the street and feels unwilling to go back into the dreary house and jar its with the heavy of the and son door and glide away to bed but all this does and in the morning sets in one of those darkened rooms such matters as she has been advised to prepare and then and enters them no more until next morning at the same hour there are bells there but they never ring and though she can sometimes hear a going to and fro it never comes out miss returns in the day it then begins to be miss s occupation to prepare little or what are such to to be carried into these rooms next she so much satisfaction from the pursuit that she enters on it regularly from that time and brings daily in her little basket various choice selected from the scanty stores of the deceased owner of the powdered head and she likewise brings in sheets of curl paper of cold meat tongues ot sheep of fowls for her own dinner and ing these with passes the greater part of her time in the ruined house that the rats have fled from hiding in a fright at every sound stealing in and out like a criminal only desiring to be true to the fallen object of her admiration unknown to him unknown to all the world but one poor simple woman the major knows it but no one is the wiser for that though the major is much the the major in a fit of curiosity has charged the native to watch the house sometimes and find out what becomes of the native has reported miss s fidelity and the major has nearly choked himself dead with laughter he is permanently from that hour and con to himself his eyes starting out of his head me sir the woman s a bom idiot and the ruined man how does he pass the hours alone let him remember it in that room years to come he did remember it it was heavy on his mind now heavier than all the rest let him remember it in that room 