Year: 1875

they advanced he was discoursing about
it, and holding it aloft. The percus-
sion fuse in this one has gone wrong,
he said. f'See, viii throw it down
among us, and you shall see that it viii
not explode"


Before any one could stop the mad
man he had done 1t. There was q great
blue fame, and sound totally different
from the report of a cannon. A shat
tering, broken noise, then smoke and
an instant's silence. Delaval was pros
trate and horribly injured about the
head, and George Dickson had his left
arm torn away aud was crying out for
water.


There was a buvying party near,
across the road, composed mainly of
the citizens of the town, who seemed
to prefer this dreadful occupation to
watching the ruins of their own homes.
They came and helped the two wound
ed men but London doctor who was
there said there was no help for either
of them.


They carried them to Givonne, and
laid them in a barn. IN the straw, side
by side. The English doctor attended
to George, and he tried to sleep but
the man on the left of him was rest
less, and in trying to soothe him he
found that it was Delaval, groaning
heavily.


"Why, are you hurt, too, said
George, "I am very sorry for that.


What fool you were to play with
that she'll"


''I did it on purpose" said Delaval.
6" I saw that she cared for you still. I
wished to destroy you. Are you badly
hurt ?"


"I am a miserable cripple for life, I"
said George. ''But God knows I for
give you. Why did you do it ?" -


&C tell you that saw she cared for
you. I love her and she hates me.
wanted to kill you and her too. Is she


"No, she was not injured" said
George.


"I wish she was. But now that you
are utterly ruined it does not so much
matter. One comfort is. that she will
never look at you now.


Delaval died that night, but George
was deiirious, and did not know it.
His head was confused for q long time,
and he came to himself very slowly
The first person he knew was his faith
er he fancied he must be in London,
because his father never went out of
London on any pretext whatever, and
he would never take the trouble to
come ten miles to see him, though he
might spend a hundred pounds in
sending him a doctor, and scold him
violently for the expense afterward.
When he saw his father at his bedside,
he concluded that he must be in Lon
don.


But only at first the walls were not
London walls, so bright and so clean,
and those leaves tapping at the windows
were vine leaves, which certainly grow
in London, but in a most dingy state.
The first information that his father
gave him was that he was still at
Givonne, and that Paris was besieged.


There was an intense tenderness in
his fathers manner, which he had never
noticed before. He made a guess at
the reason of this when his mind fully
returned to him. he knew that he had
lost his left arm. And my father, :"
he argued, s'thinks that I have forgot
ten It in my delirium, and hesitates to
tell me Of It.


The next time that the immovable old
face came near him, he threw his re-
naming arm around the old mans neck,
and said: eff had two arms, father,
I would put them both round your neck.
Forgive your poor cripple Tor any sor-
row he has caused you.


''My own boy, you have caused me
no sorrow, 1 am going to cause you
some. Are you strong enough to bear
it.


els Elizabeth dead ?"


g Your faithful nurse? God forbid
that such thing should happen. She
is close by. But the match between
you and Ada is broken off. She has be-
/ haved more heartless than could have
conceived She has refused, do you
understand, to marry you after your
accident. It is all over, my poor boy.


"Thank God - said George.


''Are you glad, then?" said his father.


''I don't know yet. Did you say that
Elizabeth was here? Send her TO me.
And, dear father, go away"


When the father came back, a beauti-
full woman had thrown off her wimple,
and had disclosed the magnificent rs-
dance of her. hair, which one month
afterward would have been cut away.
She said: ''I am going to marry your
crippled son, sir. I will be a good
daughter to you. Try to be a good
father to me"


So they took hands and went down
the stream of life together, and never
separated in thought, mind, or deed.