266 Lights and Shadows of London Life. 



he be to strive against a sentiment whose flood of softness gushes 

 from the life-spring of all mortal feeling. 



I have said that the dwelling of which he had become the occupant 

 accorded but little with the style of its appointments, still less did 

 she, who appeared in character of its domestic directress, harmonize 

 with her vocation. In stature she was above the common standard, 

 her figure exquisitely moulded, her manner timid and retired. The 

 fashion of her costume bespoke a faultless taste ; her habits and pur- 

 suits were refined, every expression was eloquent of a cultivated 

 vocabulary ; in courtesy of mien, and elegance of deportment, you 

 had the assurance of a polished and finished education. Such was 

 the woman with whom accident had brought Chalcroft in contact; 

 enacting a part clearly opposed to her inclination, and for which she 

 was utterly unsuited. Such was the being with whom, in utter igno- 

 rance and carelessness of all, save the love with which he worshipped 

 her, he had united himself by an obligation which society does not 

 recognise : surrendering to a passion whose earliest victim bartered 

 a human immortality for reproach, and shame, and death. 



The first fruits of bitterness, which were the produce of this ill- 

 omened connexion, were the domestic bickerings to which, in its 

 stage of suspicion, it gave rise. It was impossible that it could long 

 be concealed : from the first Chalcroft was opposed to any thing like 

 a tortuous course, yielding his own stern sense of single-minded in- 

 tegrity only to the energetic eloquence with which she besought 

 that the disclosure might be divested of the sharpness of abrupt 

 revelation. As usual, these precautions were worse than useless. 

 A very short period intervened between the first dawning of doubt, 

 till mistrust settled into conviction. To the coldest, most blunted 

 sensibilities, it is an ordeal of no ordinary difficulty to confront a 

 man upon whom the outrage has been perpetrated that they commit 

 who separate a husband from his wife. To one of the acute feeling 

 and quick nature of Chalcroft, it was the most severe moral trial to 

 which he could be exposed. It was not, however, to be avoided, and 

 for the first time he found himself with him whom he had thus in- 

 jured. Nature had made Chalcroft of cool and deliberate courage, 

 his profession established a fearless, perhaps a haughty superstructure, 

 upon the foundation. Thus constituted, though he did not seek, he 

 certainly did not attempt to shrink from the interview. The first 

 moments of that meeting served to divest it of all the perplexity 

 with which he had invested it. The person, whom he pictured to 

 himself as bowed down beneath the burden of bereavement, broken 

 and prostrate in spirit, stood before him in the broad glaring relief 

 of unmitigated ruffianism. His figure was short, muscular, and 

 brawny ; his features were regular, his appearance such as might be 

 termed well-looking, but the expression of the whole was singularly 

 unfavourable. His countenance, the cast of which in its best mood 

 was sinister and repulsive, bore as he abruptly entered the apartment 

 the stamp of a demon ; in a moment his grasp was upon Chalcroft's 

 throat, in another he lay extended at his feet. "You brought it 

 upon yourself," said Chalcroft, as he stood over the fallen man, from 

 a wound in whose temple the blood was gushing, " you should have 



