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hour you let me live! Hear me swear this, and more-bear witness to my words, Jack Gawtonthat you shall never call Adelaide your own till I am dead! I swear

it!'

But the other, strong in his pride, never gave answer save by a scornful laugh, and turned upon his heel and left him there.

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But as he was walking back to the railway station, a group of sailors called him to look out,' and, turning sharply round, he saw Relf making towards him with such a look of fury in his face as for the moment almost took his heart away. Close by the boat' was lying which had brought them there, and, wishing to avoid a scene before the men, he stepped to the edge of the pier and sprang upon the paddle-box. Relf, following, sprang too; but the tide had caught the steamer and she swung away just as he jumped, and so he missed his footing, and fell with a heavy splash into the dark sea below. Bending over the side, Gawton saw him struggling hard, his upturned face gleaming white amongst the foam-flecks, beating the water with his hands, and crying out for help. The sailors ran for ropes, and called to Gawton to keep his eye upon the drowning man, who fought, and choked, and lifted himself against the slimy timbers only to sink again as the wash passed over him. Then, as they hurried up with ropes, the steamer, swinging in again, closed on him like a vice. There was a second-just a second-when his face was there, all hideous with the horror of his death, shrieking a cry for help that came too late; and then the hull crushing against the timbers. There was no other sound to tell of this man's passage to eternity, save the noise of grinding wood, as the steamer heaved against it on the swells.

'He won't come up again, sir; he's down amongst the mud by this time,' said a sailor to Jack Gawton: there's many lost that way here. "Twill be a week, maybe, before they find him, the mud's so deep in the old harbour.'

'Good heavens! man, he can't be dead!' cried Gawton, with his hands before his eyes, as if to shut out the sight he had witnessed.

'Dead, sir? Crunched like a turnip between the piles. We haven't had another since two months gone, when my mate got jammed-just as he was, sir.'

'Dead!' muttered Gawton, gazing down, almost expecting to see the dead man's face underneath the water; and so sudden; with all his sins upon him! He said that she should not be mine till he was dead, and he spoke the truth-too well!-too well!'

He watched them dragging for the body, poleing up the mud, and casting ugly hooks about the place where he had sunk. He saw the crowd grow larger as the news spread that one of their own kind was dead; he answered questions set by the officials in a voiceless kind of way, as if he only half understood them, or the answer: and then, when all their search was fruitless, and the poles and hooks were laid along the pier, and the crowd began to wander off, he left the place and walked across to the station.

She had heard the noise, and was standing by the window looking eagerly out into the darkness.

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not talk about it now. Dear Ada! come and sit with me, and tell me that you love me, once again.'

He led her to a seat and sat beside her, twining his arm about her waist, and smoothing down the hair that fell upon his breast in tangles.

She had laid her head upon him, and was clasping his hand in hers, burying her face, and sobbing convulsively.

'Tell me it, Ada darling!' He put back her hair and tried to see her face, but she kept it pressed against him.

'Jack! I am so bad-so wicked! -you must not love me; indeed you must not-I am so very bad.'

'Dear child! don't cry so-I can't bear to see you cry. There, let me kiss you. It is so long since we have sat together and been all alone like this.'

'Oh, Jack! you'll kill me if you speak so kindly to me! You don't know all; indeed you don't, or you would never let me see you any more!'

'I do know, Ada—all !'

'What! has he told you, then?' 'Yes; he told me all-all lies!' 'No, no; not lies!-too true! I lied. I told you falsehoods !— I am the worst, for I did love him once !'

'He made you; you were weak, and wanted help, and I was never near to give it. Don't cry, dear love! I am not angry with you.'

'I did not mean it, Jack! It came so suddenly; and he spoke to me such words! Jack, dearest! I'm a woman; not strong like you, and good, but weak, and poor, and silly-just like women are.'

My wife!' He raised her head and kissed her, pressing his lips to hers, and drawing her so close to him that she was fain to give way and lift her face to his.

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His answer was not breathed in words; her arm was round his neck, drawing him to her closely.

'I came to tell you all, dear Jack! It was the penance for my wickedness.'

'You have still the penance left of living on with me.'

'Will you live with me, Jack?' 'Till you are tired, Ada.'

'Oh, Jack! don't say it, though in jest; it would have been so lonely without you-and yet I almost chose it! Oh! to live all day and feel you near me just a little-now and then, not always, Jack-but sometimes with your wife and then he won't come back to trouble me, when you are by.' 'He will never trouble you again.'

'Dear Jack, you frighten me !was it he just now?'

'Yes, it was he! You'll never see him again.'

'Is he hurt much?-is he in pain? He loved me once, and I loved him! No! don't be angry with me, Jack! I'll never say it any more. This once, dear Jack! Tell me, dearest husband, is he hurt?'

'Yes-hurt to death!'

'Oh, Jack!-it was not you?' 'No, Ada; not me.' She had started up at the last question, and was looking wildly in her husband's face.

'Is he dead?'

'He is!' Then she sank upon his breast and burst into a flood of tears.

'Philip! poor Philip! may God forgive you as I have done!'

He did not stop her, but let her weep upon him, merely smoothing down her hair, and watching her with all his love full in his eyes.

'Poor girl!' he murmured; 'her punishment is great, but his was greater! Thank God it is the end!'

THE END.

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Far away from ould Glengariff in the winter of the snow:

When the cruel curse of pride
Overcame me, and I cried

Hot and quick the haughty answer that my beating heart belied,
I was rich, and you were poor
When I parted you, astore,

You with but your passage-money-I, with Kerry cows galore.
I, an heiress young and proud,

Courted by a flattering crowd:

You with exile lone forenint you, and behind the constant cloud.
Warm within the flames they glow,

Cold without falls the snow.

So we parted-you and I :

Long I languished like to die,

Till your silence set me list'ning, after all, to Terence Tighe;
But I'd hardly changed my name,

When the cattle plague it came

And consumed my little fortune like a dark, devouring flame.
So I said my friends good-bye

For New York with Terence Tighe

But his heart's grown black within him, and he's turned me off-to die. Yes! to-morrow, Bryan, dear,

Dead and cold you'll find me here.

For your joy I couldn't trouble now nor cause her heart a fear.
Glad within the flames they glow,

Sad without falls the snow.

THE AUTHOR OF 'SONGS OF KILLARNEY."

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