The Mark Of Cain

thirst for the picturesque, Tommy and his mates failed to pause and observe the architectural peculiarities of the building. Even if they had been of a romantic and antiquarian turn,

dlord such a person as Robert Maitland, M.A., Fe

ace of popular tradition. That a man like Maitland should be the lessee of a waterside tavern, like the Hit or Miss, was only one of the anomalies of this odd age of ours. An age of revivals, restorations, experiments-an ag

s unpopular. His studies ultimately won him a Fellowship at St. Gatien's, where his services as a tutor were not needed. Maitland now developed a great desire to improve his own culture by acquaintance with humanity, and to improve humanity by acquaintance with himself. This view

ielby had said. "Throw yourself into the li

the citizens the desirability of running a steam tramway for the people from the station to Cowley, through Worcester, John's, Baliol, and Wadham Gardens and Magdalene. His signature headed a petition in f

Trumpet, Maitland looked out for some humbler field of personal usefulness. The happy notion of taking a philanthropic public-house occurred to him, and was acted upon at the first opportunity. Maitland calculated that in his own bar-room he could acquire an intimate knowledge of humanity in its least sophisticated aspects. He

ng lions. Thus in Maitland there survived a little of the old leaven of the student of Renaissance, a touch of the amateur of "impressions" and of antiquated furniture. He was always struggling against this "side," as he called it, of his "culture," and in his hours of reaction he w

de, the bridge-house had been one of a street of similar quaint and many-gabled old buildings that leaned up against each other for mutual support near the rivers edge. But the Embankment slowly

t had been a corner. T

lmost perpendicular. Th

sque as anything in Nu

urface by little odd r

nd the house was shored

ed (supposing you to en

, if you passed in as or

little board, with t

Bridge

Miss-Luc

ing. From this door you saw the side, or rather the back, which the house kept for its intimates; a side even more picturesque with red-tiled roofs and dormer windows than that which faced the street.

d Tommy and his friends make haste to place themselves, comfortably disposed, and thawing rapidly, in a room within a room, as it were; for the big chimney-place was like a little chamber by itself. Not on an ordinary night could such

er to hear all the story of the finding of poor Dicky Shields as any of the crowd outside had been. Aga

the men, "how old Dicky g

her. "That daughter of his-a nice-looking

t beginning to put in, when the brilliant witticism he was abo

e or four at once, and there ensued a great noise of the slapping of t

ss he 'ad about tattooed all the parish as would stand a pint for tattooing.

s nuther; or else he was clean sold out, and hadn't no ca

the middle, the long-legged moulting foreign bird at one end, and that 'ere shiny old rhinoceros in the porch under them picters of t

m,' Dicky sez, sez he: 'a facsimile o' myself, mum.' It wasn't much they drank neither-just a couple of pints; for sez the sailor gentleman, he sez, 'I'm afeared, mum, our friend here can't carry much even of your capital stuff. We must excuse' sez he, 'the failings of an artis'; but I doesn't want his hand to shake or slip when he's a doin' me,' sez he. 'Mig

ling courtesy, to welcome her lan

pretence at excuse, others with shame-faced awkwardness-they shouldered and shuffled out of the

re for a chat with our friends-a little social relaxation-on e

But," said Mrs. Gullick, eagerly-with the delight of the oldest aunt in telling the sa

ut to ascribe to alarming intelligence will never be known; for M

d to Miss Margare

, poor lamb, but he

emed sensib

t about he

now, this very evening, he was foun

nd. "Do you mean that he went away in

is very house he had been no later than last night, and quite stea

till the young social reformer transplanted her to a school in the purer air of Devonshire. He was having her educated there, and after she was educated-why, then, Maitland had at one time entertained his own projects or dreams. In the way of their accomplishment Dicky Shields had been felt as an obstacle; not that he objected-on the other hand, he had made Maitland put his views in

idly, like a sensation rather than a set of cohe

ched business," he said, rising and closi

too him a bit, up there, to put him in the way of earning an honest penny by his trade-a queer trade it was. Never more than a pint, or a glass of hot rum and water, would he give the old man. Most considerate and careful, sir, he ever was. Well, last night he brought him in about nine, and they sat rather late; and about twelve the sailor comes in, rubbing his eyes, and 'Good-night, mum,' sez he. 'My friend's been gone for an

l this happened? How did S

, if 'ad he 'ad; as believe it I cannot, seeing a glass of hot rum and water would not intoxicate a babe. May be he felt faint

burst open, and a small brown bear had rushed erect into the r

d Maitland, and embracing at the same time the little animal in an affectionate clasp.

g Bird I saw on the roof, and I ran down-stairs bef

it wasn't for that bearskin Mr. Toopny was kind enough to let you keep, you'd get your death o' cold, you would, running about in the night. And look 'ere, Lizer," she added, patting the child affectionately on the shoulder, "do get that there Bir

, about Mrs. Gullick's neck; and then, without lavishing attention on

st now, and she did have a scare last night, or else, which is more likely, her little inside

k, why is she dre

Gullick, not in the least meaning to impugn Maitland's general capacity for abstract speculation. "A regular little genius that chil

eyond measure to convivial enjoyment. Maitland had befriended him in his last days, and had appointed Mrs. Gul

being a little late, and Gullick with the thirst on him, when she came in with the jug, he made a cuff at her, not to hurt her, and

o imagined that "the knap" must be

'taking the knap' in the profession. And the beer was spilt, and the jug broken, and all-Lizer was that clever? And this is her second season, just ended, as a himp at the Hilarity

ear, and had even proved, in a learned paper, that the Three Bears were the Sun, the Moon, and the Mult

about a big Bird?" he asked. "W

very strange. She vowed and swore she had seen a large Bird, far bigger than any common bird, skim over the street. Then when I had put her to bed in the attic, down she flies, screaming she saw the Bird on the roof. I had hard work to get her to sleep. To-

see the little girl. Now I must go, and I think the less we say to anyone about Miss Shields, you know, the better. It wi

being safe away at school, sir, we'll hope she wo

: a half-hearted London thaw was filling

t he was followed at no great distance by a man muffled up in a great-coat and a woollen comforter. The stranger almost shoul

Maitland to

ecot, Co

ver

ow, leaving by

see newspaper.

k ne

ns or pencils, and how they tear or blot the paper when we are in a hurry; and Maitland felt hurried, though there was no need for haste. Meantime the man in