"Ask Nurse Lynch if that same mark was on the baby she nursed. She'll tell you no, but she was cute enough to say nothing about it, lest she might be blamed." "Josephine has the mark of a strawberry behind one ear. You must have noticed it, Sir Gerard," remarked Max. Butler. "Then she must be the legitimate daughter of Major Barrington, and this woman's assertion is correct," said Dr. Holmes, and my evidence in this matter would go far to establish her claims to the inheritance. Nurse Lynch could also prove the same." "This affair must be enquired into," remarked Sir Gerard. Poor Eva! what a disgraceful revelation awaits her! How will she bear this cruel change of fortune !" "She knows it already. She has been told the whole story, standing beside the grave of her misfortunate mother in the Friary of St. Bride." There was a quivering motion about Dinah Blake's stern mouth, which showed the emotion the remembrance of that scene caused. "Do you think Eva knew of your imprisonment," asked Sir Gerard, anxiously. It grieved him to think she could be so unprincipled. "Of course she did, and she paid them well for it. And small blame to her, the craythur, when such disgrace and ruin was hanging over her head." "You do not seem to cherish resentment towards her. I am glad to see this change for the better," observed Max Butler, in pleased tones. "I cannot cherish resintment towards poor Norah's child anyhow, although it's my nature to feel resintment for any wrong done me or mine most bittherly, your riverence. It was that same vindictive sperit that made me revinge meself on Major Bar "And how did she bear the painful dis- rington for what he done. And sure I had closure," asked Max Butler. "It nearly drove her mad, the craythur, and no wonder, sure, when she thought of the disgrace attinding her birth. She is mighty proud, entirely." "How did Crofton come to hear of this?" asked Dr. Holmes. "Did you tell the story to him also." "He happened to come into the Friary when we were there discoursing, and heard all about it. He tould me to come to his house that same night to talk the matter over, and so I did, and I incensed him into all the particulars, so that he saw I was spaking the thruth. And then, on account of her taking on so about it, it come into his head to keep me out of the way. So he deludered me into spending the night at his house, bekase I wasn't feeling at all well. His sister, the ould maid, showed me up into a comfortable little room in the garret, where I slept that night, but the next morn the satisfaction of telling him all about it afore he died," Dinah added, with a gleam of exultation in her dark sunken eye. "How did you gain access to Major Barrington on his death-bed," asked Dr. Holmes, curiously. "Asy enough. All the servants fled from the house on account of the faver he had except the nurse left to attend him, and she was a friend of mine. She gladly let me take her place beside the dying man, while she slept awhile, for she was worn out with watching and nursing. It was then I tould me story to the Major, and imbitthered his last moments, but, sure, I had my revinge." "You have not told us how you escaped from the burning house, Dinah," said Dr. Holmes, anxious to hear all the particulars of this woman's strange story, for the good Doctor was as curious as any daughter of Eve. "Did Miss Crofton set you free when she knew what was going to happen?" 6 "Not she! She fled, with all the servants, and never gave a thought to me, I'll be bound. She was as hard-hearted as her brother himself. But the Lord was good to me, and it happened that one of the boys' heard me shouting for help up in the garret, for I knew, by the bright light shining around, that the house was on fire-so he came and let me out, and took me down stairs safely." "You would know this man again, I suppose," said Sir Gerard, eagerly. "Did you not recognise his voice? You might convict him if you wished," resumed the Baronet. "I'll do nothing of the kind! Do you think I could turn informer, especially agin the man that saved me own life?" Dinah observed, with a look of intense scorn. "No, I wouldn't," she answered bluntly, years to enjoy as the happy wife of the Rev. "he wore a black mask." Maxwell Butler. Eva Barrington quietly resigned her claims to Barrington Height, as soon as she found that Dinah Blake had published the disgraceful fact that she was not the rightful owner. Josephine Dormer, herefore, stepped without any trouble into the possession of the estate. She bestowed upon her illegitimate half-sister a sufficient income to maintain her in the position of a lady, during the remainder of her life, which was not a happy one, for the unmerited disgrace that had fallen upon her embittered the proud girl's existence. Lady Trevor no longer opposed her son's marriage with the heiress of Barrington Height, and in due time Josephine became the bride of Sir Gerard Trevor. "It is your duty to try and bring one of these ruffians to justice if you can, Dinah," said the clergyman, persuasively. "If I could bring them all to justice I wouldn't," she replied, doggedly. "Not that I don't think they desarve it, but it is n't Dinah Blake that will turn informer what none of her people was afore her." "That is the reason that outrages are so common," observed Sir Gerard, with asperity. "The people will not give information against the cowardly perpetrators of such deeds." Dinah Blake did not live long after the burning of Elm Lodge. Her previous confinement had injured her health, but while life continued she was well cared for by "You cannot persuade them to do it, Sir Josephine, who forgave the injury she had Gerard," said Dr. Holmes, gravely, "they done her in carrying out her revenge, and shrink from incurring the ignominy attached did all in her power to brighten the evening to the name of informer, and in some cases of her sad lonely life, embittered by vindicthey dread the enmity of the friends of those tive feelings. Dinah Blake died penitent men who commit the outrages we deplore." for the wrong she had done, and was buried I shall not attempt to describe the grief beside Norah in the Friary of St. Bride, where of Isabel Crofton when she heard of her she sleeps the long sleep of death, with the father's murder. The loss of home was no-ivy-covered ruins around, and the wild roar thing to this affliction, but she did not want of the Atlantic coming up from the shore or kind friends to comfort her in her trou- below. THE END. Now and then, through the darkness, Nothing was heard to alarm us, But danger seemed to be near, When suddenly both of us fired, At the sound of an oath in our rear. Before our reins we could gather Just here upon the shoulder I seemed to have been burned. Fifty of them were on us; Each of us drew our sword, Struck right and left among them, And galloped for the ford. We never thought of the torrent, Too late then to draw rein. We were swimming before we knew it, Off went carbine and sabre, And left the shrieking brutes. Burke was a mighty swimmer, But I had lost my strength, For the bullet in my shoulder Was troubling me at length. He just kept me from drowning, I heard him give one gasp,-- Suddenly from his grasp. ALMONTE, We found him, two days after, Clasping firm in his hand. A long, bright tress of woman's hair,Yellow as golden sand. His body was frightfully mangled, But the smile on his lips was so plain, That I think before he closed them He saw his wife again. JESSIE'S LAW SUIT. A TALE OF THE BAY OF QUINTÉ. BY C. W. COOPER, TH CHAPTER I. THE RETAINING FEE. HERE was no shadow of doubt that Edgar was "over head and ears" in love with my cousin Jessie, and was regarded by all the family as her lover, but what Jessie's feelings in the matter were was not so generally known; there had been a whisper that she had refused him, but his visits were still continued, apparently on the same footing as ever. This was the state of matters at the time of my first visit. Now, of course, my advent led to a good deal of conversation on family matters and connections, and I then learnt Jessie's little history. Her father, the brother of my host, Mr. Hermann, had formerly owned and occupied a fine farm on the shores of the Bay, not far distant from Mr. Hermann's, and was looked on as a prosperous well-to-do yeoman. He married a young and pretty girl of more than ordinary attainments for those times, and Jessie was their only child --but whilst Jessie was still young, but not before she had trained her young heart and mind after the model of her own, the mother died. Her loss was to poor Jacob Hermann a blow from which he never recovered-she had been his good angel, and when she was gone he became aimless and dispirited, and after a time negligent of his business, and finally became addicted to the ever-baneful whiskey. Just then came the so-called Canadian Rebellion, and Jacob's restless spirit led him to lend himself to some extent to the designs of the discontented leaders of that insane movement, not that he committed himself to any overt act of treason, or stood in any danger of loss of either life or property; the chances being that if he had staid quietly at home no notice would have been taken of him, as he was known and admitted to be a harmless inoffensive man, but this Jacob would not do ; and when the disturbance broke out Jacob borrowed a few hundred dollars of a neighbour of the name of Rogers, and left for the States. To secure the repayment of this money, Jacob made over to Rogers his farm, sold it him, as Rogers always asserted, and considering the disturbed state of the country, and the anxiety of Jacob to leave, such a transaction |