“Unwelcome advice, dear, not bad.  Will you consult Dr. Amboyne? he sleeps here to-night.  He often comes here now, you know.”  Then the widow colored just a little.

“Oh yes, I know; and I approve.”

Dr. Amboyne came to dinner.  In the course of the evening he mentioned his patient Coventry, and said he would never walk again, his spine was too seriously injured.

“How soon will he die? that is what I want to know,” said Henry, with that excessive candor which the polite reader has long ago discovered in him, and been shocked.

“Oh, he may live for years.  But what a life!  An inert mass below the waist, and, above it, a sick heart, and a brain as sensitive as ever to realize the horrid calamity.  Even I, who know and abhor the man’s crimes, shudder at the punishment Heaven inflicts on him.”

There was dead silence round the table, and Little was observed to turn pale.

He was gloomy and silent all the evening.

Next morning, directly after breakfast, his mother got him, and implored him not to waste his youth any longer.

“The man will never die,” said she:  “he will wear you out.  You have great energy and courage; but you have not a woman’s humble patience, to go on, year after year, waiting for an event you can not hasten by a single moment.  Do you not see it is hopeless?  End your misery by one brave plunge.  Speak to dear Jael.”

“I can’t—­I can’t!”

“Then let me.”

“Will it make you happy?”

“Very happy.  Nothing else can.”

“Will it make her happy?”

“As happy as a queen.”

“She deserves a better fate.”

“She asks no better.  There, unless you stop me, I shall speak to her.”

“Well, well,” said Henry, very wearily.

Mrs. Little went to the door.

“Wait a moment,” said he.  “How about Uncle Raby?  He has been a good friend to me.  I have offended him once, and it was the worst job I ever did.  I won’t offend him again.”

“How can you offend him by marrying Jael?”

“What, have you forgotten how angry he was when Mr. Richard Raby proposed to her?  There, I’ll go and speak to him.”

“Well, do.”

He was no sooner gone than Mrs. Little stepped into Jael’s room, and told her how matters stood.

Jael looked dismayed, and begged her on no account to proceed:  “For,” said she, “if Mr. Henry was to ask me, I should say No.  He would always be hankering after Miss Carden:  and, pray don’t be angry with me, but I think I’m worth a man’s whole heart; for I could love one very dearly, if he loved me.”

Mrs. Little was deeply mortified.  “This I did not expect,” said she. 
“Well, if you are all determined to be miserable—­be.”

Henry hunted up Mr. Raby, and asked him bluntly whether he would like him to marry Jael Dence.

Raby made no reply for some time, and his features worked strangely.