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Here was Mr Finney towards paint and varnish) sitting, white-aproned and shirt-sleeved, on a chair in his garden, s his pipe with a co man, with a brush in his hand and another behind his ear, stood up and stretched hie as in his little saloon; the greengrocer was earette in his roup of children were escorting the laood, hoenuine breed; born in the court, as had been their fathers before thereat extent was the population of the place Miss Oinal descent and so did the sweet-faced Moravian lady next door--a connection of the famous La Trobes of the old Conventicle, whose history went back to the Gordon Riots; and as to the gentleman who lived in the ancient timber-and-plaster house at the bottom of the court, it was reported that his ancestors had dwelt in that very house since the days of James the First

On these facts I reflected as I sauntered down the court: on the strange phenoering in the very heart of the noisy city; an island of peace set in an ocean of unrest, an oasis in a desert of change and ferate in the high wall, and as I raised the latch and pushed it open, I saw Ruth standing at the door of the house talking to Miss O for me, for she wore her sombre black cloak and hat and a black veil, and when she sawout her hand

"You are punctual," said she "St Dunstan's clock is striking now"

"Yes," I answered "But where is your father?"

"He has gone to bed, poor old dear He didn't feel well enough to coe him He is really very ill This dreadful suspense will kill hier"

"Let us hope it won't," I said, but with little conviction, I fear, into see her torn by anxiety for her father, and I yearned to coha up visibly under the stress of the terrible hter, and no words of mine could make the fact less manifest