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The house was very quiet, and suddenly he re the fireworks which Sir Richard had provided in the park of Greengates for the entertain

They had asked perh; and noas grateful for the peace and tranquillity which their absence engendered in the dark and quiet house

Direw the rooht for its longopen to the garden without More and more thickly clustered the shadows round hi leather couch Once an owl hooted in the tall trees outside the house, and the strange, melancholy note seeht

Worse and everin his head and eyes, but his wretchedness of ; and had he been asked, suddenly, the nature of the pain which tormented him he would have found it hard to answer ian to feel that the limit of his endurance was almost reached He told hily sanction such suffering as his had now become In all the world he desired only one boon--oblivion, unconsciousness, rest fro which was surely unendurable; and as a h his head he plunged his hand into his breast-pocket in search of a certain little case which was generally to be found there during his day's round

But he reed his coat on returning hoht were not at hand

He half rose, intending to go in search of the thing he wanted; but the effort of ain with an irritable groan and prepared to endure still ht he would try the effect of a cigarette, but the matches were not on the table before him That obstacle, however, need not be insurmountable, for in a drawer at his elbow he kept a supply, and , he turned on the couch and opened the drawer to seek the matches which should be there

He found the one froe which so of interest in his pain-shrouded mind