WYLDER'S HAjYD.
This proneness to sudden accesses of violence mi fury
was the compensation which abated the effect oi his or-
dinary craft and self-command.
He had done all he could to obviate the consequences of
his folly in this case. He hoped the attorney migln not
succeed in discovering Jim Dutton's whereabouts. Awll
events, he had been beforehand, and taken measures to
quiet that person's dangerous resentment. But it was
momentous in the critical state of things to give this dan-
gerous attorney a handsome share in his stake — to place
him, as he had himself said, "in the same boat," and en-
list all his unscrupulous astuteness in maintaining his
title; and if he went to London disappointed, and things
turned out unluckily about Dutton, it might be a very aw-
ful business, indeed.
Dinner had been a very dull^ie-d-tete. . Dorcas sat
stately and sad—looking from the window toward the
distant sunset horizon, piled in dusky gold and crimson
clouds, against the faded, green sky — a glory that is al-
ways melancholy and dreamy. Stanley sipped his claret,
his eyes upon the cloth. He raised them and looked out,
too; and the ruddy light tinted his pale features.
A gleam of good humor seemed to come with it, and he
said —
"I was just thinking, Dorkie, that for you and me, alone,
these great rooms are a little dreary. Suppose we have
tea in the tapestry room."
"The Dutch room, Stanley — I think so — I should
like it very well. So, I am certain would Rachel. I've
written to her to come. I hope she will. I expect her at
nine. The broughman will be with her. She wrote such
an odd note to-day, addressed to you; but J opened it.
Here it is."
She did not watch his countenance, or look in his di-