IN TWO VOLUMES. BY LAURA JANE CURLING. VOL. I. "Aide-toi, et le ciel t'aidera." London: T. CAUTLEY NEWBY, PUBLISHER, 30, WELBECK STREET, CAVENDISH SQUARE. 1862. [The right of Translation is Reserved.] 250. h. 121. MARY GRAHAM. CHAPTER I. One moment and our hearts are gay, It was towards the close of a dreary autumn day in October, in the year 1850. A steady, drizzling rain, accompanied by frequent and violent gusts of wind, a grey, leaden-coloured sky above, which held forth no promise of either abating, did not serve to render those whom business or duty had obliged to leave their comfortable firesides less impatient to regain a place of shelter. In spite of wind and rain, however, several ragged urchins were assembled round a small roadside inn at the entrance of the town of Hatfield, boasting to each other of the day's exploits. Bill informing Jack "how as he had gammoned a leddy out o' saxpence," by shewing and commenting pitifully on the miserable condition of bare feet in such inclement weather; the said Bill's "pal" Jack, thereupon highly extolling his friend's cleverness, handed him over a pair of good stout boots which had been left in his charge during the day, and which he told his friend with a grin “ were not much the worse for wear, since last he saw them." Bill was just in the act of thrusting his bare feet into the coverings to which they had been so long strangers, when his, and his companion's, attention was arrested by a stranger riding furiously up to the door of the inn, who hastily throwing his horse's reins to the hopeful Jack, dismounted, |