But there were no looks of love in Arthur Sterne's face; for, with brow knit, nostrils distended, and every vein in his face swollen and knotted, he stood with his heel crushed down upon Jarker's bull-throat, no mean incarnation of vengeance. Soon, though, the breath he had drawn with difficulty as he stood there holding the fainting girl to his throbbing heart, came more lightly, the expression of rage fled from his features, and as he gazed tenderly upon the pale face so near his own he pressed his lips reverently upon her forehead. "Lucy, my poor dove," he whispered, "will you not give me the right to protect you, and take you from this place?"--"Our beauty, some of us," seemed sighed at his ear. "A lie, a base lie!" he muttered fiercely; though even then a change came over his face, the veins swelled once more in his forehead, and an agony of strange thoughts passed through his breast. And now, pale and anxious, two or three of the women lodgers came trembling to the door, amongst whom was Mrs Sims, ready to take possession of the child, as, hurriedly passing through the wondering group, the curate bore his light burden to her home. Volume Three, Chapter VII. A MEETING AND ITS RESULT. It was late before Arthur Sterne left Bennett's-rents that night. Septimus Hardon had been terribly excited--talking long and wildly of his poverty being the cause of the insult offered to his child. He had walked hurriedly up and down the room, gesticulating and threatening the scoundrel who had so repaid Lucy's kindness; and again and again it was upon the curate's lips to speak of the little one, and of Lucy's strange intimacy with its mother; but his spirit revolted from the task. In another case he would have spoken instantly; but here duty seemed to move in fetters that he could not break. In all concerning the poor girl he seemed bound to preserve silence till such time as some explanation should be given, and through all he had been in constant dread lest he should give her pain. "I must prosecute the villain!" exclaimed Septimus. "But the pain--the exposure--your child?" said the curate. "What! would you have him go unpunished?" exclaimed Septimus. "I would say `No!' directly," replied the curate; "but I cannot help thinking of the painful scene in court, the public examination, and the cross-examination by the prisoner's counsel; and these men can always among themselves manage to get some able person to undertake their cause. It would be a most painful position in which to place your child. Her actions would be distorted to suit a purpose; and such a scene--"