"Is the service over?" he inquired of a decent old woman who was passing him down the stairs. The woman started at this question, asked her in English by a person whose dress was so completely foreign. He repeated it. Smiling and curtseying, she replied-- "Yes, sir; and I am sorry for it. Lord bless your handsome face, though you be a stranger gentleman, it does one's heart good to see you so devoutly given!" Thaddeus blushed at this personal compliment, though it came from the lips of a wrinkled old woman; and begging permission to assist her down the stairs, he asked when service would begin again. "At three o'clock, sir, and may Heaven bless the mother who bore so pious a son!" While the poor woman spoke, she raised her eyes with a melancholy resignation. The count, touched with her words and manner, almost unconsciously to himself, continued by her side as she hobbled down the street. His eyes were fixed on the ground, until somebody pressing against him, made him look round. He saw that his aged companion had just knocked at the door of a mean-looking house, and that she and himself were surrounded by nearly a dozen people, besides boys who through curiosity had followed them from the church porch. "Ah! sweet sir," cried she, "these folks are staring at so fine a gentleman taking notice of age and poverty." Thaddeus was uneasy at the inquisitive gaze of the bystanders; and his companion observing the fluctuation of his countenance, added, as the door was opened by a little girl, "Will your honor walk in out of the rain, and warm yourself by my poor fire?" He hesitated a moment; then, accepting her invitation, bent his head to get under the humble door-way, and following her through a neatly- sanded passage, entered a small but clean kitchen. A little boy, who was sitting on a stool near the fire, uttered a scream at the sight of the stranger, and running up to his grandmother, rolled himself in her cloak, crying out, "Mammy, mammy, take away that black man!" "Be quiet, William; it is a gentleman, and no black man. I am so ashamed, sir; but he is only three years old." "I should apologize to you," returned the count, smiling, "for introducing a person so hideous as to frighten your family." By the time he finished speaking, the good dame had pacified the shrieking boy, who stood trembling, and looking askance at the tremendous black gentleman stroking the head of his pretty sister. "Come here, my dear!" said Thaddeus, seating himself by the fire, and stretching out his hand to the child. He instantly buried his head in his grandmother's apron. "William! William!" cried his sister, pulling him by the arm, "the gentleman will not hurt you."