"Good night!" "So," muttered Jonathan, "having started the hare, I'll now unleash the hounds." With this praiseworthy determination, he was hastening down stairs, with the utmost rapidity, when he encountered a female, whom he took, in the darkness, to be Mrs.Sheppard.The person caught hold of his arm, and, in spite of his efforts to disengage himself, detained him.
"Where is he ?" asked she, in an agitated whisper.

"I heard his voice; but I saw them on the stairs, and durst not approach him, for fear of giving the alarm." "If you mean the fugitive, Darrell, he has escaped through the back window," replied Jonathan.
"Thank Heaven!" she gasped.
"Well, you women are forgiving creatures, I must say," observed Jonathan, sarcastically.

"You thank Heaven for the escape of the man who did his best to get your child's neck twisted." "What do you mean ?" asked the female, in astonishment.
"I mean what I say," replied Jonathan.

"Perhaps you don't know that this Darrell so contrived matters, that your child should be mistaken for his own; by which means it had a narrow escape from a tight cravat, I can assure you.

However, the scheme answered well enough, for Darrell has got off with his own brat." "Then this is not my child ?" exclaimed she, with increased astonishment.
"If you have a child there, it certainly is not," answered Jonathan, a little surprised; "for I left your brat in the charge of Blueskin, who is still among the crowd in the street, unless, as is not unlikely, he's gone to see your other friend disciplined at the pump." "Merciful providence!" exclaimed the female.