peak kindly and as though you meant it. Sit down, my dear, we must
have a little talk together, you and I. If I ever get my boy back, if
the breach between us is ever healed, it will be owing to you and Dr.
Luttrell."

"Oh, please do not say that, we were only the means under Providence."

"Yes, yes," with a touch of impatience--"I am not forgetting that. In
some ways I am a civilised heathen; but I have never omitted my
prayers, thank God. 'He loveth best who prayeth best.' Who said that,
Mrs. Luttrell? Perhaps I never prayed enough, or my boy would not have
wandered so far. Ah, well, do you remember how hard I was on you for
sheltering tramps, and now I can only say, God bless you for your
divine charity."

Olivia's eyes glistened, but she only pressed his hand in
acknowledgment of this. "And to-morrow you are to see him," she said,
softly.

"Yes, to-morrow," he repeated slowly, "that is why I must not talk much
to-day; but I wanted to thank you for bringing Alwyn, and to tell you
how grateful I am to you both.

"I am an old man," he continued, "old in sorrows more than in years;
for, with Jacob, I can truly say that 'few and evil have been my
years.' Oh, Mrs. Luttrell, my dear, take warning by me; you have a
little one of your own, and perhap in future years you may have sons
growing up beside you, never for one instant let anything come between
you and them."

He paused for a moment and then went on: "When Alwyn was a little
child, I simply worshipped him; his own mother begged me with tears in
her eyes not to set my heart so much on him. He was delicate, and I
knew what she meant, that she feared whether we should rear him; and I
remember, as she said this, that I struck my hand passionately against
his little cot, 'if that boy dies I shall never hold up my head again;'
how well I remember that speech. Oh, my dear, the time came when I
wished that I had no son, when the sharpness of the serpent's tooth
entered my very vitals. God grant that you and Dr. Luttrell may never
have to blush for a son's misdoings."

"Dear friend, remember you are not to agitate yourself."

"No, no, I will take care; but I think it does me good to talk a
little; the steam must have vent, you know, and I have kept silence for
so many years. All these weeks they have kept my boy from me; but they
were right," his voice trembling with weakness. "I could not have
borne it, neither could Alwyn. Ah, how changed and ill h