mother was bedridden banished this idea. Owing to the same fact, new
boots and gloves were inadmissible; but caps were not--happy thought!
He started off at once, and returned home with a cap so gay, voluminous,
and imposing, that the old lady, unused though she was to mirth, laughed
with amusement, while she cried with joy, at this (not the first)
evidence of her son's affection.

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.

CHANGES AND MYSTERIES.

Seven years passed away. During that period London revolved in its
usual course, reproducing its annual number of events--its births,
deaths, and marriages; its plans, plots, and pleasures; its business,
bustle, and bungle; its successes, sentiments, and sensations; its
facts, fancies, and failures--also its fires; which last had increased
steadily, until they reached the imposing number of about twelve hundred
in the year.

But although that time elapsed, and many changes took place, for better
or for worse, in all circles of society, there had not been much change
in the relative positions of the actors in our tale; at least, not much
that was apparent. Great alterations, however, had taken place in the
physical condition of some of them, as the sequel will show.

One bright morning in the spring-time of the year, a youth with the soft
down of early manhood on his lips and cheeks, paced slowly to and fro
near the margin of the pond in Kensington Gardens.

Being early, the spot was as complete a solitude as the backwoods of
North America, and so thick was the foliage on the noble trees, that no
glimpse of the surrounding city could be obtained in any direction.
Everything that greeted eye and ear was characteristic of "the woods,"
even to the swans, geese, ducks, and other water-fowl which sported on
the clear surface of the pond; while the noise of traffic in the mighty
metropolis was so subdued by distance as to resemble the deep-toned roar
of a great cataract. A stranger, rambling there for the first time
would have found it difficult to believe that he was surrounded on all
sides by London!

It was one of those soul-stirring mornings in which Nature seems to
smile. There was just enough of motion in the air to relieve the effect
of what is called a dead calm. The ripple on the water caught the sun's
rays, and, breaking them up, scattered them about in a shower of
fragmentary diamonds. Fleecy-white clouds floated in the blue sky,
suggesting dreams of fairy-land, and scents