s moment, in his eyes and
in his voice, there was an unmistakable expression of grief and
compassion as he pronounced the name of the dwarf.

I confess I was startled at the sound. The mystery that had always hung
over Forrester was darker than ever. He was utterly unlike all other
men. Whatever subject or business he took an interest in, seemed to grow
into solemn importance under his hands, and to acquire an unaccountable
fascination from his connection with it. His attenuated figure, the
habit of loneliness which imparted such severe and inflexible gravity to
his features, his very dress, loose, careless, and slouching, all helped
to give a peculiar force to his words. Had the Wandering Jew suddenly
appeared before us, and mentioned the name of the dwarf, I could not
have been more astonished. My steward was ignorant of my acquaintance
with him, and Forrester had left England before it began. By what means,
then, could Forrester have obtained a clew to him? It really looked like
a stroke of diablerie.

"You knew him, then?" inquired Astraea, quite as much surprised as I was
myself.

"I have known him many years," he returned.

"How very strange!" I observed. "This gentleman," I continued, turning
to Astraea, "is a very old friend of mine. Long before I knew you, we
were much together; at one time inseparable. Yet I never heard him speak
of--did you know him _then_?" I inquired of Forrester.

"Yes, intimately. I was in his confidence. There is nothing surprising
in that."

"Oh, no; only it _does_ seem odd, that, in London, where there are so
many hundreds of thousands of human beings, people should find so many
common acquaintances in the crowd."

"We can generally trace the wonder to very natural causes, if we will
only take the trouble to look into it. You made his acquaintance through
a friend of mine--in fact, through me!"

It was so; and I had forgotten all about it. Forrester's knowledge of
the dwarf was, therefore, antecedent to my own; and, curiously enough,
it was my acquaintance with him that led to my introduction to the
family. How very strangely these things seemed to come about, and to
bring me back to the time when Forrester held my destiny in his
power!--an age of exciting experiences, equal in emotion and reaction to
a whole life-time, had passed in the interval, and here he was now
returned suddenly, and sitting at my hearth, with the threads of my fate
again in his hands!

I was all impa