was a small but elegant gold watch which to Robert had been a birthday
gift from an uncle who was very fond of him, and to this day it is to me
a valued keepsake.

When Mr. Dalton left the city, bearing with him the lifeless remains of
his son, for interment in the family burial-place, a deep gloom settled
over my mind, and for a long time, I could hardly rouse myself to give
the necessary attention to my daily duties. Since that period I have
made other friends and passed through many changing scenes, both of joy
and sorrow; but I have never forgotten Robert Dalton, and his image
often rises to my mental vision, as memory recalls the scenes and
friends of my youthful days.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

With the reader's permission I now pass over a period of six years. I am
still residing in the city of Montreal, as Mr. Baynard, when I reached
the age of twenty-one, saw fit to offer me a partnership in his
business, which the fruits of my former industry, added to a generous
gift from my Uncle Nathan, enabled me to accept. Many changes have taken
place in my early home in the village of Elmwood. Many old friends and
neighbors have been laid to rest in the quiet churchyard, and many with
whom I attended the village school have gone forth from their paternal
home to seek their fortune in the wide world. The cottage home of my
mother has undergone many improvements since we last looked upon it. It
has been enlarged and modernized in various ways, and its walls are no
longer a dingy brown, but of a pure white, and its windows are adorned
with tasteful green blinds. From a boy it had been my earnest wish to
see my mother placed in a home of ease and comfort, and that wish is now
gratified. Time has not dealt severely with my mother, for she looks
scarcely a day older than when we last saw her six years ago. My sister
Flora is finishing her education at a distant boarding school, where I
am happy to say my brotherly affection and generosity placed her. Good
Doctor Gray and his kind wife are still alive; but they are really
beginning to grow old. But what of Charley, for surely the reader has
not forgotten Charley Gray; he graduated from College with the highest
honors, and is now studying medicine in the city of New York, as,
agreeable to the ideas of his boyhood, he has decided upon becoming a
physician. I have met with him only twice during the past six years.
Does his old unhappy disposition cling to him still? we shall l