my presence!"

The strong men grasped the form of the prisoner and marched him from the
room. The baffled villain made no resistance. He closed his eyes to
avoid beholding the loathing, abhorrent glances which were showered on
him from all sides.

As the hermit was slowly following the receding group, Major Howard
stepped to his side, and, laying his hand lightly on his arm, said:

"Will you not remain till the guests have retired?"

"No," answered the recluse, shaking his head sadly, "I have done my duty
and had better depart."

"You have saved me from destruction," said Major Howard, in a tone
trembling with grateful emotion, as he seized the thin, emaciated hand
of the hermit, and pressed it warmly to his bosom; "how shall I reward
you?"

"I seek no reward from your generosity," returned the solitary, escaping
from the grasp which detained him; "the consciousness of having done
right is sufficient recompense."

Thus speaking, he turned away. Major Howard returned to the parlors. The
guests were departing, and the several members of the family had
disappeared.

He hurried to the apartment occupied by his sister, and there beheld her
and Edith lying side by side, apparently in tranquil sleep, with
Florence and Sylva, Edith's maid, watching at the bed-side.

Hannah Doliver was nowhere to be seen.

Florence advanced to meet her father, and, twining her arm
affectionately round his neck, turned a tender glance on the pale faces
of the sleepers, and said:

"O, father! father! let us kneel by this low couch and thank God for
this merciful deliverance!"

CHAPTER XLV.

---------------------"All this is well;
For this will pass away, and be succeeded
By an auspicious hope, which shall look up
With calm assurance to that blessed place
Which all who seek may win, whatever be
Their earthly errors, so they be atoned;
And the commencement of atonement is
The sense of its necessity."

Baby No. 2, had appeared at the home of Mrs. Salsify Mumbles, and the
delighted grandmother held the tiny little creature this way and that
way, gazing on its features with the most doting fondness, and nearly
smothering it with affectionate kisses.

And baby No. 2 did not squeal like its lusty-lunged predecessor. O, no!
it had the softest little feminine quackle, for all the wor