s; that it required a strong effort to restrain
his emotion, was perceivable from the compression of his lips. There was
a massive grandeur in his aspect as he sat, well befitting the scene.
His young companion had his thoughts also, and they were not the usual
ones of his age. The meeting with the seaman and subsequent events had
roused him from his usual listless, wayward fancies, and he was going
back in memory to past scenes--shadowy and indistinct--but all in some
way mixed with the locket he wore suspended, unseen, around his neck.
That the time had now arrived when he was to receive an explanation of
the past, he felt sure; for his aunt had often told him that when Walter
arrived he should know all: and from the seaman's manner he conjectured
that the long wished for hour was come.

'Edward,' said the mariner, 'I wish you to tell me all that you
recollect--not of your life at your aunt's, but before that.'

'And then,' said the boy, 'in return you promise to tell me of my
parentage?'

'You shall know all.'

The boy paced the floor for a few moments. His figure was slender, but
lithe and active, of medium stature; and there was a restlessness about
his movements that told of a wild spirit within. His face was remarkably
handsome; features chiselled in a form that would have served a Grecian
sculptor for a model--and his long dark hair fell in glossy locks even
over his shoulders. He stood holding the back of a chair, and looking
more to seaward than at his companion, began:

'It was not in this country, I am sure, that I first recollect myself,
in a handsome house, but built different from these. There were
cocoa-nut trees growing near it; and other trees that do not grow here;
but I have seen something like them in the Earl's green house. There
were luscious fruits, but not English ones--oranges and bananas I am
sure. The people around us too were black. I remember I was frightened
when I came here first at seeing so many white people and no blacks.'

Walter regarded him steadily--but the young man's eye was seaward. He
seemed to see before him the scenes he was depicting.

'There was a piazza round the house, where I used to play, and a sweet
lady, very like poor Mary, but dark-haired, whom I used to call mother.'
There was powerful emotion depicted on the listener's face, but he said
nothing. 'I remember a handsome gentleman, but he was not there often.
He wore a uniform, but not like the officers here.