d. I--I robbed
him of it. Will you give it to him in the morning?"

"Yes, my lad, I will," said the Captain.

"And will you let me sit up and watch here tonight?"

"No, my lad, I won't. I mean to do that myself."

"But do let me stay an hour or so with you, in case anything is wanted,"
pleaded Lewis.

"Well, you may."

They sat down together by the fireside, Mrs Roby having lain down on
her bed with her clothes on, but they spoke never a word; and as they
sat there, the young man's busy brain arrayed before him many and many a
scene of death, and sickness, and suffering, and sorrow, and madness,
and despair, which, he knew well from hearsay (and he now believed it),
had been the terrible result of gambling and drink.

When the hour was past, the Captain rose and said, "Now, Lewis, you'll
go, and I'll take a look at the next room."

He put off his shoes and went on tiptoe. Lewis followed, and took a
peep before parting.

Fred had drawn three chairs to the bedside and lain down on them, with
his shoulders resting on the edge of the bed, so that he could continue
to stroke his mother's hand without disturbing her. He had continued
doing so until his head had slowly drooped upon the pillow; and there
they now lay, the dissipated son and the humble Christian mother,
sleeping quietly together.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

THE GREAT WHITE MOUNTAIN.

We are in Switzerland now; in the "land of the mountain and the flood"--
the land also of perennial ice and snow. The solemn presence of the
Great White Mountain is beginning to be felt. Its pure summit was first
seen from Geneva; its shadow is now beginning to steal over us.

We are on the road to Chamouni, not yet over the frontier, in a carriage
and four. Mrs Stoutley, being a lady of unbounded wealth, always
travels post in a carriage and four when she can manage to do so, having
an unconquerable antipathy to railroads and steamers. She could not
well travel in any other fashion here, railways not having yet
penetrated the mountain regions in this direction, and a mode of
ascending roaring mountain torrents in steamboats not having yet been
discovered. She might, however, travel with two horses, but she prefers
four. Captain Wopper, who sits opposite Emma Gray, wonders in a quiet
speculative way whether "the Mines" will produce a dividend sufficient
to pay the expenses of this journey. He is quite disinterested in the
thought, it being understood that the C