m back to his friends, if he has any."

During this astounding speech the lady had stolen over to David,
and sitting by his side, she placed a soft hand tenderly on his
head. As the story was being told, her eyes filled with tears, and
leaning forward, she kissed the poor boy's pale brow. When it ended
she murmured in English, that was even better than that of the
"brigand,"--"Poor boy! poor boy! O, Walter, dearest, how I do wish
I could speak Bohemian, so as to tell him how sorry I feel!"

And what of David?

What did David think--feel--say?

Nothing. Not a word!

David was paralyzed. He was stunned. He gasped for breath.

And so this was his brigand--the brutal, the beetle-browed, the
cruel, the bloody-minded, the inexorable, the demoniac, and all
the rest of it! He gasped for breath, as I think I have already
remarked; and as the ex-brigand went on with his narrative, David
listened in a dazed way, and began to understand that the language
of gestures has its little uncertainties. But when the lady kissed
him, and when her sweet voice spoke those tender words of pity, he
could stand it no longer. His voice came to him. He burst forth,--

"O, how I thank you! O, how good you are! O, what a fool I am!"

And he could say no more.

Not a word more, on my honor.

It was now the turn of the others to be surprised.

The lady started back in wonder, and looked at David, and then at
her husband. The ex-brigand started back also, and stared at David
in utter bewilderment.

"What!" he roared, in a deep, thunderous bass voice. "Say that
again."

"O, I'm an American--and I'm such a fool!" said David. "Why didn't
I tell you so?"

"An American!" roared the ex-brigand. "An American!"

Upon this he burst into a perfect thunder-peal of laughter. The
laughter came forth, peal after peal, in long and deafening
explosions, till the house vibrated with the sound, and till at
last the ex-brigand sank exhausted into the Glastonbury chair.

"An American!" he cried; "and think of me--ha, ha, ha!--asking
you if you spoke every language in the world--ha, ha, ha!--but the
right one--ha, ha, ha!--and speaking every language--ha, ha,
ha!--but my own--ha, ha, ha! And to think of us two Americans--ha,
ha, ha!--after trying Italian--ha, ha, ha I--and French, and Spanish,
and German--ha, ha, ha!--rushing into gestures!--ha, ha,
ha!--gestures!--only think, Laura--ha, ha, ha! He and I--ha, ha,
ha!--spending an hour in making signs