rney (thank God!) proved to have been taken without
need. My son was no longer in danger, when I reached London in the year
1875.

At that date I was near enough to the customary limit of human life to
feel the necessity of rest and quiet. In other words, my days of travel
had come to their end.

Having established myself in my own country, I did not forget to let old
friends know where they might find me. Among those to whom I wrote was
another colleague of past years, who still held his medical appointment
in the prison. When I received the doctor's reply, it inclosed a letter
directed to me at my old quarters in the Governor's rooms. Who could
possibly have sent a letter to an address which I had left five
years since? My correspondent proved to be no less a person than the
Congregational Minister--the friend whom I had estranged from me by the
tone in which I had written to him, on the long-past occasion of his
wife's death.

It was a distressing letter to read. I beg permission to give only the
substance of it in this place.

Entreating me, with touching expressions of humility and sorrow, to
forgive his long silence, the writer appealed to my friendly remembrance
of him. He was in sore need of counsel, under serious difficulties; and
I was the only person to whom he could apply for help. In the disordered
state of his health at that time, he ventured to hope that I would visit
him at his present place of abode, and would let him have the
happiness of seeing me as speedily as possible. He concluded with this
extraordinary postscript:

"When you see my daughters, say nothing to either of them which relates,
in any way, to the subject of their ages. You shall hear why when we
meet."

The reading of this letter naturally reminded me of the claims which my
friend's noble conduct had established on my admiration and respect, at
the past time when we met in the prison. I could not hesitate to grant
his request--strangely as it was expressed, and doubtful as the prospect
appeared to be of my answering the expectations which he had founded
on the renewal of our intercourse. Answering his letter by telegraph, I
promised to be with him on the next day.

On arriving at the station, I found that I was the only traveler, by a
first-class carriage, who left the train. A young lady, remarkable by
her good looks and good dressing, seemed to have noticed this trifling
circumstance. She approached me with a ready smile. "I