support him to the
gunnel of the boat. After hanging on there some time, to recover breath,
we swam together to the beach, which was not far distant. When we
landed, he seated himself on a large stone, and remained silent for some
time, with his face buried in his hands.

"Douglas," said I, wondering at his long silence, "are you hurt?"

To my great surprise I heard low sobs, and saw the tears trickling
between his fingers. Thinking that he was grieved at the loss of his
boat, I said--

"Cheer up, man! If the boat be lost, we will manage among us to get
another for you."

"'Tisn't the boat, sir, 'tisn't the boat; we can soon raise _her_ again:
it is your kindness that has made a fool of me."

He then looked up in my face, and, drying his glistening cheek with one
hand, he shook mine long and heartily with the other.

"Mr. Charles, before I met you, I thought I was alone in the world;
shunned by most around me as a man of mystery. Because I could not join
in their rude sports and boisterous merriment, they attributed my
reserve and visible dejection to sinister causes--possibly to some
horrible and undiscovered crime." A blush here flitted across my
countenance; but Douglas did not remark it. "Young, and warm, and
enthusiastic, _you_ sought me out with different feelings; you were
attracted towards me by pity, and by a generous desire to relieve my
distress. It was not the mere impulse of a moment; your kindness has
been constant and unwavering--and now you have crowned all by saving
my life. I hardly know whether or not to thank you for what was so
worthless to myself; but I _do_ thank you from the bottom of my heart
for the friendly and generous feeling which actuated you. You shall know
the cause of the sorrow that weighs upon my heart; I would not that one
to whom I owe so much should look upon me with the slightest shade of
suspicion. I think, when you know my story, you will pity and sympathize
with me; but you will judge less harshly, I doubt not, than I do of
myself."

"Do not call up unnecessary remembrances, which harrow your feelings,
Douglas. That I have often thought there is mystery about you, I will
not deny; but only once did the possibility of a cause of guilt flash
across my mind. That unworthy suspicion has long past, and I am now
heartily ashamed of myself for having harboured it for a moment. But we
are forgetting the boat; we must try to get assistance to right her."

We soon fell in with