y," said the youth, as he
showed them.

"And yet they look as if there was a time when they did not know labor,"
said she, eagerly.

An impatient gesture, as if he would not endure a continuance of this
questioning, stopped her, and she said in a faint tone,--

"I ask your pardon for all this. My excuse and my apology are that your
features have recalled a time of sorrow more vividly than any words
could. Your voice, too, strengthens the illusion. It may be a mere
passing impression; I hope and pray it is. Come, Ida, come with me. Do
not leave this, sir, till we speak with you again." So saying, she took
her niece's arm and left the room.

CHAPTER XXXIII. NIGHT THOUGHTS

It was with a proud consciousness of having well fulfilled his mission
that Billy Traynor once more bent his steps towards Massa. Besides
providing himself with books of travel and maps of the regions they were
about to visit, he had ransacked Genoa for weapons, and accoutrements,
and horse-gear. Well knowing the youth's taste for the costly and the
splendid, he had suffered himself to be seduced into the purchase of a
gorgeously embroidered saddle mounting, and a rich bridle, in Mexican
taste; a pair of splendidly mounted pistols, chased in gold and studded
with large turquoises, with a Damascus sabre, the hilt of which was a
miracle of fine workmanship, were also amongst his acquisitions; and
poor Billy fed his imagination with the thought of all the delight these
objects were certain to produce. In this way he never wearied admiring
them; and a dozen times a day would he unpack them, just to gratify his
mind by picturing the enjoyment they were to afford.

"How well you are lookin', my dear boy!" cried he, as he burst into the
youth's room, and threw his arms around him; "'tis like ten years off
my life to see you so fresh and so hearty. Is it the prospect of
the glorious time before us that has given this new spring to your
existence?"

"More likely it is the pleasure I feel in seeing you back again," said
Massy; and his cheek grew crimson as he spoke.

"'Tis too good you are to me,--too good," said Billy, and his eyes ran
over in tears, while he turned away his head to hide his emotion; "but
sure it is part of yourself I do be growing every day I live. At first
I could n't bear the thought of going away to live in exile, in a
wilderness, as one may say; but now that I see your heart set upon
it, and that your vigor and strength comes