ence, "Oh, for a friend!
oh, for a guide!"

I heard steps on the walk under the yews; and an old man came in sight,
slightly bent, with long gray hair, but still with enough of vigour for
years to come, in his tread, firm, though slow, in the unshrunken muscle
of his limbs and the steady light of his clear blue eye. I started.
Was it possible? That countenance, marked, indeed, with the lines of
laborious thought, but sweet in the mildness of humanity, and serene
in the peace of conscience! I could not be mistaken. Julius Faber was
before me,--the profound pathologist, to whom my own proud self-esteem
acknowledged inferiority, without humiliation; the generous benefactor
to whom I owed my own smooth entrance into the arduous road of fame
and fortune. I had longed for a friend, a guide; what I sought stood
suddenly at my side.

CHAPTER XLV.

Explanation on Faber's part was short and simple. The nephew whom he
designed as the heir to his wealth had largely outstripped the liberal
allowance made to him, had incurred heavy debts; and in order to
extricate himself from the debts, had plunged into ruinous speculations.
Faber had come back to England to save his heir from prison or outlawry,
at the expense of more than three-fourths of the destined inheritance.
To add to all, the young man had married a young lady without fortune;
the uncle only heard of this marriage on arriving in England.
The spendthrift was hiding from his creditors in the house of his
father-in-law, in one of the western counties. Faber there sought
him; and on becoming acquainted with his wife, grew reconciled to the
marriage, and formed hopes of his nephew's future redemption. He
spoke, indeed, of the young wife with great affection. She was good and
sensible; willing and anxious to encounter any privation by which her
husband might reprieve the effects of his folly. "So," said Faber, "on
consultation with this excellent creature--for my poor nephew is so
broken down by repentance, that others must think for him how to exalt
repentance into reform--my plans were determined. I shall remove my
prodigal from all scenes of temptation. He has youth, strength, plenty
of energy, hitherto misdirected. I shall take him from the Old World
into the New. I have decided on Australia. The fortune still left to me,
small here, will be ample capital there. It is not enough to maintain us
separately, so we must all live together. Besides, I feel that, though
I