"Oh, my friend!" I murmured to Faber, "I have much that I yearn to say
to you--alone--alone! Come to my house with me, be at least my guest as
long as you stay in this town."

"Willingly," said Faber, looking at me more intently than he had done
before, and with the true eye of the practised Healer, at once soft and
penetrating.

He rose, took my arm, and whispering a word in the ear of the little
girl, she went on before us, turning her head, as she gained the gate,
for another look at her father's grave. As we walked to my house, Julius
Faber spoke to me much of this child. Her brothers were all at school;
she was greatly attached to his nephew's wife; she had become yet more
attached to Faber himself, though on so short an acquaintance; it bad
been settled that she was to accompany the emigrants to Australia.

"There," said he, "the sum, that some munificent, but unknown friend
of her father has settled on her, will provide her no mean dower for a
colonist's wife, when the time comes for her to bring a blessing to
some other hearth than ours." He went on to say that she had wished
to accompany him to L----, in order to visit her father's grave before
crossing the wide seas; "and she has taken such fond care of me all the
way, that you might fancy I were the child of the two. I come back to
this town, partly to dispose of a few poor houses in it which still
belong to me, principally to bid you farewell before quitting the Old
World, no doubt forever. So, on arriving to-day, I left Amy by herself
in the churchyard while I went to your house, but you were from home.
And now I must congratulate you on the reputation you have so rapidly
acquired, which has even surpassed my predictions."

"You are aware," said I, falteringly, "of the extraordinary charge from
which that part of my reputation dearest to all men has just emerged!"

He had but seen a short account in a weekly journal, written after my
release. He asked details, which I postponed.

Reaching my home, I hastened to provide for the comfort of my two
unexpected guests; strove to rally myself, to be cheerful. Not till
night, when Julius Faber and I were alone together, did I touch on
what was weighing at my heart. Then, drawing to his side, I told him
all,--all of which the substance is herein written, from the deathscene
in Dr. Lloyd's chamber to the hour in which I had seen Dr. Lloyd's child
at her father's grave. Some of the incidents and conversations