ying on a table near at hand the packet of letters
from Miss Elmslie, which my unhappy friend preserved with such care, and
read and re-read with such unfailing devotion. Looking toward me just
when I passed by the table, the letters caught his eye. The new hope
for the future, in connection with the writer of them, which my news was
already awakening in his heart, seemed to overwhelm him in an instant
at sight of the treasured memorials that reminded him of his betrothed
wife. His laughter ceased, his face changed, he ran to the table, caught
the letters up in his hand, looked from them to me for one moment with
an altered expression which went to my heart, then sank down on his
knees at the table, laid his face on the letters, and burst into tears.
I let the new emotion have its way uninterruptedly, and quitted the
room without saying a word. When I returned after a lapse of some little
time, I found him sitting quietly in his chair, reading one of the
letters from the pack et which rested on his knee.

His look was kindness itself; his gesture almost womanly in its
gentleness as he rose to meet me, and anxiously held out his hand.

He was quite calm enough now to hear in detail all that I had to tell
him. I suppressed nothing but the particulars of the state in which I
had found the corpse. I assumed no right of direction as to the share he
was to take in our future proceedings, with the exception of insisting
beforehand that he should leave the absolute superintendence of the
removal of the body to me, and that he should be satisfied with a sight
of M. Foulon's paper, after receiving my assurance that the remains
placed in the coffin were really and truly the remains of which we had
been in search.

"Your nerves are not so strong as mine," I said, by way of apology for
my apparent dictation, "and for that reason I must beg leave to assume
the leadership in all that we have now to do, until I see the leaden
coffin soldered down and safe in your possession. After that I shall
resign all my functions to you."

"I want words to thank you for your kindness," he answered. "No
brother could have borne with me more affectionately, or helped me more
patiently than you."

He stopped and grew thoughtful, then occupied himself in tying up slowly
and carefully the packet of Miss Elmslie's letters, and then looked
suddenly toward the vacant wall behind me with that strange expression
the meaning of which I knew so well. Sinc