t may, certain it is that with the luncheon ended all
upbraiding and rebuke, and commenced an unreservedness of
intercourse--the basis of a generous friendship, which increased and
strengthened day by day, and ended only with the noble-hearted
doctor's life--nor then in its effects upon my character and fortune.

It was on the night of the day on which I had arrived, that Doctor
Mayhew and I were sitting in his _sanctum_; composedly and happily as
men sit whom care has given over for a moment to the profound and
stilly influences of the home and hearth. One topic of conversation
had given place easily to another, and there seemed at length little
to be said on any subject whatever, when the case of the idiot,
which my own troubles had temporarily dismissed from my mind,
suddenly occurred to me, and afforded us motive for the prolongation
of a discourse, which neither seemed desirous to bring to a close.

"What have you done with the poor fellow?" I enquired.

"Nothing," replied the physician. "We have fed him well, and his food
has done him good. He is a hundred per cent better than when he came;
but he is still surly and tongue-tied. He says nothing. He is not
known in the neighbourhood. I have directed hand-bills to be
circulated, and placards to be posted in the villages. If he is not
owned within a week, he must be given to the parish-officers. I
can't help thinking that he is a runaway lunatic, and a gentleman by
birth. Did you notice his delicate white hand, that diamond ring, and
the picture they found tied round his neck?"

"What picture, sir?"

"Did I not tell you of it? The portrait of a lovely female--an old
attachment, I suppose, that turned his brain, although I fancy
sometimes that it is his mother or sister, for there is certainly a
resemblance to himself in it. The picture is set in gold. When Robin
first discovered it, the agony of the stricken wretch was most
deplorable. He was afraid that the man would remove it, and he
screamed and implored like a true maniac. When he found that he
might keep it, he evinced the maddest pleasure, and beckoned his
keeper to notice and admire it. He pointed to the eyes, and then
groaned and wept himself; until Robin was frightened out of his wits,
and was on the point of throwing up his office altogether."

"Do you think the man may recover his reason?"

"I have no hope of it. It is a case of confirmed fatuity I believe.
If you like to see him again, you shall a