ng could
have moved me but you," he said; "you reminded me from the first of my
lost child, and I listened to you as I would have listened to no one
else. Bless you! bless you!"

Mary had already spent a longer time than she had intended listening to
the old man's history. She rose to go away. He kept her small hand in
his shrivelled palms.

"I should wish my last gaze on earth to be on your face, Mary; I should
die more easily, and yet I do not fear death as I once did when I strove
to put away all thoughts of it. I know it must come before long; it may
be days, or weeks, and you will then know how my poor wretched heart has
loved you."

Mary, not understanding him, answered--

"You have shown me that already, Mr Shank, and I hope you may be spared
to find something worth living for."

"Yes, if I had health and strength I should wish to assist in benefiting
those poor Africans of whom you have so often told me, and putting an
end to the fearful slave trade; but I cannot recall my wasted days, and
I must leave it to you, Mary. If you have the means to try and help
them, you will do so, I know, far better than I can."

"I shall be thankful if I can ever benefit the poor Africans," said
Mary, smiling at what appeared to her so very unlikely. "But I must
stop no longer, or Aunt Sally will fancy that some harm has befallen
me."

Mary wished him good-bye, summoning Mrs Mason as she went out.

On Mary's return to Triton Cottage she found Lieutenant Meadows, who had
come to wish her and her aunt good-bye, his turn of service on the
coast-guard having expired.

He inquired whether they had received any news of the "Hope."

"She must have been round the Cape long ago. Hanson and his people
should by this time have landed, so that you would get letters from the
Cape, or perhaps even from Zanzibar, in the course of a week or two.
You will write to me and say what news you receive in case Charley's
letters should miscarry." Miss Sally promised, without fail, to write
as Mr Meadows requested, and he gave her his address. When he was
gone, Miss Sally and Mary had no one to talk to on the subject nearest
their hearts. They discussed it over and over again by themselves, in
spite of Aunt Sally's declaration that it was of no use, and that they
had better not speak about the matter; yet she was generally the first
to begin, and Mary would bring out the map, and they both would pore
over it, the elder lady through