y. The display of these,
and other qualities like them, as his spirits rose with the cruise, had
revealed the secret of his attraction for Allan plainly enough. But had
all disclosures rested there? Had the man let no chance light in on his
character in the rector's presence? Very little; and that little did
not set him forth in a morally alluring aspect. His way in the world had
lain evidently in doubtful places; familiarity with the small villainies
of vagabonds peeped out of him now and then; and, more significant
still, he habitually slept the light, suspicious sleep of a man who has
been accustomed to close his eyes in doubt of the company under the same
roof with him. Down to the very latest moment of the rector's experience
of him--down to that present Friday night--his conduct had been
persistently secret and unaccountable to the very last. After bringing
Mr. Brock's letter to the hotel, he had mysterious disappeared from
the house without leaving any message for his companions, and without
letting anybody see whether he had or had not received a letter himself.
At nightfall he had come back stealthily in the darkness, had been
caught on the stairs by Allan, eager to tell him of the change in the
rector's plans, had listened to the news without a word of remark! and
had ended by sulkily locking himself into his own room. What was
there in his favor to set against such revelations of his character
as these--against his wandering eyes, his obstinate reserve with the
rector, his ominous silence on the subject of family and friends? Little
or nothing: the sum of all his merits began and ended with his gratitude
to Allan.

Mr. Brock left his seat on the side of the bed, trimmed his candle, and,
still lost in his own thoughts, looked out absently at the night. The
change of place brought no new ideas with it. His retrospect over
his own past life had amply satisfied him that his present sense of
responsibility rested on no merely fanciful grounds, and, having brought
him to that point, had left him there, standing at the window, and
seeing nothing but the total darkness in his own mind faithfully
reflected by the total darkness of the night.

"If I only had a friend to apply to!" thought the rector. "If I could
only find some one to help me in this miserable place!"

At the moment when the aspiration crossed his mind, it was suddenly
answered by a low knock at the door, and a voice said softly in the
passage outs