wer deep
of horror. But Robert would have refused, and would have been right in
refusing to believe with regard to himself what might be true in regard
to most men. He might rise above his grief; he might learn to contain
his grief; but lose it, forget it?--never.

He went to bid Shargar farewell. As soon as he had a glimpse of what his
friend meant, he burst out in an agony of supplication.

'Tak me wi' ye, Robert,' he cried. 'Ye're a gentleman noo. I'll be
yer man. I'll put on a livery coat, an' gang wi' ye. I'll awa' to Dr.
Anderson. He's sure to lat me gang.'

'No, Shargar,' said Robert, 'I can't have you with me. I've come into
trouble, Shargar, and I must fight it out alone.'

'Ay, ay; I ken. Puir Mr. Ericson!'

'There's nothing the matter with Mr. Ericson. Don't ask me any
questions. I've said more to you now than I've said to anybody besides.'

'That is guid o' you, Robert. But am I never to see ye again?'

'I don't know. Perhaps we may meet some day.'

'Perhaps is nae muckle to say, Robert,' protested Shargar.

'It's more than can be said about everything, Shargar,' returned Robert,
sadly.

'Weel, I maun jist tak it as 't comes,' said Shargar, with a despairing
philosophy derived from the days when his mother thrashed him. 'But, eh!
Robert, gin it had only pleased the Almichty to sen' me into the warl'
in a some respectable kin' o' a fashion!'

'Wi' a chance a' gaein' aboot the country like that curst villain yer
brither, I suppose?' retorted Robert, rousing himself for a moment.

'Na, na,' responded Shargar. 'I'll stick to my ain mither. She never
learned me sic tricks.'

'Do ye that. Ye canna compleen o' God. It's a' richt as far 's ye're
concerned. Gin he dinna something o' ye yet, it'll be your wyte, no his,
I'm thinkin'.'

They walked to Dr. Anderson's together, and spent the night there. In
the morning Robert got on the coach for Edinburgh.

I cannot, if I would, follow him on his travels. Only at times, when
the conversation rose in the dead of night, by some Jacob's ladder of
blessed ascent, into regions where the heart of such a man could open
as in its own natural clime, would a few words cause the clouds that
enveloped this period of his history to dispart, and grant me a peep
into the phantasm of his past. I suspect, however, that much of it
left upon his mind no recallable impressions. I suspect that much of
it looked to himself in the retrospect like a painful dream, with only
c