at of course he would
rather have him at home, but that he was confident Robert knew best what
was best for himself; therefore he had only to settle where he thought
proper, and the next summer he would come and see him, for he was not
tied to Aberdeen any more than Robert.

CHAPTER II. HOME AGAIN.

Four years passed before Falconer returned to his native country, during
which period Dr. Anderson had visited him twice, and shown himself
well satisfied with his condition and pursuits. The doctor had likewise
visited Rothieden, and had comforted the heart of the grandmother with
regard to her Robert. From what he learned upon this visit, he had
arrived at a true conjecture, I believe, as to the cause of the great
change which had suddenly taken place in the youth. But he never asked
Robert a question leading in the direction of the grief which he saw the
healthy and earnest nature of the youth gradually assimilating into his
life. He had too much respect for sorrow to approach it with curiosity.
He had learned to put off his shoes when he drew nigh the burning bush
of human pain.

Robert had not settled at any of the universities, but had moved from
one to the other as he saw fit, report guiding him to the men who spoke
with authority. The time of doubt and anxious questioning was far
from over, but the time was long gone by--if in his case it had ever
been--when he could be like a wave of the sea, driven of the wind
and tossed. He had ever one anchor of the soul, and he found that it
held--the faith of Jesus (I say the faith of Jesus, not his own faith
in Jesus), the truth of Jesus, the life of Jesus. However his intellect
might be tossed on the waves of speculation and criticism, he found
that the word the Lord had spoken remained steadfast; for in doing
righteously, in loving mercy, in walking humbly, the conviction
increased that Jesus knew the very secret of human life. Now and then
some great vision gleamed across his soul of the working of all things
towards a far-off goal of simple obedience to a law of life, which God
knew, and which his son had justified through sorrow and pain. Again and
again the words of the Master gave him a peep into a region where all
was explicable, where all that was crooked might be made straight, where
every mountain of wrong might be made low, and every valley of suffering
exalted. Ever and again some one of the dark perplexities of humanity
began to glimmer with light in its