me
with me."

"By the by, I finished my novel the other day," Waymark said, as they
drove northward.

"That's right. No doubt you're on your way to glory, as the hymn says."

Abraham was in good spirits. One would have said that he had grown
younger of late. That heaviness and tendency to absent brooding which
not long ago seemed to indicate the tightening grip of age, was
disappearing; he was once more active and loud and full of his old
interests.

"How's Casti?" Mr. Woodstock went on to ask.

"A good deal better, I think, but shaky. Of course things will be as
bad as ever when his wife comes out of the hospital."

"Pity she can't come out heels first," muttered Abraham.

Waymark found that the purpose of their journey was to inspect a large
vacant house, with a good garden and some fine trees about it. The old
man wished for his opinion, and, by degrees, let it be known that he
thought of buying the property.

"I suppose you think me an old fool to want a house like this at my
time of life, eh?"

There was a twinkle in his eye, and a moment after he fairly burst into
a laugh of pleasure. Waymark asked no questions, and received no more
information; but a thought rose in his mind which occupied him for the
rest of the day.

In the evening Julian came. He looked like one who had recovered from a
long illness, very pale and thin, and his voice had tremblings and
uncertainties of key. In fact, a feverish disorder had been upon him
for some weeks, never severe enough to prevent his getting about, but
weakening him to a serious degree. It would doubtless have developed
into some more pronounced illness, but for the period of comparative
rest and quietness which had begun shortly after the miseries of the
trial. Harriet's ailments had all at once taken such a decided turn for
the worse--her fits becoming incessant, and other disorders traceable
to the same source suddenly taking hold upon her--that Julian had
obtained her admission to the hospital, where she still remained. He
went to see her in the ward two or three times a week, though he
dreaded the necessity. From little incidents which occurred at such
times, he was convinced that all her fellow-patients, as well as the
"sister" and nurses of the wards, had been prejudiced against him by
her reports and accusations. To meet their looks occasioned him the
most acute suffering. Sometimes he sat by the bedside for half an hour
without speaking, then rose and