not to support her."

"Well, Lucy," said her father, with unusual cheerfulness, after Tom had
handed her to a seat, "I hope you like your brother. Is he not a fine,
manly young fellow?"

"Is he not my brother, papa?" she replied, "restored to us after so many
years; restored when hope had deserted us--when we had given him up for
lost."

As she uttered the words her voice quivered; a generous reaction had
taken place in her breast; she blamed herself for having withheld from
him, on account of a circumstance over which he had no control, that
fulness of affection, with which she had prepared herself to welcome
him. A sentiment, first of compassion, then of self-reproach, and
ultimately of awakened affection, arose in her mind, associated with and
made still more tender by the melancholy memory of her departed mother.
She again took his hand, on which the tears now fell in showers, and
after a slight pause said,

"I hope, my dear Thomas, you have not suffered, nor been subject to
the wants and privations which usually attend the path of the young and
friendless in this unhappy world? Alas, there is one voice--but is now
forever still--that would, oh, how rapturously! have welcomed you to a
longing and a loving heart."

The noble sincerity of her present emotion was not without its effect
upon her brother. His eyes, in spite of the hardness of his nature, swam
in something like moisture, and he gazed upon her with wonder and pride,
that he actually was the brother of so divine a creature; and a certain
description of affection, such as he had never before felt, for it was
pure, warm, and unselfish.

"Oh, how I do long to hear the history of your past life!" she
exclaimed. "I dare say you had many an early struggle to encounter; many
a privation to suffer; and in sickness, with none but the cold hand of
the stranger about you; but still it seems that God has not deserted
you. Is it not a consolation, papa, to think that he returns to us in a
condition of life so gratifying?"

"Gratifying it unquestionably is, Lucy. He is well educated; and will
soon be fit to take his proper position in society."

"Soon! I trust immediately, papa; I hope you will not allow him to
remain a moment longer in obscurity; compensate him at least for his
sufferings. But, my dear Thomas," she proceeded, turning to him, "let me
ask, do you remember mamma? If she were now here, how her affectionate
heart would rejoice! Do you remember her